Tennessee Hats

Tennessee's flag carries three stars for the three Grand Divisions: East, Middle and West. The flag was adopted in 1905, and the divisions are real enough that East Tennessee means mountains and Knoxville, Middle means Nashville and country music, and West means Memphis and the river. This collection is for the people who live inside those lines. The in-group vocabulary is specific. Rocky Top became a Tennessee state song in 1982 and plays at every Vols home game. Nashville hot chicken traces to the family of André Prince Jeffries and Prince's Hot Chicken Shack, and Hattie B's heat scale climbs all the way to "Shut the Cluck Up!!!" In Memphis, a dry rib is covered in rub and eaten without sauce, Rendezvous has served them since Charlie Vergos opened it in 1948, and Memphis in May is billed as the largest pork barbecue contest in the world. Dolly Parton has even released Tennessee Vols merchandise. Meanwhile Lower Broadway sees more than 13,000 bride squads a year, which is why a Nashville local who has never been there is a flag worth wearing. These Tennessee hats mix plain state badges with the lines locals actually say. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to Neyland, to a Smokies trailhead, or to the hot chicken line, or give one to a Dolly devotee.