HATS

We started selling t-shirts with our logo on them quite a number of years ago and they have always been a popular item with our customers. Recently however, the company we bought shirts from started to also offer hats. They proved to be even more popular than shirts. Our logo is reproduced on them in full color embroidery and the hats themselves come in a variety of colors and styles, from denim to hemp fabric. The sales rep from the Texas based company phoned us some time back - after we had just received an order of hats - and asked how we liked the "distressed" styles. We opened up the order and discovered to our amazement, hats with faded looking fabric and scuffed bills like the bottom one in this photo. The sales rep said, "Trust me - people love them." We discovered that he was right. Probably half of our hat sales now are the distressed variety rather than new-looking hats. When customers ask about them we offer a variety of explanations. They are hats that are pre-worn out for folks who are too lazy to wear them out themselves. They are hats that we had to go take back from folks who didn't pay their bill. And so on. We intentionally sell our hats for just over what they cost us - rather than making a profit on them. We believe that having them seen out there in the real world is a good image builder for our business. Ian Dunsmuir from Scotland - a descendant from the Dunsmuir that town is named for - visited our store one time and we offered to give him one. He insisted on paying for it with a Scottish pound note. We framed the note and have it displayed among our other memorabilia.