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“This is the campground of a war zone.” Volunteers fighting the Eaton fire brought donations for LA firefighters.
- Cody Vilma’s hat shop, Vilma Hat Company, was destroyed in the recent California wildfires.
- Valima lost irreplaceable tools and equipment, making it uncertain if he could rebuild the business.
- The loss of the store represents a significant economic and cultural blow to the Altadena community.
LOS ANGELES – It took Cody Velema up to 10 hours to make a hat.
The nearly 50-step process looks like a craft from another century: Velma spinning rare American felt on old blocks of wood, used tools that were more than 100 years old, hide the lining and this Caps are finished off with a vintage ribbon.
“For one reason or another, I made a choice many years ago that I really wanted to do it all by hand,” Velema told USA Today. “I don’t know, maybe I shot myself in the foot a while ago, but still, this is what we do.”
But now, Valima’s livelihood – Velima Heat Company – Gone, the victim of the Los Angeles region’s recent devastating wildfires, which have destroyed more than 11,000 homes and businesses, killed at least 28 and burned more than 46,000 acres. Many blazes are still not under control.
“It was nineteen percent of what the store had,” said Shelby Velema, Cody’s wife.
The shop was on bucolic Mariposa Street in Altadena, when it was destroyed when the Eaton fire engulfed thousands of homes.
The Villemas were among those forced to evacuate their Pasadena home, which is just minutes away from the hat shop. They consider themselves lucky that their house was spared but mourn the loss of their hat shop and all the treasures it contained.
The Willimas were able to make it to the store that night that had caused the fire but were only able to recover a few cherished items, including a Navajo rug and a 19th-century sombrero.
“We never thought a fire would come to the store because we have hundreds, hundreds of houses,” Shelby said. “We looked at the shop at 10 o’clock that night and by 10 o’clock the next morning, maybe a little earlier, it was completely gone. Less than 12 hours, the whole community was gone from that point and it’s just unbelievable. “
The hallmark of the high-end Hat Shop community
About nine years ago, Valima moved her hat shop from Santa Barbara to Altadena and built it to be “an extension of herself.”
“Our kids were growing up in our store. That was the biggest thing for us, and to me, it’s so special that nobody really needs to understand or experience it in today’s world, with that. How fast it is and how money hungry everyone is,” Velima said. “We didn’t have as much money, but we had a lot of life because our kids were growing up at our store.”
Customer Peter Zottolo told USA Today that the reflection of Valima’s personality was an important part of what made the store special.
“It was a very family-friendly shop. People would just stop by to say hello and hang out because Cody is just such a nice guy and he can chat with you while he’s working,” Zottolo said. “Whenever I would drive by, I always made it a point to stop and just have a little chat with him and see what he was doing.”
Altadena resident Carrie Jones, who lost her home in the fire, told USA TODAY that she had intended to go to Velima’s Hat Store just days before the fire broke out.
“I went to the hardware store and I looked in there and I said, ‘Oh, well, I meant to go there to see if it had styles that I liked,'” Jones said. “I just, you know, I never did, which now I wish I did. Altadena made stores like that and people like that unique.”
Business losses will recur
Derek Guy, a prolific menswear writer, told USA Today that the possible shuttering of the Valima Hat Company after the fire will have a knock-on effect for those who supply the heaters.
“As the hat business has seen a general decline, these suppliers are also seeing a general decline, and the fewer craft people buy from them, that puts their business at risk,” Guy said. “There is a general lack (of creation) in the industry for the web of its production.”
John Gaspar, an associate teaching professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, told USA Today that Valima’s store is a harbinger of economic damage that will occur as the ash settles.
“When you think about a small business, it’s by definition, very small,” Gasper said. “Recognize that this event in Los Angeles affects a lot of small businesses. Multiply that by the number of businesses that are moving … it’s a huge impact.”
Gasper said if the store doesn’t return, it would have an immediate impact on the economy in the area, though noted that would be difficult to measure.
“If a certain star goes there, maybe I’ll run into them, or maybe I’ll see my friends who hang out at the hardware store, right? So those are the kinds of things,” Gasper said. These are what we often call network effects.”
Guy noted that artisans like Valima provide more than just a product.
“We value handmade goods, not because they’re perfectly made, but we value them because they’re humanly imperfect,” Guy said. “Philosophers like Voltaire believe that if we can accept and appreciate these qualities and crafts, we can learn something about life itself: that as we strive for perfection, That we will fall by the wayside but less … acceptance that this is a kind of failure is, in itself, a beautiful human quality that allows us to have a greater appreciation for the meaning of life.”
Valima isn’t sure if the hat business will return
Williams told USA Today that while Cody knows he wants hats to be a part of his life, he’s not sure if he’ll continue with the business.
“It was a labor of love,” Cody said. “We didn’t make a lot of money with it, but we’re living this life and what it’s allowed us to do and how to live our lives and I don’t know what that looks like moving forward. is.”
He said many of the tools lost in the fire would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.
“Even if someone cut me a check for 200 grand tomorrow, I couldn’t go to Costco tomorrow and buy everything I had,” Velema said. “All my tools were 100 years old. It took years of collecting and sourcing and relationships and knowing people to build all these things and get these tools, to make the hats that were made.”
Shelby added that part of what made the decision difficult was the loss of the community surrounding the store.
“Not only is the store still not there, but a lot of that community is homeless and not there anymore,” he said. “Even if we want to go back and rebuild it, it never looks the same. And then that’s the heartbreaking part.”
