Stormy Kromer

Stormy Kromer got its start in the early 1900s. George "Stormy" Kromer had left semi-professional baseball to become a railroad engineer. Engineers often needed to stick their heads out of the window to see what lay ahead of the train, and Stormy's hat, needed for warmth in the cold Midwestern plains, would sometimes blow off. He asked his wife, Ida, to modify an old baseball cap. Unlike a fedora, the baseball cap was constructed with six panels, and stayed put. Soon other railroad workers wanted his hat and the business, Kromer Cap Company, was born. In 2001 the company was purchased by Bob Jacquart after he learnt production was about to be discontinued. He changed the company name to Stormy Kromer, and moved it from Wisconsin to Ironwood in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the cap had a loyal following thanks to the region's long, cold winters. Over 100 years later, the product line has expanded but each item is still hand crafted, still made in the USA.