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The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat that is most commonly associated with the North American cowboy. A wide range of people now wears it, but it is most closely connected with ranch workers in the western and southern United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico, as well as numerous country, regional Mexican, and sertanejo musicians and rodeo competitors in North America. It is widely recognized as an item of Old West clothing.

The cowboy hat as we know it today has numerous ancestors, including Mexican hats like the sombrero, different wide-brimmed hat styles used by farmers and stockmen in the eastern United States, and designs worn by the United States Cavalry.

The open-crowned “Boss of the Plains” was the first western model, followed by the front-creased Carlsbad, which was destined to become “the” cowboy style. The cowboy image is inextricably linked to the high-crowned, wide-brimmed, soft-felt western hats that followed.

The notion of a broad-brimmed hat with a high crown worn by a rider on horseback dates back to the 13th century Mongolian horsemen. The hat has a lofty crown that provides insulation and a broad brim that gives protection from the Sun. The sombrero of Mexico is an example of a style with a very broad brim inspired by hot and sunny climes.

It is unknown when the cowboy hat got its moniker. However, there was no standard headgear for European-Americans in the Western United States at the time. Top hats, bowlers, relics of Civil War headgear, and sailor hats were among the headwear worn by that migrating west.

Contrary to common opinion, the bowler hat was the most popular in the American West, inspiring Lucius Beebe to coin the phrase “the hat that won the West.” Working cowboys wore Wide-brimmed, high-crowned hats. Before the development of the current style, the hats were most likely taken from the Mexican Vaqueros. The modern-day American Cowboy Hat is said to have been invented by John Batterson Stetson.

Stetson’s first “Boss of the Plains” hat, introduced in 1865, had a flat brim, a straight-sided crown, and rounded sides. Natural-colored hats with four-inch crowns and brims were lightweight and waterproof.

To modify the head size, a simple hatband was used. Stetson’s name was emblazoned on the sweatband. While just one design of hat was produced, it was available in various materials, ranging from one-grade material for $5 to pure beaver felt caps for $30.

J.B. Stetson was the first to advertise the “Boss of the Plains” to cowboys, and the image of the American West has since been synonymous. When explorers returned to the east wearing the costly “Boss of the Plains” type hat, the West’s charm was transferred back to the east.

A hat was an essential part of any man’s clothing in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Stetson specialized in high-end, high-quality hats that were an investment for working cowboys and a status symbol for city dwellers.

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