After 50 years on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley Hat Company is closing its doors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owner Carol Lipnick said the decision to close had been on her mind since her husband\u2019s passing in 2017 and the loss of her longtime manager three years ago. Now, she hopes to spend more time with her four grandchildren and travel the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time and I wanted to move on and do some other adventures,\u201d Lipnick said. \u201cI\u2019m going to see what else there is out there for me. I\u2019ll find the things I\u2019m interested in, and it\u2019ll be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lipnick began selling handcrafted Panama hats with her late husband in the 1970s at street fairs and music festivals before they opened their own shop in 1980.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Lipnick, the store has been more than a business \u2014 it has been her life. She said Berkeley Hat Company has sold everything from Irish caps and Kentucky Derby hats to novelty and Halloween hats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lipnick recalled \u201cspecial moments\u201d from the past few decades, such as making 600 Panama hats for a Princeton University reunion and being the only East Bay outlet selling Burning Man tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shop is particularly significant for UC Berkeley\u2019s marching band, Cal Band, which has relied on Berkeley Hat Company for years. Jia Jun Luo, who served as the band\u2019s librarian in 2024, said the band has ordered straw hats from the shop for a long time for part of the band\u2019s uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tradition,\u201d Luo said. \u201cI think it\u2019s in one of the guides I saw: \u2018We get hats from Berkeley Hat Company.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Luo said working with the shop was straightforward and efficient. After confirming the number of hats over the phone with Lipnick, the band received their order in about two weeks.<\/p>\n
With the store\u2019s closure, Luo said his first reaction was concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was worried the Cal Band would have a harder time trying to acquire the straw hats because Berkeley Hat Company is reliable for getting hats,\u201d he said. \u201cThat would be a new challenge for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many patrons have recently stopped by to say goodbye to Lipnick. While they are sad to see her leave, they\u2019re also happy for her journey ahead.<\/p>\n
The retirement sale, which began Dec. 13 and will run through Jan. 31, offers discounts on the shop\u2019s inventory. Lipnick invites the community to stop by and pick up a hat before the store closes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really good feeling when you walk down the street (and) you see people\u2026 and they point to (the store), (saying) \u2018Get some of the hats,\u2019\u201d Lipnick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 50 years on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley Hat Company is closing its doors.\u00a0 Owner Carol Lipnick said the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[764,52556,13014,52560,52557,332,585,11324,52561,23877,143,145,144,52558,52559,13774,149],"class_list":{"0":"post-95587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-berkeley","9":"tag-berkeley-hat-company","10":"tag-burning-man","11":"tag-cal-band","12":"tag-carol-lipnick","13":"tag-east-bay","14":"tag-halloween","15":"tag-irish","16":"tag-jia-jun-luo","17":"tag-kentucky-derby","18":"tag-oakland","19":"tag-oakland-headlines","20":"tag-oakland-news","21":"tag-panama","22":"tag-princeton","23":"tag-telegraph-avenue","24":"tag-uc-berkeley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}