This year’s WESA show was the best yet!  For those that don’t know, the Western-English Sales Association is a trade show dealing with thousands of represented product lines and retailers . The WESA founders launched an initial trade show in Denver in January 1922, with the goal of creating a forum where retailers, manufacturers, and sales representatives could conduct business in an atmosphere of fair trade and fellowship. The resulting Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Markets are the world’s largest trade events for the Equestrian Industry, attracting a constantly growing global audience to Denver’s world-class Markets.

We’ve been attending WESA’s awesome events since the 1980’s. This year, however, was something for the record books! Shortly before the show started, we caught word that the truck we had packed to the brim with all of our show supplies had been totaled in an accident and wouldn’t be making it’s delivery. This meant we would be left without a booth, and without any hats to show! At the last minute, we packed up all the hats we could, and hand carried fourteen boxes onto a plane bound for Denver.

When we arrived at the WESA show and let the staff know what a dire situation we were in, they immediately took us under their wing and turned the whole thing around. They provided us with all the parts necessary to build a booth, and even pointed us in the direction of a retailer that provided us with the exact shelving units we needed to display our hats! After an amazing show of meeting with new customers and reconnecting with old ones, we even won an award for Best Booth! We at American Hat Makers would like to extend a huge thank you to all the astonishing men and women at WESA for turning what could have been a disaster into a positive experience! Without your help, we would not have been able to have the rewarding and fulfilling experience we walked away from this year. We’re all looking forward to next year!