I hate my Indy hat!

http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com/product/wool-felt-safari-indiana-jones-indy-551.html

Looks ok, right? But it's very heavy and very stiff. Hard, really. More like a cowboy hat than a fedora. Too heavy and hard to casually adjust it after you've replaced the golden idol with a bag of sand.

I have a great old fedora that I've worn for ten years. I can't return this new one though because it was a gift, an amazingly thoughtful gift for a 40th birthday, but actually just wrong. I can't tell my best buddy that, though.

If you want to find a decent fedora for a reasonable price, go to a men's clothing store that targets African-Americans. Hats are still popular in that subculture, or were as recently as five years ago (last time I checked.)

That looks like the one I have. Agree with most of your post. But I actually don't mind the stiffnes as I like the crisp look, for wearing with suits and such.

I have pretty much the same hat. I only have 2 problems with it:

1) The sweatband is a different color (I understand that can be fixed, but I don't have the urge to do that myself anytime soon).

2) The crown moves slightly inward the further up it goes, whereas the one from the film is straight:



It does take some time to break in, and after several wearings it will be less "hard" and uncomfortable. Unless you want to drop several hundred dollars on a perfectly accurate one, you could do worse than the DP one.

Ironclaw said:

It does take some time to break in, and after several wearings it will be less "hard" and uncomfortable. Unless you want to drop several hundred dollars on a perfectly accurate one, you could do worse than the DP one.

Click to expand...

Wow, that makes me a feel lot better. I hope you're right.

The other side of it too--and this isn't the hat's fault--is that I'm not big guy. Only 5'5". So an Indy replica is a lot of hat for me. My old hat looks Indy-ish on me but it would look like Archie Bunker's hat on Harrison Ford.

Pellman, you have stumbled into something that most true Indy hat wearers now look back at with mixed emotions. Ironclaw is right. You could do worse. But you could do several different levels of better. It's a starter hat, plain and simple. It is not a relica of Indy's hat, just a brown fedora. For some, it's all they will ever need or want. For others, it's only the beginning.

BTW, Ironclaw; your problem #2 is called taper.

As for fear of an accurate replica being too much hat for you, sinking the money into a custom hat can make a big difference. If you ask for a hat that copies the movie hat in all ways, you might be in trouble. But the good hatters can also adjust the hat proportions to better suit your head size, face shape, and build. And don't forget that the hats in each film were slightly different. Instead of a Raiders hat, maybe the less voluminous Last Crusade style would suit you better. Or maybe you don't want a movie hat at all, just a nice hat that's perfect for you, but has a certain adventurous "thing" about it. If it's something you're willing and able to invest it, I highly recommend a custom made hat.

what is shown is the dorfman hat ---which can be fixed --- i bought mine last year and i was amazed that the pinch was so wide and that the brim was kinda flat looking so i wet down the front and pressed on it to get the pinch tighter . and the hat i bent the brim down for anbout fifteen minutes --- when i was done with that i was pretty happy on how it turned out here is a pic of my hat after i fixed it---- also put a new ribbon on it too --- so don't worry to much play with it a bit and it will be a nice hat -----



or for 99 dollars you can order a downtowner hat from todds costume this is what mine looks like


the difference from the dorfman and the downtowner

Thanks for the tips, guys.

Just re-shape ot there is a wonderful tutorial on here that shows you how

Is this the same...

...model that they sell at the Disney Parks?

I have two -- the darker looking one I picked up at Disneyland, and a khaki colored number (it's a great hat!) from Disneyland Resort Paris.

If you want to get really serious about your hats, check out this guy: Brent Black Panama Hats. I have a couple of fedoras from him. While not exactly Indy, they're pretty rad.

indyclone25 said:

what is shown is the dorfman hat

Click to expand...

I hadn't seen the photos earlier because the filter I have for my kids was blocking them.

Are one of these supposed to be the hat I bought?

Nurhachi1991 said:

Just re-shape ot there is a wonderful tutorial on here that shows you how

Click to expand...

where?

(some text to make this post long enough)

pellman said:

I hadn't seen the photos earlier because the filter I have for my kids was blocking them.

Are one of these supposed to be the hat I bought?

Click to expand...

acoording to the link you showed at the beginning of the thread shows that it is a dorfman

Thanks again, indyclone.