Boss of The Plains
In 1865 — "a time when almost everyone wore hats" — Stetson moved to Philadelphia to enter the hat-making craft he'd learned from his father and began manufacturing hats there suited to the needs of the Westerners. Stetson made a western hat for each hat dealer in the Boss of the Plains style he had invented, during the trek to Pike’s Peak. These lightweight hats were natural in color with four inch crowns and brims; a plain strap was used for the band.
Noted one observer, "It kept the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. It was an umbrella. It gave you a bucket (the crown) to water your horse and a cup (the brim) to water yourself. It made a hell of a fan, which you need sometimes for a fire but more often to shunt cows this direction or that." Before the invention of the cowboy hat (which means before John B. Stetson came along), the cowpunchers of the plains wore castoffs of previous lives and vocations. Thanks to the time he spent with cowboys and Western settlers, he knew firsthand that they wore impractical headwear, such as coonskin caps, sea captain hats, straw hats and wool derbies.
John decided to offer people something better. Durable and well-made from waterproof felt, its high, open crown and broad rim would keep the hot sun off their faces, necks and shoulders.
The hat achieved instant popularity and was named the “Boss of the Plains.” The first real cowboy hat. Stetson went on to build the Carlsbad, easily identified by its main crease down the front.
His hat was called a Stetson, because he had his name John B. Stetson Company embossed in gold in every hatband. The Stetson soon became the most well known hat in the West. All the high crowned, wide brimmed, soft felt western hats that followed are intimately associated with the cowboy image created by Stetson.
The Stetson Cowboy hat was the symbol of the highest quality. Western icons such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Will Rogers, Annie Oakley, Pawnee Bill, Tom Mix, and the Lone Ranger wore Stetsons. The company also made hats for law enforcement departments, such as the Texas Rangers. Stetson's Western-style hats were worn by employees of the National Park Service, U.S. Cavalry soldiers, and many U.S. Presidents.
The cowboy hat is truly an example of form following function. "Invented by John B. Stetson," today’s cowboy hat has remained basically unchanged in construction and design since the first one created in 1865. In addition to the cowboy hats, Stetson also made fedoras, and women's hats.
Read more about this topic: John Batterson Stetson
Famous quotes containing the words boss and/or plains:
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“We hold on to hopes for next year every year in western Dakota: hoping that droughts will end; hoping that our crops won’t be hailed out in the few rainstorms that come; hoping that it won’t be too windy on the day we harvest, blowing away five bushels an acre; hoping ... that if we get a fair crop, we’ll be able to get a fair price for it. Sometimes survival is the only blessing that the terrifying angel of the Plains bestows.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)