Parts of a Cowboy Hat – Crown, Crease, Brim and Hatband

All 12 parts on the diagram

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The hat 5

Crown A new hat is sold with a tall, round crown. The crease gives it its shape.
Crease The crease in the crown often showed where a hat was from.
Brim Sold wide and flat, then shaped. It can be flattened or turned up at the sides.
Hatband It circles the base of the crown where it meets the brim. Ribbon and leather are both used.
Stampede string It holds the hat on at a gallop or in wind. It can hang behind when not in use. Also called a wind string.

Inside and edges 3

Sweatband It steadies the fit of the hat on the head. The bow at the back is where a ribbon through the band was once tied to tighten it.
Bound edge A binding is sewn on round the edge of the brim. Its color and width change the look of the hat.
Pencil roll The brim is cut oversized and its edge is doubled back. It is then pressed and ironed into a soft, plump edge.

Crown creases 4

Open crown Round and smooth. The first western model of hat was open-crowned.
Cattleman crease The classic crease, and with its variations probably the most widely worn.
Montana peak Four crown indentations form the peak. It was a popular early style.
Telescope crease The top is pressed flat, with no crease down the middle.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two sources use it: Wikipedia, Cowboy hat, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_hat (crown, brim, crease, hat band, sweat band, stampede strings or wind strings, the Cattleman crease, the open-crowned Boss of the Plains); William Reynolds and Ritch Rand, The Cowboy Hat Book (1995), https://archive.org/details/cowboyhatbook0000reyn (crown, brim, hatband, sweatband and its bow, stampede string, bound edge, pencil roll, open crown, the cattleman three-crease, the Montana Peak of four crown indentations); David R. Stoecklein, The Cowboy Hat (history and photographs), https://archive.org/details/cowboyhathistory0000stoe (hatband, sweatband, stampede string, bound edge, pencil-rolled edge, the cattleman's crease, the Montana Peak); Texas Bix Bender, Hats and the Cowboys Who Wear Them (1994), https://archive.org/details/hatscowboyswhowe0000bend (the Cattleman, Montana Peak, Open Crown and Telescope creases, stampede strings, sweatband, hatband); and, for the telescope crown, GQ, October 1964, https://archive.org/details/sim_gq-gentlemens-quarterly_1964-10_34_6. The three books were read through archive.org's full-text search. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's shape or mark, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the parts of a cowboy hat, shown on a hat with a cattleman crease. The second drawing turns it over for the sweatband and two brim edges; the third shows four crown creases.

Read the full guide

The hat, the inside, then the creases

Numbers 1 to 5 are on the whole hat: the crown, the crease along its top, the brim, the hatband and the stampede string under it. Number 6, the sweatband, is inside the crown. Numbers 7 and 8 are two ways to finish the edge of the brim, a bound edge and a pencil roll. Numbers 9 to 12 are four crowns: open, cattleman, Montana peak and telescope.

Cowboy hats are sold with a tall, round crown and a wide, flat brim, or already creased and rolled.
Stampede strings are also called wind strings.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a cowboy hat called?

The crown is the tall part over the head and the brim is the wide edge round it. A hatband circles the base of the crown outside, a sweatband lines it inside, and a stampede string can hang under the chin.

What is the string on a cowboy hat called?

A stampede string, or wind string. It hangs from the hat and goes under the chin to hold the hat on at a gallop or in wind.

What is a cattleman crease?

The classic crown shape: one crease along the top and one down each side. A crown with no crease at all is an open crown.

What is the band inside a cowboy hat for?

The sweatband sits inside the base of the crown and steadies the fit of the hat on the head. One hat guide says to look for genuine leather that is sewn in, not glued.