Vic Pula’s hand-shaped cowboy hats are born of steam, stories and skilled hands.
“I say it’s an art with the hand-shaping of a hat,” he explains. “Every hat has a story, I guess you would say.”
The Maui hat shaper stands in his shop as the steamer hisses next to him and vapor rises in a cloud. Cowboy hats of all shapes, colors and sizes hang behind his work table.
Pula greets a customer and makes small talk as he determines the correct hat size.
“So this is your first custom-shaped hat?”
“Yeah.”
“Sweet!”
This customer is from Lahaina and lost his hat while moving after the 2023 wildfire. He’s at Uncle Vic’s to replace it.
“Alright, so the next question is, how do you like the crown of the hat?” Pula queries, holding up several options. “We can go with a traditional cattleman crown, which is like this. There’s also like this — this is a brick crown, more square. This one is called a minnick, with cutter bumps on there.”
The customer selects the cattleman style top, and Pula gets to work, molding the hat into life.
“So the steam is what softens the hat. So right now it's fairly stiff,” he explains, knocking on the top. “So once we get the steamer heated up, we'll hold the steam on the hat for a few seconds, and that'll soften up the hat to give us a little bit of time, maybe like 20 seconds, to get into the hat and shape it.”
From the brim width and style, to optional personalization like branding or feathers once shaping is complete, customers are part of the process as they watch.
Sometimes that process can be emotional, restoring or replacing a hat that meant a lot to them.
“It was hats that was given to them from their grandpa or their dad,” he says. “I'm over here just shaping a hat, but to them, it's something huge.”
He also offers cleaning and reshaping services.
The blank hats come from Master Hatters of Texas, and Pula says they’re built for longevity.
“If you take care of the hats, it'll last for generations. So they could possibly give it to their children or their grandchildren.”
They’re made of felted natural fibers, and can range in price from $185 to over $2,000, depending on grade and material.
“You can feel the difference between a 100x hat,” he says, explaining the grading system. “Soft, yeah, but it's rigid, too. It's almost like a helmet. A lot of working cowboys would get something like this, because the beaver fur is tighter, so it'll resist the elements of the weather.”
Pula himself doesn’t come from a paniolo background, and says you don’t have to be a cowboy to wear a cowboy hat.
“Sometimes, they're like, standoffish, like, ‘I don't deserve a hat.’ I'm like, you know, if you love the culture, then of course, just buy a hat,” he smiles.
Pula began his hat-shaping journey four years ago. He was looking for a custom-shaped cowboy hat but couldn’t find any locally. He found a shaper in Las Vegas and bought a few during a visit.
Then, he taught himself to shape them in his kitchen using his wife’s clothing steamer.
“So I reshaped one hat, reshaped another hat. And then I just kept doing that every week. I used to find cowboy hat shapes online and I used to like, ‘let me try that this way.’”
After about eight months of practice, he placed his first wholesale order for hats, ready to jump in.
“When it was ready to get shipped, it was the day after the Lahaina fires. So I called up Texas, I told them, ‘You know what, we have to hold off on the hats.’”
Several months later, he almost canceled the order but didn’t want to give up on bringing hat shaping to Maui.
“If I'm not going to do it, then somebody else is going to do it, and I'm just going to be kicking myself," he recalls telling himself. "So on the way to work, I called Texas, and I was like, ‘You know what? Send the hats.’ So I got the hats, and that's how the business started.”
Pula moved the operation to his garage, then to a Kahului warehouse. Nearly two years ago, he left his longtime job as manager at a car dealership to take on the business of Uncle Vic’s full time.
Now he splits his time between his Makawao shop and travel gigs. Pula shapes hats at rodeos, private events, bars and weddings across the state.
When choosing their custom hat, some customers like to finish it off with a branded personalization.
Pula lights the torch and heats up the brand. His Lahaina customer has selected a single letter initial on the side.
The air fills with the sharp smell of the hot iron on felt. Pula gives the hat a final brush, and it’s done.
How long does it take to craft each hat? Well, that depends on the story behind it.
“From start to finish, without talking stories?” Pula laughs. “About like 15 minutes. But I mean, we like to talk stories and conversate, kind of getting to know the person. When I talk with them, the vibes goes into the hat. They have that memory now — this hat was shaped by Uncle Vic.”
You can learn more about Pula's business here.
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