“BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT FULLY DRESSED WITHOUT

YOUR BRIM AND CROWN”

Richard Little likes hats. And he wears them all the time. When you visit him at the the Brim and Crown Shop that Little opened about one year ago in a small storefront at 439 White Street in the Forest Park section of Springfield, you’ll find Little inside with a hat cropped comfortably on top of his head.

Little’s fascination with hats started years ago when, as a child, he chose to align himself with his older uncle and his friends. He was impressed by how neatly they dressed.

After work, they came home, cleaned up and “dressed sharp,” shoes shined clothes neat and, most impressive to young Richard, they always wore fine hats. Unlike today’s grungy teens, his uncle’s crowd always “looked like a million bucks” and Richard was determined to copy their refined habits.

His original dream was to open a clothing store. Many, many years later when the opportunity presented itself, he narrowed his quest down to a hat store for two reasons. One reason was his love of hats. To his mother’s chagrin, the first time Richard earned significant money, he spent it on an expensive hat. He simply loved hats and has been buying them for himself ever since. If you see Richard, you’ll see him with a hat.

The second reason is that Richard had made the astute observation that the only remaining hat store in Springfield, The Mad Hatter, had closed and people like himself, who love fine hats, had to travel far and wide to find them. He was convinced that there had to be a large enough market for fine hats to sustain a hat business in a city as large as Springfield, especially if the business took advantage of Springfield’s location as the metropolitan hub surrounded by potential customers from well off suburban communities.

When you walk into his shop, you can sense the tender touch of a man whose dream has come true. But you can also tell that it is a well-planned business with quality goods and a consumer friendly owner who greets you with a pleasant smile and conversation that exudes enthusiasm and a professional’s knowledge of his product.

You would not believe that he has been in the business for only one year until you understand that he has dreamed about it for four decades, worked for one year before opening to develop a business plan that his banker marveled at, and surveyed potential locations with a level of scrutiny that Sherlock Holmes would have applauded.

Richard Little had hats on his mind before he graduated from Springfield’s Trade High School in 1971 with a major in auto mechanics. Even as he studied how to tear down and build up car engines and soup up his own cars, Richard was dreaming of the day he would open his own shop. And after graduation, when he took his first job at Verizon Wireless and stayed there for thirty years, rising to a significant management level, he still dreamed of his hat shop.

Along the way, he obtained a B. A. from the University of Massachusetts in Labor and Management Studies and a Master's Degree from American International College. In 1972, he married his wife, Deborah, and, together, they raised three wonderful daughters, who are grown themselves, credentialed and gainfully employed, one as an attorney, another in marketing and the other as a state social worker.

And two grandkids later, Richard Little took an early retirement from Verizon and finally opened his dream store. And you had better believe he is serious about it.

He was raised in Mason Square, raised his kids in Pine Point and located his "The Brim and Crown Shop" in Forest Park. He spent hours downtown on Main Street watching traffic patterns and noticed that foot traffic was not substantial and that, at the end of the workday, the streets became crowded with potential customer who headed straight to their cars and out of downtown. He understood why so many of the old shops had left downtown and eliminated it as a location for his hat shop.

In response to a friend’s question as to why he did not locate "The Brim and Crown Shop" in Mason Square, he simply pointed out that he was opening a hat shop, not a Black shop and he had made the studied business decision that Mason Square could not sustain a hat shop. He needed to be accessible to a larger, broader audience.

He considered Boston Road near Pine Point but couldn’t find a location. So after spending hours surveying Forest Park traffic at the corner of Sumner and White Streets, he chose the 439 White Street location. The foot traffic was abundant and the automobile traffic flowed freely from suburban communities and the other stores in the area encouraged drivers to stop and eat and shop.

And it is working. People from all over the area are finding "The Brim and Crown Shop" and, apparently, liking it. It is not surprising. The owner has a philosophy that pleases. Quality is at the core of it. What Richard will tell you in a matter-of-fact way is that you can buy a lot of hats at a lot of general stores in and around Springfield but you can only find a collection of the best quality hats for men and women at "The Brim and Crown Shop."

And, remember one of his famous quotes, “You are not fully dressed without your brim and crown.” n