ABOUT US
San Francisco Hat Company hats have been to tea with the queen, been photographed by Lord Snowden on the Issey Miyake runway, and brightened the covers of fashion magazines, and they’ve made life easier on tractors, river rapids, arctic expeditions.
Besides being beautiful, our hats are supremely functional, sun blocking, moisture wicking, packable, and comfortable in all kinds of weather. Felt, straw, raffia, Techstraw, ribbon, fleece. We make hats that work so you can play.
DESIGNED AND MADE IN CALIFORNIA
With a tip of our hat to the venerated seminal East Bay outdoor industry. Our first workplace was down the street from Sierra Design and several blocks from The North Face, where Stefan did a stint as a tent designer. Our cutting tables, die cutters, and assorted tools came from The North Face, as did our hat pressman and two top sewers, including Hisako Haskins, credited as one of the founding creatives of The North Face.
Our factory work space features modern hydraulic hat presses complemented by an arduously assembled collection of specialized hat machines - from the 1920s era Bulasky sewing machines we found in Chicago to an extremely rare 1876 edge cutter we discovered in the basement of a sewing machine shop in San Francisco. We have a large collection of hat molds; some made to our designs and others that we bought from closing factories, giving us access to a large suite of vintage shapes like our Rat Pack era stingy brim fedoras.
WHY PANAMA HATS?
Stefan traveled extensively in Ecuador – river rafting, researching vegetable ivory, designing a commercial food dryer for local production by Manabi Agriculture. His travels introduced him to panama hats and to the people and culture that produced them. Handwoven of sustainably harvested toquilla straw, the so called “panama” hat is a miracle of craftsmanship, beauty and utility, providing light, comfortable, ventilated sun protection, a practical necessity at the equator and a unisex staple of the indigenous wardrobe.
Sally Kellman, co-founder and co-designer of San Francisco Hat, toured with and consulted on a United Nations panama hat project in Ecuador. The United Nations recognized in the panama hat industry an instance in which an indigenous craft has achieved worldwide appreciation and market, thereby giving artisans an opportunity to work for themselves and earn money without having to forsake their own communities and cultural traditions, and saw this as a model for the economic sustenance of other indigenous craft industries.
The project director visited our factory in California for a better understanding of the US market. He respected our close association with the weavers and that the fashion hats we made from handwoven panamas had achieved widespread exposure in the US fashion press.
WHY RIVERZ?
Palm straw panamas are practical and beautiful, but as we discovered on a rafting trip down the San Juan River in Utah in 100+ degree heat, they won't withstand extreme conditions or activities. We determined to design a hat in the panama style, woven of polypropylene Techstraw, a hat that would be amphibious, maintain shape and function when wet, and endure in challenging conditions. Born on the river, field tested around the globe. Long lived and expedition strong.
