Updated annually
The American Hat Manufacturing Report
The only independent look at what is actually happening in American headwear manufacturing.
Last updated: May 2026. next update Q1 2027
Cut-and-sew hat manufacturers remaining in the US (estimated)
Source: industry estimate, 2025
Years American Hat Makers has operated domestically
Founded 1972, Watsonville CA. now Emory, TX
Workers on the AHM production floor
Emory, Texas facility
US headwear market size (2024 estimate)
Source: industry reports
US Hat Import Volume Trend
Source: US Census Bureau trade data. placeholder chart (real data Q1 2027)
Garth’s Take. Tariffs and the Reshoring Moment
The tariff environment in 2025 and 2026 has done something interesting to the headwear conversation. For the first time in thirty years, the math on domestic manufacturing is shifting toward us. The cost premium of staying stateside is shrinking. Import costs are going up. Lead time uncertainty is going up. Quality control uncertainty is going up.
We have been sitting here the whole time. We did not offshore and we do not need to reshore. Our infrastructure is built. Our people are trained. Our process is dialed. When someone calls us today looking to source domestically because they cannot predict their import costs, we can take that call.
What I think gets underreported is how hard it is to rebuild manufacturing capability once you have lost it. It is not just factory space and equipment. It is the people. The person who knows how to cut a leather hat panel the right way. that is fifteen years of doing it. You cannot import that skill. You cannot buy it in a hurry. You have to grow it, and that takes time.
We grew it over fifty years. That is the competitive moat that nobody talks about in a tariff conversation. It is not the equipment. It is the people who know how to use it.
AHM’s Position
We are not the biggest hat company in the world. I think we are the best cut-and-sew hat maker in the world and I will put our hats up against anyone’s on quality and consistency. But I am not chasing size. Size without profitability is not a business, it is a fundraising exercise.
What we have is durable. A fifty-year-old company with domestic manufacturing, a lifetime guarantee, and a team that has been doing this together for a long time. That is not something you build overnight. It is also not something you rebuild after you have taken it apart.
We are going to keep going. Bridger is the next chapter. If you want to follow along, put your email in below.