Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Kennimer.
Ben, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’d say it started when I was maybe seven or eight, standing over a hand-me-down gas stove in our kitchen. My dad was boiling a pot of water in a small wooden handle pot. I remember thinking about how old that pot looked then. As we waited for the water to start bubbling Dad was telling me how the heat and steam would soften the felt in his black cowboy hat so that he could reshape it into his own style, rather than the generic off the shelf shape that everyone else wore.
In ’17 I had been screen printing for about as many years and married for the last two. I lost my mom the previous year and my dad three years before that. I had my own print company that had been treading water for that past six years. Competition in the T-shirt industry had never been higher. Keeping up with technology in the industry seemed like a carrot dangling in front of me, that I could never catch up to, and I was lost.
So, on our anniversary, my wife gave me a compass. I was either going to head to the woods for good, or I had to find something worth doing.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Finding the tools necessary to build a hat was about as near to impossible as you could imagine, at least on the budget that a floundering business afforded. After combing through photos and books, and photos of books about hatters and their tools, I set to building my own.
I measured my wife and my own head and made two open crown blocks to our measurements. Along with a tool called a “pusher downer” which is used to push the string down over the felt and confirm it to the hat block.
I ordered a couple cheap wool hat bodies from a place I found on the internet and proceeded to build two of the ugliest hats you’ve ever seen, but they were hats, and I had made them. It’s been a lot of trial and error, there’s not much information out there, but a couple hundred-year-old books helped.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Kennimer Trading Co. – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My wife and I now have a small batch and custom design house, specializing in western wear. She’s a tailor & focus’ on western pearl snaps and embroidered suits. After those first two wool felts I bought, I decided I would leave those to the big box stores and mass producers.
Now I make custom hats, western or otherwise, from fine hare and beaver felts sourced here in the U.S. You can come by the shop and get measured for a custom outfit head to ankle. (We don’t make boots… yet) You can also go by Manready Mercantile here in Houston and pick up select styles ready to wear, or our online store kennimer.co where you can pick from our collections or contact us for a custom order.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We’re looking forward to making more folks look their best. When someone puts on their custom hat or outfit, looks in the mirror & feels “Cool.” That makes you feel good, that’s something worth doing.
We’re enjoying the ride & looking forward to the road ahead. Quality well-made clothing as well as keeping traditions and the old ways alive is important to us, and old tools are just plain cool. I still have that wooden handle pot.
Contact Info:
- Website: kennimer.co
- Email: benkennimer@gmail.com
- Instagram: kennimertrading
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