I am best suited to answer this one!
My good friend Roger, aka, Sharpetoys, basically forced me into the hatmaking business. Time for a short story?
Way back, I was reblocking hats for free here. This entailed tearing the hat apart, and then reblocking, then sewing the parts back in. I was basically making hats, just no pouncing.
Roger, urged me to start to offer my hats for sale to the fans here. I had every excuse not to do so. I had no sources for sweats, liners, felt, ribbon, etc. And hatters that I knew of, basically offered no help at all. That's the way the traditional hatters are, they keep all that stuff close to the vest. One hatter did offer to help, but he was basically charging me 5 times the normal cost for felt and parts, and said he was doing me a favor. This made Roger mad.
So, Roger spent a month, calling all over the country, posing as a hatter, and found out the good sources. On his dime. Then one day, he calls me up, and says, "ok no more excuses, here is who you call!!!" And the rest is history.
Now, I had no name to call my little enterprise. I was kicking around such names as "Tannis Hat Co., etc. Roger came up with the Adventurebilt name. He knew I was real keen on making adventure type headwear. And after looking online, he found a brand named Jacksonbilt. A well known western hatter, Roy Jackson, I think, and a hatter whom Roger had bought hats from. So, he put Adventure and "bilt" together to make Adventurebilt. I liked it right off, and so Adventurebilt Hat Co. was born.
Although I have lost touch with Roger, I will always remember the extra effort this wonderful man took so that I might become a hatter. I will always be indebted to this really great man.
But Roger is not the only fan that helped me out. The list is vast. Some are still here. My hats were the culmination of the Indy Gear fans vison. My hats were born here, and the input from so many people cannot be denied. Basically my hats were created by the fans, and for the fans. I think it is poetic justice that these fan based hats were chosen for the last Indy film. Well done Indy Gear fans!!! That is why, I have a hard time taking the credit. The credit is not mine to take. This was a group effort, channeled through me. And that is all that it is. Fedora
