Club Obi Wan

My son has graduated from the abominable, bottom-of-the-barrel Rubies Indy hat to the slightly better "deluxe" Rubies Indy fedora, and although it's decent for what it is, and I replaced the ribbon, it's still way too floppy for my taste. He's only five, so I wasn't going to spend a lot of money, but I started looking at vintage fedoras on eBay and almost immediately found a small brown wool felt fedora for $21.40 with free shipping. Sold. (DP was not an option.)



It arrived today and although it should be at the bottom of my action list, I started fiddling with it immediately. There was a thick layer of masking tape under the sweatband that had to come out; the liner came out with it. It's sun-faded and there are little tracks where some sort of insect snacked on the brim, but with a little work (new ribbon, probably a dye job), my son will have a nice fedora that will last a few years. I had him try it on today and it's slightly too big, but that's a good thing. The bash was wrong, but the shape of the brim (pronounced back-flip) makes me suspect that this was someone's Indy fedora once upon a time.

I will post additional pictures later and update as the project progresses.

Looks great and perfect for a smaller, but ever growing head.

My kids continually ask, "Can I get a hat like yours?" I tell them when they stop growing I'll be happy to get them a "real" hat. They have my LL Bean wool fedora that was my Indy hat from 1989-2009, but they can tell the difference. "Dad, there's no liner in this hat."

I upgraded theirs when I won a decent wool fedora (The Movie Shop) at the QM Summit last November (thanks DHW ). It has a proper sweatband and liner. It's too small for me and a bit too large for them, but like you said, it fills the gap while they're still growing.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

I've gotten a couple of the Jaxson fedoras on Amazon. Really nice for the price.