One of things we pride ourselves on at Levine's is our hassle-free method of sizing hats for long-time customers. Internally, we call this TrueSizing.
How Levine's TrueSizing Works
We keep a database of customer purchases, including in-store, online and phone order customers and we refer to this database before we send out new hats. In many cases, we make slight sizing adjustments to ensure the proper fit based on what the customer has ordered before. Our internal system only tracks the actual size of the hats we send out, and it is based on our sizing scale.
With hats that are too big, we can include some Sizing Tape to reduce the size slightly. Hats that are too small can be heat-stretched up to a full size bigger. It doesn't change the look of the hat, but can increase the size by a small factor. You can also do stretching on your own time with a hat jack, but we try to take care of it for you if necessary.
Why Does This Matter?
The problem is that in the hat industry, sizing standards are often very lax. Here are some examples of what I mean just off the top of my head:
- Many Stetson hats run true to size, but some run a half size big.
- Prior to 2 years ago, almost all Stetson and Dobbs hats ran a size too small.
- Most Santana Hats run a full size too big.
- Most Selentino Hats run true to size nowadays, but they used to run a size small.
- To top it all off, some hatsellers around the country use a scale that's about 1/4 inch smaller than our hat measuring scale. Their hat sizers are calibrated differently than ours.
I wouldn't expect anyone to remember these kinds of sizing differences among brands, even harder would be to keep track through the years since they are so often changing.
What Does it Mean for You?
Our hope is that we do better than any other hat store in getting you the right size, once we've figured out exactly what your size is. Our motto is: you'll only have to return something once based on size. From then on, we know your size and that's what we'll send you when you order.
For new customers, we don't have the advantage of previous sales data, so it can be a guessing game that very first time. Best is to use the hat sizing chart if you're not certain of your size.
Final note: We only make these adjustments if you are ordering the same size you've ordered in the past! For example, if you have always ordered 7 1/4 and suddenly you order a size 7, we will probably assume it's a gift (or maybe you've lost 100 pounds or got some hair chopped off!) The adjustments we make are basically to ensure that if you order a 7 1/4 you will GET a Levine's 7 1/4 and that it'll fit you every time!
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