HATTER Wichita’s

Forget the popular adage, “clothes make the man.”

It’s a hat that tells a more interesting story, says Jack Kellogg, who’s fashioned a longtime love of history and the craft of creating customized hats into a business success story.

“The hat projects the biggest statement about you,” said Kellogg, the owner of Hatman Jack’s in Wichita, which he started 46 years ago.

One can go bold and bright, or subdued and cool, or whatever mood and image the wearer wants to present.

It’s a statement a teenage Kellogg thought was pretty cool back in 1973 when at age 15 he bought a fedora he named Eustace. It’s the one and only hat he ever bestowed a name upon. He loved the look of leading Hollywood men like Humphrey Bogart, who often sported hats in his films.

Selling Hats

Over the years, he’s enjoyed hearing stories of the hats his customers bring in, particularly if they’ve belonged to a grandfather or dad. As a history buff, he loves hearing how those hats left a legacy mark on the current owner of the hat.

He also respects the statements people want to make about themselves with their hats.

“Just because we can put you into a hat that’s absolutely perfect for you doesn’t mean you’re going to like it. So consequently, we back up and say, ‘Look around. See if there’s something you like. Catch the vibe of the hat that speaks to you.’ From there, we can take it and tailor it in many ways,” said Kellogg. “But when it comes right down to it, I’ve got to make sure it’s the customer’s vibe.”

Take Kellogg’s personal experience with country artist Merle Haggard as an example.

While on a tour stop in Wichita, Haggard dropped into Hatman Jack’s where Kellogg proceeded to tell the famous singer that the hat he was wearing was too tall.

The 5-foot, 9-inch Haggard responded that as a short guy, he needed all the help he could get. When Kellogg saw Haggard’s concert at the Orpheum Theatre, he realized that the hat that was too tall “was absolutely majestic and perfect from that distance,” Kellogg said in a Wichita Eagle story.

It made a statement.

Making History In Delano

Hatman Jack’s is steeped in history, from the vintage wooden hat blocks and flanges — the latter of which are used to shape the brims of hats — that are packed a couple feet deep on the floor-to-ceiling shelves in the store’s workshop to its location in the Delano neighborhood.

In the 1870s, Delano was a separate town across the Arkansas River from Wichita. With its looser ordinances on such vices as gambling and prostitution, it became known as a place at the end

- Jack Kellogg

Owner of Hatman

of the Chisholm Trail where weary cowboys could take in what some would politely phrase as rest and recreation. The reality was much rowdier.

When Kellogg moved his hat store to West Douglas in Delano around 1980, the neighborhood looked much different than the gentrified area that it’s become, with boutique shops, restaurants, a fairly new baseball stadium just around the corner from his shop and deluxe riverfront apartments.

“It was the city’s rotting core,” Kellogg recalls.

But like a statement hat, it had good vibes — and historical ones too.

“My grandfather had started a business here, 100 years ago this year, on the 900 block of West Douglas,” Kellogg said. His grandfather owned Kellogg Feed & Seed, and later Kellogg Furniture in Delano.

He is also just down the street from where an earlier hat-making and retail hat store was located, the Wichita Hat Works that conducted business in the 1920s.

“I have some of their equipment now,” said Kellogg, as he shares black-and-white photos of the earlier store. For a time, Kellogg called his business Wichita Hat Works but now he uses it as a tagline for its more familiar name of Hatman Jack’s.

Making His Own History

Along the way, Kellogg started making his own history.

His retail/customization shop is the third-largest hat business in the country in terms of square footage and sales. Of the shop’s 6,500 square feet, about 3,000 are dedicated to a showroom that features men’s and women’s dress and casual hats, fascinators, cowboy hats, driving caps, sun-protective hats and more.

Throughout his years in the business, Kellogg has carried as many as 100 different hat brands, including well-recognized names like Stetson and Bailey. As the business evolves, so does his vendor list.

Service and personalization for customers is paramount to Kellogg’s success. He and his staff are adept at cleaning and “blocking” (reshaping) hats and considers tailoring to be an art form. Hence, Kellogg often employs hatters and milliners with an artistic background.

Last year Kellogg was recognized as the Retailer of the Year by the Headwear Association, the oldest trade association in the fashion industry with members that include manufacturers, designers and retailers. This year, Kellogg joined the association’s nine-member board of trustees.

“It’s so culturally significant to me,” Kellogg said of the association. “It’s not just because of the craft but because of how passionate the people are. This group has members who are the sixth generation of a company.”

When that 15-year-old bought a Fedora back in the 70s because it was his vibe, little did he know that it was about to lead him on a journey and a legacy in the hat industry by making some “pretty cool” history of his own.