Foremost's founder and his Nantong hat museum were recently featured in a Hat Magazine feature out of the UK. Here's the story behind the coverage, what the magazine actually saw, and why this hat museum recognition matters to the brands and buyers we work with.
🔽 Quick Navigation
- 📌 The Story Behind the Feature: From Factory Floor to Magazine Pages
- 📌 What the Magazine Saw: A World-Class Museum and a 30-Year Dedication
- 📌 "A Big Surprise": Central Saint Martins' Roger Tredre on Our Nantong Museum
- 📌 Why This Recognition Matters to Our Clients and Partners
- 📌 Beyond the Print: The 101 Series, the Hat Festival, and What's Next
- 📌 From Pages to Reality: Visit the Museum, See It Yourself
- ❓FAQ
The Story Behind the Feature: From Factory Floor to Magazine Pages![]()
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Most of the coverage a hat manufacturer gets tends to focus on production numbers — factory counts, monthly output, certifications. This time, the story the UK's Hat Magazine chose to tell was a different one: a multi-page feature on our founder, Jeffrey Sun, known across the industry simply as "Hat Bro," and the private museum he built in Nantong to house nearly three decades of hat collecting.
It's worth sitting with why that's the angle a fashion-industry magazine picked. A Hat Magazine feature doesn't happen because a factory hit a production milestone — it happens because there's a story with real cultural weight behind the product. In this case, that story is Jeffrey's belief that culture gives an industry its soul, and that a manufacturer's long-term value comes from more than just the units it ships.
What the Magazine Saw: A World-Class Museum and a 30-Year Dedication![]()
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The feature centers on the hat museum Jeffrey established after more than 30 years in the global hat industry — a collection built not from a single buying spree, but from decades of traveling to dozens of countries, researching, and documenting hat-making traditions from both East and West. The museum now holds close to 7,000 pieces: historical and contemporary hats, hatmaking tools, lace, embroidery, and related cultural artifacts.
What the magazine highlighted specifically is the range — from imperial Chinese headwear to Panama straw hats to Native American eagle feather headdresses — housed in a purpose-built space that reads more like a fashion institution than a factory showroom. That combination of scale, craftsmanship documentation, and design ambition is what earned this piece of hat museum recognition from a publication that covers the global millinery world.
"A Big Surprise": Central Saint Martins' Roger Tredre on Our Nantong Museum![]()
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One of the more striking parts of the coverage is a firsthand account from Roger Tredre, course leader of Fashion Communication at Central Saint Martins, who visited the museum and described it as "a big surprise, unexpected, unanticipated." He went on to characterize it as a world-class museum built around a subject beloved by everyone in fashion, calling the visit a journey through the extremes of human creativity.
That kind of reaction from someone based at one of the world's most respected fashion institutions isn't the sort of endorsement a factory can request or pay for — it has to be earned by the collection actually being worth the trip. For a manufacturer based in Nantong, China, having a Central Saint Martins course leader make that specific comparison is a meaningful signal to the international design community that this isn't a marketing museum built for a photo opportunity.
Why This Recognition Matters to Our Clients and Partners![]()
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For brands sourcing custom headwear, a magazine feature about a founder's personal museum might seem like a step removed from the practical question of who's going to make your hats. But the two are more connected than they look. A manufacturer whose leadership has spent 30 years studying hat culture at this level of depth brings that same depth to pattern engineering, material selection, and construction decisions on a commercial order — the Foremost Hat Museum isn't a separate side project from the factory floor; it's part of the same institutional knowledge base the company's founder draws on when developing new headwear programs.
It's also a useful data point during supplier evaluation. Coverage like this, alongside a documented company history and a public record of awards and media recognition, gives buyers something concrete to look at beyond a sales pitch — a track record that's been independently observed and written about by people outside the company.
Beyond the Print: The 101 Series, the Hat Festival, and What's Next![]()
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The museum itself is really the foundation for a larger cultural initiative Jeffrey calls the "101 Series" — 101 symbolizing, in his words, transcendence beyond perfection rather than a finished, closed number. The project already spans several strands: 101 poems dedicated to hat culture, a volume called "101 Hats" featuring original work from 69 leading designers worldwide, collaborations with 101 international artists, and partnerships with 101 masters of intangible cultural heritage crafts like lacquer art, mother-of-pearl inlay, and bamboo weaving.
Alongside the 101 Series, Jeffrey also founded the "920 Hat Festival", aimed at building a global platform for exchange and collaboration across the hat industry. Looking ahead, plans include a World Hat Industry Public Welfare Foundation to support emerging design talent, along with a dedicated museum for embroidery and lace. You can follow the full scope of the 101 Heritage Crowns project as it continues to grow.
From Pages to Reality: Visit the Museum, See It Yourself![]()
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A magazine spread can only convey so much of what a 420-square-meter museum actually holds. If you're planning a sourcing trip to China, or simply want to see the collection Roger Tredre described as "a journey and a pleasure," the museum is open as part of our facility in Nantong — and if you'd rather start with the full magazine feature before booking a visit, the digital edition is available to read online. Buyers and partners visiting our factories are welcome to arrange a museum visit alongside a production tour — seeing the historical range firsthand tends to make the connection between cultural depth and manufacturing quality much clearer than any article can.
❓FAQ
Q1: Who is Jeffrey Sun?
Jeffrey Sun, known in the industry as "Hat Bro," is the founder of Foremost and has spent more than three decades in the global hat manufacturing and trade industry. He is also the founder of the JEFFSUN hat museum in Nantong.
Q2: What is the 101 Series?
It's an ongoing cultural project initiated by Jeffrey Sun that spans poetry, a designer showcase book, artist collaborations, and partnerships with intangible cultural heritage craftspeople, all centered on hat culture. The number 101 is meant to symbolize continuous creation rather than a finished, closed collection.
Q3: Can customers visit the hat museum in person?
Yes. The museum is part of Foremost's facility in Nantong, China, and visitors sourcing from the company can typically arrange a museum visit alongside a factory tour.
Q4: Does this media coverage affect how Foremost manufactures hats?
Not directly in terms of production specs, but it reflects the depth of craft knowledge and cultural research that informs the company's approach to pattern development, material sourcing, and design collaboration on custom headwear projects.
