Narrator: This factory has made hats
the same way for 166 years.
It takes at least two months
to turn raw rabbit fur into a high-end hat,
which is why each one can cost up to $2,500.
In fact, Borsalino made the fedora world-famous.
Today, just 90 employees make 70,000 hats per year.
Now, that might seem like a lot,
but it's a small fraction of the 2 million hats
the factory used to crank out back in the 1920s,
when almost every man wore a hat outside.
Nowadays, it seems like the only people
still wearing the hats are Johnny Depp and Hasidic Jews.
Nearly every man in the tight-knit Lubavitch community
wears a fedora, and many splurge on a Borsalino.
The market is definitely growing.
Narrator: So what made the fedora so iconic?
Why do thousands of religious Jews wear it?
And how do the companies that make these hats
plan to bring them back in style
while still making them the old-fashioned way?
At the Borsalino factory in Alessandria, Italy,
everything starts with scraps of rabbit fur.
Most modern hatmakers skip this step,
opting to purchase premade felt.
Some say it's the custom-made rabbit-fur felt
that makes a true Borsalino.
Narrator: Some of the felting machines
were built in the late 1800s.
Every hat goes through at least 52 steps
to meet Borsalino's high standards,
and it's checked for quality at every turn.
Narrator: These wooden machines
rain down the treated fur onto a perforated metallic cone.
It spins so quickly
that the fur perfectly lines up to the surface.
A jet of boiling water
keeps the felt fixed throughout the process.
The company's cofounder, Giuseppe Borsalino,
learned this craft in France before moving back to Italy
to start his own business in 1857.
He refined the process they still use today.
The hair from the rabbit is treated, felted into a cone,
then washed and pressed multiple times
until it shrinks down to the shape of a hat.
In its heyday, Borsalino employed 6,000 people.
About half of them were women.
The female workers
were mostly involved in the finishing stages,
especially checking for quality.
The hat's popularity soon spread across the world.
From the late 1800s to the 1920s,
most men headed to work wearing a hat,
and the factory made fedoras for iconic Hollywood movies
like "Casablanca."
Here's looking at you, kid.
Narrator: But hat-wearing eventually grew out of fashion,
especially after World War II.
One reason behind that?
Hats used to remind men of their time in uniform.
The popularity of hats may have changed over time,
but Borsalino tries to make a product of timeless quality.
Narrator: Once the raw shape for the hat is created,
it's still very fragile.
A worker carefully peels it off the cone.
Then the fabric heads to a smaller roller and cast iron.
These machines help lock the fibers together.
Then the fabric
goes through the first of three quality inspections.
In a darkroom, an artisan checks
that the surface of the felt is uniform.
But the felt pieces are still too big.
These machines use boiling water to shrink them down
and repeatedly stamp the felt.
Narrator: That's where it transforms
from a cone to resembling an actual hat.
Later on, the stiffening machine's large claw
breaks down the weave of the felt.
It creates the division between the crown and the brim.
Then it's time for Scotti steam shaping,
a process named after the Borsalino craftsman
who invented it.
The felt capeline is placed in a machine
that uses pressure and steam
to press it down with an aluminum block.
Now there's a well-defined crown in the hat.
Narrator: Workers remove any excess hair fibers,
and the hat heads to the finishing station.
Giovanni Zamirri has worked here since 1989.
He helps create the shape of the hat's brim.
Narrator: Giovanni says
everything requires close attention.
Back in the 1920s,
workers watched over the dyeing of the felts.
They used sticks to keep them submerged.
But today, machines dye the felts
with steam pressure and boiling water.
They soak here for at least 90 minutes.
The hats are just now
beginning to take on the classic fedora shape.
Narrator: The accessories department
sews in the lining, internal leather belts,
and external cotton band.
And the final flourish that's also stood the test of time?
The Borsalino logo stamped in 24-karat gold leaf.
It takes nearly two months
to make a hat through this painstaking process,
all using the same machinery and methods
the company first became famous for.
Borsalino was built on handcrafted fedoras.
Today, the company is branching out
into all kinds of luxury accessories.
But for some, wearing a hat isn't a fashion statement.
It's a matter of faith.
Hasidic Jews wear a variety of headwear.
How you cover your head
can tell others which specific community you're a member of.
Some fur hats known as shtreimels
can sell for thousands of dollars.
The Chabad-Lubavitch community
adopted the fedora after World War II.
That's when Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,
known as the Rebbe, fled Europe for Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
After he assumed leadership of the Chabad movement in 1951,
he continued wearing the layman's hat.
The Rebbe is wearing this kind of hat,
and it's a cool hat.
It's not exactly a shtreimel. Then it's a no-brainer.
Narrator: Reuven Kaminetzky
operates Borsalino boutiques in Jewish neighborhoods.
Customer: He thinks it's too small,
and I think it looks good.
We'll let the crowd decide.
Basically, the smaller the brim, the nicer,
the more in-style it is, but he's a little nervous
to wear such an in-style hat, basically.
Narrator: Returning customers
can give their hats a tune-up.
Reuven: This area with all these funky tools are basically,
this is basically where we take care
of both new and old hats.
And so we're reshaping it
and making it look like brand new.
Narrator: Demand in Jewish areas is so high
that it's created an opportunity for other hatmakers
to enter the market.
Levi: We start wearing hats at 13, at our bar mitzvah,
so we kind of knew what it's supposed to feel like,
what a good-quality hat's supposed to feel like.
Narrator: Brooklyn brothers Levi and Yossi Chayo
cofounded Bellissimo,
which competes with Borsalino for this religious market.
So we knew what people wanted,
being that we were the consumer as well.
Narrator: They started their hat business back in 2017
after Levi went shopping.
Levi: The prices went up, and I'm like, you know,
I think we can make a better hat.
Narrator: The brothers started making hats by hand.
We put together $1,000, we got ahold of 10 sample hats,
and we popped up a tent on the street.
And we said, we're going to start with 10 hats
and try to just show it to people, not even give it to them.
Levi: Everything works with steam.
Steam can do anything.
This one actually looks pretty good.
I'm not going to mess with it.
Narrator: Now, they manufacture at a factory in Montreal.
Levi: Right now, she's smoothening out the sweatband
and making sure it looks perfect.
Narrator: But just like Borsalino,
this company is also relying on equipment
that's over 100 years old.
So the equipment we're using is so old
because they don't make that equipment anymore.
The companies that used to make those equipment closed down.
But you can't buy this stuff new even if you wanted to.
Narrator: The machinery at Bellissimo might be antiquated,
but the company's not shy about using one modern tool:
social media.
The company has extended its reach
through celebrity endorsements from Jeremy Piven,
Snoop Dogg, Cedric the Entertainer, and ...
Someone bought Jamie Foxx's hat,
and we were told recently that, you know,
he got it over five years ago,
and he keeps it in a special place
and says that his favorite hat's
from the two Hasidic guys in Brooklyn.
But we got the Bellissimo hats.
Look at that. Ah, gangsta.
Levi: I asked him if he minded giving us a shout-out.
He happily did that for us,
which really helped get us on the map.
Narrator: That brought a lot of new customers.
Bellissimo surpassed its goal
of $1.5 million in sales last year.
A lot of people find the brand through Instagram
and buy their hats through their website,
where they can customize their own funky fedoras.
But for their own community,
the brothers' approach remains face-to-face.
Yossi: Every day, you've got to figure out
a new way to reach your customers,
and thank God we're going with the old-fashioned way,
where it's word of mouth.
Narrator: A lot of customers were skeptical.
Yossi: They only trusted one famous brand,
so they didn't really want to give us a try,
and like, "Oh, let me buy this
$200 hat from you guys we never heard of."
Narrator: So the brothers ran a promotion
at a gigantic conference for rabbis.
Yossi: We had the biggest line at this convention.
And all the other businesses were like,
"What is going on at that line?"
They couldn't even see, what were we selling?
We're doing like, you know, $100 off the hat.
So people just started grabbing the hats and trying them on,
barely looking in a little handheld mirror.
Narrator: While Bellissimo is trying to grow,
Borsalino is recovering from financial struggles.
The brand almost went under
but was bought out by a group of investors in 2018.
And the company has shifted strategy
to attract fashion-forward buyers
with more than just fedoras.
Narrator: Managing director Mauro Baglietto
says the company's toughest challenge
is attracting younger buyers.
Narrator: A new team of fashion experts joined the company,
including the former CEO of Gucci, Giacomo Santucci.
The company aims to sell more hats in the US and Asia,
and it says the number of women buying their hats
has doubled in the past 10 years.
Even with plans to expand,
Borsalino won't compromise on tradition.
Narrator: And competition for the Jewish market
hasn't slowed things down.
It's an incredible thing that you see newer brands.
I think it's a positive sign.
It shows that the market is dynamic, and it's growing.
We don't see any reduction in sales. We see growth.
Narrator: For Bellissimo,
some of its best customers are family.
Dozens of members of the Chayo clan gathered in Montreal
for a traditional haircutting ceremony for Levi's son.
Isaac: Today, with my grandson,
I think he is doing a very good job,
and he's creating a whole new fashion in hats.
Not only because it's a custom for us to wear it,
but it's becoming a fashionable item.
Narrator: So why not combine style with grace?
So we cover our heads so Bellissimo can sell more hats.
No, we cover our head because it's a recognition
that there's always a being above us.
God is above us.