Owner/Proprietor Abe Cortex Talks Style, Branding & The Importance Of Identity At Legendary Store In San Antonio, Texas
Abe Cortez knows hats. His family has made them for over 100 years in San Antonio. Celebs wear his hats but the true cowboys know to come to him. This has made Paris Hatters a staple and a known brand. But this expertise comes with experience and knowing your craft. Abe Cortez, owner and hat maker, is an expert but has the gift of gab as well. He sat down with MRV: The Buzz Editor In Chief Tim Wassberg at his shop in San Antonio during the rodeo to discuss identity, seeing the right person in the right hat and the wonders of his business.
The Buzz: It’s about maintaining quality but maintaining identity as well…because every hat is for an individual person.
Abe Cortez: That is correct. That is correct. Here, we actually fit a person to a hat. You want to fit a person to their height, their weight, and their shoulder width. Of course, a big, tall person will take a bigger hat. A smaller person, we'll cut the brim and shape it, and all that. We will form the hat to the person. And we carry over 300 dozen hats here in stock from six and a half to size eight. Like Shaquille O'Neal? Size eight. And we carry 15 colors… we carry everything. Our thing is the western hats… I'm talking westerns right now. We carry the highest quality there is, and we also carry a $45 hat for somebody. We carry everything from $45 to $6,500 in the store. That's what we're known for. We get so many celebrities because you go to other places, they don't have the inventory, and they have to order it. That's 12 weeks. They need it now. I just had Dwight Yoakam come in. He had a concert here three weeks ago. We're very personal friends. I've been doing his hats for over 40 years. He came in, he says, "Abe, you know what I want." And he bought a 500X.
The Buzz: Does he have it styled a very specific way?
AC: Oh absolutely. Absolutely. And it's best if somebody's real particular about their hat to bring an old hat that they like. We can copy it exactly. We call it “Memorexing”, and we do all that while you wait. Like for instance, we have a rodeo right now. You couldn't get in here. It was incredible. I bet you we had 140 people (laughing) in here. You couldn't move. It was really, really neat. And that happens every year for rodeo. But we're known for fitting hats. And not only watchman hats. We carry fedoras. We carry derbies. We carry top hats. We carry Kangol golf caps. We carry the finest Panama hats for outbacking, backpacking. If you wear a hat and you're serious about a hat, we're the people for you.
The Buzz: We were talking about identity, identity between a local Texan coming in and getting a hat, and then a civilian (laughing). Can you talk about the difference in how they look, and how they know what they want…in your mind.
AC: If he's not a real cowboy, you have to help him. He doesn't know. He comes to us for advice to buy. He goes, "Okay, I want a cowboy hat." And I think, "Okay, what are you going to use it for?" He says, "Well, to go to a dude ranch or a weekend deal." Okay, then I get him in that type -- you have to know what they want. Or if they're golfers, then you put them in a golf hat. And of course, it depends on if it's winter time or summer time. If it's winter time, you want to put them in a felt and those come in 15 different colors. The straws are normally white, for the coolness. And then again, they come in different varieties,[considering] the brim width. Like I was telling you about the height of a person. You, for instance, would wear a four-inch brim. You're pretty tall and you got pretty good size shoulders. You'd wear a four--
The Buzz: And that's how visually you look at it --
AC: That is correct. The hat has to look -- like you're wearing the hat, not the hat wearing you. And so many people come in here, "Where did you get that hat, man!?” (laughing)
The Buzz: Now do the ladies wear it different?
AC: Absolutely. The ladies will take the small brim and a lot of them like that flat top, which we call a gambler. And they also like what is called a tycoon-style,[where] it's kind of pointed on the top. But ladies normally wear the brim a little smaller because they're normally petite or just not as big as a man. And there again for ladies, we carry various colors, styles, and we can shape it. I mean, we have a lot of ladies that come in that they want a hat with a flat brim and a flat top. And when I say “the brim”, that's the bottom part and the crown is the top part. Alot of people will come in -- for a felt, and I can do that. They'll have a picture of some celebrity that they saw or whatever, and they want to copy that. We can do that.
The Buzz: Looking at the different kinds of celebrities [you’ve done hats for], and I've met a couple of them who worked for movies over the years, like Tommy Lee [Jones] --
AC: Oh, yeah. He's a good client of mine.
The Buzz: I know with him, like he probably wants it specific…very pin-point.
AC: Absolutely.
The Buzz: But even with somebody like Pope John Paul, he probably doesn't know as much about cowboy hats, unlike Tommy Lee…
AC: I've known Tommy Lee for 45 years…since he did “Coal Miner's Daughter”. That's how long I've known him here, and he lives in San Antonio. Of course, he has other homes, I'm sure. But it's funny. Mr. Jones will come in and I'll ask him…I say do you want to go to the back, do you want to stay here, and all this. And sometimes he'll be sitting on the chair here -- because a lot of people want his autograph. But, a lot of times, we'll go to the back. Tommy Lee, he did the movie Lonesome Dove. I made two hats for him for that movie, and I've done others. But normally, I would say 85% of the hats that he wears in [his] movies, it's my hat.
The Buzz: That’s cool.
AC: I mean, I really like him. He calls me Butch. That's my nickname (laughing) and he wants me to call him Tommy. And I've done [hats for] his son, his wife, his family [crosstalk].
The Buzz: Who has surprised you the most that they know you and they know your hats. Because obviously, you, yourself, are famous in many aspects, of course.
AC: I really like working with Tommy Lee Jones, I like working Dwight Yoakam…Merle Haggard. Of course, [Merle] passed away now. Waylon Jennings. I've done so, so many hats, and we become friends after time. You know, when you're a hatter, you're like a tailor…they trust you. Like Merle Haggard would come in, "Abe, you know what I want." He wants the best, and that's a $6,500 hat, and we trim it, and we shape it, and everything, and it's really neat. Another one that I've never done just one time but…
The Buzz: What's the movie?
AC: No, he's a singer. Hold on one second. Hang on. Oh, Bob Dylan.
The Buzz: Bob Dylan?
AC: Bob Dylan. Absolutely. He came in on a hot day. I was sitting right there, and he was wearing a jogging suit with a hoodie… and this is 100 degrees, okay. He walks in. He had an entourage.
The Buzz: And the hair?
AC: Well, you couldn't see it. He had the hoodie on, and I really thought I had another-- with his sunglass he looked very different. So he didn't speak a lot. I thought I had Mick Jagger. He looked like Mick Jagger with his sunglasses. Anyway, my guys start, and all he would say is, "Do you have this hat in-- what colors does this hat come in?" So to make a long story short, he bought six hat...and expensive ones. He had his bodyguard, and his whole entourage.
The Buzz: What colors?
AC: He bought black, brown. I mean, the whole deal. And what is neat, when you make a hat for a person, and then you see them on television in a show or a program… like he did some commercials for iTunes…I think he's sitting on a stool, that was my hat. I could recognize the hat man…he bought a custom hat man. And then one time Merle Haggard was sitting -- I was watching some awards, I don't know what it was, they showed Merle Haggard and it was Oprah Winfrey on the left, Michelle Obama on the right, and President Obama on the right side, and I thought, “That's my hat!” So it's really neat when you see these people, or like Dwight Yoakam for instance…when he does his concerts… that's my hat. It really is a very very fascinating business.
The Buzz: Can you talk about the evolution of Paris Hatters as a brand, about what you've been most proud of? This kind of expertise only comes with experience over many, many years.
AC: I grew up in this business and we're celebrating our hundredth year. Now, when my dad started it with his brother, it was a different era. It was more dress hats, fedoras. You had some cowboys, but not like now. Cowboys is a big deal now. With singers, and entertainers, and actors…
The Buzz: Was there a flash point, like a specific time that it just boomed?
AC: I would say the sixties is when the cowboy really, really came on. It died, though, for a period of time when Kennedy [was President]; he didn't wear a hat. Every president had worn a hat until him. He would carry it in his hand, but he never wore it. And my mother, at that time, was in the ladies' hat business, and Jackie Kennedy didn't wear a hat either. So we had about two years there when it kind of went flat. And then Lyndon Johnson, of course, got in and he always wore a hat. And then we had, after him, we had --
The Buzz: [Ronald] Reagan.
AC: Reagan. So anyway, we got it back. I mean, it really came back again, and now I think hats-- we're selling so many hats because of skin cancer, things like that. People need to cover up. We get so many people in here that they've had their noses [done] either some sort of surgery, their ears have been cut, their cheeks, and their doctor says, "You need to go get a hat right now because…" People that were in the sun when they were 20, 30 years old, when they hit 55, 60, they pay for it.
The Buzz: Especially in Texas…
AC: Absolutely. It just comes. And [the hats] protect you. Your nose and your ears -- that's your most vulnerable part when you're in the sun. In time it just eats you. I mean, i just as you get older, it catches up to you.
The Buzz: Could you talk about the proper care that people should use when they buy your hats?
AC: Well, when you have a hat and you take it off, you want to lay it upside down on its crown so it doesn't change the shape of the brim. That's very important. Or when you don't wear it, put it in the box and that will keep its shape for a while. Now, if it's a felt hat…we're very much known for our renovations. You bring a hat that your grandfather had, for instance, and it doesn't quite fit you. It's either too small, too big. We can correct that. We clean them. We replace all the exterior bands and everything, and there's not too many people that do that anymore. We're known for this. We get people from all over the country mailing in old hats and it was their grandfather's or their father's. I just had one Saturday. This was his father's favorite hat and he wanted to wear it and it was about a size too big for him. We're going to reduce the size of it. We're going to clean it. We’re going to change all the bands and we're going to rebuild it. We're going to make it new again…like rebuilding a motor on a car. Same thing.
The Buzz: I love the pure mechanics of it.
AC: Pure mechanics. (smiling)
The Buzz: That comes to my last question. I love the fact that you've taught your daughter all this. But there's so many lessons to be learned in the hat making business, but also those little things that maybe most people don't know about that you have to teach her. Can you talk a little bit about that?
AC: Well, now she knows the same things that I know. If somebody walks in, I know what hat size they wear. She's been with me about three years now. She graduated from college and she worked in New York for a year. She didn't really like it. So she came back and then she got into this. And she really has a knack for it. See, when you're in sales, you have to have the gift of gab. You have to kind of make friends with the person and laugh with them and joke with them and all that. And she's got that. She's got that.
The Buzz: And know their story. That's the thing.
AC: Know their story. Absolutely.
The Buzz: With San Antonio, it's all about the story…it's all about the person…where they've been. Then you look at their hat, and it’s like "That's it."
AC: You kind of see-- you got to kind of get their lifestyle. And so somebody from New York, for instance, I mean, he may want a cowboy hat just for tourism. But, more than likely, he's going to want a fedora or a Tom Landry hat because that's what they wear over there. And I carry both. If it's on the head, more than likely, I carry it. So you got to know, "Well, where you from?" "Well, I'm from Boston." Okay. I say, "Do you want a souvenir?" "Well, no. I want something I can wear in Boston." Okay. So I'll put them into either a Panama for the summer, or I'll put them into a felt hat for the wintertime.
Tim Wassberg
A graduate of New York University's Tisch School Of The Arts with degrees in Film/TV Production & Film Criticism, Tim has written for magazines such as Moviemaker, Moving Pictures, Conde Nast Traveler UK and Casino Player. He enjoys traveling and distinct craft beers among other things.
Make Sure To Stay At:
River Walk RV Park, which is located in the heart of San Antonio, Texas only two miles from Fort Sam Houston and SAAMC (San Antonio Army Medical Center). The park offers great amenities like a newly renovated pool, completely remodeled restrooms and showers and a large on-site laundry facility.