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Bailey Hat Company
With the foundation of a long and proud heritage, world-renowned quality, innovation, and fashion forward styling, Bailey Hats continues to be a leader in the western, fashion and casual mens hat arena. |
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News & Events
July 2006
On the Western Front
As it has through the years, Western headwear remains both functional and fun, and thanks to its current growth in popularity, traditional cowboy hats, fashion cowboy hats (crushers), and our new multi-functional designs of cowboy hats are getting a lot of buzz.
With the addition of Katie Westoff, as our Western Headwear Designer, we just completed her first line design for the SS’07 season. The division strategy of marrying cost-effective price-points, and fashion – yet reducing the number of different price-points has turned out to be effective and successful based on early reactions by our sales force and a few key account reviews.
Truly boots are leading the Western way right now, but headwear is hanging tough. The casual straws in our line appeal to many more lifestyles than our past lines. It used to be all about traditional designs, but we have added a lot of diversity for our customers, giving them more to pick and choose from.
While a few styles like the Top Hand and the Stockman currently dominate our Spring/Summer headwear sales, there is an abundance of choices including new shapes, new silhouettes, new straw qualities and new fabrics, ranging from perforated Lite Felts to Ultra Shantung straws. While our Desert Breeze Bangora still manages to lead our straw sales overall, new design features like, water resistance LiteStraws, multi-color bindings, taco shaped flanges and brick-top crowns will add to our overall appeal for SS’07. In general, we are appealing to many more lifestyles with the new line — we have great expectations.
It is commonly agreed that the gold standard of the core cowboy hat remains the black 2-ply on a “white” cattleman crown-profile, with a 4 inch brim and we haven’t forgotten our heritage with the new line. “It is amazing how this traditional design works year after year,” says Katie Westoff. “We still have that audience and it just keeps selling.”
Our division has evolved dramatically in recent years. It’s much more of a fashion market, right now. People want to see new styles- anything and everything new. New for Western is our relationship with Trace Adkins. We currently have two hats being developed at two price points; one for those who wish the authentic hat and one for those who just want the look’n’ feel. The initial reaction has been better than expected as hats are already being ordered and we haven’t even planned our concert ticket tie-in program which will be happening the second half of the year. I’m even trying to get Don to attend a Trace concert at MTV in NYC, November. I’ll keep you posted. |
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