Dean Serratelli puts on what he jokingly calls his "Woody the Cowboy get-up" — authentic cowboy boots, large belt buckle and one of his company’s hats — before he travels for business.
Power suits don’t translate well in Texas board rooms.
Clients usually don’t detect a Jersey twang unless he says "coffee" or "water," words which will forever give him away as a native of the Garden State.
"Our back office is in Texas because it helps to have someone from Texas pick up the phone," he said. "Not someone who sounds like they’re from here."
No matter where he goes, most people have a hard time believing he’s the fourth generation owner of a cowboy hat company on the corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street in Newark.
Serratelli’s great-grandfather, Pio Serratelli, started importing raw materials and selling them to hat manufacturers in 1878. By the time Dean Serratelli took over, he was one of two main suppliers to big names like Stetson.
"Before I became a brand myself," he said, "I was everybody’s grocery store."
By 1997, Garth Brooks’s popularity, which notably blurred the lines between country and rock music, had given the entire industry a boost. So Serratelli, then in his late 20s, hired people away from his competitors-to-be.
Two of his hat artisans commute from Texas, he said, alternating between four weeks in New Jersey and two weeks at home.
Serratelli, who lives in Westfield, also used his connections with raw material suppliers to keep his production costs low.
"No one will ever pay what I pay and get what I get," he said.
Terry Martin, who owns two West Texas Western Stores in Amarillo and nearby Canyon, said the New Jersey company came onto the market with high quality hats for about 25 percent less than the competition.
The Beaumont, a hat with a low crown, cattleman crease and 4 and 1/2 inch brim, is a Serratelli staple in Martin’s store and retails for $175. One with a flared crown, the Brick style, has always been popular with bull riders and retails for between $209 and $229.
"Used to be everyone wanted to look like George Strait, in our area," Martin said, "but now they want them wide in the front and high on the sides."
Top of the line Serratelli hats sell for between $499 and $1,000. Those numbers may seem steep to New Jerseyans, but Martin said the prices don’t raise any eyebrows in Texas.
Usually it’s a hat’s origin that does that.
"It surprises people out here when we tell them that they come from Newark," Martin said. "They want to know how come a cowboy hat company is in New Jersey. So what we tell them is it’s an old company that used to make just hat bodies for other companies."
His father, Buell Martin, was one of the first people Serratelli hired away from Stetson and put on the road as a traveling salesman.
"He pioneered the line out here in Texas when they first came on the scene," Martin said. "My dad’s territory was the panhandle — San Angelo, Midland and Odessa — the biggest part of the state."
When he decided to start making hats, Serratelli had to completely renovate the second floor of his building to make room for all the different types of steamers.
The steam keeps the felt pliable so it doesn’t tear when stretched. Then the hats are pressed into molds heated to 260 degrees Farenheit, so the fabric stiffens into its signature shape.
Growing up in the hat business, Serratelli said, he’s learned to recognize regional styles.
"If you walk in, I know you’re from West Texas, Oklahoma or Indiana," he said.
His hats are also popular outside the U.S., particularly in Canada and Australia.
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