Our Story

Since 1974, Montecristi Custom Hat Works has been driven by the idea of acquiring the finest raw material (hat bodies) available in the world. Today our inventory of these materials is completely unmatched by titans of industry or any number of fine custom shops. Here at Montecristi we are masters in both Panama and Fur Felt–very rare in the custom hat business.

Back in the late 70’s, we refueled the demand for handmade Montecristi Panama hats at a time when it was widely believed to be a dying art. By paying more for the finest materials and establishing lasting relationships with artisans, we accelerated production and the national and international press rewarded us for what we were accomplishing creating more demand and even higher prices paid directly to the weavers.

Delgado Garay, of Montecristi, Ecuador, the patriarch of the group of old timers, first started working with Montecristi in the early 70’s, died in November 2019 at the age of 92. While he was the last of our original group, many fine weavers are still working, some exclusively for Montecristi Custom Hat Works and production is strong.

In the Fur Felt industry our contributions may have been less impactful but certainly not slight. Prior to adding Fur Felt bodies to our custom production, we visited three of the most important body plants in the world to better understand this material.  We then acquired Lone Star Hatters in Austin, Texas which afforded us the hands-on opportunity to learn how to finish this wonderful material.

During this time, we developed relationships with Borsalino in Italy and Resistol and Stetson in the US. Due to these relationships and the recognition accorded by the industry, we were rewarded with the first 100X Stetsons produced with Open Crowns, allowing us to finish the hats in some of our more distinctive styles. This was all courtesy of Joel Irving, President of Stetson, who also later acquired Resistol to whom we once sold 500 dozen of a special Panama material that we acquired from our personal core of weavers in Ecuador.

We currently source both our Panama and Fur Felt materials from the most skilled artisans and producers from around the world, and our decades long relationships with them allow us to provide the finest materials available for your custom hat.