My dad was a young man when he fought in WWII. Looking at photos of him after he left the service in 1946, he never wore a hat. And looking at his friends in the photos, most of them aren't wearing hats either.
I wonder if the reason JFK didn't wear a hat was... many individuals of his generation didn't particularly care for them. JFK was the first individual of that generation elected to the presidency.
Which doesn't necessarily mean JFK had no influence. But I wonder whether it was part of a bigger pattern.
Obviously can't prove anything from an anecdote, and I'm not sure where you'd get the marketing data to do more... but it would seem that if younger men did resist buying hats, retailers at some level would probably have known.
Maybe the hat-killer was the discomfort of steel helmets in WWII. Any movie from that war, and all the guys are taking their helmets of all the time because they are annoying.
I wonder if the reason JFK didn't wear a hat was... many individuals of his generation didn't particularly care for them. JFK was the first individual of that generation elected to the presidency.
Which doesn't necessarily mean JFK had no influence. But I wonder whether it was part of a bigger pattern.
Obviously can't prove anything from an anecdote, and I'm not sure where you'd get the marketing data to do more... but it would seem that if younger men did resist buying hats, retailers at some level would probably have known.