“Now they ask us more for Fito’s or Madonna’s cap”- NIUS
Current facade of the Sombreros Gorostiaga store.
The century-old store has been able to adapt to the new times by expanding the range of articles, but the Elósegui berets continue to be the star product
“We have started selling online, but it doesn’t work, you have to try on the berets to know how they feel,” says Emilio Pirlo, one of the current owners.
Three generations of Gorostiaga surnames and four of Pirlo have run the business: this is their story
Gorostiaga Hats It is one of those stores “with tradition”. You only have to look at its façade or the window to realize that little has changed over the years. This family business is living history of the town of bilbaobecause, despite having been in existence for more than a century and a half, today it continues to offer a unique product with the same philosophy and enthusiasm as when it was founded: the famous Elósegui berets. It is one of the 61 hundred-year-old shops -located in the Abando, Ibaiondo, Rekalde, Uribarri and Deusto neighbourhoods- that Bilbao City Council paid tribute to a few days ago as “living history of the villageworking in a unique way and with the same philosophy and enthusiasm when they opened their doors”.
It was Fruitful Gorostiaga who raised the blind in 1857. The son of a hat who worked in a flat in Bidebarrieta, Fructuoso moved to a fish market at street level when he inherited the business. “At that time, the hat shop occupied the ground floor of Correros 12 and the warehouse was in the back, on Víctor Street. It was about 350 square meters. To give you an idea of how things have changed, our current store is that old warehouse of 35 meters. Those were the days of top hats and bowler hats. The hamburgs or the borsalinos also began a verse, which gradually prevailed in the great European capitals,” he explains. Emilio Pirla, one of the current owners.
Gorostiaga hats in 1900
Fructuoso’s son, Benjamin, decided not to continue with the profession of his father and grandfather. He preferred to dedicate himself to dentistry. This forced the founder to look outside the home for a successor to continue with this trade. This is how the surname Pirla becomes part of this story.
At the beginning of the 20th century. Antonio Pirla, hat in León, was chosen as manager. It is not until the end of the Civil War when he manages to transfer the business. Already in those years, he helped in the store his son and successor Luis Pirla, father of Emilio and Iñaki, who runs the store today.
{{ #cards }}
{{#section.link.href}}
{{section.link.title}} {{/section.link.href}}
{{title.data}}
{{ /cards }}
Iñaki and Emilio Pirla, current owners of Sombreros Gorostiaga
The brothers were proud to carry on the tradition. “Better than at home you don’t work anywhere. I already tried in his day to sell insurance and books but I immediately regretted it. Yes, it is true that, as in almost all family businesses, the father forces you in quotes to collaborate. At the age of 12 you were already an assistant, picked up the boxes, dusted or cleaned the windows. With 16, the brothers (there are seven) we attended at the counter. In the end, we stayed, the others went their way. I never regretted this decision Emilio tells us
The digital sale arrives
Gorostiaga Hats has been forcefully adapted to the new times. In 2020, he opened an internet sales page. “But it hardly works. It is that the beret is a very difficult item to buy without trying. It’s like shoes, you have to feel them, you have to see how you feel. Unless you’ve used it before and have a clear idea of what you want or what it’s called, having so many, if you don’t know it, it’s very difficult to choose,” acknowledges the owner.
Interior of Gorostiaga Hats
Emilio wants to make it clear that the beret is not at all a “especially masculine” garment. “Neither now nor before. What happens is that fame goes to them. There are men’s berets in four colors, seven sizes and 6 qualities. For women I have 44 colors. It is that men only buy a good beret every 10 winters and wear 5 in their entire lives. Instead, women wear the color they wear every year. As it is the men who wear the same or wear it always the same in all circumstances, it seems that they are the ones who use it the most”, reason.
The lack of custom of wearing a hat and the pandemic, which was visited by national and international tourists known for the quality of this product, has made the business go “up and down” lately. Nonetheless, the Pirla have never stopped practicing the trade of hat making. “The problem is that they have stopped buying hats. Now they are made by pressing a button and the only ones we can make are those that machines cannot make. We make them for the theater, the museums, the town criers at the Bilbao festivals or the Tamborrada de San Sebastián. many reproductions or restorations of hats such as those of Panama, which are worth it. I remember that in the 80s we made pamelas worth 135,000 pesetas. Now the most expensive thing we sell is 70 euros. Business has plummeted”, he laments.
Gorostiaga Hats Detail
However, Sombreros Gorostiaga have found, thanks to the “famoseo”, another type of client that has given a boost to sales. “Above all, young people come asking us for a cap like Fito’s, the one Madonna wears in any video clip or the one that appears in a certain movie. So, we get it or we make it“says Emily.