Goorin Bros: The Hat Is the Thing
Ben Goorin’s mission is to bring the hat to a central place in fashion, and it’s been a long campaign for the 37-year-old president of hat manufacturer Goorin Bros.
The hat maker has been in business for more than 100 years. Yet the Burlingame, Calif.–based milliner has worked to re-create itself as a fashion brand only since 1995.
That’s when Goorin, then the company’s vice president of marketing, aimed to create a fashion niche for the hat maker, apart from its already-existing private-label business. The brand has been sold at contemporary boutiques such as Planet Blue and Metropark. Goorin, who is the great-grandson of the company founder, Cassel Goorin, declined to state the company’s revenues.
The newest angle of Goorin’s branding campaign has been opening boutiques. An 850-square-foot Goorin Bros. boutique debuted on Los Angeles’ stylish Melrose Avenue on Dec. 15. The company opened its first boutique in San Francisco’s North Beach section in March 2006. The hat maker has no plans to roll out other boutiques at the current time, according to Goorin.
The Melrose Avenue boutique was designed in the style of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood—just when movie stars Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart made the fedora look dashing.
Store designers Heather Ford and Linda Premick outfitted the store with antiques, including a big 1920s radio, myrtle burl wood shelf coverings, chandeliers and an art deco banquette.
The front section of the store is dominated by the sleek, modern looks of the fedora, priced from $40 to $60. The middle of the store is home to colorful Goorin caps embellished by Barcelona, Spain–based artist Sergi Granados. Cap prices range from $130 to $207. The back of the store is the domain of baseball and cadet caps, retail priced from $18 to $35.
The boutiques’ customers have been fashion-forward men and women aged 18 to 35—essentially the stores’ target fashion demographic, according to Goorin. “We’re about making cool, hip hats that are going to give us street credibility,” he said.—Andrew Asch
