PTC Hats

From PTC: “Over 150 to 300 gifted women knitters at pick time of production from Peru, in the cities of Lima, Puno, Huancayo and Huancavelica, thank you for your business. They work in a dying cottage industry, knitting at home while caring for their families and land parcels to better themselves and to help provide to their household income. We all make a difference in their lives when their artful labor is recognized through your purchase. Over 20 years have passed since we first started this mutual binding economic and social endeavor. We are very grateful to all of the people involved and this includes very much you, our buyer.”

When headwear savvy North Americans think of South America, primarily two hats come most immediately to mind: Panama hats (actually from Ecuador) and the wool and alpaca hats that we associate with the highlands of Peru. Although at The Village Hat Shop we’ve been selling Panama hats consistently throughout our thirty-year history, we have never been able to find a consistent vendor for the Peruvian hats.

Until now! The Peruvian Trading Company is a family owned and operated business that is over 20 years old. After some years of touring college campuses with the traditional styles, Patricia and Javier Dam - being inspired by their forward thinking student clientele – put their imagination to work and, voila, their beautiful designs and colors moved PTC to the next level.

For the making of the goods, the company identified the most reliable knitters in the hat making community and a cottage industry was born. The knitters, mostly women, work from home. Hat making adds to the daily bread basket as the income is about twice the pay for similar work.

Given our criteria for adding vendors to our lineup of hat brands, The Peruvian Trading Company could not be a better fit. We are proud to feature this line. We trust that our customers will appreciate these hats and will enjoy wearing an item of apparel that is worthy even beyond its eminent functionality.

More Peruvian hats, chullos, and sherpa hats are available at Peruvian Beanies page.