Several women sit at rows of desks working at sewing machines. Wool fabric is piled up on either side of them.
Each one is working on a different part of the Stormy Kromer hat.
The Ironwood factory, which employs about 70 people, produces roughly 550 hats a day.
“We have to build 550 hats a day, essentially, to have enough hats sitting on the shelf when winter comes, so that we can fill all those orders,” said Gina Thorsen, CEO of Jacquart Fabrics which the Stormy Kromer brand is under.
Thorsen says they’re very seasonal with most of their sales in the colder months.
“My family has been in the sewing business since the late '50s here in Ironwood. It is a craft. It is something that you put your heart into,” said Thorsen.
Stormy Kromer has expanded its offerings over the years.
They started making apparel in the early 2000s with a bigger push in the 2010s. Stormy Kromer now offers vests, coats, and other accessories in addition to the iconic hat.
“We think our apparel is a really great complement to the hat,” said Thorsen. “It is just as high quality, just as much care and practicality has gone into these products. We're continuing to see how we can expand apparel as well.”
Now, as Thorsen looks to the future of Stormy Kromer, she’s finding ways to reach new audiences.
Growing the Collegiate Collection
An embroidery machine with six heads embroiders a white W onto a Badger red strip of wool that will eventually be added to a Stormy Kromer hat as the pull-down earband.
The University of Wisconsin logo is the latest school to be added to Stormy Kromer’s collegiate-licensed collection.
“Since we launched the new collection, it is by far the best selling,” said Thorsen.
Stormy Kromer first launched a collegiate cap in 2024 with Thorsen’s Alma Mater: UW Stevens Point.
What started as a bit of a passion project for her, quickly grew.
“We sold a decent amount of hats, and we did it without a big push behind it,” said Thorsen. “We started to think, well, maybe we should do more of this. So, about a year ago, we launched 18 schools, and those were primarily in Michigan, Wisconsin, and a couple in Minnesota.”
That collection, which includes Stormy Kromer hats and vests, has now grown to 38 schools from Ohio to Wyoming.
Thorsen says outside the Midwest the brand is most well known in the ranching West states like Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.
With this new market for Stormy Kromer, Thorsen hopes to reach younger generations beyond their current core customers of 45 to 50-year-olds.
“The collegiate collection kind of gives us two pathways, right? There's the alumni customer, which might be more like our traditional customer, but then there is, ‘how can we introduce it to younger folks on campus?’ and things like that,” said Thorsen. “Also, people have such a passion for their colleges that we're just hoping it, especially as we get into new states, is helping introduce our entire brand to more people.”
The collection saw a big boost when NFL legend Tom Brady was photographed wearing a Stormy Kromer with the University of Michigan’s logo on it at a Wolverine’s game last fall.
“That was just one of those kind of magical things that happened,” said Thorsen.
Thorsen says that someone who was familiar with the company and associated with the football team gave Brady the hat and told him the story of Stormy Kromer.
The company immediately switched production to making more of the Michigan Stormy Kromer as orders for the hat started to come in.
“I didn't have that many hats on the shelf when that happened, but because my production's right here, it was like, stop the presses, get out the navy wool, and let's get more hats through the line,” said Thorsen. “That responsiveness is a real advantage to us.”
Being able to quickly switch production is one of the advantages to Stormy Kromer’s operation in Ironwood.
But there are also some challenges with trying to run a growing brand out of a small city of 5,000.
“We have to train our own sewing machine mechanics because there aren't any nearby. We have to just be pretty self-sufficient,” said Thorsen.
But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Stormy Kromer belongs in the UP. We're here. We live the kind of weather that we build for, you know, all winter long. We endure it. We show up here even if we've gotten a foot of snow that morning,” she said. “I think that place is really important to the brand, and I think that kind of keeps us going.”
Stormy Kromer’s Collegiate Collection is sold online and on a few college campuses where they’ve been able to make retail connections.
The licensing process to be able to use a school’s logo can intensive and take time.
Thorsen says they plan to keep adding colleges and universities as they’re able to.
