From generation to generation. Passing on the baton to his son, Garth, for the second generation to continue the legacy of American Hat Makers.
Make no mistake, Gary is still very much involved in the company, it's hard to slow down when your heart and soul went into building your passion. Him and his dogs are there just about everyday, taking product pictures, creating new hats and we believe, something that continues to keep getting him out of bed everyday. Retirement is hard, and some people fail at it, and that's ok. We don't see this as a "failure", we see it as more time we get to spend with dad and soak up all he has to offer.
Garth took over AHM back in 2018, he saw it through a pandemic and had to rethink business. We used to do over 100 shows a year (trade shows, music festivals, motorcycle rallies, art and wine, etc.). How you ask, with uncles, brothers, sisters, mom's, cousins...all doing shows across the US to make it happen. We were already slowing down on shows prior to 2020 because the first gen, were getting older and they wanted to slow down and relax. The "C" word, (Covid), solidified stopping shows altogether and redirected our market...ECOMM. Garth has been able to navigate through some unforeseen times and come in with new ideas/strategies to keep us afloat and booming.
We've been here 50+ years and are excited to see what the next 50 look like. Garth has a son, Hudson, who is already a baby boss and we are hopeful he will want to take the company on, continue the legacy and become a third generation owner.
American Hat Makers
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