Authentically Selling “Heritage”

Tom Smarte was a family-run hatmaker founded in the late 18th century in Devon, England. Yet after the fourth Thomas Smarte died in the First World War, the brand lay silent until 2013 when Allon Zloof decided to revive it. As a designer hat maker himself, he knew what needed to be done to bring the brand back. In this interview, he shares the keys to selling a long-storied but long-sleeping heritage brand and the trouble with offering a high-quality product in a market of low-quality competitors.