Project Cubbins: Hat 207 - Six X Silverbelly Edition

Day 207 / Hat 207: Gray Stetson cowboy hat with gray grosgrain hat band. Interior printing reads: "XXXXXX, Stetson, Made in USA," and size tag reads: "7 1/2." Brim measures approximately 3 1/2 inches and crown is 4 inches from brim to dimple. While I couldn't immediately identify this particular hat on the storied brand's website, I was able to identify the shade of gray -- which Stetson calls "Silverbelly."

This is the second loaner lid from Lisa B. (the first was yesterday's Clone Trooper helmet) and I wanted to make sure I included it in the Project before it got lost in the holiday shuffle.

It is also happens to mark the second Stetson to be featured here -- the first was some 157 hats ago with PC 50 back in July.

All those Xs mean this hat is what's called a "6X." So what does that mean exactly? I wasn't sure until I started digging. Here's what  found at Stetson's FAQ:

The quality of the hat body used to make a hat is the main factor that determines the X’s. In felt it is determined by the percentage of fur’s [sic] used in making the hat body. We use beaver, mink, chinchilla and other animal fur to make bodies. The mixture of which furs we use determines the X’s.

A non-Stetson site (which, in all honesty, I happened to like simply because it referred to the the Stetson as "the Cadillac of hats") posits that the Xs were originally a price-point designation and that the mix of animal furs used by the company in its hats over the years has changed so much that it doesn't serve any purpose at all -- other than as a sales gimmick. (You can read the more nuanced discussion here.)

Never mind the Xs, though, today's tip o' the ten-gallon goes, as it did yesterday, to Lisa Boone.

Related:
PC 205: the Jingle Baller [VIDEO]
PC 204: Adam of Arabia
PC 199: The Hipster Before Xmas

Q: OK, nice hat -- but what exactly is Project Cubbins, anyway?

A: One man's homage to Dr. Seuss and his second book, "The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins," which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its publication in 2013, Project Cubbins is an attempt to document the wearing of a different hat or piece of headgear every day for 500 consecutive days. No do-aheads, no banking of hats, no retroactive entries. PC started on May 27, 2013 with Hat 1. 
Got hats? If you loan 'em, you'll get e'm back safe and sound!