Some hats do more than keep heads warm. They carry stories and meaning passed down through generations. The Stormy Kromer is one of them, woven into the fabric of the Upper Peninsula and worn by outdoors lovers around the world.
Ida’s Flying Hat Solution
George “Stormy” Kromer lived in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, with dreams of playing professional baseball. He also fell in love with Ida and twice asked her father for permission to marry her. Both times, he was turned away because he was only a semi-professional ballplayer without a real job.
Stormy reluctantly went to work as an engineer for the Chicago & North Western Railroad, riding routes that turned around in Ironwood before heading back to the Windy City. In 1903, no workingman’s hats protected eyes from the sun or ears from the Upper Peninsula’s biting winds. Stormy also kept losing his baseball caps when he leaned out the engine window to check tracks and boxcars.
So Ida stepped in. She took one of his caps and sewed on an earband that kept it snug and his ears warm. The solution worked so well that fellow railroaders soon wanted “Stormy” hats of their own.
That demand led Stormy to open a hat factory. In December 1903, he sold his first cap, naming it the Blizzard Kap. It quickly became a favorite among skiers, hunters and Midwest outdoorsmen.
A Knee-Jerk Decision That Saved a Legend
Nearly a century later, the Blizzard Kap was on the brink of disappearing. By 2001, annual sales had fallen to just 3,900, and owner Richard Grossman was considering ending production at his Milwaukee-based Kromer Hat Company.
When Bob Jacquart, owner of Jacquart Fabric Products in Ironwood, heard the news from a local outdoor outfitter, he reacted instantly.
“Get me the number,” he said. “I’ll buy the company.”
Meet Bob Jacquart, Stormy Kromer Chairman and Chief Tinkerer
Bob Jacquart’s Ironwood roots run as deep as the pioneers who settled this Western U.P. town. Few people rival his passion for the Upper Peninsula or for the iconic hat he helped save.
His cut-and-sew business began in 1958, when his father, Robert R. Jacquart, started sewing bank deposit bags in the family basement under the name Jacquart Manufacturing. Bob joined him at 19, learning the trade firsthand and embracing a philosophy that still defines his work: any problem can be solved with innovation and some tinkering.
In 1983, Bob purchased the company from his father and renamed it Jacquart Fabric Products. Over the years, the shop produced everything from truck tarps and boat covers to gun cases, orthopedic pillows and private-label pet beds.
Then came the watershed moment. Within three months of offering to buy the rights to the discontinued Stormy Kromer hat, Bob drafted a simple five-paragraph contract. He and Grossman signed it, shook hands and moved production to Ironwood. No lawyers. No bank loans. Very little money was exchanged, just trust and belief in the hat’s future.
The Best Decision He’s Ever Made
Bob admits he knew little about sewing hats, marketing or distribution. But the risk felt small. The hats could fill slow periods, keep employees working and require little inventory space.
Within eight months, he realized their true value.
One day, a local woman stopped him and showed him a photograph of a small cross in the ground. When her husband, Dave, died in 1983, his fishing buddies asked for his red Stormy Kromer. With permission from the National Park Service, they buried the hat in an urn near his favorite fishing spot on Isle Royale. The cross marks its resting place.
Bob says that story is one of hundreds he’s heard over the past 25 years, each deeply personal, each tied to a hat that became part of someone’s life.
Guided by the mantra “always growing, always changing, always adapting,” Bob expanded operations from a single 17,000-square-foot building to more than 90,000 square feet across multiple facilities.
Today, Stormy Kromer hats are licensed to colleges and professional sports teams, seen on celebrities and embraced by fiercely loyal fans nationwide. During the 2026 Winter Olympics, customized hats will be sported by the family of cross-country skiing gold medalist Jessie Diggins as they line the snowbanks.
What makes Bob proudest, he says, is the team behind it all — the people in rural Ironwood who make what’s been named the “Coolest Thing Made in Michigan” and carried a century-old U.P. hat onto the world stage.
Preserving More Than a Hat: a Family Legacy
At the heart of Stormy Kromer is family.
Bob’s daughters, Gina Thorsen and KJ Jacquart, anchor the company’s leadership. Gina became president more than a decade ago and stepped into the CEO role in 2022. KJ serves as purchasing director. Bob, now chairman, still shows up daily, mentoring, tinkering and improving processes.
Bob credits his wife Denise, a seamstress herself, with advising the company through decades of growth and served as its early bookkeeper. One of Bob’s favorite stories reflects her influence: she once added a fabric flower to a Stormy Kromer hat. The design wasn’t enthusiastically received by a young team member, so it was shelved until years later, when Gina rediscovered it. Today, the “Petal Pusher” is one of the brand’s best sellers.
Stormy Kromer’s success rests on values passed down from Bob’s father — craftsmanship, quality, continual improvement and on respectful relationships. Along the way, Bob was guided by those with greater expertise and repaid that generosity by mentoring other rural business owners.
To ensure a thoughtful transition, Bob worked with a succession-planning law firm to pass leadership to his daughters. He encourages other family-owned businesses to do the same.
“It’s allowed us to protect what matters for the company and our family,” Bob says. “And it’s made every day exciting and good.”
Reviving Another U.P. Icon: Copper Peak
As president of Copper Peak, Inc., Bob is also leading efforts to restore the site as a world-class ski jumping and training facility, supported by the International Ski Federation. It’s just one of countless ways Bob puts the U.P. first.
Inspiring Michigan’s Makers
When the Michigan Manufacturers Association presented Bob with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, he reflected on a career rooted in Ironwood.
“It gives me great pride to manufacture products in the U.P. that ship around the world,” he says. “If you can imagine it, it can happen.”
Asked where his best ideas come from, Bob doesn’t hesitate.
Driving the roads of the Upper Peninsula. He invites you to do the same.