Regiment keeps hat store busy

Trent Johnson with soldiers from the 11th Cavalry.

Bill Jackson, (Bio) bjackson@greeleytribune.com
July 1, 2007

At last year's Greeley Stampede, members of the U.S. Army's 11th Cavalry
Regiment gave riding demonstrations during Professional Rodeo Cowboy
Association rodeos.

They wowed crowds with their precision horseback riding and shooting skills.

As it turned out, their appearance also meant new business for Greeley Hat
Works, 2613 8th Ave.

"When they were here last year, they came in to get their hats tuned up,"
said Trent Johnson, the company's hatter and owner. Last December, one of
those soldiers contacted Johnson, wondering if he could build the quality,
replica hats worn by members of the regiment as a part of their historic
dress uniforms.

He built one of the hats, sent it to Fort Irwin, near Barstow, Calif., and
soon after he was informed the base commanding officer had approved his
replica. An Army contract followed and in March, Johnson went to Fort Irwin
where he measured the heads of about 150 soldiers in a two-day period.

To date, he's sent 150-200 of the chocolate colored felt hats emblazoned
with the regiment's insignia inside the hat and sweatband. He left several
different sizes of sweat bands at the post store so new members can
determine the size of hat they need. He gets four to six orders for new,
hand-built, custom hats on a weekly basis and it takes about three weeks to
make one.

Johnson, who now has seven employees, said business to date is up 7 percent
from a year ago and he expects to make and ship 3,000 hand-built, felt hats
this year. That includes sales in the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway,
accounts which he developed in the past year. He has also been commissioned
to make western hats for President George W. Bush.

The 11th Cavalry Regiment -- the Blackhorse Regiment -- was organized in
1901. It has seen action from the Philippines, along the Mexican border in
1916 after Pancho Villa attacked American border towns, through World Wars I
and II when it was reorganized as the 11th Armored Group which later became
the 11th Tank Battalion in Vietnam, and the first Gulf War. Many of its
members are now deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fort Irwin, in the California desert, has been the training grounds for the
11th since 1994 and the regiment is now considered the best trained
mechanized force in the world.

Johnson, who worked as an apprentice in the business before buying it in
1996, said he appreciates what the soldiers of the 11th are doing in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Because of that, he has given the Army a wholesale contract
for the hats he makes, so the soldiers can better afford the headgear, which
is referred to as a "campaign hat." It resembles a fedora with a crease down
the middle of the crown.

"If it wasn't for the work the soldiers are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq
fighting for my freedom I might be making turbans instead of hats. Somehow,
Greeley Turban Works doesn't have the same ring as Greeley Hat Works," he
said.