business spotlight Fred and Tina Belinsky moved to San Diego
in 1980 in order to open a hat store in downtown’s Seaport Village. Named simply, The Hat Shop, it was the first store to open there in May of that same year. Seaport Village was a successful center from day
one, filling San Diego’s hunger for a local center with shops, restaurants and free entertainment on the waterfront. From those early beginnings, the Village Hat Shop opened several stores, with four remaining, three in the city of San Diego and one at Shoreline Village in Long Beach. Coming from a background in academia, selling
hats retail was a new frontier. Though learning about hats, the history and variety became a lifelong interest and passion. There is a great deal of history in headwear, as Fred Belinsky once offered, “It was even discovered that ancient mummies wore hats.” In 1977, the Balinsky’s decided to include one regionally significant hat, the Greek Fisherman’s on what was then new World Wide Web, which was an instant success. “A customer would see the hat and call us to place the order. Every step was hand written, his son said. “We have come a long way from 1977 and now boast thousands of hats of every category. Eight years ago we opened a website based in the United Kingdom, called Village Hats.” The untimely death of Village Hat Shop founder,
VILLAGE HAT SHOP THE PERFECT LOCALE, FOR THE PERFECT CHAPEAU,
FOR WHEN YOU WANT TO MAKE LA GRANDE ENTRÉE by cesar reyes
Fred Belinsky, was the impetus for their son, Zachary, to leave his law career in New Mexico to help with the family business. A dedicated staff and he work together to provide the best quality hats from all over world, at great prices. Zachary offered this as to why they are so popular, “The stand out feature at Village Hat Shop is that we know about hats and want to share that love with our customers; how to select and fit a hat properly.” When asked about what the latest news is at the
shop, the main office offered this, “We have new management at all our locations. Jay Heimbach has taken on our Hillcrest location and is focused on new merchandise that we’re pretty sure our clientele will love! Our three locations in San Diego, each have a very different market, as well as the one in Long Beach. Hillcrest for example, has changed so much in just the past five years. We at the Village Hat Shop have had to evolve with the neighborhood. We have been here since 1996 and have been very involved with the community and have recently been exploring new collaborative opportunities with local businesses.” Manager Jay
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RAGE monthly | JULY 2016 | JULY
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