The name Heritage Hats was born because I wanted a name that would express my passion to learn and carry on a skill and tradition about the way of life and traditional culture of the southwest from one generation to the next. I moved to Phoenix from Rockford, Illinois in 1981 and became infatuated with the western lifestyle, particularly the life of the cowboy. I befriended two older gentlemen who
taught me the techniques and skills of cleaning and blocking western hats for cowboys. Steve Speros who owned Phoenix Exclusive Hatters and George Falkedes who owned Athens Hats became my mentors and taught me how to skillfully master the techniques and skills necessary to become a cleaning and blocking expert. I still use the cleaning and blocking equipment from both Steve's and George's stores from 1912. As I continued to perfect my techniques and skills, I started selling western hats from my pickup truck on the weekends at rodeos and in 1983, I opened my first retail store. Today, Heritage Hats is the largest hat store in Arizona with a large variety of hats including; western felt and straws, fedora felt and straws, panamas, australians and other popular hats and caps. Our retail space covers 3200 square feet with 2 showrooms and Heritage Hats cleaning company's workshop is in the back of the store where I continue to do cleaning and blocking on the premises. Some of our most famous customers were Ronald Reagan and George Burns.
