We offer "Free Hat Stretching" to our customers.

Even if you don't buy one of our hats we'll still stretch yours. Please limit one per customer and be patient as this can take from 5 mins to over an hour.

 

Does Grandpas hat need to be brought back to life?

We recommend 2 well known and experienced Hat Blockers that offer hat cleaning and blocking services. They are the last of a dyeing breed so please spread the word!

Vince Corvelli - A Third generation hat blocker in Washington D.C. Vince comes from a famous line of Hatters and he has blocked hats for many famous people like Prince and many well known Politicians in the D.C. area.
301.275.0009

Steve Johnson - A well known hat maker that used to have a Hat Shop in Miami that was frequented yearly by Frank Sinatra himself! Steve is now retired in the Atlanta area and enjoys the art of hat blocking.
404.824.3551

Custom Fedora featured in COASTAL LIVING MAGAZINE

Panama Hat's Natural Custom Fedora is featured in the September 2010 issue of COASTAL LIVING MAGAZINE.

Check out the pdf

 

 

 

Good Charlotte gives shout out to Panama Hat Co.

Check out the friendly shout out from Good Charlotte at the very end of this self-made YouTube video during their recent performance at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.

 

 

 

Hatmaker specializes in custom work, styles

He molds hats by hand and employs scarce weavers in Ecuador.

By DIANA MIDDLETON, The Times-Union

ST. AUGUSTINE - In order to spin new life into an old hat, all it takes is an iron, some steam - and years of long-lost training, according to one retailer.

Tony Lippi, a St. Augustine hatmaker and retailer, is trying to keep the art of molding the perfect fedora by hand - not machine - alive with his shop, the Panama Hat Co. Since taking over the St. George Street storefront from his parents in 2002, Lippi has made it his mission to do custom hat manufacturing the old-fashioned way, as well as using independent weavers in Ecuador for some of the more coveted, handmade designs.

"We are very specialized in those hard-to-find styles," Lippi said. "There are very few weavers left that make the hats we sell."

Using heated elements such as an iron and steam, Lippi can transform an existing hat into an entirely different shape or style using wooden molds called "blocks." Lippi has four to five dozen of these - mostly antiques culled on eBay or defunct manufacturers - in his shop.

"Blocking is all about reshaping and customizing, taking an old hat and making a new hat," he said. "If you brought me a fedora, I could steam iron it into anything."

With his tools, he can smooth the knifelike creases in a gambler-style fedora into the smooth dome of a derby hat, "just like a jeweler does for all its clients." { more }