The demand for cowboy hats has declined, even out here in the West, and fedoras havent been popular since before full-haired John F. Kennedy, who preferred not to wear a head covering, was elected president.


Dont think for a moment, though, that any such hint-laden, American hat history discourages Dave Wolf, owner of Wolfs Hattery & Mercantile, a 2-year-old business at 2617 W. Northwest Boulevard.


I think theres always going to be a certain percentage of the population that wants to wear hats, regardless of societal shifts and fashion trend fluctuations, Wolf says, smiling confidently beneath the brim of his own brown fedora.


That niche clientele base is plenty large enough, he believes, to support his one-person haberdashery. There, he not only sells all types of mens hats, ranging in price from around $40 to $300, but also services them. So far as he can determine, hes one of only a few haberdashers in the Pacific Northwest who still clean, block, and rebuild hats, which he says allows him to draw in business from as far away as California and Alaska.


In addition to hats, Wolf sells a range of mostly Old West-style apparel, accessories, and related merchandise, including shirts, vests, dresses, buckles, gloves, scarves, silver jewelry, and greeting cards, at his rustically decorated, 1,300-square-foot store. He strives, though, to sell only specialty lines not available from mass merchandisers, and he says hes cautious not to move too far astray from his core inventoryhats.


Its a real niche market, he acknowledges, but adds, We will be getting more inventory. You cant sell out of an empty wagon.


As he has learned, with customers sometimes spending as much to rejuvenate a comfortable, old hat as the hat is worth, there often is a close bond between a man and his hat.


I think its a personal item, even more than footwear. Youre never supposed to touch another mans hat, goes the old adage, Wolf says. Hats eventually take on some of the identity of the people who wear them and come to be regarded as a good old friend, he suggests.


At just 33 years old, Wolf seems too young to have developed such a strong appreciation for the historical mystique of hats. And yet, the period clothing and craftsmans apron he wears, the old machines and wooden blocks he uses to give new life to weather-beaten headgear, the Old West feel of his store, and even his neatly trimmed goatee all lend to a strong impression that he would have fit comfortably in an earlier era.


The wood-paneled store is richly decorated with longhorn cattle skulls, deer antlers, pictures and paintings of cowboys and Indians, interesting old hats, and other western memorabilia that he says he has collected over a number of years.


I get some people who come in here who think this store has been here for 40 or 50 years. Ive tried to give it that kind of feel, he says.


He has sought to create a dcor similar to that used by his former employer, Olsen Brothers Clothing Inc., a longtime outdoor-and-western wear clothier here that ceased operating in February 1998.


Wolf worked for Olsen Brothers for 13 years, at first selling boots part time while studying business management at Spokane Community College, and later becoming manager of the companys lone store on North Division. He became knowledgeable about hats while employed there and learned how to restore and rebuild them from G.J. Carter, one of the companys owners, and from Keith Walther, who worked in Olsen Brothers hat shop for many years.


Wolf opened his store in December 1997, three months before Olsen Brothers closed, and acquired a number of merchandise racks and cases from Olsen Brothers to use as furnishings in his store. He also bought from his former employer most of the equipment and tools he needed to restore and rebuild hats.


Those acquisitions included a 1915 crown-ironing machine and dozens of old wooden blocks, flanges, and retainers of varying sizes, many of them dating back to the 1920s and 30s, that are used to reshape hats. They also include a couple of low-tech, pulley-operated contraptions called sandbaggersbasically bags of sand surrounding a heating elementthat are used to draw moisture out of hat brims.


Of the decision to start his own business, Wolf says, I thought right away (after learning of Olsen Brothers plans to close) that I could make a go of it. In the western-wear industry, as far as hats, theres no place else to go. Theres still a need for a hat store.


About eight months ago, Wolf bought a second crown-ironing machine, this one built in 1925 and more mechanically sophisticated than his older one, from an Anacortes, Wash., man who had been storing it in his shed for 35 years.


Wolf charges $35 for a standard cleaning and blocking, which takes about 10 days to complete. The hat first is washed by hand in a solvent solution, then placed in a device called a centrifugal extractor, where it is spun rapidly to remove solvent and loosened dirt. After that, its placed in a drying cabinet for three or four days.


The blocking portion of the process then begins with a chemical resin being sprayed on the hat to give it the rigidity that will allow it to retain its shape. The hat then is placed over a block mounted on the crown iron and ironed manually, after which its placed upside down inside an O-shaped wood block called a flange, so the brim can be ironed. Wooden inserts called retainers are placed inside the base of the inverted hat to maintain the hats proper size during that portion of the ironing process. Still inverted, the hat then is placed in a cradle under the sandbagger, which is lowered onto it for about 20 minutes to dry it out.


Wolf says the final step in the process involves hand-tweaking the hat, using a steamer to soften spots that need minor adjustments, and then creasing the crown, either by hand or with a wood block, depending on the hat style.


In addition to that standard service, Wolf offers a surface cleaning and blocking and complete hat rebuilds.


Wolf says the hat-restoration work he does used to account for about half his stores revenue, but that percentage has shrunk as his retail inventory has expanded. Along with the other items, that inventory currently includes about 300 hats of all types, ranging from cowboy and Australian hats to several types of dress hats (fedoras, homburgs, and Derbies) and various styles of caps (Irish eight-pieces, Oxfords, and coaches). Major brand names, normally displayed on the inside of the hats, include Stetson, Dobbs, Beaver, and Bailey.


Prices are based mainly on the type of material used to make the hat, with wool hats selling typically for $40 to $65, rabbit felt hats for $75 to $110, rabbit-beaver mixtures for $150 to $400, and 100 percent beaver fur hats for as much as $800 to $1,000, Wolf says.


My dress hat business is real good. Australian is close behind. Fedoras are just starting to pick up, but sales of cowboy hats have declined, he says.


Wolf says he gets a lot of customers coming into his store from outlying rural communities such as Ritzville and Colville, in addition to his Spokane clientele. Overall, his customers are mostly men, ranging in age from about 30 to 60.


Wolfs competition here appears to be shrinking, following the closure last month of a Boot Corral store on East Trent Avenue and the recent announcement by Indiana Harness & Saddlery Co., a 73-year-old business here, that it plans to close soon.


While all of that might translate into more business for him, Wolf says he hates to see western-wear specialty stores here die off because they often tend to complement one another, due to their differing inventories, and refer customers to each other. The two latest departures, he says, will leave the Spokane area with just three other western-wear specialty stores, two Corral West chain stores and locally based independent HAV Western Wear, which is fewer than have been operating here for many years.


As for his own modest shop, Wolf says he has no grand designs for expansion, and will be satisfied if he can meet some modest sales goals and run a business profitable enough to just make a nice happy, little living.