Jacuzzi, Jetski, Hoover, Stetson… When a brand name gets to be shorthand for the product itself, you know it’s achieved icon status. Since John B Stetson began selling his famous Boss of the Plains hat in 1865, everyone who’s anyone has topped themselves off with a Stetson.
Take the famous ‘Ten-Gallon Hat’ – made famous by silver screen star Tom Mix – or the Skyline model worn by Kevin Costner in TV’s Yellowstone. President Lyndon B Johnson’s distinctive Open Road became so entwined with his public persona that it’s still sometimes called an ‘LBJ’, and rumour has it that Colonel Custer rode to his doom at Little Big Horn in a Stetson.
For 160 years, Stetson hats have been emblems of their era. Post-war ad men cut deals in their Stratoliner fedoras, jazz cats and members of the Rat Pack sported a Whippet trilby tipped back on their head, and pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination show rangy US Marshals all wearing their Open Roads.
As hat-wearing tastes have changed, Stetson have moved with the times. Sure, they still do the classic fedoras and cattleman crowns, but their modern range includes everything from trappers and truckers to beanies and ball caps – all manufactured in accordance with John B Stetson’s motto, ‘none but sterling quality’.
