Goorin Bros.

Hat blocks and some décor are all it takes to earn a good review? From a quality and value standpoint the place is sham. As a hat wearer I was drawn in and looked around. I was done in under a minute. Goorin has shown they can sell a poorly shaped wool felt hat at double its normal price. Want a Furl felt hat? I didn’t find a single one. I see they can offer me a hundred different kinds of micro Trillibys for the college kids in town. They even carry some big floppy hats for sun bathers, some trucker style caps and the requisite ‘classics’ of their heritage line, but when I look at your tags and see you refer to yourselves as ‘HATMAKERS’ and realize some of your hats are rebadged hats from Bollman, what am I left to think? The awkward sales staff that ignored me while wearing hats too small AND too large for their heads (and clearly aren’t hat wearers) doesn’t help things and finally decorating this place like its a movie set of a bygone era reeks of desperate attempts at ‘authenticity’ and reminds me of what high quality and real service is.

Hat Block! This is the only place I’ve found between LA and SF that does hat blocking. Bought a new fedora and they blocked my old panama hat for free. Great store.

I came here about a month ago to get a tophat and the girl working here (I believe her name was Tammy?) was very friendly and knowledgeable. We had a nice chat about alternative fashion and interesting hats while I was browsing. It took me a bit of time to decide which type I wanted and eventually chose the White Rabbit in black. She helped me choose the perfect size and I walked away very happy with my purchase.

I loved the first Goorin Bros. hat I bought at their Lakeview store so much, I just keep buying more. In fact, I’ve started collecting them when I travel so I now have one from San Diego, New Orleans and Nashville, as well as several from Chicago. Now I even have one from Santa Barbara and I didn’t even visit the store to get it.
Turns out, I wore one of my hats home for the holiday. My dad fell in love with it so I just gave it to him. As people do though, he lost it. So, I went to the store on Broadway to look for a replacement, but they didn’t have one in my (my Dad’s) size. So what does this very nice young man do? First he calls the Wicker Park store, and when they don’t have one, he sends an email to all Goorin locations. Within a few hours I received a call from Rych in the Santa Barbara location. After sharing laughs about the Scruff McGruff PSA song, «Scruff McGruff Chicago Illinois 60 652», Rych sent my new hat on its way to me in Chicago.
Every step of the way I encountered friendly people, not just customer service people, but people who were genuinely nice while delivering excellent customer service.
Turns out, my dad found his hat so now I get to keep this one. AND, that makes 10 hats now, which means I get a free one with my frequent buyers card.
I wish every retailer I dealt with was this AWESOME! And I wish everyone would wear hats. There’s no such thing as, «I don’t look good in hats.» :-)

Went in to buy a new hat, as our other Goorin experience had been so awesome. But the two salesmen were regaling a group of pretty young things with a bona fide guitar/​foot-​stomping/​loud singing musical performance on a Saturday evening.
Dudes. Seriously? We could not get any sales help because there was a «Hey, ladies» floor show? Kinda of cute, then very annoying after 30 seconds. We left, as did many other people.

During one of my infrequent forays downtown, I wandered into Goorin Bros. Imagine my surprise when greeted by CODY in a friendly, professional manner! Since I’m a «mature», pretty much non-​descript, often eccentric woman, most shopkeepers (clerks)
ignore me. Not Cody! He answered all my questions, patiently waited while I (finally) made up my mind and wasn’t even put off by my silliness. I bought two hats. Received a compliment at the very next place I stopped! Made my day! :-D

Mitchell helped us. The store is adorable and full of super high-​quality hats & accessories. It’s a really fun spot to pick up a great hat. My husband and I both found hats that we really loved. Mitchell was so helpful and really laid-​back. It was a cool experience. We’ll go back again.

Sweet finally made out to SB, the first order of business. To check out my most favorite hat store ever of course. Wish they had the hat I was lookinh for.

This store is so much fun. The only problem is that I want to buy everything and it’s incredibly expensive. They had a half-​off sale online and I ordered one that didn’t have a picture with a model wearing it, so it was a bit of a gamble. When I got it, it wasn’t anything like what I thought it was… Luckily my boyfriend and I had been considering a trip to visit SB and my alma mater UCSB. The salespeople are extremely friendly and the girl totally accommodated me with an exchange. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get something for a similar price because the online sale was over, but since the sale didn’t happen in the store she said she could give me an even exchange for the regular price. What?! I ended up with a beautiful black hat that was exactly like the one I was looking for. I also weaseled a present out of my boyfriend in the form of an adorable schoolboy hat with an owl pin on it. The first time I came I got one of their feather headbands. They have different clips and headbands that are so cute and are more affordable.
Even if you don’t end up buying anything, going inside this store is like taking a step back in time. We had fun trying different hats on him because we’ve been into Boardwalk Empire lately.
It seems they have extra stuff in the back that’s not on display, so utilize the sales people to find what you’re really looking for. And if you find something online they can look it up and tell you if they have it.
I love supporting local businesses and the fact that all of these hats are handmade really puts a smile on my face.

I want to start off by saying that I never had imagined that I would enjoy wearing a hat let alone a fedora. I just really never envisioned having that sense of style and being able to execute it tastefully until I walked into Goorin Brothers. First off, you feel as though you have stepped into a time machine into a turn of the century hat store in New York. This place is nostalgic and amazing! Hats from literally floor to ceiling, displayed in such unique ways, I have never been so excited to try on so many hats! The manager Jenny came up and greeted my group, and informed of us of the amazing sale that was going on. Many styles were reduced 50% off and so I said why not, and started to try them on. I fell in love with the model, «Kenny Red» because of its simplicity and versatility because of its neutral colors. My hubby, who has long hair and a beard, went with the Dagger, it looks phenomenal with his long hair in a bun, very chic. I would also like to give a shout out to Ryan, he is an excellent sales man, who helped me again my most recent visit and talked my roommate, who «isn’t a hat person» into getting an adorable floppy sun hat. Very pleased with the store, the inventory, the visual merchandising and the customer service. Hats are truly for everyone once they visit this location!

There was a time in my life when I thought I looked really great in hats. I had a number of them that I bought then never wore, because it was true — I looked better with a hat on my head than I did without one. Then at some point in college, I got bangs.
Anyway, Matt B. and I took an evening walk around downtown Santa Barbara, and we stopped into Goorin Bros. because the place seemed charming and lively. There was some hip party going on with free booze, which we were classy enough not to take during our short visit. The shop was cute, spacious and welcoming, with walls and tables lined with hats.
We tried on several hats, most of which looked goofy on us. I looked for a Lady Mary hat for me and a Philip Marlowe hat for Matt, and while I found some approximations, nothing was close enough to tempt me to buy. Some of the hats were cute in their own ways, well shaped and wearable, though I didn’t love all the materials. Prices were relatively high.
It’s just as well I didn’t find a Lady Mary hat, as I don’t have Michelle Dockery’s face to go with it. Still, it was a fun little detour on our downtown stroll, and I count among my blessings that my Matthew is not my cousin.

MADE IN CHINA. False advertising. Cool stuff, but why isn’t made in the US as claimed?
It was a real disappointment to get my new «made in America» hat home just to find a made in China tag in it.

Coolest little hat shop on the west coast! The manager was super friendly answering all of our questions and suggesting different styles that might look nice. They even have events in the store where they have a DJ and drinks! Sounds like a blast! We had a really fun time trying on hats and laughing. When I’m in the market for a new hat, I’ll definitely come here!

I am not a hat person. I mean, I can admire them… but I rarely, rarely wear them. hahaha. It’s too weird. I don’t know.
Anyway, this place is adorable. It has a very vintage vibe… hahaha. Never mind my alliterations… but yeah, it’s vintage and very cute.
The hats are all really expensive though… and I don’t know. I’d never wear them… but I can admire them.

I quite like Goorin hats so this is the third one I’ve been to. That said, it was pretty disappointing. The store’s quite big but I didn’t get a sense that there was a lot of hats and other items. Decent would be the best way to describe the service. Overall, it was like what the star rating says, A-​ok.