It’s been decades since an American president wore a hat to his inauguration, but Stetson, maker of the iconic Western cowboy hat, is hoping President-elect Barack Obama is ready to take a leap into the past.
Not that Stetson thinks the longtime Chicagoan is likely to put on a white cowboy hat. But the Texas-based company has sent Josh Shayne, a 25- year-old filmmaker from Boulder, on a mission to deliver a black fedora to Obama, which would be much more appropriate with his inaugural suit.
Shayne is flying to Philadelphia to attend Saturday’s kickoff of Obama’s train tour and hopes to somehow catch the soon-to-be 44th president’s eye before the train pulls into Union Station in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve put up information on the Internet, and we have posters and T-shirts at his events saying, ‘Obama, we’ve got your hat,’ ” Shayne said.
John F. Kennedy was the last president to wear the traditional black stovepipe hat to his inauguration, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Richard Nixon was the last president to don any type of hat at his.
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