Glad Hatter

Eric Watson tips his trilby to the craft of hat-making. 

Making hats for characters in the Netflix series Godless and Syfy’s 12 Monkeys helped put master hat-maker Eric Watson, as well as wife and partner, Emily, on the headgear map. However, the 36-year-old owner of Watson’s Hat Shop in Cave Creek doesn’t like to bask in the limelight, preferring to stick to his laborious 64-step process to craft custom hats on vintage equipment for discerning clients.  Eric and Emily create fedoras, Aussies, Panama and cowboy styles – along with a basillion variants – from cane, beaver felt, ribbons and more, in an old-school manner that includes measuring the size and shape of a customer’s cranium. Despite his low-key demeanor, more TV shows have recently discovered him – like Handcrafted America, The List and StarsUp, bringing along hipster customers looking for a stingy brim fedora or a Western homburg. “Hat-making is a lost art,” says Eric, “but I’m following my passion.”  From $750, located at 7100 E. Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek, AZ  85331.

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