PHOTOS: Get A Custom-Fit Cowboy Hat At The Stock Show Courtesy Of Rick Bishop

Listen Now
<p>Hart Van Denburg/CPR News</p>
<p>Rick Bishop&#039;s business is called Western Tradition. He cleans and reshapes cowboy hats for a living. Sells some, too. He&#039;s been at it for more than three decades. But he doesn&#039;t have a store anywhere. Throughout the year he hops from one stock show to the next. Photographed Tuesday Jan. 15, 2019 at the National Western Stock Show. You can find him there through Sunday, Jan. 27.</p>

Heading to the National Western Stock Show? Make sure to bring your reliable old cowboy hat. Rick Bishop will be happy to clean and re-shape it for you.

Hot steam is the key to a spotless, perfectly molded cowboy hat. The steam softens the material, allowing Bishop to reshape the hat.

"We shape anyway you want them. We’ll custom fit them to your head. A lot of places can’t do that anymore," he said.

Bishop travels from stock show to stock show, selling and steaming hats. He's been in the business for 45 years, and a regular at the Denver stock show for 39. He's seen cowboy hat styles come and go, and now, come back again.

"What’s old is new again now, so stuff that was popular when I was a young man growing up, which was in the 60s and 70s is now coming back in style again," Bishop said.