It was back in 1895 that a hatter called Cassel Goorin founded his family business, blocking and trimming fedoras and homburgs and selling them to the dapper gents of Pittsburgh off the back of a horse-drawn cart. In due course his sons, Alfred and Ted, followed in the old man’s footsteps and rechristened the company Goorin Bros.
Nearly 120 years later and it’s still a family affair, with Cassel’s great grandson manning the cart. Except the ‘cart’ is now 15 stores, a busy wholesale business and a bestselling range of hats sold all over the world. Goorin are still master hatters in the old tradition – with a range of razor-sharp felt fedoras and trilbies – but they’ve diversified over the years into more casual hats too. A shrewd sponsorship deal in 1960 saw them become the official headwear partner for that year’s Winter Olympics, and a Goorin Bros lid has been popular with sports personalities ever since.
These days they’re best known for their distinctive trucker caps with fun animal patches on the front. You’ll find them atop celebrity fans including gruff actors Tom Hardy and Gerard Butler, and footballers like Leo Messi, Luis Suárez and Mario Balotelli. Even Justin Bieber is a belieber.
