As a Southwest publication, we’d be remiss not to honor one of the age-old, timeless fashion pieces of the Southwest — the cowboy hat, or in this case, cow girl hat. But we’re not the only ones. Rancher Hat Bar Founder Shantelle Girard also knows the eloquence and value of the cowgirl hat, with a deeply ingrained passion for western lifestyle and fashion, especially the “girly, chic side of western wear.”

Need more? Read more: Southwest clothier Angela Zdrale shows how to Liv Tall

Popularized in 1865 by John B. Stetson, the cowboy/cowgirl hat has evolved, taking on many different iterations over the ages —Stenson (after its inventor), rancher hat, western hat and others. Girard appreciates the historical side of western life, lore and fashion starting her now blooming business out of a vintage camper trailer. 

“We would drive around to pop ups and events and sell my hats,” Girard says. “We grew popular so fast that within four months of starting Rancher Hat Bar, we opened our first brick-and-mortar in Folsom, California.”

Wild ride toward expansion

Five months after launching her Folsom location in 2023, Girard opened a second store in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

“I knew Rancher Hat Bar was going to be special,” she says, “I just didn’t know how much it would grow and grow so fast.”

The concept of hat bars — where consumers can customize and adorn various types of hats — has become a growing niche retail experience for the past few years, and it makes sense in a time when unique and personalized retail has mass appeal. Rancher Hat Bar certainly substantiates this trend. 

Currently, the brand sells anywhere from 100-250 hats a day in store (not including online sales) and has become a wildly popular attraction to tourists, bachelorette parties, daily shoppers and girly-western-lifestyle enthusiasts (among others).

High-quality products rope customers in

Rancher Hat Bar differentiates from other custom hat bars in the level of personalization that they offer. Typical hat bars allow you to customize a band for a hat and maybe add an accessory or two. Alternately, Rancher Hat Bar not only enables shoppers to customize a band, but also brand anything they’d like into the hat, burn the edges with fire, add custom felt, bead bands, pins, rhinestones, feathers, playing cards, sentimental accessories and more. 

“Popular hat styles vary from store to store,” Girard explains, “but I would say our most popular styles are a Classic Rancher, 20x Beaver and color Cattlemans are a huge hit right now.”

Girard adds that everything is always on trend and very feminine. “You can create everything from a Taylor Swift theme to a specific city theme, to your favorite sports team theme — a mix of all your favorite things, you name it!”

Rancher Hat Bar hats are also known for having the highest quality, but at a fair price point. Many competing hat bars price their hats anywhere between $500 to thousands of dollars, whereas Rancher Hat Bar has found a sweet spot around the $200 mark. 

The material of Rancher Hat Bar’s hats is exclusive with the manufacturer and cannot be replicated through another brand. These hats have big, wide, flat brims that are made with 2X – 100X beaver, fur felts and Australian wool (which are suitable for vegans). 

RHB details

RHB has plans to add five more storefronts in the next year and will be doing dozens of activations in and out of Arizona and California this year. To learn more, visit Rancher Hat Bar.