Cowboy Hats

[Johnbrooks]

Hi,

I have joined this forum to ask your advice.

I have an import business and last year a customer ordered a very large quantity of cowboy hats for the Garth Brooks concerts in Dublin. As you all probably know by now those concerts did not go ahead and he has been left with the hats. I am trying to help him get rid of the hats and have being doing some research thinking perhaps I could try to sell them at some of the Country & Western music festivals that will take place over the summer.

The hats currently have a ribbon around the brim with "Garth Brooks Dublin 2014" but these can be removed and replaced with anything anybody wanted on a new ribbon. The hats are of reasonable quality like you might find in a fancy dress shop etc.

Does anybody that has attended any festivals think that the hats would sell at these festivals or maybe someone might have a better suggestion or idea ?

Thank you for your any help or advice you can give ?

John

[foot-tapper]

There's the Country 2 Country coming up in both London O2 and Dublin on March 7th and 8th

[Johnbrooks]

Thank you that is most helpful. I will contact them in the morning. I have just got their number off the website.Thank you again

[foot-tapper]

There is also the Maverick Festival in Suffolk for 3 days in early July.
http://www.maverickfestival.co.uk

[Smudger]

I'm not sure festival goers will want to buy cowboy hats of "fancy dress" quality to be honest. If you go to any of the big country festivals like Rock Ridge, Broken Spoke etc you will find stalls there catering for Westerners mainly, and they sell proper hats......

[Johnbrooks]

I'm not sure festival goers will want to buy cowboy hats of "fancy dress" quality to be honest. If you go to any of the big country festivals like Rock Ridge, Broken Spoke etc you will find stalls there catering for Westerners mainly, and they sell proper hats......

Yes, I was thinking the same might be true and thought this would be a good place to ask. Thank you for your advice.

[Johnbrooks]

There is also the Maverick Festival in Suffolk for 3 days in early July.
http://www.maverickfestival.co.uk

Thank you I have been in touch with them this morning.

[lo&m]

If you want to sell your hats at festivals, you will have to hire a pitch so the first question you should ask yourself is, "Will I sell enough hats to make it profitable?" As Smudger said, there are already western wear outlets at festivals that sell hats. These are usually genuine Stetsons and the like imported from America. UK westerners take their hobby seriously and like to get the best quality and most authentic attire they can afford. Obviously I don't know the quality of the hats you have but these are often way above 'fancy dress shop' goods.

Another prospect you may want to consider is contacting the western wear shops directly with a view to selling in bulk to them. Like Regalos on the home page (next to the flag, click on country music home). Doing a search for western wear shops uk should turn up enough contacts for you to get an idea of the industry.

You also may want to consider shifting your focus on from CM festivals to festivals in general. There are lots of festivals up and down the country every summer catering to all sorts of people and genres of music. Glastonbury, Tolpuddle, Cropredy etc. They too support an array of outlets.

[camsgrandad]

Personally, I would have thought an experienced importer would have all the knowledge and contacts necessary to move any stock he may have, without having to ask advice from a forum.

[Johnbrooks]

If you want to sell your hats at festivals, you will have to hire a pitch so the first question you should ask yourself is, "Will I sell enough hats to make it profitable?" As Smudger said, there are already western wear outlets at festivals that sell hats. These are usually genuine Stetsons and the like imported from America. UK westerners take their hobby seriously and like to get the best quality and most authentic attire they can afford. Obviously I don't know the quality of the hats you have but these are often way above 'fancy dress shop' goods.

Another prospect you may want to consider is contacting the western wear shops directly with a view to selling in bulk to them. Like Regalos on the home page (next to the flag, click on country music home). Doing a search for western wear shops uk should turn up enough contacts for you to get an idea of the industry.

You also may want to consider shifting your focus on from CM festivals to festivals in general. There are lots of festivals up and down the country every summer catering to all sorts of people and genres of music. Glastonbury, Tolpuddle, Cropredy etc. They too support an array of outlets.

Thank you. Yes I am beginning to think that UK westreners would be after much better quality than I have available and I might be better focusing on some of the bigger general festivals.
I very much appreciate your advice.

[Johnbrooks]

Personally, I would have thought an experienced importer would have all the knowledge and contacts necessary to move any stock he may have, without having to ask advice from a forum.

Yes under normal circumstances I would but I never imported hats before. Everyone on here has been really helpful though and I appreciate that greatly.

[aj11]

haha that's very unfortunate, how many hats are we talking here? i had something similar happen with bomber jackets for bowling once. depending on the quality and how much you paid you could try push them at festivals or venues. i don't know what the law is against putting another music artists name on them, but that could always be an option if you've got the green light. you could try selling them online a bit above cost price if you're looking to break even. that's what i ended up doing with the jackets and someone ending up buying 2/3s of the stock in one go, so it more or less evened out. the rest have gone on their way too. it was an ecommerce site with : https://www.1and1.com/ecommerce-website there's lots of options available if you're looking to cover costs. good luck!