kemo sabe 6

the aspen costume

Author

MacK Seale
August 25, 2025

mornin' merry makers 🤠👢🧵🥃🪶

there’s something about certain travel destinations that makes you want to dress like the locals. elephant pants in thailand. a beret in paris. kaftans in morocco.

in aspen, it’s a kemo sabe hat.

some even call it “the aspen costume.”

last fall, during peak leaf-peeping season, a friend insisted we go to their galena street store. she’s the best and a tastemaker in every sense. so if she say go, we go.

despite being a texan, i’ve never owned a real cowboy hat and i’ve only ever admired wide-brimmed hats at a distance (on others, not myself). but within minutes, i was mesmerized by the team hand-molding felt blanks into one-of-a-kind creations while customers sipped complimentary tequila and debated hat bling.

the experience was impeccable.

part fashion house atelier, part old-west saloon, part content creator playground.

kemo sabe has nailed customization in a way that makes every visit social media ready and every product completely personal.

as i learned more about the brand, my crush became a full-blown love story. the company is women-led, owned by an early employee who calls herself the #1 badass. celebrities wear their hats. tourists make pilgrimages.

revenue estimates are $20M+, proving the hats are more than pricey souvenirs.

they’re stories you wear on your head.

in today’s letter, you'll learn:

→ how an employee turned owner grew the most famous hat maker in america

→ the steps to their 100% custom, fully hand-molded hat-making process

→ why tequila shots are part of the sales strategy (& now their assortment)

→ their 6-store lineup that reads like a luxury lifestyle mood board

stories i'm watching

i <3 90s: kemo sabe opened in snowmass, colorado on thanksgiving 1990 with the mantra “make everyone feel important.” grit, their premium line, launched in 1995 when co-founder tom yoder began distressing hats by hand.

the name game: in the lone ranger, “kemo sabe” means “trusted friend.” the name fits the bond they’ve built with employees, fans, and celebrity clientele.

employee takeover: in 2020, wendy kunkle bought the brand after fifteen years climbing from sales associate to president. sales have tripled under her while the original culture holds strong.

manufacturing meets luxury: kemo sabe owns every step. hats and buckles are made in gainesville, texas. boots in el paso by artisans with 1950s roots. each hat is hand-shaped using century-old steaming techniques.

"rodeo drive in the mountains": custom hat bases are between $395 - $895, hat bands range for $65 to $3,500 (for diamonds & white gold), belt buckles up to $18,000, and then there are diamond tennis bracelets for $18,000.

the space hat: when jeff bezos exited the blue origin capsule in 2021, he wore a custom grit. he has been a customer for nearly two decades, sometimes arriving on horseback. photographed in vogue wearing one.

from free shots to their own bottle: longtime in-store tequila tastings inspired original grit tequila, crafted over four years and priced to rival clase azul. blanco for $99, reposado for $115, and añejo for $130.

the art of hat making

watching a kemo sabe hat come to life is like witnessing a 150-year-old craft in action (thus every content creator’s dream):

  1. pick your base: select from their wall of felt blanks in all the colors.

  2. choose your character: browse charms, feathers, leather bands, beads, playing cards, pins, and trinkets that reflect your personality.

  3. steam & shape: craftspeople fire up century-old equipment to steam and hand-mold the crown and brim using wooden forms.

  4. custom branding: copper irons heated to precise temperatures burn your initials, logo, or design directly into the felt. you can also burn the hat to make it look used too.

the entire process takes 30-60 minutes of consultation and crafting, with the customer involved every step of the way. no machines, which is why no two hats are exactly alike.

it's theater, craft, and personalization all rolled into one experience that justifies the premium pricing of $500+.

scroll stopping socials

social game seems pretty genuinine with 159K ig followers and 2K tiktok followers. mostly western lifestyle, sightings of celebs wearing their stuff, & creators documents their hat making experience. most notably:

retail rollout

kemo sabe operates 6 locations which all feature some form of bar or lounge area where customers can grab a complimentary drink while shopping with wranglers (their titles for sales people). their store roster reads like a bougie vacation list found on any luxury travel blog:

  1. aspen, co flagship opened in 1993

  2. vail, co opened in 2004

  3. jackson hole, wy opened july ‘22

  4. park city, ut opened dec ‘22

  5. round top, tx opened oct ‘23

  6. whitefish, mt opened july ‘24

  • what happens in vegas, doesn’t stay in vegas: the third-ever kemo sabe opened in 2013 at caesars forum shops in vegas, where rhinestone cowboys meet slot machines. by 2023, it had “moved” to round top, a polite way of saying vegas didn’t hit the jackpot like their other postcard-perfect locations.

  • brim york city: a one-month “road house” pop-up in nyc’s meatpacking district in sept ‘24 that pulled in curious onlookers and full-blown hat obsessives. lines out the door, plus a few paparazzi sightings.

  • hats off, h-town: just in time for rodeo season in feb ‘25, the road house rolled into houston’s rice village, bringing with it the smell of fresh felt and the promise of a better brim.

yes, you can host the kemo sabe roadhouse.

yes, it’s on their website for anyone to request.

now hiring

if you love luxe western livin in the elite destinations, you can join the kemo sabe family:

hats off

if you’re still wondering, i didn’t leave aspen with a hat (i’m still on a bootstapped entrepreneur’s budget!).

i left with proof that kemo sabe has cracked the code on destination retail. they sell a product that’s part costume, part memory, part social media moment. nail that trifecta and expansion isn’t an if, it’s a when. this is up to a limit of course as exclusivity plays a big role here too.

i think more of these “lost arts” will become retail pilgrimages in the years ahead. places where you walk out with more than a purchase.

you walk out with a story that was earned with a boarding pass.

a customized kemo sabe hat says way more than a passport ever will too.