Walk into Paris Hatters on Broadway in downtown San Antonio, and two things happen: The first is a wave of leather and hide wafting to your nose. The second is the immediate impression that time has hardly touched the 109-year-old hat shop.
Opened in 1917, Paris Hatters is run by the third and fourth generations of the Cortez family – and you’ll likely be greeted by store manager Alex Cortez Sledge and her 6-month-old son, who she hopes will carry the torch of this “one of a kind” family business one day.
One of San Antonio’s oldest businesses has been family-run since 1917
“I have a lot of people that tell me it’s so interesting to see a family business continue on for so many years,” Sledge, 39, told MySA. “It’s in the same family; the legacy is just really, really cool. My mom used to say, ‘If these walls could talk, they would say a lot of interesting things.'”
Those walls not only hold floor-to-ceiling rows of Stetsons, Kangols, ball caps, straw hats and fedoras, but are also covered in memorabilia of the celebrities who have visited over the decades. Among the many are a thank-you note handwritten by Johnny Cash, a shot of Bob Dylan wearing a hat he bought under a disguise, and photos with Shaquille O’Neal, comedian Chelsea Handler, and Pope John Paul II during his 1987 visit to the store.
Abe Cortez, 73, and daughter Alexandra Cortez Sledge, 39, run Paris Hatters as the third and fourth generation in the family keeping San Antonio’s most iconic hat shop open. (Emma Weidmann/MySA)
Sledge’s father and Paris Hatters owner Abe Cortez, Jr., 73, has collected a few stories of his own after taking the store over from his father in 1975. With his wife and store co-owner Myrna Cortez, the two raised Sledge in the store in much the same way Sledge’s son will grow up around the steaming and shaping of hats and the old-fashioned chime above the door announcing each customer’s arrival.
“I worked other places, and I worked here on the weekends, and I just found that I gravitated towards this place more than others,” Sledge said. “I also liked that, here decisions that I was helping my parents make – whether it was about pricing or the merchandise we should carry or a myriad of other things – I felt like I really liked that my opinion mattered, and it helped to build this place up.”
Paris Hatters is a time machine into San Antonio’s past – and still going strong
In some ways, a trip to Paris Hatters is “almost like walking back in time,” Sledge said. But it’s also a very different store than when Abe Cortez, Sr. opened it 109 years ago. For one, Sledge said Paris Hatters once offered suit pressings – and the old changing room used by notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd is there as evidence. You can still even see the 1930s cash register. However, not everything is original. The front windows, floor and ceiling were replaced (though artificially weathered to keep the old-timey look) after pipes burst during the 2021 winter storm.
The walls of the shop are lined floor to ceiling with headgear of all kinds, not just cowboy hats. You can find fedoras, ball caps, bowlers and more here. (Emma Weidmann/MySA)
The past year has been particularly tough after Myrna died in February 2025. She was integral in modernizing the store and running it alongside her husband and daughter, and is often the one customers remember fondly when they tell Sledge stories of past visits. Because of that, Sledge says it’s like “she’s not really gone.”
“I think her spirit lives on here,” Sledge said. “You know, the people that she helped and customers that became friends.”
In 109 years of operation and counting, Paris Hatters and the generations of the Cortez family dedicated to keeping its legacy alive have watched as downtown San Antonio has transformed. It predates the River Walk turning the Alamo City into a tourist hot spot, as well as suburban sprawl expanding the city and shaking the foundation of downtown. But Sledge says as a legacy business intent on keeping to their roots, Paris Hatters is still “a beacon of nostalgia in this sea of … tumultuous change in downtown.” And in recent years, renewed interest in Western fashion, spurred by shows like Yellowstone and Landman, has brought new customers to the store.
Celebrities from all walks of life, including Johnny Cash, Pope John Paul II, Bob Dylan and Christian Louboutin, have visited Paris Hatters. (Emma Weidmann/MySA)
“Western fashion and the romance of the West, as my mom used to say, has not tapered off,” Sledge said. “It’s still going strong, and I think it’s still going to be. Especially in Texas, I don’t think it’s ever really going to die out. It’s part of the culture.”
Find it: 119 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78205
Hours: Open 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
This article originally published at This iconic 109-year-old San Antonio hat shop is steeped in legend.