Emilio Rangel began his vision for Double R Hat House in 2016 at the age of 19.

Looking back

The 28-year-old said he takes pride in his craftsmanship, which has been worn by country music artists including Braxton Keith and Willow Avalon.

“There’s a lot of shops that sell cowboy hats, but we really strive to sell cowboys hats,” Rangel said. “If they’re buying hats here, that says something, because they’re hard on them. They want to have a hat that lasts and that is tried and true. In my opinion, if it’s cowboy quality, it’ll hold up to standard for just about anybody.”

The approach

Although Rangel cited some slow days at his business’s inception, he stressed that his commitment to his craft never wavered.

“I mean, the clock never stopped,” he told Community Impact. “We were answering social media messages all night, because at the time, we didn’t have a website. So a lot of our customer interaction came from being online. If we didn’t respond, a customer would be turned away.”

That level of engagement, as well as word of mouth, Rangel highlighted, is a vital aspect of his success.

“We have people [who] wear our hats to town on the weekend, and their friends will compliment them,” he said. “They recommend us to their friends, and those conversations really helped us take off in the early years.”

The action taken

The idea for his own brand took shape about five years ago, after a Mexico-based company—already familiar with his work through Double R Hat House’s social media—reached out.

“They said it would be really cool if we expanded and had a line of our own, so they sent me a couple of samples and we started dabbling a little bit with that,” Rangel said. “They’re basically half the price of the standard hat that I was selling in the store.”Although his brand is made in Mexico and not the United States, the quality, he noted, is top tier.

“Mexico has such a history with cowboys that they’re able to make such a quality product," Rangel said. "If you have these hats side by side with the other brands we sell, it’s almost hard to tell the difference. Because the quality standard is so high.”

The approach

He often takes his customers' advice into consideration in an effort to further improve his products.

“A lot of it is us shaping these hats, but it’s mostly our valued customers that are working in them every day,” Rangel said. “They’re telling us, ‘Hey, we really like this material, but I wish this material could have been so and so,’ or ‘I’d like to see this hat with these colors or these patterns.’”For the first few years, he largely worked alone with some help from his wife, mom and sister. Now, Double R Hat House is truly a family-run business with even friends often working on site. That evolution increased efficiency, as the business can sell between 75 and 80 hats on its busiest day.

“People were waiting two to three hours to have a hat shaped. But they were completely happy to wait,” said Rangel, who noted that there’s no shortcut to quality. “Now, we have two other full-time hat shapers besides myself. So if we get a big rush of 10 people at once, they’re only going to have to wait a half hour.”The outlook

He shared his vision for what he would like Double R Hat House to evolve into, including:

• Purchasing a property with an outdoor space
• Selling handmade cowboy products such as saddles, spurs and bits
• Hosting ranch rodeos

Above all, Rangel said he wants to continue building a community with an authentic experience.

“The first thing I ask customers when they’re getting a hat is, ‘Tell me about this hat. What’s it going to do? Where’s it going to go? What’s it going to see?” he said. “Business comes easy to me, because I like to make the customer my friend. That’s how it should be. I feel like that’s long lost with most retailers nowadays. They don’t care to spend the extra five to 10 minutes having a conversation and getting to know the person.”

• 462 Hwy. 290 E., Elgin
• www.doublerhathouse.com