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A Cowboys Hat
A Father-Daughter Experience with Custom Cowboy Hats
By Tracey Feist

For as long as I can remember, my Dad has always worn a cowboy hat. Raised on a ranch in the
foothills of the Canadian Rockies during the Great Depression, Dad says hes been wearing one
as long as HE can remember.

I think he looks terrible without one.

Today, cowboy hats remain as traditional and essential as ever ask any cowboy who wears
one. Cowboys have hats like women have shoes: straw hats for haying season, felts for winter,
dress hats for weddings and funerals. They know a good quality hatone that will challenge
weather, testy horses and other abuseis worth its weight in gold. And maybe that's why
there's nothing quite like a custom-made hat.

Ive had my share of store-bought hats growing up on the ranch. Id rather forget the purple felt
I had when I was 10, though I have fond memories of the dark brown Australian rabbit fur I
received for my 16th birthday. For me wearing one wasnt a status symbol like those worn by
my classmates who followed the 80s Urban Cowboy trend; it was worn out of practicality.
When Dad said it was time to saddle up and move cows, I donned a hat. My hat provided shade
on hot days, and helped tame those bitter winds when gathering cows during fall roundup.

My Dad understands the value of a good hat. And of money well-spent. So when my 40th
birthday rolled around, Dad wanted to know what to get me. I opted for a gift that was a little
more practical and definitely more memorable: a custom made cowboy hat.

Powder River Hat Company

Cowboys and their hats have a long history in the US. Cowboy hats are a symbol of the Old
West, of a lifestyle lived and longed for by many. John Batterson Stetson, the son of a
Philadelphia hat maker, created the very first cowboy hat in 1865. The iconic Stetson under-
stood an age-old process of felting that takes advantage of the fibers that are found in fur pelts.
The fibers interlock when dipped in hot water and squeezed, forming a dense, weather-
resistant felt.

Brook Briddle, a custom hatter and owner-operator of Powder River Hat Company located in
Elizabeth, Colorado, also takes that age-old process and brings it to life in his shop located 45
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miles southeast of Denver. Briddles shop is like stepping back in time and sinking your teeth
into cowboy Americana. Custom hats of various colors, shapes and styles line the wall. A 102-
year-old crown iron, originally from the St. Louis Stetson factory, is still in use today.

Briddle says its important to offer many different styles, because its shape often defines where
the cowboy is from. In Colorado, youve got everything from Buckaroos and Traditional
Cowboys to Vaqueroshat styles are all over the board. When I first started making hats, there
were basically three main styles that people wantedTy Murray, Alan Jackson or George
Strait.

While Strait still influences hat makers today, Briddle says the important people he makes hats
for are those that wear one every day. Even though he has forged a hat for numerous
celebrities (Kix Brooks, Sons of the San Joaquin and cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell to name only
a few), hes quick to minimize it. Its why hes known as the hatter for the real cowboy.

Ive helped guys that have been wearing hats all their lives. They have shelves on their heads.
And even though their head may have changed over the years, theyre still set on wearing a size
7, says Briddle, describing those fussy old-timers. Hat wearers, in general, are pretty picky.
Those kinds of customers have never bothered me, as long as I can take care of them. And if I
can, theyre a customer for life.

Custom cowboy hat makers of Briddles caliber seem to be few and far between. Briddle is an
artist who has been honing his craft for 20 years, first as a teenager watching a local hat maker
cut brims in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, to working under the tutelage of Kevin OFarrell at his
Durango hat shop. What separates Briddle from other hat makers is that hes involved in the
entire process, as he says start to finish.

There are very few that are doing what Im doing, says Briddle, who does everything from
ordering the felts, blocking the crown, trimming the brim, sanding and final shaping. He even
uses the excess felt from brim to craft the hat band. Everything goes through me. I would think
there would only be 40 to 50 hatters [in the US] working at this level. We all take some
different steps in the hat making process. But what Im best at is understanding what the
customer wants, and building the hat to their specifications.

Briddle says it was his apprenticeship under OFarrell where he honed his craft. But when
OFarrells shop changed ownership and moved to its present location in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
Briddle was faced with a life-changing decision. I knew I liked hats, but I never realized I had
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the talent, until then. So I moved to Arizona to start making hats full-time for Perrymens
Western Wear in Phoenix, back in the late 90s.

It was in Arizona where Briddle would find an essential tool that would solidify his place as a
custom hatter. That tool was a conformateur, an odd-looking machine that uses small pins to
measure your head. Briddle says any hat maker worth their salt should be using one, as its the
first step in the custom hat making process. The word conformateur is French, which dates back
to its Parisian-based creators Allie and Maillard, who patented the machine in 1843.

Having the Hat Made

After sitting in a turn of the century barbers chair to have my head measured, Briddles
conformateur reveals what most might find shocking: no head is a perfect oval shape.

Briddle carefully placed the steel, hat-shaped conformateur on top of my head, with a single
white piece of paper lying underneath. Small little black marks, made from what looks like
miniature horseshoe nails, soon outlined the shape of my head. And yes, to my surprise, it was
nowhere near perfectmaybe somewhere in the vicinity of a weird-looking egg shape.

The next step is a formillion. This machine uses its wooden pegs to help form the exact head
shape, determined from the conformer. Each peg meets the edge of the measured piece to
ensure a custom fit of the hats crown.

Briddle says it takes him between eight to 10 hours to build a hat properly. His biggest sellers
are the 60 to 80 per cent Beaver/Belgian-hare blend hats, with a price tag of $450 US. The Xs
really dont mean that much anymore. There never has been a standard on the X rating
system, Briddle explains.

My 100 per cent Beaver hats take two and a half beaver bellies, and are between $800 and
$900. But Ive built hats with hat bands that cost more than $2,000. You need to come in and
see what you wantif you want this brim, this shape, this color, he says. Youre limited only
by your own imagination.

Briddle makes anywhere from 325 to 450 hats a year but says hed like to make close to. My
goal is to make a new hat every day. But I dont know if I want to get much bigger than that.
You lose a certain level of service.

And service is paramount to Briddle. The neat thing about working at OFarrells was the
connection I made with some pretty renowned people. When I was 22, Willy Matthews (the
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Famous Western Artist), wrote to me on a bottom of a poster Always carry on Tradition. That
has always been special to mea lesson for me to build hats the right way. And Briddles
legacy is a beautiful work of art, all in the shape of a cowboy hat.

Carrying on Tradition

Cowboy hats carry on the tradition of the western way of life, that so many have lived, and so
many have loved. While the ranching way of life has given way to four wheelers and other
modern necessities that make an already tough life easier, a well-made hat will stand the test
of time, and more importantly, the rigors of daily use.

My Dad celebrates his 75th year as a rancher, horse trainer, farmer, Granddad and general Jack
of All Trades in November, 2008. He marvels at how the world has changed in that time, from
all the gadgets we need to make life easier, to why folks dont appreciate the simpler things in
life. But what hasnt changed, is his hat. Once he puts on his hat, its like time has stood still. He
looks as he did when I was a little girl.

So when Dad recently visited Coloradohis first plane ride in 15 yearsI returned the favor
and had Briddle make him a custom hat. His new black Cattlemen even has his name stamped
with 14 karat Gold foil on the interior hat band. It suits him like no other hat hes owned.

Theres an old cowboy saying that Your hat is the last thing you take off, and the first thing that
gets noticed. Anyone who owns a custom hat will attest to this. My new Saddle Rancher from
Powder River fits like a glove and will get noticed by anyone who knows the value of a great
cowboy hat. But all looks aside, the hat, thanks to my Dad, is a wonderful present that
symbolizes my connection to a western way of life.

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One happy crew with their custom cowboy hats, (L-R), Gary Munro and daughter Tracey Feist
with custom hatter Brook Briddle of Powder River Hat Company, Elizabeth CO.