I see Katoomba has taken most of the Fed IV color options off their site, and the Deluxe is listed as sold out.
You have the option to sign up for a mailing list, with this notice:
TheHatteryKatoomba wrote:The Federation Hat Project is undergoing some exciting updates in 2024, to stay notified sign up below or follow us on our Instagram page.
With all the competition introduced by many hatters since the Fed IV came out, maybe the Hattery decided they needed to up their game -- a more accurate brown felt and ribbon, and widening the side brim a tiny bit to match the well-known dimensions of the Indy hat...?
Add that to their rep for great customer service and Akubra's rep for making sturdy hats at great prices, and they'll be hard to beat!
Well I wonder if the overall revamp Akubra is going through now is involved as well? I mean, the manufacture never seems to have recovered from covid (importing rabbit fur all the way from Europe always struck me as odd, especially considering the major bunny problem in Oz in general) and now that it's been bought and is no longer a private family business I can only imagine what they have in mind (just please, don't shortcut the quality and durability Akubra is known for). But I do know the Fed had become more popular than several of the regular styles that Akubra made, and the Fed was always hindered in some ways by needing to use an existing felt color from other models (I believe the brown Fed used a color they called "loden" and was mainly used for the Angler and a few other models). Although I love my Feds, the eggplant hue it takes on in some light is not the most desirable characteristic. It wouldn't shock me given the Fed's popularity if they came up with its own felt color and made some tweaks to the brim dimensions and maybe even getting some new blocks... just please don't shrink the crown dimensions. I can definitely envision them trying to give the hat a more Raiders character now since the IV was based mostly on the CS design and A LOT of people who get it are looking for a Raiders style, which it can actually do admirably albeit better for a smaller person.
Anyway, I love the Fed so please don't screw it up.
Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to the announcement. As long as they can maintain the quality and affordability (and I see no reason to think they won't), they've got my business.
Not much inventory available on their webpage. Like most other products, the prices on their site have increased for the fed IV and fed IV deluxe. (at least from when I last looked)
The Hattery Katoomba sent an email out on 16th of October, they’ll be offering the Fed IV in a new colour graphite, a new reshaping service for a Raiders look and general restocking.
I'm glad I got my Fed IV Deluxe before the prices got bumped up. I snagged the last brown one in my size and I have loved every minute of owning it!
I just checked out the Raiders shaping service on the Hattery website, and I think it looks quite nice! Hopefully we will begin to see some of these Fed IVs with the Raiders shaping service in the real world soon.
Maybe "bumped" wasn't the right word. What I meant is that I noticed the hats are more expensive than they were when I got mine. I believe the Deluxe was around 191 USD, vs the 213 USD it is now being sold for. Not a huge change, so maybe it is just exchange rates.
-WNY Indy
Last edited by Western New York Indy on Tue Oct 29, 2024 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Well you should have seen it years ago in the wake of the recession when the AUD was trading SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the USD. Even though the Fed at the time was like 150 AUD it was like 200+ USD. The last one I got was in the lead up to covid and I got it during the bottom out at like 90 USD.
But yeah the graphite is going to be that dark grey they use on the cattleman and a few others. A charcoal grey, basically. I wonder if it'll replace the carbon color they've offered for years -- people were often disappointed and thought it was too blue when they really wanted that Bogart mid or dark grey.
But it also wouldn't shock me if they adjust the brown some. That was always the drawback of the Fed was the "loden" color they used wasn't to everyone's taste, especially since it didn't contrast the ribbon. It's difficult because the Fed has to use standard colors from the rest of the line but Akubra has been going through a major overhaul for like 4 years now, especially since being bought. Less popular models have been scrapped entirely and the most popular like the cattleman have had new colors added. And with the Fed being a custom job for a single business partner it definitely adds a kink in Akubra's manufacturing.
Well I'm glad they didn't change the design. I think after the first few iterations they finally honed in a good set of dimensions etc with the IV for the average person to get a reasonable approximation of any of the film hats as well as just a regular wider brim fedora.
It makes sense to me that they did away with the black ones. Not sure if they were all that popular and to my mind they only made sense if someone wanted to be a cool rabbi or something.
But did they change which brown they use for the dark brown? Maybe it's just my screen or the lighting but it looks like it might be a tad lighter. I never minded the loden color personally, and it would fade to a decent medium brown over time and make for a good Indy color especially if you changed the ribbon, but I know a lot of people got disappointed at first with the color especially depending on the lighting. It always reminded me of some of those photochromatic paint jobs they'd give to cars in the 90s -- I once had a 97 Thunderbird that would look blue or green or purple depending on the light.
