Panama hat miners of the California Gold Rush traveled to California via the Isthmus of Panama and Pacific Mail Steamship Company. In 1906 , U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the construction site of the Panama Canal and was photographed wearing a Panama hat, which further increased the hats' popularity. Although the Panama hat continues to provide a livelihood for thousands of Ecuadorians, fewer than a dozen weavers capable of making the finest "Montecristi superfinos" remain. Production in Ecuador is dwindling, due to economic problems in Ecuador and competition from Chinese hat producers. The tamsui hat was a straw hat made in Formosa
Adam Hats was the Adam Hats General Sales Manager. Abraham (Chippy) Levy was the Head Window Dresser in 1935. In the late 1940s, a successor to Levy was Irving Rubenstein. In the 1940s, the New York–based Adam Hats was a sponsor of radio broadcasts of boxing matches which were held at Madison Square Garden. The boxing matches were called by radio announcer Sam Taub. Adam Hats also sponsored a radio program, "The Strange Dr. Weird", on the Mutual Network from 1944 to 1945. Most of these programs, complete with the Adam Hats commercials, are archived. Adam Hats distributed a series of matchbook