Price Increases

[besdor]

As some of you on the lounge may have heard by now, Stetson has just increased their prices for this year . The increase is the largest ever for the dress hat division . Many of the hats have increased by as much as 20% wholesale . I have never seen such increases like this before . The reasonong behind this is due to the decline in the value of the dollar versus the Euro as well as the shortage of fur in the market for hats.
Apparently, the Chinese are buying up huge quantities of fur for production of clothing . The fur is used for trimming on womens clothes and for the linings of gloves as well as other items . All of the raw fur today is purchased in Europe .
I am sure that the other vendors such as Biltmore and Bailey will follow with increases on their own , hopefully not as much.
So buy your hats now Gentlemen (and ladies !) because their will be sticker shock at your local hat store very soon.


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[Fletch]

Or mebbe...

...they're just looking to make an "esoteric" market segment even more esoteric - perhaps as a preamble to cutting down the number of available styles, and doing their little bit as brand leader to make sure the F3* doesn't come back in a big way.

*Fur Felt Fedora

 

[tonyb]

So besdor, any predictions as to what effect, if any, the price increase will have on retail sales? In your experience, does a guy who's willing to spend, say, $125 on a hat balk at $150?
What I'd hate to see is the escalating price of fur felt hats driving more sales of wool felts. I've heard it said that some wool felt hats are "fine," but I've yet to see one. Sure, they're considerably lower priced than fur felts, and that price differential may well widen, but some things aren't bargains even when they're given away.

 

[besdor]

Where it will affect is the sales to the older generation of hat wearers . We have a large amount of people who come in every year for their Stetson hats. Generally the price goes up 5.00 a year not 25.00. I may have to catch the customers as they fall down!!


Steven
www.bencraft.com

 

[Simon82]

There's always Akubra?

Wonder how the rush to increase prices will affect costs of Akubras, if at all -- since Akubra supposedly only uses Australian rabbit fur, and the U.S. dollar is a lot stronger down under than in Europe.

 

[Blackhorse]

A friend here was just informed by John Helmer's (our only Portland hat shop) that prices on all merchandise received after the new year would be up by 10%. That makes the fictional Stetson which was once $125...$137.50 (no sales tax here). My friend bought two Temples in different colors and was amazed to find that one fit him in a 7 1/4 while the other needed to be a 7 3/8...I just smiled.

Anyway, this is what we get when an item we love becomes POPULAR once again. Demand is up...so is price...duh! God bless America.

 

[Aaron Hats]

Only time will tell what effect this will have on retailers and hat buyers. My biggest concern is that if a customer walks in today and sees a hat for $115, wants to think about the purchase then comes back in 2-4 weeks and now the price is $135. That puts the retailer in a bad light with the customer.

The problem with Akubra is having to buy through their distributor. If Akubra would re-think their distribution strategy maybe a lot more retailers would carry their hats and be more price competitive with stores in Australia.

Aaron

 

[besdor]

Aaron if Akubra would sell direct , I'd call them tommorow. They have a good selection that I would love to sell in my store . But I wont by from David M because he is selling to the public as well. As for Stetson ,I gave them my last felt hat order before the price went up . I will not give them 15 dollars more per hat .





Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[Joel Tunnah]

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand why economy of scale seems to play absolutely no role in hat production.

Guys like Steve and Art are able to put out hats of the highest quality, for less retail cost than many production hats of poor quality.

I was in Brooks Brothers on Madison Ave yesterday, and they carry some Borsalino "fur felt" fedoras that I wouldn't be caught dead in - and they were charging $400. No, that's not a typo. The felt looked like the stuff I used for craft projects in grade school. The ribbon looked like polyester sewn on by a blind man. Thanks for the laugh Borsolino!

I understand that custom is always going to be a notch above production, but that notch is as wide as ever in hats, and the price differential is shrinking. IMO, the market for a $150 hat is the exact same one as a $300 hat. This is not the casual shopper. This is not the college kid. This is somebody who has a bit of committment to wearing hats, and is going to figure out quite soon that they've bought one to many incredible shrinking hats. For me personally, it took one Akubra, and one Biltmore, to say "never again".

Joel

 

[tonyb]

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand why economy of scale seems to play absolutely no role in hat production.

Guys like Steve and Art are able to put out hats of the highest quality, for less retail cost than many production hats of poor quality.
Joel

That's cuz Art and Steve are straight shooters who have no apparent desire to gouge their customers. That, and they are both the makers AND the retailers, which I assume allows them to cut out quite a bit of the normal markup. And they likely enjoy other competitive advantages, such as relatively low overhead. But it still gets down to them both offering bargains because they're good guys, which isn't necessarily true of all custom hatmakers. They both could charge considerably more and still sell for markedly less than what most of the competition charges.
And yeah, my new Borsalino-buying days are past, too, now that I know that I can get a far superior custom hat for less dough.
And sorry to hear about your Akubra, Joel. I've considered buying an Akubra Federation, mostly because I prefer their styling over just about any modern production hat. But no retailers I know of out here carry them, and ordering online is always a bit of a gamble. Indeed, the only Akubra I recall ever handling was one I came upon in an "antique" (I use the term loosely) shop. I wasn't at all impressed by it.