Club Obi Wan

Renderking Fisk wrote:Now if that was a replica of the fedora Gary Cooper wore in the first few scenes in "Meed John Doe," MAYBE.

That's a good starter fedora for $45, NOT $500

That's what I was getting at. As a fedora, I think it's fine. $45? Not for a beaver hat. I'd pay $45 for a wool felt hat. Heck I have wool felt pork pies and a wool felt fedora that look good and only cost $35. I have a rabbit fur Stetson that was $150. (A rabbit fur Borsalino costs -- what? $400?) Every day I see people wearing wool felt fedoras (the kind with the thin, often leather bands) because they're cheap and good for keeping the rain off. They buy them at REI and such places. Nothing wrong with wearing an inexpensive fedora. And I'm all for people wearing nicer hats than ball caps. The DP doesn't look like a bad hat at all -- as a generic hat. I wouldn't pay half a kilobuck for it though.

The objectional part of the DP hat is that they're calling it the 'Indiana Jones's hat'. Even I, who only recently discovered this site, can tell it's not. I don't blame the people who will buy them. (Unless they're obnoxious about it.) But it does take a bit of gall on the part of DP to market their overpriced product to people who don't know any better. I'll enjoy my AB hat when I get it. I like the look, I like that it's different from an 'off the shelf' hat, it's very reasonably priced, and from what I've read around here Steve is a real stand-up guy. One thing I like in the things I buy is Quality, and I know that I'll get that in the AB.

I suppose if the DP beaver hat gives Steve some breathing room then it has to be worth something.
I guess the thing that really bothers me about DP is that they are offering a product that looks nothing - not even remotely - like the hats in the movies. I know this has been discussed ad nauseaum, but to market a product as “official” and yet have nothing in common with the original design just doesn’t seem right. My current line of work is engineering, and I can tell you if I were asked to submit drawings based on a certain design and I turned in something as drastically different as the DP is to the movie hat, I’d have to answer some questions.
It may be a nice fedora and better quality than previous offerings, but it will never be a true “Indiana Jones” fedora – fancy pin or not…

Fedora wrote: And personally, I hope he does well with this line. At least the quality will be leaps beyond the other DPs! From a hatters perspective, that is a good thing.

I hope he sells a ton of them.

Fedora

It looks like this Dorfman beaver fedora is a very limited edition hat - Only 16 to be sold. It seems they may not have a lot of confidence in the number of hats they can sell at this price point or are having problems with the manufacturing of them. Wonder if they will make more because 16 is really a very limited line.

I agree it is great to see them making hats in beaver though and yes, I think raising the bar is a good thing for everyone.
best
Canada

Canada Jones wrote:It looks like this Dorfman beaver fedora is a very limited edition hat - Only 16 to be sold.

As far as I understood DP produced much more, but the hatshop (i.e. villagehatshop.com) only received 16 of them. I think it would be quite odd to throw only 16 hats on the market (I mean: they are factory hats!), if you can make some good money with them.

The link was to The Villlage Hat Shop. I took it, that 16 was the number of hats that they were going to order and have for sale. I would think that this would only be one of many retailers that may be carrying this hat. I did not look at it that there were only going to be 16 hats made.

Oh, they'll have more than 16 of these hats in the long run. I can't imagine any big hat company going through the trouble of such a limited run. If you read the description again, you'll notice that they only get 16 until the movie comes out. A very limited number were likely "released" for Christmas marketing. This is nothing short of trying to make another buck. Still, caveat emptor, he true die-hard fans will hopefully know better.

Absolutley, Bink. The DP was the foot in the door for many to this hobby--I remember drooling over one in the "Wireless" catalogue every Christmas.

If it is beaver, it wouldn't be a bad hat--ditch the pin, and you may have something there.

Still, I can't shake the stigma of paying so much for a DP, beaver or not!

Cheers
Craig

Bufflehead Jones wrote:The link was to The Villlage Hat Shop. I took it, that 16 was the number of hats that they were going to order and have for sale. I would think that this would only be one of many retailers that may be carrying this hat. I did not look at it that there were only going to be 16 hats made.

Thanks Bufflehead. I obviously missed that....
best
Canada

It looks like a decent hat, but for me personally, no hat is worth 1/3 of what I paid for my vehicle. I think I'll just save up a bit more and go with an AB. I know it's close in price, but it is still less.
-Allen

Maybe Dorfman Pacific won't be renewing their licence, and this is their way of going out with a bang?

Castor Dioscuri wrote:Maybe Dorfman Pacific won't be renewing their licence, and this is their way of going out with a bang?

*sniff* Sorry, I just found that funny.

I tried photoshopping this thing to make it look like an Indy hat. Couldn't do it. The color was easy enough to fix, but the block and bash is all wrong. Completely wrong. As Steve said, I'll bet the hat holds up a lot better than the other DPs, and it may be a fine hat (minus the tacky "Indiana Jones" pin), but it just looks like a brown fedora, not an Indy hat.

Hard as it may be for us to accept or believe, there are some collectors and fans who will only buy licensed merchandise; whether or not an item looks identical to what is seen in the movie, it just isn't "real" to this type of fan unless it's officially sanctioned.

You could show them the most SA AB in existence, and their reaction would be, "But it doesn't say Indiana Jones or Lucasfilm anywhere on it-- now this Dorfman over here, this is the real deal-- you can tell because of that nifty pin on the bow!"

I'm not exagerrating-- I've actually heard people say things like that, and I've also seen it on other boards where the fans might be more casual-- -- or at least less focused on the costume-- than they are here.

Jack

Yeah, I had an old man say that to me once. I was wearing my Steve Delk Cairo and he had on what was clearly a DP - All I said was, "Nice hat," and he smiled and said, "Yeah and you know what - Mine's Indiana Jones's hat," and he took it off and showed me the sticker inside the crown with the plane on it. He was so proud.

All I could do was just smile through gritted teeth. I always find it amazing that as "iconic" as Indiana Jones's hat is, no one seems to remember what it looks like out in the world...

very good of you to let the man enjoy his hat

eazybox wrote: You could show them the most SA AB in existence, and their reaction would be, "But it doesn't say Indiana Jones or Lucasfilm anywhere on it-- now this Dorfman over here, this is the real deal-- you can tell because of that nifty pin on the bow!"

Jack

I agree. Also, think about the first time you saw a screen accurate Indy hat in person. Did you really think that it was as big on screen, as the one you finally put on your head? I was amazed at how tall the crown, and how wide the brim actually was.

'Blues

I've also seen it on other boards where the fans might be more casual-- -- or at least less focused on the costume-- than they are here.

One of the things I enjoy most about this site is the compulsive dedication to detail of the members. Thanks to that, you can be assured of a gorup of people who wil dig and dig for the most accurate information, who will gather into one place all the data one could need for feeding one's own private obsession. It's a privilege to be here!

Now what would be nice would be for someone to make up a bunch of those hat boxes (minus any reference to Dorfman, of course) to store our real hats in...

I know who writes the "blurbs" for the site. I won't say his name, but I've met him, because I used to work for the VHS, and he is the owner. I met him when he would come by the shop in Seaport Village for inspection. You can find his name on the VHS website if it really interests you that much.

Anyway...

I wouldn't necessarily call him a scam artist, but he does write the sales blurbs for the hats in a more positive light than a serious hat aficionado not in business for himself would paint those same hats in if they were to be writing about them (IE: people like us). The guy is an actual hat aficionado himself, but he is also a businessman. He will write "fine quality" on something that is a wool hat, but there is also a markup involved. He sold monticristis at that store for hundreds of dollars (no, I never witnessed a single person buying one for the prices they were being sold for), but since I saw some of the sales invoices during inventory, I know what he paid for them. No, I won't say what that price was, but I will say there is a markup involved.

dwardeden wrote:* * * Now what would be nice would be for someone to make up a bunch of those hat boxes (minus any reference to Dorfman, of course) to store our real hats in...

Dwdn:

A very good idea. An "S.A." hat box. An amalgam of the Ark's crate, Vintage script/text and perhaps Grail Diary graphics?

I would gladly own several.

Sincerely,

. If $495 is not your idea of a reasonable Christmas gift (believe me, I understand!), the other Indy hats are always an option. Color: Brown. Sizes: 7, 7 1/8, 7 1/4, 7 1/2, 7 3/4 (very limited units per size-now only 10 total hats).

I was surprised to see this today in the description. Don't know if this is new news or not. A pretty honest yet "strange" marketing point wouldn't you say?

AND it looks like they already sold six! ("now only 10 hats" available?)

MB

Indiana G wrote:very good of you to let the man enjoy his hat

I used to think it that it was my job to prevent people from buying awful fedoras to the point that I alienated a lot of people here and on other sites. I thought that the only fedoras people should wear are those that are made by the vendors we've vetted, with the rare exception of a new fedora maker that could meet our standards.

It wasn't until it was too late for some folks that I realized that it was all about wearing the fedora and becoming a "hat snob" wasn't doing anyone any good. I was probably doing damage to the "Vintage Wear" cause and Retro Revolution. There's no room for elitism amongst fellow retros, but that doesn't mean we should stop pushing for higher quality from those who could deliever if they just tried hard enough.