Biltmore Hats

Guelph is home to a hat factory called Biltmore Hats. It is one of the oldest quality men’s hat companies in North America and is also a part of hockey lore.

Google the history of the term "hat trick" and you will find that, though the term stems from cricket, it likely made it's way into hockey via an old Guelph hockey team called the Mad Hatters... they were sponsored by Biltmore... Biltmore gave anyone who scored 3 goals in one game a fine new hat!

The term "hat trick", and possibly the hat-give-away-gesture, later made it's way into the NHL via the Maple Leafs... who like to take the credit.

I don't know if this is all true but that's what I've pieced together and the story I tell.

Anyway, I moved from a city that might have invented hockey to a city that might have invented the hat trick. Pretty cool for the hockey-historian in me.

I found a Biltmore hat at a thrift store awhile ago. It's not a cool fedora but it'll do the trick for summer gardening and lazy paddles down the local river.

I hadn't put the hat to use yet because it needed a little fixing-upping. I hadn't gotten to the fixing because I'm lazy. That was until I spotted a local celebrity at the bank a few days ago! I saw the man himself, the sharp-dressed president of Biltmore, right there, exchanging money with the common people! It got me all inspired to bring the hat back to life.

He wasn't wearing the lime coat when I saw him but he was still stunningly well-dressed compared to 90% of the local population. He was wearing a similar hat.

My own hat was a touch too small for my giant head so I had to take out some of the nice inner-lining. Sigh... but at least it fits now! And I added a black ribbon with a jaunty bow because the original had fallen off. (At least I hope it's "jaunty"... that's what I'm going for.)

Here is the end-result (you can click to see it bigger):

In the picture above you can also see a few other recent home-makery efforts I'm proud of:

the vintage, rose-adorned mirror in the hall-way,

one of the dumpster-dived lawn chairs that I made some bird-themed covers for,

and of course, THE hat.