Life Imitates Art with Ken Masters’ Real Stetson Cowboy Hat
On occasion, one might come across an officially-licensed, authentic article of clothing which is based on a favorite video game franchise. In most cases, it is usually something simple, like a t-shirt featuring stock or sometimes original art. In other, rarer cases, it will be something which one of the characters from a game wears (or something close to it), such as Mario’s hat.
But this? This is something else entirely.
Recently, the downloadable cowboy alternate attire worn by Super Street Fighter IV‘s Ken Masters was paid tribute by Stetson, who replicated his hat as a real-life item:
And this isn’t just some Walmart-brand of headwear, either. For those who don’t know, some Stetson hats can fetch quite a pretty penny. At one online retailer, while the price for a Stetson hat can reach as low as $35, they can also go for as much as $5,000 (made from genuine beaver and chinchilla). And “Ken’s hat,” as it seems to be known?
The custom-made 4x quality fur-felt hat features a hand-made leather hat band and the inscription “Made by Stetson especially for Ken Masters,” rather than their usual slogan, “Made of America.” If it were available as a mass-produced item, then the value would likely be worth several hundred dollars. However, there are only three in the world, making it a bit more valuable.
With so few of these hats in existence, how does one go about getting one? Well, there are three ways, and two of them are pretty much closed off to you:
- Be the producer of Super Street Fighter IV (that role is already taken)
- Be Capcom’s special adviser to said game, Seth Killian (pictured, role also taken)
- Be the top-finishing Ken player at EVO 2010, having used Ken, in his cowboy attire, the entire time
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but that last one is pretty much the only option available to you if you would like a piece of this action.
Source: Seth Killian, Capcom Unity
