Stetson, Stetson

Although the Stetson company makes other styles of brimmed hat, the Stetson name has become synonymous with a style it pioneered, featuring a high crown and wide brim, popularly known as a Cowboy hat.

Stetson and his unusual hat, rode up, tried the hat on for himself, and paid Stetson for it with a five dollar gold piece, riding off with the first western Stetson hat on his head.

By 1886 Stetson's hat company was the largest in the world, and had mechanized the hat-making industry (" producing close to 2 million hats a year by 1906"). The Stetson Hat Co.

Stetson focused on expensive, high-quality hats that represented both a real investment for the working cowboy and statement of success for the city dweller.

The hat was first sold in Central City, Colorado in 1865 in a style called the "Boss of the Plains." In some versions of the famous American folk ballad "Stagger Lee," Billy Lyons is killed by Stack A Lee over a Stetson hat.

Source: Wikipedia > Stetson