![]() ![]() Ironwood is a small town, and I think people are surprised. “Everything is under the Stormy Kromer brand name, but we also do contract work for other brands. ![]() We manufacture the whole Stormy Kromer line which includes hats, jackets, vests an all kinds of things. “The hats are what we are most well-known for,” Thorsen said. With a year-round 40-degree average daily temperature, warm clothing is a necessity. Stormy Kromer employs about 90 sewers and cutters in its present-day location in an 80,000 square-foot facility in Ironwood, the western-most city in Michigan. “1903 is when the Kromer Cap Company began, but my family started a sewing factory in 1958, so it’s kind of two stories if you will.” “With our full line of apparel, about 98 percent of it is manufactured in the U.S. “We’ve done hundreds of expansions since then, with hundreds of different hat styles as well as apparel, accessories, pet products and all kinds of things,” said Stormy Kromer President Gina Thorsen, who is Bob Jacquart’s daughter. Jacquart Fabric Products is still a family-owned business, and the Jacquarts have expanded the Stormy Kramer brand since purchasing it in 2001. Under the guidance of Jacquart, Stormy Kromer thrived, and remains an American staple more than 116 years after its founding. So, he bought the brand and moved production to the Wolverine State. Jacquart owned a sewing factory in Ironwood, Mich., and heard that the famous Stormy Kromer hats were being discontinued. In 2001, the long-established company was bought by Bob Jacquart. Kromer and his wife owned the company until the early 1960s. But the Stormy Kromer Cap is still as recognizable in the region as the football helmets of the Green Bay Packers. Today, railroad work is not what it used to be. Kromer’s plaid hats were easily recognizable – some people refer to them as the Elmer Fudd hat – and residents of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota searched them out for their style and functionality. His wife made a few more samples, and they became so popular that Kromer realized he had the makings of a successful business. Kromer went to work one day wearing his new headgear, and his co-workers on the railroad expressed interest in wearing a similar hat. ![]() It turned out to be a classic American business startup story. Kromer came home one night and asked his wife if she could make modifications to his old baseball cap that would provide a tight fit and warmth for his exposed ears during the frigid winter months. Kromer, who got the nickname “Stormy” because of his sometimes weathered and competitive attitude as a former semi-pro baseball player, was working on the railroad and often kept losing his hat because of the physical job demands of shoveling the coal that was necessary to power the steam railcar engines. The Stormy Kromer Company was founded in 1903 by George “Stormy” Kromer and his wife Ida. ![]()
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