There’s Something About A Stetson Hat

“Billy DeLyon threw the lucky dice, won Stagger Lee’s Stetson Hat.”

-“Stagger Lee”, Grateful Dead

Lives have been won and lost over them.  People in the Wild West would literally kill for them.  There’s something about a Stetson hat.  The fit, the style, the legend.  Whatever it is, hands down it’s the greatest hat I’ve owned.  But what is it really that makes the Stetson hat so cool.  I did some digging and here’s what I found.

First of all, I’m no cowboy.  I haven’t ridden a horse in 15+ years and even then it was the most uncomfortable and ball busting experience I’ve ever had.  I can’t rope and ride.  I don’t now, nor will I ever, own a “six shooter.”  My idols are not Gene Autry, Butch and Sundance or the Duke.  So what’s with the hat?  En route home from Rothbury Music Festival in 2009, my girlfriend and I stopped in a little town called Walsenburg in Southern Colorado at a crafty type shop and there on the wall was a giant selection of cowboy hats.  Naturally, I went over and started doing the horrible John Wayne impression trying on just about every hat on the wall.  Eventually I tried on one and my girlfriend said, “That’s the one!”  I thought she was kidding.  I was just killing time, trying on hats.  She then convinced me that I needed that hat and even bought it for me.  I’ve never been happier with a hat in my entire life.

The John B. Stetson Hat Company is 135 years old.  Begun in 1865 with $100 and a dream, it’s now one of the most recognizable hats around.  Not just another “Cowboy Hat” the Stetson has come to represent durability, innovation and style.  The best “Cowboy Hat” you can buy.  The first Stetson sold for a five dollar gold piece.  Today, you can buy one hat for more than what Mr. Stetson started his company with.

County music stars don’t get to hold claim to the Stetson.  Bono rocked the Stetson at the height of U2’s success.  He even took someone to court to get it back.  Ron “Pigpen” McKernan of the Grateful Dead sported the legendary chapeaux.  Bob Dylan’s been known to pull out a Stetson.

According to legend, the Stetson Hat, to African American slaves, was symbolic of manhood and freedom.  To the cowboy, it was protection from the sun, to rock n’ roll icons it’s a statement of the renegade wild life of rock n’ roll.  To me, it’s the feeling of history upon your head.  The immediate flashback to another time.  Maybe because so many Dead songs are about the Wild West, do I find my Stetson so perfectly positioned upon my head.  Regardless of why, you’ll always love your Stetson.