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Petone’s Hill’s Hats is getting ready to commemorate its 150th anniversary in 2019. That’s a tremendous accomplishment for any company, but Petone isn’t without its problems, particularly given its manufacturing industry.

Foreign rivals are becoming more and more formidable for Hills. Lately, a number of important customers, such as the Defence Force, have stopped placing their orders with Hills and have instead signed deals with foreign producers. Hills have begun importing and selling Chinese-made hats under the Eskay brand as a result of this pressure.

The Weekend’s Susana Lei’ataua is also informed by Hills Hats Owner Simon Smuts-Kennedy about how Hatman—a figure dressed in a gold mask, cape, and captain’s hat—has been assisting them in obtaining export orders. According to Smuts-Kennedy, they are most likely among the nation’s oldest surviving clothing manufacturers. People frequently remark, “You know, hats weren’t that popular in the past, but they’re getting more and making a comeback.

“It’s a fashion item, it certainly creates someone’s own personal character.” Stars like Fat Freddy’s Drop, Shapeshifter, Troy Kingi, Bailey Wiley, Tiki Taane, and Tami Neilson have all attested to their popularity. “Obviously, it was huge that Tami was able to get a hat on Willie Nelson for us.

Tami came over and gave him a gorgeous navy cowboy hat that we had made for him. It was all handcrafted with a lovely ribbon, and the lining was especially made for the occasion. It seems that he adored it and is still wearing it, which is fantastic.

“There’s actually a lot of new people jumping on board at the moment, which is exciting for this year.” However, he claims that as costs have risen, corporate clients have been forced to look offshore, leaving the manufacturer with extra materials that are unused. “Normally, we would go out and say, “Look, in order to make it feasible for the quantity of components we bring into the nation and keep in stock, and so forth for those orders, we need to make at least 50 units.”

“But it’s just getting to a point now where they’re just so small and we just can’t supply or source the components, and hold on to them for such a long period of time.” Going offshore may seem appealing, but given what we do, the quality we produce, the speed of delivery, and the loyalty, I suppose Sadly, it just doesn’t add up when it comes to the military forces as well.”

Although some employees have worked there for more than 30 years, he notes that due to the company’s difficulties, they have had to slightly reduce their workforce.

“It’s a roller coaster – a year ago or even six months ago, we couldn’t find enough staff to keep up with what we were doing, and now going into this New Year, we’re probably light in preorders than we’ve been in the past and it’s a little scary, but they always come in, the orders always come in.” Reaching out to potential clients abroad is one method he’s been using to get these orders. He’s also gotten creative with it, dressing up in character to increase his appeal.

“I frequently went across to complete the fit out for New South Wales Police under a contract I had, and they would always kind of wait for, ‘oh, here’s hat man.'” “And so, on one occasion, I really did wear a mask in a legions flap on my top hat, and I got a great reaction from that. I kind of just kept going, and every time I kind of crossed over, I kind of got wackier, to the point where even going into JJ Hat Center in New York and CA4LA in Japan as well. I entered both stores while dressed in a gold suit.