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<\/a>Natalie Culina, CEO Akubra. Images: Akubra<\/p>\nBut in an age of automation, I believe Akubra is a quiet act of defiance. In Kempsey, regional NSW, the skill still lives in the sixty pairs of hands that make a single hat, not in software.<\/p>\n
For 150 years those hands have been part of some of this country\u2019s most defining moments, from The Man from Snowy River to Slim Dusty, who wore his hat so faithfully that he was granted special permission to keep it on when he performed before Queen Elizabeth II. And Akubra\u2019s manufacturing of the slouch hat, which has been worn by every Australian soldier since the First World War, a symbol of the courage and service that gives us the freedom we have today. There are few products in this country that carry that kind of weight.<\/p>\n
150 years is a long time to resist conforming to the fast pace of today. But it\u2019s also a long time to be proved right.<\/p>\n
That sense of doing things right is mirrored in the 162 meticulous steps required to make a single hat, a process that takes six weeks from start to finish. At the heart of everything we do at Akubra is a commitment to handcrafting our products in Australia from the best materials, an enduring and utilitarian style that genuinely transcends the ages and survives the harshest environments. They\u2019re built to withstand drought, deluge and dust. The quality has never wavered. And it never will.<\/p>\n
But in keeping alive something the whole country values, it\u2019s important not to mistake deliberateness for stubbornness.<\/p>\n
The changes we make to our process and our product are careful and considered. If you don\u2019t evolve, you get left behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 162 steps our craftspeople follow today are the same 162 steps that have always defined an Akubra. But how they do it, and the conditions in which they do it, have changed considerably over the decades. We have improved safety across the workshop in ways that set up the business up for future success, by ensuring our people are our greatest priority.\u00a0 And we are actively building a pipeline of future craftspeople through training and on-the-job development because we know that the moment we stop investing in the next generation of hatmakers is the moment the craft starts to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every Akubra tells a story. And every one of those stories starts in Kempsey.<\/p>\n Our Kempsey workshop isn\u2019t just a workplace, it\u2019s a community. And that sense of community is woven through everything we make and everything we are. Akubra has called Kempsey home for more than 50 years and we employ around 120 people in a town that feels so personal. That matters to us. It has to.<\/p>\n<\/a>The future of Akubra is about protecting what the company has built.<\/p>\n<\/a>For 150 years Akubra hats have been part of some of Australia\u2019s most defining moments.<\/p>\n