Welcome to Panamas.com.
As one can see from looking at the images on this page, "Panama" hats are not made in a factory (nor in Panama). They are in fact woven one hat a time from a plant, scientific name Carludovica palmata, which is grown, harvested, and prepared for weaving in Ecuador. This popular segment of the hat industry is dependant on these poor Ecuadorians. Those of us buying and selling Panama hats face the predicament of being at the end of a market chain where the people at the beginning of it continue to languish in the third world. What are we to do? Certainly the weavers, and others involved in the growing, harvesting, etc., do not wish that we ceased purchasing their products, their handiwork. One thing we can do is to trade more directly with the artisans; at a higher price than if they sold to middlemen in the chain. Some in our industry, like Brent Black, a Panama hat retailer in Hawaii, travel regularly to Ecuador where he not only buys directly from weavers, but is also spearheading an effort to establish a health clinic in the village of Montecristi, where many of the most legendary hats are woven. Although we have also traveled to Ecuador, we mostly depend on an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who met her Ecuadorian husband while on duty in Manabi Province or our Jehovah Witness contacts for more direct access to better hats. As the world continues to get smaller, this craft will either die completely as the children of the weavers will turn to other means, or perhaps we can sustain this artistic and cultural tradition (delay the end at least) via more direct purchase. In any case, you ought to have more background on what you are buying. Better Panama hats are lovely-supple, light, the product of exquisitely detailed work. We wish that the world producing such beauty was simpler.
- Buy Panama hats.
- Buy Hats, Caps and Berets at VillageHatShop.com.