About Us - The Story Behind Main Street Hats

Why Hats?

For many years I’ve been fascinated by the hat-wearing style from the first half of the 20th century. Early family photos, vintage movies, and period grandstands…men wore hats. My mom told me that when she was a little girl, my granddaddy Traylor always wore a hat. I recall seeing it in his utility room when I was growing up. I also have a distinct memory about my great granddaddy Johnson…he always wore a hat. My dad said that his uncle Glover also wore a hat and never went outside without it on. He recalls that every time he’d put it on, he would adjust it slightly, and then run his thumb and fingers down and around the front of the brim to “snap” it into place. While recently looking through old family photos, I was pleasantly surprised to find a picture of my dad wearing a fedora very similar to one I wear today.

As an adult, I often thought it’d be cool to own one of these “old-style” hats. However, I never could find them…until recently. While performing in a professional music group, we were on the road and stumbled upon a store that specialized in men’s urban-style suits. While looking around we found an entire section of men’s dress hats…just like the ones I’d been looking for!

We decided to upgrade our stage outfits and purchased suits with matching shirts, ties, and shoes. However, we weren’t “brave enough” to wear the hats. One of our band member’s father was in his 80’s. He would often comment about how good our new suits looked…but what we really needed to look sharp was hats.

After about two years, we decided to make the big leap…we bought hats! Felts, straws, fedoras, and homburgs; we even bought different colored hatbands to match our suites. I was hooked!

I started wearing my hats off-stage as well. Why not…it seemed that every-other guy I saw was wearing some type of “head-covering.” Mostly ball caps.

On occasion someone would come up and say, “Hey man, nice hat!” I was often asked where I got my hat because they’d been looking for one and couldn’t find any.

Next, I started digging into the history of hats and clothing trends. It seemed that people back in the 30’s and 40’s really had a sense of “fashion and style.” So why did men stop wearing hats? Maybe it was because young men started wearing their hair longer? (I can remember my oldest brother fighting with my mom on “haircut day” because he wanted it long, but she insisted that it be cut short…by the time she got to me, the youngest, she’d be so irritated that it’s a wonder I had any hair left on me!).

Recently, I read a book about of the decline of hats. Evidently, the wearing of hats “way back when” had nothing to do with fashion or style. The reason every man wore a hat was because…well, every man wore a hat. If you were outside you wore a hat. If it was a hundred degrees…you wore a hat. It seems that hat wearing wasn’t fashion after all – it was conformity! Yet mid-20th century culture was beginning to move toward individuality and self-expression – not conformity! So the hats started coming off.

Alopecia Areata

At 18 months old, our youngest son began losing his hair. Soon, he was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata. Although the condition isn’t detrimental to his overall health, he can’t grow hair. It is possible for his hair to come back but then he may lose it again (or not). Treatments are available that can help, but there’s no cure at this time.

We began searching online for boys dress hats. Bucket hats and ball caps were plentiful. However, we had difficulty finding fashion hats. Every now and then we’d find one, order it, and match it up with outfits he was wearing. Anytime we went somewhere and he wore his hat, people would comment about how cute he looked. It was not uncommon for someone to ask, “Where did you find that little hat?”

MainStreetHats.com!

So MainStreetHats.com was started because I like hats, and because we had a hard time finding hats for our little boy. So when you’re in the “neighborhood” stop in and look around. I hope you find something you like. And remember, if you want to show individuality and self-expression…wear a hat! Your hat, your style!