121-year-old Michigan-made winter hat is seeing a resurgence

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) If you were at a trivia night in metro Detroit, and were asked to rattle off some Michigan-specific brands, you might say Better Made or Faygo, maybe Vernors or Little Caesars.

You can add the iconic Stormy Kromer hat to this list, thanks to a savvy business move in 2001 by Bob Jacquart of Jacquart Fabric Products, based in Ironwood, Michigan.

The hat itself has a colorful backstory, born out of the old English proverb “necessity is the mother of invention.”

In the early 1900s, George “Stormy” Kromer of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, was a semiprofessional baseball player and railroad engineer. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2024/01/20/stormy-kromer-winter-hat-upper-peninsula-michigan/72174955007/

[marble falls]

1. Everybody's gonna look like my grandpa. I'll never be able to find him if I get lost in the market.

[2naSalit]

2. I think 2 out of...

Every five people with hats are wearing those on any given cold day around here. I have a green one. Most of the ranchers wear them, just had to do-see-do with a cattle drive this morning and all the horsemen were wearing them.

Glad they're made in the US of A.

[willamette]

3. We all wore them

in Montana on the ranch in the 90's and 00's. I had three at a time, different weights. I still have a couple of them ... but did you know that your hat size increases when the numbers go up on the bathroom scale? I know my jeans got bigger, but when an expensive hat gets smaller, it's a real shocker.

[2naSalit]

4. They're...

Mind of standard wear in this end of Montana for sure. I have a basket of hats, gloves and neck gaiters by the door. I have several sets of outer wear for different conditions, if I have to be outside in winter, I'm going to be dressed properly.

The changes winters go through these days, it's crazy. That arctic air mass has moved beyond us, it was really cold. But what's behind it? Right now, as the sun sets, it's +50F, going down from +53F. Supposed to be warm the rest of the month.