What Failsworth Hats is known for

A Manchester hatmaker tracing to an 1875 acquisition of the Maypole Hat Works, incorporated as the New Failsworth Hat Manufacturing Company in 1903; it made military headgear in WWII and produced Stetson-licensed hats from the late 1940s, and now trades as Failsworth 1903.

Failsworth's roots trace to 1875, when the business acquired the Maypole Hat Works and, in 1881, moved to a site on Claremont Street in Failsworth, near Manchester. It was formally incorporated as 'The New Failsworth Hat Manufacturing Company' on 2 December 1903 — the date now used in the brand's own '1903' name — starting from modest output of about 25 dozen hats a week. Growth was substantial over the following decades: by the 1940s the company was producing around 5,000 dozen hats weekly. During the Second World War, normal civilian hat production was restricted, and the company instead worked on Ministry of Supply contracts, making headgear for the armed forces and leather flying helmets and aircraft components for the RAF. In the late 1940s, Failsworth agreed a licensing arrangement with the American John B. Stetson Company to manufacture men's hats under the Stetson name in Britain, a partnership that lent the company additional prestige in menswear. The company was renamed Failsworth Hats Limited in 1940 and continues today, trading as Failsworth 1903, making flat caps, trilbies and other traditional headwear associated with northern English craft manufacturing.