HAT MATEHAT MATE Premium Hat Stretcher w/ Bonus Brush - Solid Wood & , Heavy Duty Fits All Hats & Clothes Brush, Unisex Cream

Great product. Easy to use and returned all my baseball hats back to original size. I can wear them again. Bonus item is the dual bristle brush. Works great at removing dirt and dust.

Got my new hat to fit:) Cleaned all my others, well, brushed them anyway:) Great products and seller *****

I have several felt hats, and the issue is over time they can lose their shape and shrink. The product is perfect to hold shape, and stretch it back to proper size. Not in the least flimsey- very robustly built. The hat brush is dial sided, one side for lint, and the other to brush out dirt.

This hat stretcher is a decent product, however, it should be noted that I wear a 7 5/8 hat - and I think that is about the maximum it can go (my brother has over 8 - and I doubt it will stretch to that size). The set up is a simple one - with wood on both sides and a metal screw mechanism to increase sizes. It states "one size fits all" - but I think (if you have a big Irish bucket head like my brother), you may want to get a bigger screw for the apparatus. If less than 7 5/8 - then I can offer that it does stretch out your hat (I had my Stetson stretched good after inserting this hat stretcher).

My original intent was to seek out a professional and pay them to get my African kufi hat stretched out; a hat that I haven't been able to wear for several months now. I had to wet the bottom part of my hat then used some Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap along with a toothbrush to get a stain off the hat. I was able to get the stain off the hat, but the next day after the hat dried, the water caused the hat to shrink and I wasn't able to wear it at all.So, I happen to be browsing around Amazon and came across a number of hat stretchers. After taking my time, I decide to get this Hat Mate Hat Stretcher. I chose this one because the half moons were made of wood and the center column was all metal. I read another review elsewhere that the plastic hat stretchers have a tendency to break under pressure so getting a wood / metal version was of paramount importance to last me for future uses.Looking at the instructions, I did use a spray bottle with plain water to dampen (not wet) the hat some which aids in the stretching process like stretching a pair of denim jeans (which I am also currently doing with Hat Mat's jeans stretcher). Even though the instructions say the hat will be stretched in a few hours, I let it sit for a day. After having this device for 24 hours, I can say that the hat stretcher is working. I went from not being able to wear my African kufi hat at all to getting it around my head today. I'm still not quite satisfied and there yet, so I’m repeating the process again for another 24 hours by stretching the hat a bit further to make it even easier to wear.Now, in my process of using this device, there's only so much stretching I can do with my bare hands, so I wrapped a microfiber cloth around the centered black metal bolt and used a pair of pliers to turn the bolt which EASILY HELPED to stretch the half moons out further than I would have been able to do with my bare hands. The reason why I use a microfiber cloth wrapped around the bolt is because the metal pliers were stripping a little bit of the black paint off the bolt; the cloth prevents the clamp friction and thus paint coming off. Also, as part of my process, I stuffed my kufi hat with a bunch of plastic grocery bags in order to maintain the shape of the crown without deforming it while the stretcher does its job. See all my pictures attached.So far, so good. An excellent product. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED!

The product is of exceptional quality and reasonably priced. It is user-friendly and highly effective. After cleaning or steaming a hat, place the product inside and leave it for at least 24 hours. The hat will then fit and feel like new. I recommend stretching the hat in small increments to avoid over-stretching, especially for those new to using this type of product. If possible, I would give this product a 10-star rating.

Good

I bought a hat on Ebay and I realized that I misread the hat size once it arrived. The hat was a vintage slouch Aussie hat and I adored it and did some research as I wanted to see if I could stretch it to my size...keeping in mind that it was close to an inch that I needed to create in order to wear it. I doubted that I would be able to get the hat to fit as I really needed to gain a few sizes up to make it fit correctly. That's the backstory. Here's the results:I bought this hat stretcher and I really doubted it was going to be able to stretch my hat THAT much. It did. It took a few sessions with a teapot with the stream and I cranked it (I actually used a wrench to get that kind of torque going) and my hat now fits. In fact, it is a little too loose but will work that out. Like other buyers shared, go slow. Since you cannot really gauge how much "stretch" you are getting, start slow and work yourself up, especially if you need to gain a sizable amount of give. The old teapot method worked wonders (just look up on YouTube on hat stretching and you will be fine). You can size and actually shape with the steam, which is nice for a cowboy or other hats whose shape sometimes diminishes or you crush it.The stretcher is a nice, solid quality piece and I love they include a brush. They don't include instructions so Google or YouTube are your best bets if you are a novice (like I was) or using for the first time. But again, go slow, and I would let the hat stay in the stretcher for 24 hours, at least.Highly recommended. Happy buyer. Happy hat!