By Jessie Horton
September 10, 2024
A lot about Stephenville has changed in the last 20 years, but one thing has remained the same – if you want a high quality hat at a reasonable price, you come see James Andrae and the crew down at Capital Hatters. They’ve been building hats for folks from the Cowboy Capital and across the country since 2004.
Recently, Capital Hatters owner James Andrae sat down with The Flash to talk about his experiences.
“It’s been a journey, for sure,” he said of starting and growing his hat business. “We started in my garage for a few months over in Cleburne and rented a building for maybe six months there, but I knew I wanted to be in Stephenville. So, I started in the little building owned by Carroll Parham where Fiddle Sticks is and then moved to a couple of different spots, we even spent some time downtown, before we bought this building and moved out here.”
Opening up his first shop in Stephenville in August 2004, Andrae said the plan was always to make hats. He’d gotten some experience working on hats and worked with Catalena Hatters in Bryan after college at Tarleton State. But he didn’t expect it to grow as big as it has.
And he said he never planned to get into the boot repair business.
“That just kind of happened,” Andrae said. “I had the chance to buy some machinery for it, but didn’t plan on doing anything with it while Chick (Elms) was still in the boot business. When he decided to quit making boots, I had an employee who knew about it. So, we got the equipment up and going and here we are today.”
It didn’t matter where he worked, the hats are well made and word spread.
From his garage to his own building, Andrae has built a legacy as well as a business. Nowadays more than one cowboy can be seen wearing Capital Hatters hats, in the National Finals Rodeo as well as the Ranch Rodeo National Finals. On average, they make 12 or more hats a day. Some are shipped across the country, while others are worn by cowboys right here in Erath County.
They can rejuvenate and reshape an older hat or they can help bring your dream hat to life from start to finish. The crew at Capital Hatters can do it all when it comes to hats.
It can be generational. Capital Hatters has made hats for fathers and sons and grandsons as well as hats for college students and even a few corporate events, which Andrae said makes a pretty interesting day.
“We’ve done some events where we’ll shape 25 hats in a day for people at some big event,” he recalled. “Then we’ll go to the NFR or the Fort Worth Stock Show and make hats there for a couple of weeks. It can be really interesting, but these days I enjoy being home more than on the road.”
When he isn’t busy making hats, James and his wife, Kim, who he said helps keep the business going, are also raising two boys, Slade and Sloan. And the two just took on another project, they are now the co-owners of 4 Reel Tackle & Outdoors in Stephenville. So, be sure and stop by Capital Hatters on 281 in Stephenville.
We’re sure Capital Hatters will be around many more years, making many more hat dreams come true.
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