Simchy Zuckerman, owner of ThatHat hat store in Lakewood, New Jersey, has developed the first ever black hat that can be folded and placed in a piece of luggage or even a pocket.
The invention offers a solution for countless travelers that have been experiencing difficulty with stowing their hats on international travel or long-distance journeys where hat boxes can be cumbersome, and even expensive to bring on airplanes.
During travel, hats that are carried or worn, or even those protected in hat boxes tend to bend and get creased or worse. The new hat designed and manufactured by ThatHat is meant to bend and will not leave wrinkles.
Zuckerman has described it as an “extremely light-weight, rabbit-felt hat that can be folded and placed in a suitcase or even your pocket, and will not leave a single crease.”
While Zuckerman admits that the idea was not originally his brainchild, he does claim originality of this particular brand.
“There was no foldable hat available for the Yeshiva or Chabad crowd. I incorporated the idea and manufactured something that is comfortable, stylish, and most of most of all, looks no different than the average black hat,” he says.
According to Zuckerman, the hat is being designed specifically for ThatHat in their factory in Italy and will not be sold anywhere else.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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29 Responses
Borsalinos of years and years ago – sixty at least – could also be folded. But not since then.
Thanks Zuks
Very cool!!!
Would be a lot easier to just travel wearing a kipa and leave the Borseliino/Shtreimlach etc. at home
I am traveling next week, and wish to know, if this hat is already available? & how much does it cost?
nice
too bad it is only sold in Lakewood. but I suppose if it catches on, others will manufacture it too.
Its time we went back to flat caps like the Heiliger Chofetz Chaim.
Thse fedoras are so ridiculous.
Great. Now “the oilom” can lose weight and reduce the traffic by riding bicycles.
Next thing – try to introduce straw hats in the summer. Good luck!
How about a baseball hat advertising the slogan of various chassidus such as “RIS”, “TIBTO”, “STC”, “UUU”….(hints: “Rebbe is Moishiach”, “Two is Better than One,” “Square the Circle”, “Uman, Uman Uman”)
The Mir,
I think the Belzers in Israel have that for young buchorim. They wear some kind of a cap until a certain age.
I think its an excellent tekanah, especially for young boys that don’t take care of their hats.
GadolHadora- funny you should comment that, but if you go to col youll see over 45 comments on how they are offended, and dont need a foldable hat in order “to go clean shaven to the movies with”, small brim “thats not our type of hat”, “why a goyishe song for the video” and so on, you get the point…obviously since this is a litvishe idea, difficult to swallow
Look at wedding photos from 30, 60, 90 years ago, and you will see that hats have mutated in shape and grown in size. The Torah has not changed, so why have the hats? My answer would get me kicked off YWN, so I will keep it to myself.
To Litvishechossid
To Litvishechossid
If you were watching tonight’s Rupashkin Gala steamed live here on YWN, you will notice that Shlomo Mordechai was the only one wearing a wide-brimmed hat….he probably hasn’t had time since his release to go shopping for more modern looking chabad luvsh
Totally incorrect. Borsalino still makes a foldable hat even with a larger brim. Stetson and others do as well. ThatHat can promote any product they want but don’t exaggerate and make unfounded claims.
huju: do you think only the hats have changed? why aren’t you wearing this long ‘kesoiness’ sort of dress that avrohom ovinu and moishe rabbeinu wore?
the mir: the belzers wear it only until bar mitzva – then they ALSO wear a hat. so you haven’t gained anything YET, with this brilliant takanah
I think hats with a wide brim and a high crown are more flattering than the one my husband wore for our chasuna over 40 years ago with a tiny brim. I hope they come back into style. Can all styles be made foldable?
chilliworker2:
“why aren’t you wearing this long ‘kesoiness’ sort of dress”
Actually it does, buy only when visiting the buddhist temple.
In the seventies Borsalino had a had which could roll into a tube like kitchen roll. Nothing new there.
“There was no foldable hat available for the Yeshiva or Chabad crowd”
Every hat in the Chabad crowd is foldable….
This ain’t nothing new… Lubavitchers have been doing this for years!
Litvishemisnaged,
goyishe music tremendously affects your neshama-valid complaint
for anyone whocares when the frum world was normal straw hats were worn by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Henoch Lebowitz and Rabb Niman among others. The trend over the years has been to either look more chasiddish or to be defined how lakewood and BMG defined how a “Ben Torah” should look back in the 1960″s before that look at the pictures from pre war Europe when Yeshiva bachrim wore really in style suits different colored hats and look really snazzy almost like gangsters including many who became rosh yeshivas and gedolim
P.S. Rabbi Feinstein wore a straw hamburg as did the others mentioned above
ANY hat on an El Al flight can be made “foldable” by a flight attendant at no additional charge. Just place it in one of the overhead bins without a reinforced steel hatbox.
Re a Gadolhatorahs las comment about El Al:
This is the only credible comment on this thread.
What about a foldable shtreimal?
Or a foldable up-hat.
chabad “niggun” napoleons march= french naional anthem. Very Jewish
All hats are foldable. It’s the unfolding that’s the real challenge.
“Litvishemisnaged,
goyishe music tremendously affects your neshama-valid complaint”
@Bitultorah-I suggest you listen to your chabad niggun a little more
chillworker: You utterly miss my point. You instead owe me an explanation of why you don’t dress like Avraham Avinu or Moshe Rabbeinu.
Let me see if I can explain my point to you in terms you can understand: The Torah, written about 3000 years ago, in a language that has not been spoken for at least 1500 years, requires careful interpretation. The rabbis and others who interpret the requirements for hats clearly have been changing their minds a lot. I am not sure what kind of hat Hashem wants me to wear, but it is clear that our rabbis don’t know more than I do, or, if they do, they cannot achieve a definitive answer.