But when I search for one I find many.
There are cheap ones in the $50 range, a “fur felt” one at ~$120 or so, and then a “beaver felt” one at $495.
I don’t want a cheap one, but I would like info on the difference in the felt. Is a beaver felt hat so superior? I wore my current one for fifteen years, so the pricetag is not necessarily a deal breaker.
Anyone have recommendations for a good hat dealer? Any bad experiences? Anything I ought to be looking out for when buying a hat online?
Hats In The Belfry has the whole line of Indiana Jones® hats, from $38 to $498. I’ve bought several hats from them. They’re honest and reliable. Here’s their IJ page:
Adventurebilt made the ones for the upcoming film, and I think they made hats for previous films. AFAIK theirs is the most accurate ‘Indiana Jones’ hat. Be prepared for a wait though; they’re handmade. A handmade beaver fur fedora at $350 is a bargain.
I’ve been wearing a brown Stetson ‘Temple’ fedora. It’s rabbit fur and goes for about $150. I’ve heard good things about Stetsons and bad things about them. Mine keeps the rain off and holds its shape. I can’t complain. My sister has had the same hat for years, and it’s still in good shape.
Beaver fur is more water-repellant than rabit fur, which in turn is better than wool.
I go to Byrnie Utz in Seattle. Unfortunately they don’t have a website. You can get a Stetson online from a number of places. Akubra might have a fedora; I haven’t looked. Dorfman-Pacific has fedoras, but I’ve heard Indiana Jones fans deride them mercilessly. Borsalino fedoras are available online at a lot of places, but they tend to be expensive. $460 for a rabbit fur one, as I recall. (Which is why I went for the Stetson.)
And they seem to offer a fine range of women’s hats. Except that most of their women’s hats come in"One Size Fits Most."
Which will not fit me! At least that Cro-Magnon blood means I’ve still got my Wisdom Teeth.
That is a nice hat. I was all excited about it, ready to order one, so I emailed the guy to ask about the wait.
Eight months. 
That’s just too long — I’m far too impatient to wait that long.
I’ve bought hats from Hats in the Belfry (see AskNott’s post) and found them to have very good quality and excellent customer service.
I have just been going through their website and I see that they have store in Philly. I may just have to pop on over one Sunday and try on a few hats. A hat is a difficult thing to purchase over the Internet, so it would be great to see them in person. I’m still bummed about that 8 month wait time for the true Indy hat.
You could order one and get an off-the-rack fedora in the meantime. 
That’s because it’s a company of a couple of guys. Try looking here and under the Fedora section. There’s a sticky of a number of different hat makers. You want nitpickers this is the place. FTR there are more then one makers of the Indy hat, these guys got to make the ones for the new movie.
Wow! What an uber-geek Indy site. Check out this post, where the guy shows all kinds of pictures of Indy, pointing out little nitpicky details of the hats.
I’m going to dive into that site when I get home, to read up on quality and such. As long as it’s a good fedora, I’ll be happy; I’m not trying to match the movie exactly. Thanks for the site, though, since you are right: the stuff I’m looking for is in there somewhere, and then some.
I’m a huge Indy fan and I hate going there. I ended up buying one from Disney when I was there a couple of years ago, I showed a photo and got nitpicked to death. But since you just want a style like that they do have a lot of links in that thread. I may at some point get one of the Adventure Built ones, but not until they have a bit of better turn around, which means a year or more I guess.
Akubra Federation, exclusive to Hatsdirect, an Aussie firm.
Great lid - I own 2 myself. Rabbit felt, open crowned, so you can shape it as you like.
About US$90, tho shipping adds a fair bite.
Hey, I have one of those! I got it several years ago when I lived down there and had a season pass to Disneyland. I wonder where that hat is now? (I know it’s in a box somewhere, but which one?)
I wore mine out once when we got dressed up to go to one of those dinner theater things. One of the actors said he had one as well. For the price you can’t beat it.
I don’t remember how much it was.
Damn, now I’m going to have to look for it.
Could I hijack and ask, other than Hats in the Belfry, which I’m looking at, which other online hat retailers are reputable? I’m looking for either a collapsible top hat or some sort of cool hat with a smaller brim for Himself for his birthday.
Seconded. I don’t even recall if I saw any felt hats there, but I have a canvas one that has now lasted over a decade as my all-purpose, all-weather hat. I bought a leather one last July. My father has three or four. $50 a pop, toughest hat I’ve ever owned.
My wife and I drove into Philadelphia today and visited the Hats in the Belfry store on 3rd and South St. I really needed to see these hats up close and personal before buying one.
I settled on the Classic Fedora by Borsalino in brown. My wife bought a nice beret.
I did try on the Stetson “Temple” fedora that Johnny L.A. mentioned, and spent fifteen minutes debating between that one and the Borsalino. In the end, my wife preferred the appearance of the Borsalino. It is much softer than the Stetson, too.
Thanks for the info folks 
I guess I looked at the wrong Borsalino! As I said, the one I looked at was quite a bit more than the $188 listed in your link.
I looked at the Federation linked by Beware of Doug. The grey one is very tempting.
This is not an attempt to threadshit, but I implore you to carefully reconsider your decision. Dashing delusions aside, most men look like complete dorks in a fedora. You and Mr. Ford may be among the lucky; a young Vinyl Turnip was not. It robbed me of hard-earned money and the minimal social standing I’d scavenged. I still bear the scars. Achtung.