Upper Peninsula's iconic Stormy Kromer hat has rich history
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·2 min read
The retail shop on the grounds of the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of the Stormy Kromer, in Ironwood, displays a huge variety in colors of the iconic Stormy Kromer hats on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. Hats cost around $50.
If you were at a trivia night in metro Detroit, and were asked to rattle off some Michigan-specific brands, you might say Better Made or Faygo, maybe Vernors or Little Caesars.
You can add the iconic Stormy Kromer hat to this list, thanks to a savvy business move in 2001 by Bob Jacquart of Jacquart Fabric Products, based in Ironwood, Michigan.
A huge fiberglass sculpture of the iconic Stormy Kromer hat sits in front of the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
LEFT: Mary Beth Alexander, 66, of Upson, Wis. looks at a Stormy Kromer hat at the Stormy Kromer on Aurora, an authorized retailer of the brand, in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. "My whole family loves these hats," said Alexander. RIGHT: Stormy Kromer on Aurora in downtown Ironwood, pictured on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, is an authorized dealer of Stormy Kromer and gives folks a shopping option for the iconic brand of hat and clothing made by the nearby Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility.
A National Geographic map with push pins hangs in the retail shop at Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. The pins show what region of the country people visited from and the wide reach the Stormy Kromer brand has.
The hat itself has a colorful backstory, born out of the old English proverb “necessity is the mother of invention.”
In the early 1900s, George “Stormy” Kromer of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, was a semiprofessional baseball player and railroad engineer.
A photo of George "Stormy" Kromer, leaning at right, hangs in the Stormy Kromer shop at Jacquart Fabric Products, home of the Stormy Kromer. Stormy Kromer, a minor league baseball player in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, who worked on the railroad, often lost his hat when leaning out of the window of the train, subsequently Kromer asked his wife, Ida, to sew a laced band on his baseball cap to keep his ears warm and his cap snug. This invention started their hat business in 1903 in Wisconsin. The business was eventually sold to Bob Jacquart of the Jacquart Fabric Products in Ironwood in 2001 and completely saved the iconic and nostalgic brand of hat.
Kromer would lean out the window of a moving locomotive to inspect parts of the train, or glance down the track, and as a result, kept losing his favorite baseball hats.
When he told his wife, Ida, she invented bands to sew into his baseball hats that would pull down to keep his ears warm, and tied in the front to keep the hat snug on his head.
The hands of Katelynn Smith, 23, of Ironwood, can be seen reflected in her glasses as she sews the label into the Stormy Kromer hat in the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
LEFT: An embroidery machine embroidered the iconic Stormy Kromer 1903 label on the fabric of a Storrmy Kromer hat at Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. RIGHT: Mary Maatta, 61, of Ramsay, ties the iconic knot on the Original Stormy Kromer, the red and black hat, and makes a final inspection of the hats in the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
In 1903, the Stormy Kromer company was born. The hat became popular in the Midwest for skiers, hunters and anyone who enjoyed the frosty outdoors. In 1965, Stormy Kromer sold the company to Richard Grossman, a Milwaukee businessman.
Fast forward to 2001: Mark Fitting, owner of the outdoor outfitters store Hobby Wheel, in Ironwood, was trying to place an order for the coveted Stormy Kromer woolen hats, only to find out that the Kromer Cap Company, now based in Milwaukee, was not interested in making the winter version of the beloved Stormy Kromer.
CEO of Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, Gina Jacquart Thorsen, 48, poses in the on-site retail shop of Stormy Kromer hats and other items in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. "The people are the best part of coming here," said Thorsen of her dedicated 70 employees. "It's more than a hat" she added about the passion customers have for the hats and products they sew. Her grandfather Robert Jacquart started the family fabric business in 1958 then passed it to her father and her father passed the lead to Thorsen in June 2022.
Fitting called fellow Ironwood businessman Bob Jacquart, figuring that his textile business could take on production of the Stormy Kromer.
Jacquart bought the brand, and thus began the rejuvenated history of the Stormy Kromer. Fast forward to 2024 and third-generation Gina Jacquart Thorsen, daughter of Bob Jacquart, is now the current CEO of the company, helping to maintain the integrity of the family business and the American-made brand of hat and clothing.
“The best part about this company is the people,” Thorsen said — the hat's loyal fan base, of course, and the 70 hardworking employees who are dedicated to carrying on a tradition, sewing and selling 125,000 hats in 2023.
Mathew Harrison, 21, of Ironwood, separates cut fabric that will be used to make the Original, the red and black plaid Stormy Kromer hat, as he works in the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
Wendy Ouellette, 54, of Montreal, Wis., sews the ear flaps on Stormy Kromer hats in the Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, manufacturing facility in Ironwood on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
CEO of Jacquart Fabric Products, home of Stormy Kromer, Gina Jacquart Thorsen, 48, checks on fabric before it will be cut to create hats in the Ironwood warehouse on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. "The people are the best part of coming here," said Thorsen of her dedicated 70 employees. "It's more than a hat," she added about the passion customers have for the hats and products they sew, including the vest she is wearing. Her grandfather Robert Jacquart started the family fabric business in 1958 then passed it to her father and her father passed the lead to Thorsen in June 2022.
The workers are so dedicated, Thorsen said, "We had this lady, now retired, but she was at the end of the line tying the tie and doing the final inspection ... she was somewhere out of town, and someone was walking down the street and had their Stormy Kromer on and their tie wasn't tied right. She stopped them in the street and was like, 'Hey, I am the hat tie-er in the factory, and I need to retie your hat tie.' "
It's this type of commitment that Thorsen relies on for the future of her family's business.
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