About Us
Every great craft begins with an obsession.
For Michael Patrick Hoyle, that obsession began long before there was a hat shop.
As a young apprentice working around pianos, Michael learned to listen with his hands. He spent hours voicing hammers, shaving felt, refining tone and discovering how the smallest adjustment could completely change the character of an instrument.
One afternoon, surrounded by curls of discarded felt, an older craftsman looked at the floor and said something almost in passing:
“All that felt on the ground... you could make a hat.”
The sentence never left him.
Years later, the medium changed, but the philosophy did not. Felt replaced piano hammers. Wooden blocks replaced soundboards. Steam replaced tuning tools. But the language remained the same: patience, proportion, touch, restraint and the pursuit of something that feels exactly right.
THE FIRST WORKSHOP
In 2018, Hoyle Hat Co. opened its first dedicated workshop in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. It was never intended to feel like a conventional retail store. It was a working atelier: blocks on the bench, steam in the air, ribbons being cut, felt being shaped and customers standing close enough to watch the process unfold.
Ready-to-wear hats lived beside fully handmade pieces. Restoration work shared space with experimentation. Musicians, artists, travelers, executives and neighbors walked through the same door.
What grew there was not simply a hat business. It became a gathering place for people who believed what they wore should have character.
THE SEATTLE HAT SHOP & HAT BAR
Today, Hoyle Hat Co. calls historic Pioneer Square home.
Our flagship is part working hat atelier, part premium retail shop and part immersive Hat Bar. It is a place where traditional hatmaking equipment sits beside modern fitting technology, and where a customer can walk in knowing almost nothing about hats and leave understanding exactly why the right one feels different. Hoyle transformed his working counter into a one-of-a-kind concrete sculpture of Mount Rainier, integrating a Hoffman industrial hat and boot steamer directly into the installation so hats can be steamed, shaped, and finished on site.
Guests can select a ready-to-wear hat or begin with a handmade piece, then work alongside our Hat Wranglers and hatmakers to fit, steam, shape, trim and personalize it.
The Hat Bar has since traveled far beyond our front door, appearing at hotels, wineries, weddings, corporate off-sites, private celebrations and major events throughout Washington.
What began as a bench in Seattle has become an experience people can step inside.
Our materials travel farther than most of the hats eventually will. Felt bodies come from renowned mills and makers across Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and beyond. Ribbons, leather, textiles and trims are sourced through craftspeople across Africa, South America, Europe and the United States. Through relationships with partners such as Sunrise Hat Supply and a global network of makers, we search for materials with texture, history and soul.
A Hoyle hat may begin in Seattle, but its story rarely ends there. Our work has appeared on stages, at fashion weeks, inside hotels, across corporate experiences and in cities around the world. From creating a custom crown for Jack White's No Name Tour to participating in fashion and cultural moments from New York to Lagos, every piece carries the same thing with it: the hands and patience of the place where it was made.
THE HOYLES
Michael and Frilancy Hoyle live and create in downtown Seattle, but their perspective has never been limited by geography.
Michael's world is rooted in craft: wood, felt, steam, machinery, proportion and the discipline required to make something well.
Frilancy brings a global fashion perspective shaped by culture, travel, editorial storytelling and an instinct for how clothing can communicate before a word is spoken.
Together, they have helped create a visual language for Hoyle Hat Co. that is unmistakably Seattle but never confined to it: independent, worldly, curious, beautifully made and willing to take risks.
Across their broader creative work, collaborations and partnerships have included names such as Nike, Nordstrom, Coach, Walmart and Abercrombie, creating a bridge between local craftsmanship and a much larger cultural conversation.
A WORKSHOP, NOT A FACTORY
We still believe in the evidence of the human hand.
The slight pull of ribbon. The curve of a brim. The pressure of steam against felt. The moment a crown finally settles into its shape.
Hatmaking is an old craft, but we are not interested in preserving it behind glass.
We want people inside it.
Trying things on. Asking questions. Watching the steam rise. Choosing something unexpected. Leaving with a hat that could not have existed exactly the same way without them.
Every hat is a note. Every brim is a measure. Every finished piece carries a little evidence of the person who made it and the person who chose it.
A Hoyle Hat begins with felt, steam and a pair of hands in Seattle.
Where it goes from there is your story.
