Across the country and abroad, wholesale hats are sold to retailers. How do wholesalers get their hats to retail shops? Even if they are just for fun, why can’t they pass them by without trying them on?
Individualism, personality, and character are all displayed through wholesale hats. Sure, but we know that already. But the deeper attraction is identifying with heroes. Bucket hats define so many heroes, and retailers help ordinary people identify with the heroes in their lives. If you think this is just another wholesale hat advertisement, read on and see if your heroes aren’t here.
The first thing you notice is the cowboy hat. Hats wholesalers cater to all ages with these items. Lonesome Dove’s Captain Gus and John Wayne will always be remembered by the older generation. Perhaps their interests extend to historical figures like Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, or Buffalo Bill. The hat that dominates this look is the creation of John B Stetson who defined cowboy hats with his original design that he named “Boss of the Plains”. Stetson started making over two million hats annually in 1886 as a result of a wide brim, high crown felt hat that replaced the mix-and-match of hats cowboys wore before that point. In the past, almost all cowboys wore hats like this and it is still the style their admirers want today.
Middle-aged and older people like heroes and cowboy buket hats, but what about the young? There is another set of heroes that you can find on MTV or in country music. The rolled straw cowboy hats worn by J-Lo and Britney Spears swept the nation as a rage. Rolling straw cowboy hats on Willy Nelson or more recently, on Kenny Chesney and Jessica Simpson, don’t affect what their fans wear? In fact, quite the opposite happens! The cowboy hat is a big deal among country music fans.
Are there any golfers left? During the early 20th century, golf hats resembled oversized newsboys in Sears & Roebuck catalogs. Ivy caps were the hat of Ben Hogan. During Greg Norman’s tenure, the Aussie put the country on the map. Sam Snead was a fedora man and Sam Snead an Aussie. What percent of seniors are wearing the hat that made their favorite golfer look good? Headwear and heroes seem to be so closely connected that you can never grow out of it.
Besides hats, sports have a connection with hats. No one needs an introduction to baseball caps. This is the hat that everyone feels comfortable wearing today. As everyone wore fedoras with their suits in the forties and fifties, all-stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Mickey Mantle looked great in ball caps and had a large fan base. By the sixties ball caps replaced fedoras as the cool headwear. This trend hasn’t gone anywhere.
Movies are next, which deliver a fresh batch of heroes each year. The Indiana Jones movies are back in theaters, and Cracker Barrel restaurants are selling adult size fedoras. Fans love the oversized ivy cap. Rocky looks great in his porkpie. If you’re an Angelina Jolie fan, you’ll want a cloche after seeing The Changeling. Hats and fashion in general both have a huge influence on movies.
People who remember the hats that mom and dad or grandma and grandpa wore fall into the vintage crowd. Wholesale hats evoke happy childhood memories with fedoras for men from the forties or fifties and pillboxes for women from that same era. How about old photographs with cloches? Everyone who sees a hat that brings back childhood memories comments, tries it on, and often purchases it.
In some way, hats help the average person assume the aura of bigger-than-life personalities. Sometimes conscious, sometimes subconsciously, consumers gravitate towards hats that identify them with their heroes.