The Smithbilt White Hat

In the summer of 1946, Morris Smith built the white cowboy hat - and began a tradition that embraced the world.

Today, The White Smithbilt is an internationally recognized symbol of the city of Calgary, and of Western hospitality. It has been presented to visiting politicians, celebrities, and athletes by every mayor of Calgary since World War II.

Every Canadian Prime Minister and every U.S. President of the last 50 years has been presented with a Smithbilt White Hat.

For more information on the history of Smithbilt Hat Col. and Calgary's famous White Hat, see Smithbilt History

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier

For more than 60 years, Calgarians have welcomed visitors by presenting them with white hats in a lively ceremony that can be arranged through Tourism Calgary.

The first cowboy hat was made by John B. Stetson in 1863 to protect himself from the weather of the American West. Working cowboys quickly adopted Stetson's hardy hat, and the North West Mounted Police switched to a version of it when their pillbox hats proved inadequate for conditions in the Canadian West. In 1946, Calgary hatmaker Morris Shumiatcher of Smithbilt Hats introduced the first pure white cowboy hat, using felt imported from Russia.

In 1948, the Calgary Stampeders won a chance to compete for the highest honour in Canadian football, the Grey Cup.

A special train carried 250 excited Calgary fans and entertainers, a chuckwagon, and 12 horses to Toronto for the game against Ottawa. Many fans wore Shumiatcher's white hats, and the Mayor of Toronto was presented with one.

A Calgary alderman, Don MacKay, was on that legendary trip East. A born promoter, MacKay began presenting white hats to visiting dignitaries after he became Mayor of Calgary in 1950, and a tradition was born. It was continued by the Calgary Motel Association during the late 1950s, and today Tourism Calgary oversees the presentation of thousands of white hats to visitors each year.

Smithbilt is proud to be the official white hat maker for the City of Calgary.

We supply three different white hats for tourism Calgary and the Mayors office.