Wholesale Panama Hats

True from the earlier times, mens and women’s always like to cover their heads either out of fashion or out of necessity. Previously, people wore a hat only on special occasions or events. During bad climate, people wear hats for protecting themselves from dust particles and air. In cold weather, hats help in preventing the loss of heat from the body while on sunny days; hats protect the person’s head and face from harmful effects of the sun.

Summer brings a number of accessories into fashion one among them is the panama hats. These hats not only serve the purpose of beating the heat but are equally trending as a fashion accessory. Researchers have found 85% of our body heat gets lost through our head only. Retailers have grabbed this opportunity to release a wide assortment of wholesale panama hats for sale to woo customers. These wholesale hats are equally relevant for both women and men as most of them stick to the codes of both sexes. The wholesale panama hats are specially designed so they pertain to both the feminine and masculine, coming with a good assortment of colors and designs to appease both.

Hats are also sometimes worn as a protective aid from injuries. Last but not the least, hats are also an indication of authority, are a status symbol and are usually worn with a uniform to indicate you belong to a certain department. In modern days, wholesale panama hats have become an important fashion accessory.

The wholesale panama hats for sale may come decorated with feathers and flowers to suit women while they may come in simple, single color design to befit men. On the contrary, the wholesale hats come in different fabrics and materials such as leather, a mixed material to provide style and sooth the comfort factor.

Taking into consideration the increasing demand of wholesale panama hats in the market, manufacturers have started manufacturing several types of hats, matching several occasions and preferences of the consumers. There are different types of wholesale hats available in the market including wholesale panama hats, cowboy hats, patriotic hats, Christian hats, city and states hats, emergency services hats, military and law enforcement hats. All these types of hats show the wearer’s interest in a particular field.

As , a person who is a fan of military and veterans can wear a hat with logo and quote of US Air Force or US Army. A person who is a pure Christian can wear a hat with a Christian logo or a quote which denotes the wearer’s devotion towards Christianity. People who have pride for being located in a particular part of a country can wear city and state hats on which logo and names of several places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Texas are imprinted.

Because these wholesale panama hats have a Velcro at the back, these can fit on almost everybody’s head which means that you do not need to worry about sizes. Apart from that, there are special colorful hats for children and soft color hats for ladies in pink,red, black and grey colors. Hats for children are infant sized with logos like ‘Cute’, ‘Angel’ and ‘Princess’ in different colors like pink, blue, purple and white. Whatever hat you wish to purchase, wholesale panama hats are available which are just perfect for your needs and your preferences.

Charlie Chan in Panama and with Panama Hats

Do you know a movie that has Panama hats everywhere in the entire film? You would say there are quite a lot of movies with the Panama hats worn by many actors. However, there is one classic movie, which is famously known for the Panama hats.

In the movie, “Charlie Chan in Panama”, the Panama hat are adorn by the actors all through the movie. The protagonist, Charlie Chan stars as a police detective posing as a Panama hat purveyor, Fu Yuen. In the movie, Charlie Chan is an undercover agent of the US government, posing as a Panama hat dealer.

The film is action packed with lots of Panama straw hats. The film is center in Panama. To make the idea that everything is held in Panama all along, many artists wore the Panama straw hats in abundant. The Panama hats did make a strong presence with the protagonist, Charlie Chan wearing the straw hat throughout the movie. The shop run by Charlie Chan is named "FU YUEN PANAMA HATS”.

One of the signature parts of Charlie Chan’s outfit was the Panama straw hat. Fully logical as he was playing a part of a Panama straw-hat dealer in the movie. The Colonial Panama hat style, also known as Optimo, is often associated with the movie character Charlie Chan. Throughout the movie, you can see the Optimo Panama straw hat adorn by Charlie Chan. The Colonial is a classic Panama hat style, which originated as consequences of people rolling up the hat and the result is a crease on the center of the crown.

The Colonial may be Charlie Chan’s favorite but there were other Panama hat style worn in the movie like the Panama Fedora Hat, the cowboy style and much more. This film is a truly one movie where people can see many Panama straw hat models.

Where are the famous Panama Hats made?

This is a question that I've seen in the board game "Trivia Pursuit" and the famous TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire." The name obviously suggests that the Panama hat is made in Panama, but in reality this hat is exclusively produced in Ecuador. Panama Hats or Toquilla Straw Hats as they are also known have always been handcrafted by artisans from the towns of Montecristi on the coast of Manabi in Ecuador and use a very fine and thin straw called Toquilla Straw, which only grows in this region of the world.

The history of this hat name started when an Ecuadorean businessman named Manuel Alfaro who had his own plantations in Montecristi, decided in 1835 to hire several experienced weavers and build a hat business. His business prospered and when the Ecuadorian market got limited, he decided to extepand his business by exporting straw hats to Panama, since this country was becoming a major center for business. Shortly after he opening stores in Panama, he attracted the attention of many customers around the world that passed through Panama, which was already a major trading port.

Eloy Alfaro, son of Manuel Alfaro and later President of Ecuador took over the family and at the early 1900s, Ecuador was exporting thousands of hats to Panama, taking advantage that the Panama Canal was being built by many workers and American engineers who needed sun protection. The hat then was baptized by all foreigners in Panama as "Panama Hat" because it was linked to the country where it was bought. The popularity grew throughout the world when the world press published a photo of President Theodore Roosevelt using a Montecristi hat during his visit to the channel.

The truth is that since then on, this beautiful Ecuadorian Montecristi Hat it is now known as Panama Hat.

The Gold Rush and the Panama Hat

The California Gold Rush began on 1848 when gold was discovered in California. By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California.

The largest group of forty-niners (as referenced in 1849) were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes. Many came by way of the Isthmus of Panama, the easiest way in that time to reach California from the east. While passing through, they often bought straw hats on their way and spread the word about these fabulous Panama Hats in their destinations within California.

Gold seekers never knew that what they thought it was a Panama Hat was really a straw hat that was sold in Panama but that it was originally made in Ecuador. As a matter of fact, these straw hat should have been named Montecristi Hat because it is hand made by master weavers of a small town of Montecristi, in Ecuador.

Anyway, the Panama Hat gained popularity in California and in 1849, Ecuador exported 220,000 hats to California that protected gold seekers from the strong sun since in that time the gold was retrieved from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. On the other hand, the greatest of all straw hats gained popularity within the USA as the Panama Hat. Still today, Panama Hats are more popular in California than any other state of the USA and most of the celebrities that wear them are Hollywood stars.