Henschel Hat Company

Joe Henschel started selling hats around Missouri in 1945 and founded Henschel Hat Company in 1947, growing it into a seven-storey building in downtown St. Louis. The family, now in its fourth generation, runs the company from St. Charles and makes hats at a plant it has owned for decades in Sedgewickville, in rural Bollinger County. Missouri Life visited in 2024 and found the Breezer collection and most of the leather styles made there.

The same article says Henschel also imports versions of its hats because of demand and a labour shortage, and the shop confirms it. The best-selling Aussie Breezer is sold in two versions, “Made In USA” and “Imported”, chosen from an Origin drop-down on the product page, about five dollars apart. Beyond the Breezers, several wool fedoras and gentleman’s hats say “Made in Italy,” the shop files eight hats under “Made in Ecuador,” and most of the rest of the catalogue gives no origin at all.

So the brand sits at the imported mark, and the US-made Breezer is listed below with its own evidence. If you buy it, choose “Made In USA” in the Origin drop-down. The Imported version looks the same and costs less. The leather hats in the shop’s “Made in USA” collection are not listed separately because their product pages carry no origin line of their own.