Bar M Custom Tack
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Creating Cowboy and Fashion hats to tell your story ✨ Building Handmade Tack with Grit and Grace 🌵
You know that hat you’ve always dreamed about? Yeah… this is the moment people realise they can actually have it.
Look at their faces.
Nobody is reacting to “just a hat.”
They’re reacting to THE hat.
The one that’s fitted to their actual head so they’re not walking around with red lines across their forehead and a headache by lunchtime.
The one that’s shaped to suit THEIR face instead of whatever shape happened to be popular on a factory line.
The one that makes them look in the mirror and go:
“Well sh*t…”
And that’s where the fun starts.
Because every single hat is shaped differently.
A little more roll here.
A little more width there.
Drop the brim.
Lift the brim.
All done with steam, my hands, and years of figuring out what works by feel.
No templates.
No cookie-cutter hats.
No “that’ll do.”
Just shaping until the hat and the person finally match.
And let’s not ignore the beaver in the room…
Bar M is the only place in New Zealand offering custom cowboy hats with genuine beaver blends all the way through to 100% beaver.
The good stuff.
The stuff that makes old cowboys weirdly emotional about hats.
Honestly, this is my favourite part of Fieldays.
Not selling hats.
Watching someone find THEIR hat.
The one they’ve been imagining for years without even knowing it.
📍 Fieldays
📍 Site RLL12
Come try one on.
Fair warning though…
You might leave looking significantly cooler than when you arrived 🤠
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07/06/2026
It started in cow camp at the Gang Ranch in British Columbia.
A million-acre ranch. No cell service. The middle of nowhere. Just a bunch of cowboys, horses, cattle, and me learning to braid rope in the evenings after work.
Back then, Bar M wasn’t a business. It wasn’t even really an idea. It was just something I enjoyed doing.
Fast forward a few years and somehow that little hobby has grown into a brand that people recognise across New Zealand and around the world. These days people stop me and ask, “Are you the Bar M lady?” or “You’re the hat lady, right?”
To be honest, I never imagined Bar M would become what it has. And I certainly never imagined I’d be here as the incredibly proud winner of the New Zealand Rural Women Young Businesswoman Award.
A few years ago at Equifest, a lady stopped by my stand and told me about a business idea she had. We chatted for a while and I remember telling her she just needed to back herself and give it a crack.
Three days later she came back to find me. She thanked me and said it was the push she needed.
That conversation has stuck with me because backing yourself is hard.
There have been countless moments where I’ve had absolutely no idea how I was going to make something work. Times where the numbers didn’t make sense. Times where the next step wasn’t obvious. Times where giving up would have been easier.
But I backed myself anyway.
And here we are.
Next week, Bar M turns six years old. Six years of learning, failing, figuring it out, trying again, and building something I’m incredibly proud of.
Winning this award isn’t just for me. It’s for every rural woman in New Zealand and beyond who is thinking about taking the first step.
The one sitting on an idea. The one wondering if she’s good enough. The one waiting until she feels ready.
Back yourself.
The best things I’ve ever done started with absolutely no guarantees.
Forever grateful. Thank you thank you thank you NZI.
With Grit & Grace,
Millie 🤠
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I know.
It’s shocking.
For years we’ve been told if you wanted a proper custom hat you needed to:
book a flight,
sell a kidney,
or know a guy who knows a guy somewhere in the American West.
Meanwhile…
We’ve been quietly building some of the highest-quality custom hats right here in New Zealand.
And before anyone gets patriotic on me…
These hats don’t just stand up in New Zealand.
They stand up internationally too.
The materials.
The fit.
The shaping.
The craftsmanship.
I’d put them beside hats from anywhere in the world and sleep just fine that night.
The difference?
You don’t have to guess your size.
You don’t have to gamble online.
And you don’t have to hope some factory worker in another country understands your face shape.
You can walk into Fieldays.
Try them on.
Get fitted properly.
Find out why your last hat gave you a headache.
Find out why your favourite hat always sat crooked.
Find out why your mate’s hat looks great on him and ridiculous on you.
Then walk away with a hat that actually suits YOU.
Wild concept, I know.
📍 Fieldays
📍 RLL12
Come see what all the fuss is about.
And fair warning…
You might accidentally become a hat person.
It happens more often than you’d think 🤠
Comment COWBOY and I’ll send you the link to check out the options before Fieldays.
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For years, if you wanted a REALLY good custom hat, you either:
A) flew overseas
B) guessed your size online and prayed
C) bought whatever was hanging on a shelf and convinced yourself it fit
Not anymore.
Next week at Fieldays I’ll be doing what I do best.
Fitting hats to real heads.
Not mannequin heads.
Not factory blocks.
Not “close enough.”
YOUR head.
The lumps.
The bumps.
The slightly wonky bits.
The face shape you’ve been blaming for years when it was actually the hat’s fault.
You’ll get to try different crowns.
Different brim shapes.
Different widths.
Because not every face suits a Cattleman.
Not every build suits a narrow brim.
And not every person wants to look like everyone else walking around the grounds.
The hats I know are going to absolutely disappear?
Twisted Weave straws.
Beaver blends.
Big brims.
Bold crowns.
Anything that makes people stop and say:
“Well sh*t… that actually suits me.”
And that’s my favourite part.
Watching someone go from:
“I don’t think hats suit me”
to
“Right. I’ll take that one.”
📍 Fieldays
📍 Site RLL12
Come find out what shape actually suits YOU.
Comment COWBOY and I’ll send you the link to check out all the options before Fieldays 🤠
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Because when the weather turns ugly, the cheap felt starts negotiating its exit strategy.
Meanwhile the beaver blend is standing there like:
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Rain.
Dust.
Travel.
Life.
The reason old cowboys get weirdly attached to their hats isn’t because they’re sentimental.
It’s because quality is addictive.
Once you’ve worn a proper felt with beaver in it, everything else feels a bit like microwaved steak.
Technically food.
But we all know it’s not the same.
Whether you’re after a 10%, 30%, 60% or the full “I want this thing to outlive me” 100% beaver option…
I’ve got you covered.
Come try them on at Fieldays or order online.
Comment COWBOY and I’ll send you the link to all the options 🤠
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I don’t know about you, but I know that when someone shakes my hand with a poor weak handshake...l call them out and ask them do to it again properly.
It is the same with a poor fitting hat...it just makes me want to fix it for them!
A cowboy hat isn’t just something you throw on-it’s part of who you are.
If it’s too tight, you’ll have a headache by lunchtime. Too loose? It’ll be flying down the paddock faster than you can yell “catch that!”
That’s why every Bar M cowboy hat is hand-shaped and measured to fit your head perfectly. Crown, brim, hatband-you call the shots.
Want a cattleman crown and a 4-inch brim? Done. A flat brim with a sharp crease? Easy.
And because we hand-shape each hat using steam and lacquer, it’ll hold its shape through wind, rain, and whatever else the day throws at you.
A good hat should sit like it was made for you-because it was. It should bring out your smile, give you shoulders back, t**s out, conquer the world energy.
You don’t settle for second-best in life-why would you settle for a cowboy hat that doesn’t fit?
Link in bio to get started on your custom cowboy hat.
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Opening Hours
| Monday | 09:00 - 17:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 - 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 - 17:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 - 17:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 - 17:00 |