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The Hatted Professor

Familiar Face
Messages
88
One more from my buddy @jeffgarf.

This is a cool one. Stephen L. Stetson - related to John B. Stetson, but John wasn't happy about him starting his own hat company, so he sued him about it - thus the disclaimer he was required to put on every hat after the court decision. According to Jeff's marketing copy, which I'm trying not to explicitly plagiarize, Stephen L. Stetson produced hats from about 1933 to about 1947, which is the year he died.

Sometimes I stop and think, "Jeez this hat is like 80+ years old" and stops me in my tracks for a minute. I love that we can see the value in this things.

Stephen L. Stetson - "The Manhattan" 7 3/8 - I hit it with a little steam and put it on a four-way hat jack just to encourage it to fit me a little better.

love this one - thanks Jeff :)
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Stephen L. Stetson hats were produced until around 1979. They didn’t stop production when he died. This one seems to be late-1960s, based on the label and sweatband.
 

Judgmentalist

Practically Family
Messages
543
Stephen L. Stetson hats were produced until around 1979. They didn’t stop production when he died. This one seems to be late-1960s, based on the label and sweatband.
Ah - good to know. That’s annoying - something I read somewhere said they basically shut down soon after he died - now I have to figure out where.
 

jeffgarf

One Too Many
Messages
1,325
Location
Jerusalem, Israel
Ah - good to know. That’s annoying - something I read somewhere said they basically shut down soon after he died - now I have to figure out where.
He and his company seemed to have an agreement to have a third party produce the hats during his lifetime (the court reports it was Hutt & Wasserman). I'm not sure anyone, has actually identified whether the company continued or was taken over by HCA or another company to make the hats through the 60's.
 

Judgmentalist

Practically Family
Messages
543
He and his company seemed to have an agreement to have a third party produce the hats during his lifetime (the court reports it was Hutt & Wasserman). I'm not sure anyone, has actually identified whether the company continued or was taken over by HCA or another company to make the hats through the 60's.
Stephen L. Stetson hats were produced until around 1979. They didn’t stop production when he died. This one seems to be late-1960s, based on the label and sweatband.
Yep, a bit more research and I found the problem - I'm gonna edit my original post to remove the inaccurate bit
 

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