The eight years before the company
Before 1996
In 1988, after college, Jeffery apprenticed to a master hatter. That apprenticeship became the start of everything. The deeper he went, the more he saw — a craft with reach, a category waiting for someone to commit. Eight years later, in 1996, he founded Foremost.
The Four Decades Timeline
1990s - The Foremost Story Began in 1996.
A workshop. A handful of people. The brief was simple — hats and accessories, made well.
In 1996, Jeffery built the company around what he had learned during his apprenticeship: take the craft seriously, take the time. There was no plan to be big.
The first decade was about learning the trade from the inside — materials, tooling, the people who could be trusted with each step.
2000s - The workshop became afactory.
A new decade brought a new question: how does a workshop become a factory without losing what made the workshop work?
In 2000, Foremost Headwear was set up as a dedicated hat manufacturer — the first time the company defined itself by a single category.
Six years later, the Foremost Building opened — 4,500 square metres designed around how a hat is actually made, from raw material to packed carton.
2010s - Less about getting bigger. More about going deeper.
A decade of widening — in operations, in standards, in industry presence.
Inside the factory, sustainability was built into how cotton was sourced, how dyes and water were handled, how workers were paid and trained.
Outside, the work turned to the industry: the first International Hat Decoration Design Competition in 2012, the Headwear R&D Centre in 2013, the first 920 Hat Festival in 2014.
The same year, the JEFFSUN Hats Museum opened. By 2019, Goodmate Cambodia began operation.
2020s - The threads come together.
By the 2020s, the work spanned three countries, five factories and 1,800 people — four kinds of work grown side by side.
In 2023, the company moved into a self-built Headwear Cultural & Creative Park — 50,000 square metres bringing factory, museum, R&D centre, and brand spaces into one site.
The work continues — less about scale, more about depth: sustainability deeper into the supply chain.
From Hands to Machines
Tools that mark each decade. Same craft. Different equipment.
1990s
2020s
2026
Where the timeline ends. Still making hats.
Thirty Years of Making
Ready to make yours.
