The Winnipeg headwear company celebrating 90 years of business
Crown Cap can put another feather in its cap as the Winnipeg-based company marks another decade of existence.
The hat-making company, which started in 1934, is marking its 90th anniversary. It started as a small company making hats for farmers and now the hats are sold throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.
"We still make hats the way we used to make them 50, 60, 80 years ago," said Cole Leinburd, a sales manager with Crown Cap.
To Leinburd's knowledge, the company is the largest hat manufacturer in Canada and is still one of the top garment manufacturers in North America.
"Most of our hats are made by hand. So they're cut by hand, manufactured, sewn by hand and it's (the) craftsmanship. That's what we owe our success to."
Leinburd said the company makes around 1,000 hat styles per season and they have varieties ranging from a stockman cap to an aviator hat.
"Each decade, there is probably a go-to hat. In the '60s, it was the fedora…then it became an ivy cap or a driver cap and then we found that our aviator styles or bomber styles became really popular in the '90s. Now in the 2000s and onwards, it seems like it's everything."
Even with the decades of success, Leinburd said he always laughs when he hears that people in Winnipeg haven't heard of them.
"We always joke that Winnipeg is our smallest market…but we do sell to many companies in Winnipeg. We're always happy to hear when someone takes off their hat and goes, 'Oh, I'm actually wearing a Crown Cap and I'm actually wearing a hat made in Winnipeg.'"
He said their hats are sold by several companies like Hudson's Bay and Mark's. Crown Cap also makes hats for police services across Canada, the Canadian military, Canada Post, and the RCMP.
Along with the customers and employees of Crown Cap, he said Winnipeg's winters deserve some credit for the company's success as it really gives them a chance to test if they will survive cold days.
"A lot of our customers rely on us for cold weather hats…we test them out in Winnipeg winters and most customers say, 'Okay, we trust you that your hats will keep us warm because they're made, manufactured, and tested in Winnipeg.'"
Leinburd said the company is always thankful to be situated in Winnipeg and Manitoba and always tries to give back to the community that has provided them with so much success.
"Any company that's in need, as much as we can, we'll try to donate hats, scarves, gloves, whatever we can to those less fortunate in our own city."
Crown Cap sewing room. (Photo by Scott Andersson)
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.