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Rival cowboy hat-makers in generations-long showdown in urban Essex
"GO WEST, YOUNG MAN/' was never a" call Dean Serratelli or Stuart Alboum heeded, with both men keeping their cowboy hat manufacturing plants in northern New Jersey, despite the majority of their business coming from beyond the Mississippi. Only a handful of shops in New Jersey sell the Western-style hats of Serratelli Hat Co. and W. Alboum Hat Co., but neither of the multigenerational manufacturers is interested in leaving Essex County.
"It's actually a competitive advantage to not be where my competitors are ... we kind of can do our own thing," said Serratelli, who's based in Newark. "Being on the East Coast also lends itself to running itself more as a business, rather than a lifestyle."
Hat-makers originally established in the area because the water in the Passaic River contained the correct minerals for steaming and shaping the felt hats, Serratelli said, though today, a Jersey address turns heads.
"People always ask me, Where are you from?' and I say Newark. You can imagine how that goes over," Serratelli said.
Alboum, in Irvington, said his son, Justin Alboum, represents the fourth generation of cowboy hat makers, and to move the factory west today would "be a nightmare."
"I've lived in New Jersey my whole life," Alboum said. "It's not an easy thing to move a factory out of state, to a whole new area, hire a whole new staff, train them."
Serratelli also said the labor pool keeps him here. Of 86 employees nationwide, 56 are based in Newark, and have "been with me for an average of 18 years." Walking through the Newark factory, built...