![\"Bollman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766852185_872_bollman-factory.jpg\")
Bollman Hat Company\u2019s factory in Adamstown has operated at an over $1 million loss for the past three years, according to company executives. (Courtesy of Bollman Hat Company)<\/p>\nMuch like the company that produced it, a hat from Bollman Hat Company is not the product of a single set of hands.<\/p>\n
As it\u2019s made, a Bollman hat will move through about 60 touchpoints.<\/p>\n
Each step imbues the piece with a physical reflection of one maker\u2019s artistry before it passes to the next.<\/p>\n
Steve Jacobs was one of those makers. He spent 41 years blending and setting fabrics and more, before retiring as an employee-owner of America\u2019s oldest hat company.<\/p>\n
More than brick, mortar and machines, it is people like Jacobs and the 87 current employees that comprise the Bollman factory in Adamstown.<\/p>\n
And more than felt and fabric, it is people like Jacobs who comprise what Bollman hats have come to be: A slice of local history, a commitment to community, and the preservation, and renewal, of a legacy 157 years in the making.<\/p>\n
Don Rongione, Bollman president and chief executive officer, dons the \u201cSteve J.\u201d and other hats in the company\u2019s recently expanded Maker\u2019s Collection as a reminder of the people whose talent and dedication have sustained the company since 1868.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2018 for the company\u2019s 150th anniversary, and expanded with another 28 hats in November, the collection is meant to honor longtime Bollman employees.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Each hat) is inspired by somebody who has devoted their career here,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cWe tell the story of that person with a certificate that comes in a Bollman branded box, a photo of people in the factory and certificates signed by employee-owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Makers\u2019 Collection is also a connecting point between past and present, representing the Adamstown factory\u2019s storied history, and an initiative by the company to forge a profitable future for the facility.<\/p>\n
Changing industry<\/p>\n
Rongione noted the factory has operated at an over $1 million deficit for the past three years.<\/p>\n
Bollman Hat Company\u2019s factory in Adamstown has operated at an over $1 million loss for the past three years, according to company executives. (Courtesy of Bollman Hat Company)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was profitable prior to that,\u201d Rongione noted.<\/p>\n
He noted Bollman was founded at a time when it was nearly unheard of to leave the house without a hat, but changing fashions and a waning appetite for certain luxuries like headwear have fueled a decline in demand.<\/p>\n
When it first began and for roughly 120 years afterward, Bollman operated as a private label hat company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat meant (Bollman) would work with (customers) to design and produce products under (their) name that they could take to the marketplace, whether wholesale or retail,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cBut we wouldn\u2019t have rights to the intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Bollman was forced to compete with low-cost imports from countries like China.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we needed to better control our destiny and acquire our own brands that we could take to the marketplace,\u201d Rongione said.<\/p>\n
Starting in the 1980s and over the next three decades, the company acquired brands like Bailey, Helen Kaminsky, Country Gentlemen, Betmar and Kangol.<\/p>\n
Some acquisitions were fueled by the volatility of the headwear industry and have allowed the company to expand its offerings from headwear to other lifestyle products, including bags, purses, footwear and sunglasses.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelen Kaminsky and Kangol\u00a0have had success extending into other categories,\u201d Rongione noted.<\/p>\n
That change has led to a decline in production at the factory, which now produces only 23% of the products sold by Bollman, down from 100% in the 1970s, when the factory produced 20 times what it produces today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not had enough volume from brands and private label to feed the factory at a level where it can be profitable,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to correct that, or the factory will jeopardize the entire business.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted the business itself remains profitable, employing 240 globally, but employment at the factory has dwindled in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a time we produced 5 million hats a year at the factory,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cAnd we had over 1,000 people working during those very high production years. Today we\u2019re struggling to get to 250,000 (hats).\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the factory has seen two rounds of layoffs, where some employees from the factory were transferred to the Bollman distribution center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s very painful for us as an employee-owned company with very hardworking people, that we don\u2019t have enough demand to support their positions,\u201d Rongione said.<\/p>\n
He noted the factory\u2019s profits spiked immediately post-COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a surge in demand,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cPeople were going out, reuniting with family, going to weddings. We saw a surge in demand and the factory was very profitable in 2021 and 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demand has subsided substantially since then, Rongione said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that today with people struggling (to pay for basic needs), the hat has become more of a want than a need,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cThere\u2019s been some challenges for the whole headwear industry. Especially those trying to make it in the states.\u201d<\/p>\n
That decrease in demand contributed to the impending demise of a Bollman competitor, F&M Hat Company in Denver, Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
F&M has been in business for 113 years, but is in the process of closing.<\/p>\n
Tariffs, increased costs<\/p>\n
Another challenge is the boomerang effect in international markets caused by the U.S. tariffs on imported goods, Rongione said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a decline in U.S. made products being sold to markets like Canada and Europe,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cSome of which was because of the retaliatory tariffs and some which was backlash and negative thinking toward American manufacturers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Increases in the cost of raw materials, many of which are no longer obtainable in the U.S., are also complicating the factory\u2019s profitability, Rongione noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing that our costs are rising dramatically at a time when consumer demand is declining,\u201d Rongione said.<\/p>\n
He hopes the Maker\u2019s Collection revamp and other measures, like new U.S. made collections from Kangol and Helen Kaminski and a potential contract for berets with the Army will help revamp the factory\u2019s profitability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always updating and collaborating with other brands and offering new products at least twice a year,\u201d Rongione said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some increase in demand from the Western side of our business, you know, cowboy hats, but not enough to offset the decline in demand we\u2019ve seen for U.S. made products.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the company aims to keep the Maker\u2019s Collection going indefinitely and update it periodically with new hats representing the company\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n
![\"Bollman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766852185_368_Bollman-Darren-in-front-of-Box-rotated-1.jpg\")
Bollman Hat Company\u2019s Darren J. fedora, one of over 50 hats offered as part of the company\u2019s Maker\u2019s Collection, which honors longtime employees. (Courtesy of Bollman Hat Company)<\/p>\n