"Uncontested - The Champ"

[mayserwegener]

Fantastic! Very unique bow work!

 

[Annixter]

Great find Buler; I think the single button looks pretty good at the connecting point rather than having another one above it too.

 

[m0nk]

So I've got a question for those Champ guys out there. I just picked this one up for $30 on etsy (looked like a decent deal, perhaps only needs some good brushing and maybe a reblock), should arrive next week. I'm not sure when it's from, and I'm not sure what the Kasmir finish is, but it sounds like a specific finish on their fur felt models. If anyone could fill me in with more info that would be great. I can/will also post more pics next week when it arrives.

 

[m0nk]

A few extra notes on this one: the seller said that the open crown height was about 5 1/2", brim about 2 1/2", and ribbon about 1 3/4".

 

[Chicago Jimmy]

Those are some nice hats and old ads.
I picked this up today at an antique shop while on lunch. This is my first Champ, it's a Envoy in cordovan (dark brown) the liner has two small stain spots. No marks on the felt with a 2" brim 1 3/4" ribbon and it has a red feather which I removed for the quick clean-up. Can anyone give me an approx. year? I'm guessing mid 1950's?

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[Benzadmiral]

I've picked up a nice Champ Kasmir Finish on the 'Bay. It's a silverbelly Open Road style, but with -- get this -- a 2" brim. The sweatband and liner are lovely. The crown is pretty high and straight, and the felt is allowing me to massage out the cattleman crease (I have several hats with that already) and work in a loose, "casual" front pinch. The brim is stiff, though, and despite being marked as my size, the hat is more oval than my head; I've got to break it in.

But it's in good shape, and a short-brimmed, light-colored, thin-ribboned fedora is something of a rarity.

Here's what it looked like before (seller's pic, much darker than the actual color):

And now:

The liner:

 

[Chepstow]

Paul, really nice, felt and color looks very good! A good hat!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Paul, really nice, felt and color looks very good! A good hat!

Thank you, Manfred. The seller said the hat had been purchased in the late 1950s and worn once, for a school play, and then had been stored since. The box looked pristine too. It even had that little shark-toothed paper ring around the crown of the hat, as well as a paper cover inside.

I wet the base of the crown last night and wore the hat around my place -- strange, to wear a hat while you're eating dinner -- and it seemed to loosen up and conform to my head a bit more. I need to work on that, and maybe give it a little more swoop to the brim, though of course there isn't much brim to swoop!

 

[Chepstow]

Paul, I think the swoop is ok, looks good so!

 

[mikespens]

+1 Nice score Paul. Looks pristine.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Manfred, maybe you're right about the swoop:

and

Looks sort of like the hat Henry Fonda is wearing here:

 

[howardeye]

The Vintage Champ I received Christmas Eve from a FL Member! The hat has no flaws!

 

[howardeye]

My 10 year old grandson's Champ he got for Christmas. He wears it every day!

 

[Lotsahats]

Howard, that Champ is flat drool-inducing. What a lid!

Aaron

 

[Joshbru3]

My 10 year old grandson's Champ he got for Christmas. He wears it every day!

That's great, Howardeye!! I always love when younger kids take a liking to wearing hats. Hopefully he still loves to wear them 10 years from now.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Thin ribbon

Champ OR/Strat clone.
"100% white coney fur"

 

[hatophile]

Coney=another name for a rabbit. Good lookin' hat Rick.
(Always learning something here.)
Very sharp Champ you have there Howard and the little guy looks great too.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Coney=another name for a rabbit. Good lookin' hat Rick.
(Always learning something here.)
Very sharp Champ you have there Howard and the little guy looks great too.

"deriving from the Latin cuniculus, meaning "wabbit", heheheh "

 

[howardeye]

Nice Champs everyone and thanks for the kind words. Under the old Hebrew law the coney was considered unclean because it chewed the cud.

 

[howardeye]

Howard, that Champ is flat drool-inducing. What a lid!

Aaron

Thank you for your kind words. I drool over every hat you post. I bought that hat from a lounge member and I am blessed to have come across it. It is my favorite wide brim fedora that I actually wear and a great color being a purple tinted gray. Here is another Champ I just bought my 10 year old grandson Caleb. He said he outgrew the other as his hair grew out. The straw will do him good living in south Florida. He now wears a 7 1/4!