Hills Hats have operated in the Wellington region since 1875 and in 2025 will celebrate their 150th anniversary. They have been renowned for their mix of innovative and traditional hat-making techniques and have been providers of elite fashion items as well as thousands of uniforms. Their clients include artists like Rudi & Lissy Robinson-Cole, Troy Kingi, and Willie Nelson and large organisations such as the Black Caps, NZ Police, and (most importantly) MOTAT.
Uniform items (and hats) manufactured by Hills Hats can be found in museum collections all around Aotearoa, but MOTAT has the largest collection – 44% of all items collected and publicly available.
Traditionally Hills Hats’ biggest customers have been government agencies, particularly emergency services, defence force agencies (including in the 1990s being the official supplier to the UN), and transport-related agencies (including port, harbour bridge, bus, tram, and rail organisations). In 2020, most of their international orders dried up, and they temporarily pivoted to high fashion face masks.
Hills Hats have also been the long-term official supplier of MOTAT’s caps on the tramway and railway. There are none presently in the collection (they’re working on it), but a wander out onto the Western Springs Tramway any day of the week or M2 when rail is in operation will give you a variety to see in person!
By Scott Pilkington
Further reading:
1News Reporters. 2024. "Hills Hats - on top for almost 150 years - tips tough year ahead." 1 News, 10 January, 2024. https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/10/hills-hats-on-top-for-almost-150-years-tips-tough-year-ahead/.
Dix, Kelly. 2018. "Hills Hats." Stories. New Zealand Fashion Museum. Accessed 29 Feb. https://www.nzfashionmuseum.org.nz/hills-hats/.
Government House. 2020. "Hills Hats Petone." The Governor-General of New Zealand. Last Modified 26 May 2020. Accessed 29 February. https://gg.govt.nz/image-galleries/hills-hats-petone.
Hills Hats. n.d. "About." Hills Hats. Accessed 29 February. https://hillshats.co.nz/about/.
Lawrence, Rhys. 2017. "Meet The Storyteller: Hills Hats." New Zealand Story. 11 October. https://www.nzstory.govt.nz/about-us/news/meet-the-storyteller-hills-hats/.
Lei’ataua, Susana. 2024. "Simon Smuts Kennedy: Hill's Hats hanging on after 150 years." Radio New Zealand, 7 January, 2024. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018921610/simon-smuts-kennedy-hill-s-hats-hanging-on-after-150-years.
Prasad, Alka. 2023. "Small business: Simon Smuts-Kennedy on the cap-tivating legacy of Hills Hats." New Zealand Herald, 30 October, 2023. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/small-business-simon-smut-kennedy-on-the-cap-tivating-legacy-of-hills-hats/HG7ZSVB6VBH3DGBWFHDC55MBWA/.
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