Club Obi Wan

When I was a kid my parents got me the grey Stetson Indiana Jones hat. I think this is the one everyone calls cheap, cardboard-like and disappointing, but I loved that hat. If I recall correctly, the hat had a price of $25- $30 then- which I did not consider cheap. These days I would qualify it as affordable. Anyway, on a Boy Scout camping trip (in the winter) I lost my hat when a gust of wind caught it and sent it down the creek. I reached for it, but couldn't do much more since I was in the middle of crossing a suspension bridge and the cable on one end had snapped the night before. My real-life TOD moment. Anyway, fast forward to the present day and I decide it's time to get a new Indy hat. I get the Dorfman (because, like a shmuck, I think licensed means it has to look like whatever/ whoever is licensing it. D'oh!) Not happy with it, I see a Stetson at a yard sale. It's the brown one, which is great. It has no lining, a teardrop top, the vinyl headband/sweatband and it has the tell-tale indy TOD label inside w/ a date of 1984! This is now my hat! After joining COW I learned of this "bashing" of the hat, and tried a simple version of it to change the pinch at the front and to change the teardrop to a center crease. It's not spectacular, but it's a better hat than it was.



How about the rest of you? Did you own the Stetson hat before they started calling it the Temple (which I think the drown got shorter on over the years)? Do you hate Stetson, rate it as "meh", or love it?

Yep, that's the exact same hat that my parents ordered from the Stetson catalogue in 1986 when my Indy devotion first sprung to life. So my humble collection began with the Stetson hat, the Find Your Fate books, and VHS master copies of Raiders and Temple of Doom. The old Stetson went on many adventures in my youth until it became unwearable due to shrinkage. Eventually I sold it at a family yard sale after I acquired my real Indy fedora from Richard Swales at Herbert Johnson (virtually the Holy Grail of hats). Sure, I have very fond memories of the Stetson, but I didn't even flinch at the prospect of selling it, and I don't regret it.

Well, I know that Stetson had several grades of the Indy hat, even then. The wool felt one's were a nightmare. I submerged mine in a pool and it didn't even soften slightly! I couldn't get anywhere with it.

Whichever you've got, it looks a lot better than anything you're going to get out of a Dorfman or the current Temple, so nice work.

Whipwarrior- THESE hats will shrink?! That's not good news for me- as much as I can perspire because of the vinyl sweatband in these.

Chewbacca Jones- It's funny yours wouldn't soften up. I know the Indy fedora should be crushable, but I have always wondered if there is something that could be sprayed onto the hat to help firm it up in places without discoloring or buildup.

It may not be an Adventure Built but it has done the job nicely for me so far!

Well, mine was the wool felt version, and the hat WAS over a decade old, so... yeah.

captblitzdawg wrote: Chewbacca Jones- It's funny yours wouldn't soften up. I know the Indy fedora should be crushable, but I have always wondered if there is something that could be sprayed onto the hat to help firm it up in places without discoloring or buildup.

I think mine might have made a good casual hat for Odd-Job!

You can buy a spray felt hat stiffener. I've seen some online. I haven't tried it personally, yet. But, as with any product like it, testing it in a hard-to-see place might be best to see if any discoloration occurs.