BOWIE, Texas -- American Hat Co. has spent more than a century making iconic cowboy hats, the world's symbol for the Wild West and the romanticized cowboy, good and bad.
They've made hats for the big and small screen for shows such as "Urban Cowboys" and "Longmire" as well as musical performers Pharrell Williams, who is known for his love of headpieces, and the Zac Brown Band. Lyle Lovett has been a past customer, too.
Now the Bowie-based company has made a custom hat for another maverick, this time for soon-to-be the most powerful man in the free world — President-elect Donald J. Trump.
"If you think about it, the cowboy hat is probably the most recognizable piece of apparel on the planet Earth," said Keith Mundee, president of American Hat Co. "It's very distinct. If you put me with a cowboy hat anywhere on the planet, someone's eventually going to say, 'Are you a cowboy?' It's the one thing that's truly American; the cowboy is an iconic American symbol."
It was through acquaintances that company was asked to make Trump an authentic cowboy hat. Mundee said Trump, during a campaign stop recently, had mentioned the quality of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller's cowboy hat. Treasure Maddox, daughter of American Hat Co. owners Keith and Susan Maddox, and her significant other, Andrew Graves, are acquaintances with Eric Trump, Donald Trump's second oldest son.
It was after the night of the Nov. 8 election that Eric had asked if American Hat Co. could make a custom hat for his father. Soon after, the manufacturer was at work getting measurements ready as well as the materials befitting the president of the United States.
"It morphed into now we're making hats for Eric, for Don Jr. and for Mike Pence as well," Mundee said.
Mundee said the Trump family requested a light-colored hat versus black, so the manufacturer went with a silverish tone. The material is a mixture of beaver belly fur and mink, making the hat soft as silk. The crown, or top of the hat, is done in a cattleman's style. He said this specific style of hat is widely known as the finest in the cowboy market.
And it's not just the material that American Hat Co. uses that puts their stamp on the product. It's also the gold foil stamp on the inside band that also illustrates its quality, as well as the Keith Maddox mark of "KM" on the brim of the hat. The hat retails for about $2,800.
Mundee said creating the hats for such high-profile candidates has generated quite the buzz around the manufacturing company of about 55 employees and another 15 in sales. The company is well known in the Western apparel industry as well as those on the rodeo circuit, but this is the first time American Hat Co. will make a custom lid for the highest elected position in the country.
It's a first for Andre Trevino, who has been with the company for 46 years, and Laura Conner, who was responsible for the gold foil stamp on the inside.
"She (Laura) had sent me a message and it just said, 'Thank you for allowing me to be part of this hat,'" Mundee said. "She was pretty proud that she got to gold foil the inside of his hat.
"Everyone throughout the factory was pretty proud that we had the opportunity to make a hat for him."
The gold lettering says, "President, Donald J. Trump; United States of America; January 20, 2017."
The company will coordinate with the Trumps as to when the president-elect will be presented with the hat. It will hit the road this weekend to be on display at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
American Hat Co. first opened in 1915 in Houston, but the Maddoxes moved it to Bowie in the early 2000s. Mundee said a fire virtually destroyed in the operation in 2003, but Keith Maddox reinvested in the company and it is now thriving, growing at a 30-percent clip annually the past couple of years.
Follow John Ingle on Twitter at @inglejohn1973.
