If you live in New Mexico, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to purchase a Western-style hat at some point. In fact, you’re probably going to own several for different occasions. Going to a music venue in Albuquerque or strolling along Canyon Road in Santa Fe, a cowboy (or cowgirl) hat is practically de riguer.
A good hat is generally not cheap, so you want to buy it from a quality place where the salespeople are knowledgeable about fit, style, and how it works with your appearance. One such place is the Man’s Hat Shop on Central Avenue in Northwest Albuquerque. The shop’s long history makes it a local institution for proper Western headwear. There are wooden blocks in their workshop, used to shape the crown of the hat, that are 120 years old.
Stuart Dunlap is the president and owner of the shop. His father started the business in 1946, when he returned from World War II. It started out as a place that only cleaned hats. Business was good in the dusty High Desert climate, so he started making hats as well. Stuart tells us, “In 1964, he expanded into pre-made hats such as Resistol and Stetson and other major brands. That's what we do today. We do not do any raw bodies like he did back in the day. All of ours are finished, and we carry an inventory of usually about 5,000 hats in here.”
Although the shop doesn’t actually make hats from scratch these days, they do customize their high-quality hat stock...the fit, crown height, brim width, shaping, crown crease, and the hat band. There are a lot of adjustments that can be made, rather than just the way it comes out of the box. It should be complementary to the shape of your face, as well as reflecting a style that fits your personality.
Stuart says, “We can help them judge what would be the best for them and then we cut and shave them and style them to whatever specifications they’re looking for.”
When we visited the shop, it was early in the morning, but the place was packed. There were ladies there buying hats, and there were rodeo riders in the store, too.
Stuart told us, “We have actual cowboys come here. Also, the Teamsters and the truck drivers and the wranglers that handle all the livestock. We get a lot of ladies in here who are in the horse business. These are Western people and a big part of our return customers.”
The shop also has occasional business from the New Mexico film industry. Johnny Depp bought a hat there. Stuart tells us, “Bryan Cranston came in and picked several hats to take back to costume to get approved, and everybody liked Walter White's pork pie hat.” We were impressed that the shop is the source of the iconic Heisenberg hat. It was customized at the shop as well.
When you enter the shop, you find that almost every inch is covered with a vast selection of hats. There is nearly any style imaginable. We asked about a Homburg style (made famous by Winston Churchill and the Godfather), and they have those, too. There is an endless variety of white straw rancher hats. There are top hats, fedoras, vaquero hats, rodeo hats, winter hats, and summer hats.
Stuart sums up the hat purchasing process in his store. “Seldom does anyone buy one off the rack or right out of the box and walk out the door with it. They usually want something done to it, and the majority of the time, we won't let them leave if we don't think it looks good on them. We explain why, and then I can take the hat and show them what I can do to make it look more attractive on them.”
The Man’s Hat Shop is at 511 Central Avenue NW. Their phone number is 505.247.9605.
Bryan Cranston came in and picked several hats to take back to costume to get approved, and everybody liked Walter White's pork pie hat.