Aaron Hats - Aaron’s Hat Blog

Here’s an update to the one day sale I talked about earlier this week. I had previously said there wasn’t going to be a discount code required but that’s changed. I wanted to make this a sale only for the blog readers so here you go. On Friday, February 1, 2008 you can get 35% off your entire order of any hats we have in stock (no special orders allowed). All you need to do is add the hats you want to your shopping cart and then at checkout use the coupon code “blog” to get your 35% off.

So start your hat shopping now at GetaHatOn.com because the start of the sale is just hours away.

Aaron

Hats have been around for centuries in countless cultures. With some hat styles you automatically conjure up a picture of a particular country. As an example, the beret probably makes you think of France or a fisherman’s cap may remind you of Greece. Each of these countries has their own way of saying hat as shown here:

Spanish - sombrero
French - chapeau
German - hut
Italian - cappello
Dutch - de hord
Portuguese - chapeu
Norwegian - hatt

How do you say hat?

Aaron

This Friday, February 1, we’re having our first ever “blog sale”. This sale is one day only and will only be advertised here on this blog so essentially will only be for readers of this blog…and a few lucky people who happen to find the bargain prices while shopping Aaron Hats. We’re just days away from getting our first delivery of Spring and Summer hats so we need to make a little room. So what’s going to be on sale? Glad you asked. All in-stock fur felt hats by Akubra, Stetson, Resistol, Bailey and Dobbs. No coupon will be need as every hat that is on sale will already be marked down from 20% to 50% depending on the hat.

Feel free to spread the word but remember…it’s one day only, no exceptions.

Get a hat on,

Aaron

In my previous post about Stetson Fedoras I mentioned a group of new fedoras from Stetsons “Modern Collection”. I thought I’d post a couple more pictures for you to see what will soon be available.

First, is a 100% beaver fur felt call the Pullman. It has a 1 3/4″ brim with a bound edge. Perfect for those of you who have fallen in love with the stingy brim fedora.

Another is a pork pie style called the Flat Car. This has a 1 7/8″ bound edge brim and has a nice suede finish to the felt.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the future…at least a couple months into the future.

Get a Stetson hat on,

Aaron

Most people who aren’t familiar with felt hats think that all felt is the same. Not true. There is wool felt and then there is fur felt. Now I’ll state the obvious…wool felt is made of wool and fur felt is made of fur. Like I said, it’s stating the obvious but for some people they never knew there was a difference and that’s ok. That’s why the “Hats 101″ series of blog posts.

Both varieties of felt hats offer a stiff version and a soft version. The only difference here is the amount of stiffener or shellac added to the felt during the production of the hat.

Within the fur felt hat category there are different kinds of fur used. Most use rabbit or wild hare with the better quality hats using beaver. Most modern manufacturers have their own secret recipe of a blend of furs. As mentioned in a previous post from a few days ago some hat manufacturers are experimenting with Buffalo fur and Kangaroo fur for their felt western hats.

So how do you tell the difference between the different quality fur felts? That’s a discussion for another “Hats 101″ post so be sure to come back and visit.

Class dismissed. Go enjoy your weekend.

Aaron

One thing I’ve learned over the last few years since starting Aaron Hats is that a lot of people don’t know the very basics of hats. Most don’t know that there’s a difference between a hat and a cap and that the two terms are not interchangeable. So I thought I’d begin a series of posts explaining as much as I can about hats starting with the very basics.

First, the difference between hats and caps. Hats have a brim that goes all the way around the crown as shown in this picture:

A cap only has a bill or visor around the crown like a ball cap or an ivy cap as shown here:

So there’s your first class on Hats 101. Go out and spread your new wealth of information.

Aaron

Yesterday I sent out an email to customers on our hat newsletter email list letting them know they could write a review about the hat they purchased from Aaron Hats. All I can say is “WOW!!”. We have received so many positive reviews and thank you’s it has just blown us away. All too often we only hear when things go wrong. Yes that’s right, I’m admitting that things do go wrong. Occasionally a package will get lost (or stolen) or we ship an incorrect size by accident. After all, we’re only human. When something does go wrong we do what we can to make it right. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I want to thank all of you who wrote reviews and had so many nice things to say not only about the hats you bought but about Aaron Hats. We have a very small staff here and we all work hard to serve you so it was quite heart warming to here from our customers in such a positive manner.

Here are a couple reviews we received:

R.O.W., Palatka, Florida for the Resistol Nighthawk western hat

“Excellent response and delivery. The hat was as advertised - 1st quality. I would not hesitate to recommend Aaron Hats to anyone.”

William F., Elizabethtown, NC for the Kangol 504 Ventair

“This is a wonderful and stylish hat. Ordering was simple and it arrived faster than most pizzas do.”

Thank you all and keep the reviews coming.

Aaron

It seems I’m the only hat retailer who thinks sharing hat information with my customers is important. I spend quite a bit of time keeping up on the latest news in the headwear industry by speaking with sales reps, reading fashion magazines, reading hat related news stories and seeing what other hat retailers are doing. Recently I went to look at two other hat blogs and found that one hadn’t been updated in two months and the other hadn’t been updated in four months. Now, I’m sure these bloggers care about their customers as much as I do but I don’t understand how you can just stop writing all of a sudden. I searched, and found, quite a few fashion blogs that had also been left without new postings. What do all these forgotten blogs mean? I surely don’t know but I can tell you that I enjoy talking with and writing to my customers and readers and hope you learn something new from time to time by reading this blog, the only blog dedicated to hats and updated nearly every day.

My hat is off to you for finding THE hat blog.

Aaron

Despite a foot of fresh snow this week the Spring and Summer hats will start arriving very soon. The first scheduled to arrive is the Kangol 504 Ventair in all 23 colors. You can preview the Kangol 504 cap at GetaHatOn.com.

One of the things that distinguishes Aaron Hats from other retailers carrying Kangol is that we carry every color available in the Kangol 504, whether it’s the summer Ventair or the winter Wool. That’s right…every color is stocked in the store so whether you’re one of our dedicated local customers or somebody who likes to shop online you’ll find the colors you need here.

The Kangol 504 is the cap that you see being worn by many celebrities, golfers, teenagers all the way to the older gentleman. This cap has been made by Kangol for decades and continues to be the number one seller. It’s a classic.

Get a Kangol on,

Aaron

Up here in North Conway, NH we had about six inches of snow on Monday and we’re expecting another six inches on Friday. On top of the three feet of snow that was already on the ground this makes for a winter wonderland in the White Mountains. This is great news for all skiers and snowmobilers around New England as I’m sure a lot of them will be heading here for a weekend of white fun. Now, having said all that we have our first shipment of Kangol Spring/Summer hats due to arrive in about 2-3 weeks. This will be the first of many shipments to start arriving. Just yesterday we went to a trade show and ordered ladies hats for the Kentucky Derby, straw sun hats, Toby Keith hats, Indiana Jones hats, childrens bucket hats, Panama hats and hats with certified UV protection for both men and women.

Yesterday while we were at the trade show we were talking with one of the sales reps and she was explaining how every year she thinks about retiring and taking some time off to relax. The reason she hasn’t retired is because whenever she sees the next seasons hats she gets all excited and falls in love with the new hats and just has to share her excitement with her customers. I’m not ready to retire but I do get excited every time I get a new hat catalog or when a salesman shows up at the store with new samples to preview.

Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting pictures of some of the new hats we’ve ordered and having coming into the store for the Spring and Summer season. I hope you’ll get as excited as I do when you see them.

Get a hat on,

Aaron