Meet Team Gone Country

Keith and Judy Kowatch

Keith and Judy, owners of Gone Country Hats

Before selling cowboy hats we manufactured underbody neon lights for cars and trucks. Do you remember those from the '90's? We had more than 2000 dealers and 350 car shows under our belts, but it was just time to move on. A friend encouraged us to get into the cowboy hat business. He thought we'd be good at it and all we needed to know was "The big hats are on the top of the stack and the smaller hats are on the bottom" and "That hat looks pretty good on you."

Yeah right... (Can you see the eye roll?)

It didn't take long for us to figure out there was a bit more to it than that. Can you just picture the challenge of getting product to the right event at the right time? Once, we were in Detroit for an event with 500,000 attendees and our 2 pallets of hats were delivered to our front porch in  Orlando, FL. (grrrr)

It was about that time that we decided we could do it better and started designing and producing our own hats. Now we warehouse in Orlando, FL so we get what we need and have our own unique styles to boot!

Covid 19 forced our shows to close for two years so we pivoted to an online business. We treat our online customers with the same respect and appreciation that we do our festival friends. We are extremely grateful that our products have been well-received and that our customers appreciate our unique business philosophy. That philosophy is simple: The only thing that is important to us is what's important to you.

All in all, it has been a fun ride and we've seen a lot of country and met a lot of great people along the way. At times we've had help from our family and quite a few business cats. Some are more helpful than others.

Gracie, a Gone Country Hats business cat   Tinker works at a cowboy hat store near me   Starlet is a Gone Country team member at western hats near me   Lolita the newest office cat at Gone Country Hats

 

And now we are blessed with these other team members and an online family too.

Team Gone Country Orlando

We're a fun-loving bunch. We get a lot of work done, but that's not all we do. These pictures are from the 2021 Christmas party. We also bought blankets and 200 beanies and handed them out to the homeless in downtown Orlando. We're grateful for every employee in our Orlando warehouse and every one of our 22,000 online customers (as of February 2022). 
   Gone Country Hats employees   Gone Country Hats at cowboy hat stores near me  Gone Country Management   Gone Country Hats at cowboy hat stores near me   Lovely Marina at Gone Country Hats   Lolita, Gone Country Office Cat   Happy birthday Travis   western hats near me getting prepped for shipping

 Team Mexico

Team Mexico - Gone Country manufacturing team

Meet just a few of Team Mexico, our manufacturing team. At last count we had 22 team members in our Mexican manufacturing facility. They are obsessed with creativity, quality and consistency. And it shows. There wouldn't be Gone Country Hats without them and we appreciate this group of dedicated workers so much. In fact, it's their commitment to quality that allows us to offer our Lifetime Warranty on every bit of our workmanship. They work in our 26,000 sq ft manufacturing faclity in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Want to know what our real customers think about us?
Need to speak to a person at Gone Country Hats? Call us 7 days a week at 407.504.2800  (9 am to 7 pm EST) or email us at judy@gonecountryhats.com with your contact info and we will call you at your convenience.

We are located at 239 N Texas Ave, Orlando, FL 32805