The Greeley Hat Shop and Hat Works: A History of Serving Greeley Residents with Excellence

The Greeley Hat Works-Outfitting Greeley Residents From Toe to Head Since 1909

A Historical Research Project Completed by:
Sheryl A. Kippen
June 9, 1997

The Greeley Hat Works, now owned and run by Trent Johnson and his family, got its start in 1909 and has grown to serve clients from around the world.

In 1999 Greeley Hat Works celebrated their 90th anniversary. With the help of their artist, friend, and long time customer, Dennis Anderson, designed a 90th anniversary commemorative hat.

A movie studio approached Brent Black to supply hats for a Robert Redford directed movie, "The Legend Of Bagger Vance", He had Trent and Melissa build 40 hats for the movie starring Matt Daemon and Will Smith.

In the spring of 2000 Greeley Hat Works was asked to build private label hats for the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association. The PCCHA hat is a limited edition of 200 hats.

In 2002, Trent was commissioned by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to build President George W. Bush his first Greeley Hat Works hat.

In 2005, Trent and Melissa journeyed to the White House where they presented George W. Bush with his second hat from Greeley hat Works. They have also built hats for former President George H. W. Bush and the State Department, which presents the hats to visiting dignitaries.

Adding to their honor role, Greeley Hat Works was commissioned in 2005 to build an exclusive line of hats for Colorado State University and the Colorado Cattlemen's Association. In 2006, Greeley Hat Works was named the official hatmaker for the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.

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The Greeley Hat Works began as the Greeley Shining Parlors in 1909. This shoe shining establishment, owned by Gus Athens, had two locations in Greeley ñ rooms on 8th Avenue and on 5th Avenue. The Greeley Shining Parlors' 8th Avenue location was at 810 8th Avenue, which the Shining Parlors shared with J.G. Harris Saddlery.

By 1920, the Greeley Shining Parlors had a slight change in name, had likely changed owners, and now had a permanent location. The Greeley Shining Parlor, owned by George Brown, was housed at 810 8th Avenue.

The business's next transformations were in 1926 when George Brown joined forces for a partnership with four Kersey brothers ñ the Martinez brothers ñ and expanded his business to a hat shop and its name to the Greeley Hat Shop and Shining Parlor. The Martinez brothers had worked on their family farm until their younger brother, Irvin, had moved to town in Greeley, to attend high school. While in high school, Irvin got a job shining shoes at the Greeley Shining Parlor, as did many young men who admired the tips given to shine boys by the Parlor's businessman-clientele. Irvin urged his brothers to work at the Greeley Shining Parlor, which they did.

George Brown decided to invite the brothers to become his partners in the shop which was remodeled by 1928, with a brand new shining parlor area, mirrors throughout, hat cases (for the cleaning, shaping, and ordering of hats), and an advertising board. The advertising hoard was a money making venture for the Greeley Shining Parlor and Hat Shop where other businesses could pay a fee and post their advertisements which clients of the Shining Parlor and Hat Shop would see while waiting in the Shop.

Brown and the Martinez brothers strove not to offend people with the advertising placed on their wall, especially during times of political elections. If any advertisements supported certain policies or candidates or were likely at all to offend readers, the proprietors of the Greeley Shining Parlor and Hat Shop posted a disclaimer, letting readers know that the Shining Parlor and Hat Shop were not responsible for or supporting of the materials posted.

George Brown also owned a hat shop in Fort Collins. In the late 1920s to early 1930s Martinez brothers again, at first Irvin and Telos, and later Joe and Dave, would clean, shape, and order hats at the Fort Collins location.

In approximately 1935, George Brown, wanting to enter the dining business by purchasing a cafe, sold the Greeley Shining Parlor and Hat Shop to the Martinez brothers. Ben and Abel Martinez operated the Greeley shop, still at 810 1/28th Avenue. The shop still shined shoes and also shaped, cleaned, and ordered hats.

Clothes cleaning businesses in other cities, such as Fort Collins and Windsor, contracted the Greeley Shining Parlor and Hat Shop to pick up, service, and return hats brought in by their clients. In addition, the Shop had a booming business from out of town and out of state customers, who mailed their hats in to be serviced and returned by mail.

The brothers began a new business venture as well-dyeing ladies shoes to match their clothing and purses. With such an expansion of responsibilities and services, the Shop required new, closely related, employees-Ben and Abel's wives, Dora and Sylvia. Sylvia worked afternoons in the Shop; Dora worked mornings.

Around this time, too, the Martinez brothers changed their last name to Martin. After consultations with lawyers, other business people, and their relatives, the Martinez brothers became Abel, Ben, Telos, Irvin, Dave, and Joe Martin-their family's original name upon coming to this country generations before.

More changes for the Greeley Shining Parlor and Hat Shop came with the 1960s. Abel Martin passed away, leaving Ben Martin sole proprietor. Still at 810 8th Avenue, the Shop was now made just the Greeley Hat Shop, focused on the cleaning, shaping and ordering of headware.

It was likely around the 1960s and 197Os when the clientele of the Greeley Hat Shop changed, too. Fashion was changing. Instead of hats being worn to be fashionable, for formal occasions and even just to work, hats were now being worn less often. Hats were now less formal; they were worn either to work in, causally, or, rarely, as a fashion accessory for formal occasions. Now hats being serviced most often were cowboy hats, especially those worn by working farmers, ranchers, and their help in the area.

Greeley's downtown area began to change in the 1980s and the Greeley Hat Shop would change, as well. In 1982, Ben Martin moved the Greeley Hat Shop to a new location at 1408 9th Street.

Though times had changed, Ben's prices were very economical-$1.75 to clean a regular hat and $2.25 to clean a cowboy hat.

Norman Peterson bought the Greeley Hat Shop in 1982, and it was moved to 11th Avenue. Ben Martin continued to work on hats, though Norman owned the shop. Jim Walsh owned the Greeley Hat Shop, still employing Ben Martin, briefly in the early 198Os. The Greeley Hat Shop was then on 11th Avenue and was combined with a Western clothing shop.

In 1985, Susie Orr bought the Greeley Hat Shop. Susie trained under Ben Martin, who also worked for her. The Greeley Hat Shop was then moved to Susie Orr's ranch, northwest of Greeley. Raising a family, Susie enjoyed the convenience of running the business out of her barn. Orr expanded the Greeley Hat Shop from the cleaning, shaping, and ordering of ready-made hats to the custom hat making and hat designing business. An apprentice of Susie Orr's, Trent Johnson, who became interested in hats while working on Orr's ranch, bought the Greeley Hat Shop in 1996.

After purchasing Greeley Hat Works, Trent was approached by Brent Black, of the Panama Hat Company of the Pacific. Trent began building panama hats and his wife, Melissa, quit her job and began to do all the finish work on them.

He also began to build hats for Red Steagall and the Cowboy Heritage Association. In 1998 he was commissioned to build 100 hats of 100% beaver for the National Cattlemen's Association one hundred year anniversary. The hats sold out, and Greeley Hat Works began to find their niche.

In 1998 Cinegroup of San Diego, California started filming a documentary on Panama Hats. They came to Greeley and filmed Trent doing the blocking and building of these works of art. Trent and the filming crew, along with Brent Black, traveled to Montecristi, Ecuador to film the weaving of these elegant hats.

Needless to say, the hat shop was out growing the store on the plaza. They moved the store to 715 10th Street, nearly tripling the size of the store. They also started to carry factory make hats by Stetson, Resistol, American Hat Company, Dorfman Pacific and Charlie 1 Horse. They also hired a long time customer, Jay Funk, to take over most of the renovations.