Club Obi Wan

The raiders fedora has such a nice, floppy quality to it -- owing to that old brazillian rabbit fur or overexposure of the hat? Whatever the case, I find the crooked, almost droopy brim to be the most charming out of all four films. In your opinion, what is the floppiest of the hats available to us regular folks? Or, even, which hat has the most flop-tential?

Adventurebilt legacy Raiders by Penman hats.

Well the custom makers make it the way YOU want, so it really depends on how you order it, more than the maker. That said, my latest Garrison is probably the floppiest of my hats (I asked for it floppy). My second floppiest would be the new HJ - it holds its shape a little more, but I think the felt is a little thicker, which might account for the difference.

The ABL has barely any stiffener, the brim is incredibly floppy, I own both HJ and ABL and the floppiness of the ABL is quite unique.

I wear an old (2008) Fed IV and I can safely tell you it is distinctly un-floppy

Optimo used to hold the mantle for the floppiest Indy lid.

Mike wrote:Optimo used to hold the mantle for the floppiest Indy lid.

I've handled one of their hats and that is no joke. It also had one of the best pounces I've ever seen on a rabbit felt hat.

I handled one of John Penman's AB Legacy hats, I can attest that it is as floppy as you would want it.

From my experience, I have an AB, a Fed IV and a Garrison and the Garrison is way floppier than the others.

Floppiness is somewhat a function of the fur, but what matters far more is the amount of stiffener in the felt.

I have an AB in beaver that reacts exactly like the ROLA hat when Indy is on horseback. The front brim will fold flat against the crown in a strong wind. My other AB in beaver is much stiffer and I have an Peters Brothers cowboy hat in rabbit that I could use as a spare tire.

I agree with Mulceber, any custom hat maker should be able to provide you with the level of floppiness you want. Though, much like hat color, the condition of the hat will change over time based on use so you may want it a bit stiffer out of the box so it can break in naturally.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Forrest For the Trees wrote:I handled one of John Penman's AB Legacy hats, I can attest that it is as floppy as you would want it.

Same here!

I have an AB too and while it was pretty stiff at first, after almost 4 years of wear and crunching up from time to time it is now extremely soft and floppy. I guess it just takes time.

From what I've seen though, the Penman Adventurebilt Raiders definitely looks like the best out of the box floppy Raiders like felt though.

My Garrison Raider is without a doubt the king of flop compared with any of the other hats I've owned or worked on and I've had 'em all at one time or another. But like other people said, it all really depends on the amount of stiffener in the felt. If you no how to pounce felt correctly you should be able to make a extra stiff hat floppy with a little effort.

Has anyone gotten the Advintage SOC (or any advintage) in the soft strength option? It looks super floppy.

Just ordered a medium and thought about getting the soft from Advantage. Anyone tell me how floppy the medium is?

If you're thinking about going floppy, I'd say go for it: you can always add stiffener later if you don't like it. It's really easy. Taking stiffener out is much less doable.

Duck9000 wrote:

Forrest For the Trees wrote:I handled one of John Penman's AB Legacy hats, I can attest that it is as floppy as you would want it.

Same here!

I have two of them. One was recently reblocked. By far the floppies felt
I've experienced in a finished hat.

Floppiest fedora hat I ever had was a Federation II. Three years of daily wear and serious thrashing. Added stiffener at one point in time and it beaded up on the felt, so I ended up taking my Swiss Army Knife and pounced the entire hat. The brim would either flip up or smack me in the face with a stiff wind. Looks and feels great but its not that fantastic for a daily wear hat.
Johnny

I'm coming down to a decision:

toss up between the Advintage SOC (soft) or the Garrison SOC..

Help me out, chums! I'm indecisive! Could this be why I like floppy hats? My floppy, unstable decision making?

You're actually at a 'coin flipping' point now, as either way you go, you're going to win.

Regards! Michaelson

Now it depends on whether you want rabbit or beaver. Garrison's rabbit raiders is $250 while Advintage beaver is just over $300....decisions, decisions...

...and if it DOES come down to deciding between materials, beaver is the best in terms of water resistance, but rabbit can be cooler in hot weather.

Like he said, 'Decisions, decisions.....'

Regard! Michaelson

It's a good hard-decision to have to make!

And there's always that S&J... though I don't know anything about the Explorador's flop level...

Well, you say floppiness is your #1 criterion - what are your other criteria? More information can only help!

Cairo. Like, a really good Cairo. Love the weird turn, the bulge, the tallness. I just love how it's, like, even stranger than the already-pretty-strange raiders.

Lol, I think you're still split. Here's how it breaks down, as far as I'm concerned:

Garrison - the shape of the hat is SPOT ON for Cairo. You put it on and it just has that shape. The problem, imo, is that the color is off. The Raiders hat in direct sunlight looks VERY tan, with some red undertones. David's new color is a deep brown with heavy red undertones. It's gorgeous, but if you want a hat that looks like it came straight off of Ford's head, the color will probably nag at you.

Advintage - (full disclosure, I haven't owned an Advintage) the new light sable color looks spot on for SOC, but the bulging is exaggerated. If you read Fedoraiders' recent post (http://indygear.com/cow/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67466" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) he demonstrates very clearly that the bulging is really only on one side. The other side is very straight sided, with just a hint of taper. All the pictures of the Advintage block I've seen bulge a lot on both sides.

Just my $0.02.

Your $0.02 is both helpful and appreciated

It also may mean absolutely nothing for your decision either, but Garrison is located in the US, and advantage is in Germany, so you have an ocean to cross depending on where YOU'RE located should you need work done.

Just a thought!

Regard! Michaelson

Also a factor can be timeline to completion. Wait times can vary greatly from hatter to hatter and only the hatter can say what the wait will be at any given season.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

There is a kind of irony to buying an Indy hat from Germany

Jk Euro chums!

So what'd you end up going for, Gadzooks?

A Dorfman.

Gadzooks is still debating... Sent a message to Advintage about levels of softness but never heard back. Really like the look of that SOC Advintage, but you all seem to be big Garrison fans, and so am I after reading all (what, 26?) pages of that Garrison megathread! I'm a slow, worry-wort decision maker, what can I say?

Best to take your time. As Michaelson said, all are good choices.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Agreed - no pressure, I was just interested yo hear your latest thoughts. Don't rush this one.

Don't worry, team. I'll keep you all posted... And provide pics when possible, of course

I got a pretty floppy Penman raiders. I like it and the floppiness has grown on me.

Gadzooks, take your time. I was in your exact spot once, agonizing over just the right hat purchase, hoping to find all of the elements I craved. Many of us have been there, and it is a decision that merits careful consideration. Unlike myself, you have so many great choices. The market has really grown since I started. A gift and a curse, I know.

Mulceber wrote:Lol, I think you're still split. Here's how it breaks down, as far as I'm concerned:

Garrison - the shape of the hat is SPOT ON for Cairo. You put it on and it just has that shape. The problem, imo, is that the color is off. The Raiders hat in direct sunlight looks VERY tan, with some red undertones. David's new color is a deep brown with heavy red undertones. It's gorgeous, but if you want a hat that looks like it came straight off of Ford's head, the color will probably nag at you.

I have a Garrison in the new color. The hat is gorgeous and a joy to wear. It does have a distinct deep red undertone. David designed it to match the hat seen at the opening of Raiders on Hawaii which is exactly what I wanted. I believe he said the new color is the default but his old color felt is available on request. That might be the way to go for a SOC.

Tinplatejeff wrote:I have a Garrison in the new color. The hat is gorgeous and a joy to wear. It does have a distinct deep red undertone. David designed it to match the hat seen at the opening of Raiders on Hawaii which is exactly what I wanted. I believe he said the new color is the default but his old color felt is available on request. That might be the way to go for a SOC.

Good idea - that would certainly be one way to get out of this double bind.

teneas wrote:Just ordered a medium and thought about getting the soft from Advantage. Anyone tell me how floppy the medium is?

I have the medium beaver and it's the floppiest fedora I've ever owned.

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My Raiders Fedora from David Garrison at Garrison Hats is pretty floppy. Then again, it's been used over the course of 2 years (coming on 3 I believe this January)... I just got it reblocked by him and man I love how it looks! This is the first hat I have that actually has a Raiders' turn (he artificially put one in for me).

The one caveat I'd add is that, while I think most of us like/love floppy hats, going too floppy can cause problems: I've found that on really floppy hats, the brim often times has trouble supporting itself, and so has a tendency to droop, leading to a non-SA brim.

I find a floppy beaver fedora has a better time of the brim holding shape opposed to a floppy rabbit too.

Gadzooks wrote:...which has the most flop-tential?

Any future Indy movie produced by "Lucasfilm".

Just to keep adding to this, I have a beaver Advintage now and it's a bit floppy but the Garrison still beats it...

whipwarrior wrote:

Gadzooks wrote:...which has the most flop-tential?

Any future Indy movie produced by "Lucasfilm".

Well done, well done!