How Shorty’s Makes what some call the World’s Best Custom Cowboy Hats

I said, I have people ask me, how can you be so successful? And I said, because I'm a very nice person and I love a lot of people. I'm not ugly like you. Thank you. . . She's the official custom hat maker . of the American Quarter Horse Association. Ten collegiate equestrian teams. SMU Mustang. It's actually lasered. And the Little Britches Rodeo, just to name a few from a very long list. Plus, she's been inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know what to say. Yeah. It was a pretty big deal. And the beautiful hats made by Shorty's Cowboy Hattery are prized by cowboys and cowgirls everywhere. It's just a catchy word, and it's slang for cowboy, and everybody thinks I don't know how to spell cowboy, and everybody remembers it. The former rodeo cowgirl has long loved cowboy hats, but knew little about making them when she first opened for business back in 1990. My father had passed away, and my brother sent a couple of hats off to a company down at Houston to have them cleaned, and they were ruined when they got back. And he said, you know, as much as you love hats, you ought to get in the hat cleaning business. So a bulb went off in my head. A friend was seeing a custom hat maker in Oklahoma City, also named Shorty. Shorty tagged along to discover the business was being sold the following Monday at 10 a.m. I said, well, if he doesn't show, can I buy? And he said, absolutely. So I was there at 9.30 with my check in hand, pacing the floor. And at two minutes after 10, I wrote him a check. And it was now my business. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. But it wasn't easy. At first she used the old company's jury-rigged boiler made out of an old beer keg to steam her hats until the fire department showed up one day. And he said turn that off. Told me not to ever use it again. He said you could have blowed up this whole block because you have a gas leak in here. That's what the smell is and he said and you're smoking you could have blowed up. I said, oh my, I had no ideas. She took out a loan, got better equipment, and persevered. And I kept thinking, you know, if I can clean a hat, I bet I can custom make one. So I started custom making hats by myself. I was the only one working there. It took me 15 years to get good at it. By the early 1990s, she was selling her hats during the day at horse shows and other Western events and making them at night. And with some help from her sister, business grew. In my display, I went out in the pasture and cut down a few trees. Ha, ha, ha, ha. And that was my display. And my sister would wrap syrupy blankets through them, and we'd put little lights on them. It was really pretty cool looking, very unique. And that's how I started. Today, selling 1,000 hats a year all over the country with a trusted team and looking to expand, Shorty's success has come after years of struggle, hard work, and lots of love. I said, I have people ask me, how can you be so successful? And I said, because I'm a very nice person, and I love a lot of people. I'm not ugly like you. Thank you! Shorty and her team are on the road about 225 days a year. They were about to head for an AQHA event in Ohio when we stopped by. 90% of these hats will come off the wall and go with us to Ohio. How many hats have you got in this area? Not near enough, I can tell you. I love my job. While Shorty's traveling, her expert team stays busy in her Stockyard City shop turning out beautiful hats, handmade, one at a time. We got this shipment of brown hat bodies in over the weekend. It all starts with a raw hat body. We don't build the fur. We don't mix the fur here. We don't do any of that here. We don't color the hats here. That's all done in Winchester, Tennessee. So this is what we get when we receive a body. That goes into a century-old blocking machine. We'll cover this up, and when it gets real soft and pliable, we'll put that block in there. That's the hat size of the customer. And what this does is this brings out the stiffness in the brim. That hat next goes on an antique but very effective machine that irons the crown of the hat. And the crown iron machine, it brings out the stiffness in the crown. And the blocking machine is to bring the stiffness out in the brim. After drying overnight, the hat is then sanded. By hand. Because if you look here real close, see how hairy it is? So we're doing the finish work to it now. Hats come in a range of quality. 100X Pure Beaver is the best and most expensive. Shorty believes it's that handmade touch that sets her hats apart from the rest. Now we're going to shape it. Custom made for, this is for JT Haynes. And I think that's what it is that makes my hats look different than anybody else's. And then I am very protective about. The liner I put in them, the sweat bands I use, and the hat bands that I make, and the buckle sets that I buy, all that's important because that's the look of the hat. And when you buy a hat from Shorty, you're not just a customer, you become part of the family. When I sell a hat, it's not for the money. It's for the connection and the love that goes into the hat, and then you become my family. If you're nice, you have to be nice. Every day I love it. I really love traveling on the road and I'm meeting all new people and it's like Shorty has said in the past, you know, people don't just come in and buy a hat and they go out the door like you would. They keep coming back, which is kind of cool because they'll come back and visit and they just like become part of our family. One family member who's never forgotten is Shorty's beloved sister Shirley, whose pink hat has been displayed in the store ever since she died from breast cancer in 2004, a disease Shorty herself has suffered and survived. And a lady walked in my shop and saw that I kind of had a little memorial thing because I just lost my sister. She said, well, what is this? And I told her what it was, and she happened to work for the cancer center there in Oklahoma City. That led to the formation of both the Shirley Bowman Nutrition Clinic and Reign and Cancer, a volunteer group that's raised more than a million dollars to help cancer patients in the horse industry. We've done a lot of fundraisers and I had a lot of friends that I was just blessed they just so kind to give and it's all about love honey. That's the truth. Everybody says how come you're so successful? I don't get it. I said I'm nice and you're not. Your life's a different. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Visit this shop and it's clear that while Shorty would love to make you a very fine hat, this is indeed a labor of love as well. Well, it's been an amazing journey. I've loved every second of it.