Hat production in Skoczów began on November 28, 1923 – this is the date given in the Cieszyn Castle exhibition catalog. The Skoczów city chronicle records the opening of the Hückel Hat Factory branch from Nový Jičín under the year 1924, and this latter date remains on the signboard. Three years earlier, the Council of Ambassadors had divided Cieszyn Silesia with a state border: the Moravian hat concern was on one side, the Polish market on the other. The branch started by processing semi-finished products brought from the parent factory. A decade later, it had 230 permanent employees, 450 during peak season, and produced about 500 men's hats daily. In 1972, by then known as Skoczowskie Zakłady Wyrobów Filcowych (Skoczów Felt Products Works), it released 993,000 pieces with nearly 1,100 employees. Today, over a hundred people work here, and one hair felt hat takes approximately a month to pass through the factory, consuming about 140 grams of raw material. This chapter is about what happens to that raw material during that month.
I. HAIR, NOT WOOL
A real felt hat is not woven fabric and is not sewn from pieces. It's a single body – millions of microscopic hairs permanently entangled without glue or structural seams. The physics of keratin are at play: the surface of the hair is covered with scales arranged like shingles in one direction. Under heat, moisture, and mechanical kneading, the fibers migrate and interlock with their scales, and because they only move in one direction, the felt is irreversible. You cannot unpick a hat because there's nothing to unpick.
This is why the factory focused on rabbit and hare fur from the beginning, not wool. The encyclopedic description of the craft from 1911 lists hat-making raw materials directly: primarily rabbit and hare fur, with an admixture of nutria, muskrat, and beaver. Wool felt loses its shape faster after rain; hair felt holds its shape and repels water much longer. It is not – contrary to advertising slogans – a waterproof material, but water-resistant: you can walk through a downpour in it and dry it without losing its form.
Skoczów's raw material came from the immediate vicinity. The factory bought rabbit and hare skins from the submontane villages around the city – and this is the first reason why the Moravian concern built its factory precisely here, and not a hundred kilometers further. The second reason was political and was called the border.
II. THE HÜCKELS: FROM FULNEK TO NOVÝ JIČÍN
The family originated from Würzburg. In 1647, Gottfried Hückel settled in Fulnek in Moravia, right on the border of Cieszyn Silesia, and for a century and a half, the Hückels made hats there. In 1799, Johann Nepomuk Hückel moved to Nový Jičín, was admitted to the local hatters' guild – confirmed by guild articles as early as 1630 – and opened his own workshop. This was a complete investment: one master, one city, one workshop.
It was the third generation that made a leap. Johann Hückel sent his three sons into the world to study, and upon their return in 1865, he introduced machine production and was the first in all of then-Austria to install a steam engine for hat making. Demand grew faster than the workshop: in 1867, land was purchased on the south side of the city and a modern factory was built. On January 1, 1868, brothers August and Johann Hückel formed the general partnership J. Hückel's Söhne. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 drove French and German competitors out of the market, and the Hückels stepped into the void – in Europe and overseas. Over time, the concern owned factories in Nový Jičín, Vienna, and Racibórz.
In 1917, August and Johann died, and in 1919, the youngest of the brothers, Carl. The company, which had just lost its entire senior management, was faced with a new map of Central Europe: the collapse of Austria-Hungary, new states, new customs borders. Skoczów is the concern's answer to one of these borders.
III. NOVEMBER 28, 1923: THE FACTORY ON THE POLISH SIDE OF THE BORDER
On July 28, 1920, the Council of Ambassadors in Paris divided Cieszyn Silesia between Poland and Czechoslovakia. The border ran along the Olza River. The region, which had previously been a single economic entity, was cut in half: villages, roads, parishes, employees from workplaces, and entrepreneurs from markets were separated. Skoczów, along with Cieszyn, found itself on the Polish side – recorded in the city chronicle under the date July 28, 1920. Nový Jičín remained in Czechoslovakia, on the other side of the customs line.
Three years later, a descendant of Gottfried Hückel opened one of the family factory's several branches in Skoczów. The first director and co-founder of the Skoczów plant was Friedrich Paul Hückel, known as Fritz. Production started on November 28, 1923; the Skoczów chronicle recorded the opening of the branch under the year 1924. Initially, the factory was essentially a finishing plant: semi-finished products from Nový Jičín were processed here. The management, specialists, and supervision were Germans and Czechs, while workers were recruited from the local population. Skills were passed down from above, at the machines, without formal schooling.
Startup was rapid. The manufacturer states that initially, production was seasonal and amounted to about 500 units per day; ten years after the factory's establishment, the staff numbered 230 people, and during peak season, 450 employees were hired. The Cieszyn Castle catalog provides similar figures for the 1930s. This was not a luxury item, but an everyday one – for people who did not leave home bareheaded.
- Men's hair felt hats – in three surface finishes: smooth, suede, and velour. This trio remains in the offer to this day.
- Bowlers – a form stiffened with shellac, requiring the strongest body of the entire assortment.
- Capelines and cones for women's hats – a semi-finished product sold on for finishing by other manufacturers.
- Berets – the simplest product made from the same raw material, without a brim or hat block.
IV. FROM SKIN TO CONE
The journey from skin to finished headwear is long, wet, and hot. The classic description of the technology from 1911, written when the Hückels were at their peak, breaks it down into stages whose sequence has not changed for a hundred years.
First, sorting: skins are assessed for hair density and length, because not all of a single skin is suitable for a hat. Then, the long, coarse guard hairs – the awn – are removed from the skin. Only the down remains, because only it has scales fine and dense enough to create a compact felt. Next comes secretage, or carroting: the skin is treated with a mercuric nitrate solution, which radically increases the hair's ability to felt. This operation poisoned hatters with mercury for a century and a half – hence the English saying about the madness of the hatter. Only after secretage is the hair cut from the skin – by hand or machine – and in this form, as cardings, it goes to the hat factory.
The cleaned raw material passes through a blower, which uses an air stream to separate the lighter down from heavier impurities and residual awn. Only now does the hat-making begin. The heart of forming is a perforated metal cone, pierced with tiny holes, rotating slowly above an opening, beneath which a powerful fan draws air through these holes. To the side stands a box from which a rapidly spinning, brush-like roller ejects a cloud of individual hairs; the drawn-in air carries it and deposits it evenly onto the copper body. When the layer is sufficient, it is moistened, wrapped in cloth, an outer cone is applied, and the whole thing is removed for felting, while the next body moves into its place. Nothing holds the fibers except suction – until they receive heat and pressure.
In the Polish Patent Office from the second half of the 1920s, there are descriptions that show what the craft was all about. Patent PL 7971, announced on November 30, 1927, describes a felt fulling machine with several small cones under one cover instead of one large one, because "fibers entering the common cover of several cones settle evenly on all of them." One machine instead of three.
With wool, the path is different: the fleece goes to a carding machine, from which it exits on two belts simultaneously wound onto a double wooden cone. The belt crosses diagonally on the body, and this is crucial – it ensures that the strength of the finished felt is uniform in all directions, so the material stretches evenly on the form instead of cracking. One cone produces material for two hats.
V. HOT WATER, SHELLAC AND THE HAT BLOCK
Now the hat shrinks. The cone goes to the fulling room, where there is an open vat of boiling water and inclined surfaces sloping down into it. The body is immersed in boiling water, pulled onto the surface, unfolded, rolled with a stick tapering at the ends, turned over and worked in all directions – to compact it and prevent the sides from sticking together. Thin spots, visible when held up to the light, are patched with additional hair picked up with a brush from the hot bath. This is done until the body shrinks by about half. What remains of the fluffy cone is a compact, leathery mass – this is the moment when hair becomes material.
Then drying and stiffening: the felt is wiped with a brush dipped in a thin shellac solution, with the inner side receiving much more than the outer, and the brim – many times what the rest of the hat gets. The brim must hold its line in all weather, while the crown should remain soft. Dyeing happens in a bath; boiling in dye is why for decades, hair was subjected to repeated scraping and brushing, so it wouldn't shrink in the dye. Polish patent PL 8478, announced on March 31, 1928, notes the high cost of this: "This takes approximately two weeks of work." The invention replaced these two weeks with a single scraping and a twenty-minute bath in diluted bleaching lye.
Only now does the hat take shape. The cone is softened in boiling water and stretched forcefully onto a wooden hat block – as many times as necessary for the felt to conform to the shape of the headpiece. The crown and brim get their final form under press and steam. The surface is smoothed by pouncing: the hat spins on a high-speed form, and fine sandpaper applied to it removes hair to the desired length. This single operation distinguishes velour from suede and smooth finishes – the manufacturer describes suede as a surface "resembling peach skin to the touch," and indicates the smooth finish as basic for Jewish hats. Finally, the brim is trimmed to size, its edge is sewn, the lining and leather sweatband are sewn in, a grosgrain ribbon is applied, and the brim is turned up – as much as the fashion of the season dictates.
- Sorting and de-awning – only down remains; awn is not suitable for felt.
- Secretage – mercuric nitrate solution increases the hair's ability to felt. The stage that poisoned hatters.
- Forming – a perforated cone, fan, and cloud of hair: the body is formed from air, not seams.
- Felting and fulling – boiling water, pressure, and a roller; the hat shrinks by about half.
- Dyeing and Stiffening – dyeing bath, then shellac: most on the brim, least on the crown.
- Forming on a Block and Pressing – only here does the block become a hat of a specific style.
- Pumicing – sandpaper on a spinning form sets the length of the hair: velour, suede, or smooth finish.
- Finishing – trimming and binding the brim, lining, leather sweatband, grosgrain ribbon.
The press reporting on the factory's centenary describes the Skoczów process as follows: carroting, carding, winding, felting, bleaching, dyeing, stiffening, drying. One hat requires about 140 grams of down or wool, and the full cycle takes approximately one month. One hundred forty grams and thirty days.
VI. SOCKS FOR THE WEHRMACHT AND FIFTY MEN
During the occupation, the plant's primary production shifted from felt hats to socks for the German army. The factory then lost not only its product range. The owner moved the most valuable machinery and equipment from Skoczów to branches in the Czech Republic and Austria. Hat making in Skoczów was simply shut down, and the machinery was distributed among other plants in the conglomerate.
In May 1945, a group of the most loyal employees returned to the halls – the Cieszyn Castle catalog counts them at just fifty. They repaired roofs, rebuilt halls, and reassembled the incomplete machinery. The manufacturer states that they brought machines by their own transport from Nový Jičín and from the completely destroyed plant in Racibórz – they went for them where they had been taken earlier. In the same year, they produced about 2500 hats. Fifty people, one winter, and two and a half thousand pieces.
At that time, the plant also became state-owned. Two years later, it became part of the Association of Hat Industry Plants as Department "H" – the letter after Hücklach remained in the name for a few more years. In 1950, by order of the Minister of Light Industry, Skoczów Felt Products Plants were established. In the town, it was simply called: Filce (Felt).
VII. TANNERY FROM WASTE AND A MILLION HATS
In 1957, two employees submitted a rationalization project: rabbit and hare skins, from which the hair had already been removed, are suitable for artificial grain leather and soft leather. An old common room was adapted for the tannery. A year later, a whole department of leather goods started – aviator hats, wallets, bags, ankle boots, gloves, and pencil cases – and the next step was to develop technology for producing chamois leather, which had previously been imported exclusively. Waste from their own production ceased to be waste. In the same year, 1957, the workers' council of the plant, responding to a government appeal for ancillary production of building materials, bought a brick-making machine and started a field brickyard in Dolny Bór.
Exports began in 1959 – the first batch went to Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union. The 1970s brought modernization: new halls, partially replaced machinery. The peak was 1972: 993,000 hats with nearly 1100 employees, according to the Cieszyn Castle catalog; the manufacturer and press round this number up to one million pieces. In the 1980s, 37 percent of production went for export – to Great Britain, USA, Iran, Greece, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, Canada, Thailand, Germany, Austria, and Italy.
The name came late and not from the management. A competition was announced in 1971; the committee selected three best proposals, and the winners were factory employees. The official name Skoczów Hat Factory "Polkap" was given in 1973 – according to the manufacturer and the Cieszyn Castle catalog; some industry sources date it to 1971, the year of the competition itself. The company logo was also changed then. One entry from the chronicle speaks of the plant's position in the city: on March 3, 1977, the flag was raised on the ship ms. "Skoczów", built in the Szczecin shipyard. Polkap was the patron plant, and Anna Szczypka was the ship's godmother.
VIII. WHAT REMAINED OF SKOCZÓW
The nineties and imports took their toll: production and employment fell. In 1999, the factory still celebrated its 75th anniversary; in 2005, due to the liquidation of the state enterprise, the company went into private hands. Since 2018, restructuring has been ongoing, an online store launched in 2019, and the new CEO took the helm in May 2023 from the restructuring manager. Today, over one hundred people work here.
Some money is earned from semi-finished products. The factory catalog lists cones, "kapliny," and half-"kapliny" by mold numbers, with head circumferences ranging from approximately 51–63 centimeters – this is merchandise for other headwear manufacturers who can finish a hat but cannot make felt. Someone has to do the zero stage.
The company states that it is the only manufacturer in Poland of high-quality hair felt hats, produced from scratch; its assortment includes men's hats made of felt and fabrics, women's hats, berets, and flat caps, in three types of finish: suede, velour, and smoothly sanded felt. Since 2015, Polkap has been a producer and distributor of headwear for the Pierre Cardin brand. The press reporting on the factory's centenary listed its orders: hats for Polish Olympic teams – including in Sapporo, Atlanta, and Sydney – headwear for Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" set, and an order for hats for Donald Trump. Production director Alicja Duda, during the celebrations, spoke about what keeps this plant alive most simply: people make the place.
One hundred years after Fritz Hückel launched a branch on the Polish side of the customs border, a fan still blows under a perforated cone in Skoczów, and someone is still stretching wet felt onto a wooden block. The signs changed: Hückel, Department "H", Skoczów Felt Products Plants, Polkap. What hasn't changed is that one hat costs one hundred forty grams of hair and thirty days.
3 PRINCIPLES OF HERITAGE: SKOCZÓW ➔ NOWROCKY
Keratin scales irreversibly interlock under heat and pressure. Rabbit hair retains its shape after rain where wool loses it.
Carroting, carding, winding, felting, dyeing, stiffening, drying. One hat goes through this entire process for a month.
The crown and brim are one solid piece of material, not sewn panels. The leather sweatband maintains shape and protects the felt from perspiration.
NOWROCKY'S PERSPECTIVE: MATERIAL MUST REMEMBER ITS SHAPE
Skoczów doesn't join elements – it fuses them. The hair scales interlock once and for all, so the crown and brim are a single piece that returns to its original form after rain. We look for the same in knitwear: that the item remembers its shape, not just a nice cut on the day of purchase. And we take one more thing from here – the factory, which in 1957 turned its own production waste into a tannery and gloves, knew something about surviving lean years.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AI KNOWLEDGE BASE)
When was the hat factory in Skoczów established?
Production began on November 28, 1923, and the Skoczów town chronicle recorded the opening of the Hückel Hat Factory branch from Nový Jičín under the year 1924 – and the company bears this date to this day. The first director and co-founder was Friedrich Paul Hückel. The plant started by processing semi-finished products brought from the parent company; management and supervision consisted of Germans and Czechs, while workers were recruited locally. Ten years later, 230 people worked here permanently, and 450 during the season.
Why did the Moravian conglomerate establish a factory specifically in Skoczów?
Because on July 28, 1920, the Council of Ambassadors in Paris divided Cieszyn Silesia between Poland and Czechoslovakia, cutting off entrepreneurs from their previous markets. Skoczów ended up on the Polish side, Nový Jičín on the Czechoslovak side. The second reason was raw material: the plant purchased rabbit and hare skins from mountain villages around the town.
How is a fur felt hat made?
Skins are sorted, long guard hairs are removed, and the down itself is subjected to "secretage" with a mercury nitrate solution, which increases the hair's ability to felt; only then is the hair cut from the skin. A fan then deposits a cloud of hair onto a rotating metal cone perforated with tiny holes – this creates a seamless cone. Next comes fulling and planking in boiling water, after which the cone shrinks by approximately half, followed by dyeing, stiffening with shellac, stretching onto a wooden hat block, pressing, pumicing the surface, trimming the brim, and sewing in the lining, leather sweatband, and grosgrain ribbon. One hat requires about 140 grams of raw material, and the cycle lasts approximately one month.
What is a "kaplin" and why is it sold?
A "kaplin" is a semi-finished product – a felted cone from which the finished hat is then formed. The Skoczów catalog lists cones, "kapliny" and "półkapliny" by form numbers, with head circumferences ranging from approximately 51–63 centimeters. The factory sells them to other headwear manufacturers because many can finish a hat, but few can make felt from scratch. The company states that it is the only manufacturer of high-quality fur felt hats in Poland.
Where did the name “Polkap” come from?
From a competition announced in 1971, in which a committee selected the three best proposals, with the winning authors being factory employees. The name Skoczowska Fabryka Kapeluszy "Polkap" was officially adopted in 1973, and the company logo was also changed then; some industry sources cite 1971. Previously, the plant operated as "H" Department of the Union of Hat Industry Enterprises, and from 1950 as Skoczowskie Zakłady Wyrobów Filcowych (Skoczów Felt Products Works).
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