Foeran is a business established in 2014. It is a store specializing in selling handmade cowboy hats.

Our founding team is 2 middle-aged males who are passionate about traveling and exploring, namely myself and my brother. At the dawn of the millennium, my brother and I made a promise to spend 5 years (i.e. 2011-2015) on a global trip to learn about the landscapes and cultures around the world. So starting from 2010, we began to plan our route and prepare our belongings. In the spring of 2011, we officially set off.

In the spring of 2011, we began the first leg of our round-the-world trip and came to Tibet, the last pure land on earth.

The character of the Tibetan people is as pure and warm as the blue sky of Tibet. When we were perched on the grassland, herds of cows and horses roosted with us, accompanied by the wind that carried the smell of grass. In the distance came the herdsmen's songs, bright and spiritual as heavenly music. When following the sound, the herdsmen will warmly talk to us, telling us local traditions and interesting stories.

 We marveled at the amazing creative and manual skills of the Tibetan people. With the simplest of tools - their hands and rulers - they are able to produce many beautiful works of art, such as their clothing. Unlike today's fast-fashion clothing, the Tibetan people's garments are hand-dyed, embroidered, designed and tailored using traditional techniques, and are so beautiful and high-quality that a single garment can be worn for more than ten years. They do not rely on and are curious about modern assembly line goods. For example, cowboy hats are a must-have for almost everyone in Tibet, but such a huge demand for cowboy hats does not come from the assembly line of factories, but from their magical hands. We once saw a herder make two cowboy hats in the middle of a conversation and laugh with us, and bring them to us to try on and eventually give to my brother and me as gifts.

After two weeks in Tibet, we started traveling throughout the globe with cowboy hats given to us by the people of Tibet.

We went to climb the snow-capped Alps, to Iceland to see the land and rocks of the high latitudes, and to Naples to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa,. The progressively worn cowboy hat received many compliments throughout our travels and some people even asked me where I purchased it. But when I told them it was handmade for us by an amazing rancher, they couldn't help but let out a gasp, "This is amazing!"

Yes, it was amazing.

I was struck by the thought: why not let more people have such a marvelous craft, such an acclaimed item?

In the fall of 2013, we returned to Hong Kong after an early end to a trip full of excitement and culture clashes. We went to learn about the culture and production process of cowboy hats, and contacted some suppliers of cowboy hats, trying to find out through these suppliers how cowboy hats are currently produced in the market. Of course, the answer we got was that they are made in factories by workers working in assembly line labor day by day. They are made so fast that one person can make about 100 hats in a day with the help of machines.

But we couldn't bear the idea of cowboy hats, which symbolize freedom and adventure, being produced in a dark, conformist factory, which I thought lost the meaning of the cowboy hats themselves.

So my brother and I came to Tibet again in early 2014.

This time, we stayed in Tibet for two months.

We went to visit the Tibetan area to sell handicrafts vendors, ask him how to get these exquisite handicrafts, he told us, Tibetan herders almost everyone will do these, they in the daily cattle and horses in the gap to make these items, and then come to me here to sell.

My brother and I were overjoyed, this kind of free, casual, and life-changing creation is the real meaning of handmade, such a cowboy hat with the flavor of freedom is what the cowboys really want.

So we asked the vendor to share the addresses of some herders who were good at making handmade, and visited them at home, asking them if they were willing to make handmade cowboy hats for us, and we came over to buy them on a regular basis.

In the spring of 2014, it was still very cold in the Tibetan area. We woke up at 7:00 every day and went home at 22:00. We visited 13 herders in 5 days, telling them about what we were doing - the Handicraftsmen Program - and how we hoped that they would use their excellent handicraft skills to make handmade cowboy hats for us. Happily, 10 of them offered to make cowboy hats for us, while the other 3 said they were too busy to do so, which we understood. We thanked those 10 craftsmen for their willingness to make cowboy hats for us, and they were also very grateful to us for bringing them income. When we were leaving, some of the elderly people took our hands and thanked us again and again, which touched us deeply, and I think we were doing something very meaningful, and my brother and I were so happy that we couldn't sleep that night!

While my brother and I were rejoicing and wishing well, trouble came. We didn't expect that after solving the problem of people, the raw materials and transportation became our biggest headache. The Tibetan area is so remote that it is difficult to deliver the raw materials, and even if they can be delivered, the transportation cost is quite high, far beyond the scope of our affordability.

So the project was delayed for another two weeks. It is important to realize that the raw materials for cowboy hats include fleece, leather and straw. Wool is very easy to obtain in Tibetan areas, leather is relatively easy, but straw is difficult because the high terrain in Tibetan areas is not conducive to the growth of rice.

Eventually we managed to find some farmers and through their referrals visited local and neighboring rice growers and asked them to supply us with straw.

Fortunately, when they learned that we would be making hats out of straw, they thought it was amazing and that what we were doing was very great, so they readily agreed.

My brother and I were ecstatic. So in the early summer of 2014, all the problems were solved and we officially founded Foeran.

When foeran was founded, we had only a small store, which our parents and wife took care of, while my brother and I often flew to Tibet to get to know the Tibetan craftsmen we worked with, to learn how long it took them to make a hat, whether they had enough raw materials, whether they needed any auxiliary tools, and how to buy hats with different craftsmanships, etc. We were able to make as many hats as we wanted each day.

Since the herders only spend their leisure time making cowboy hats, the number of hats they can make each day is limited. About one herder can only make 3-5 cowboy hats a day. But the cowboy hats they make are very good in workmanship and unique in shape, and soon cause a hot sale in our local area.

But we could only make 30-50 hats a day, and the demand for our products exceeded the supply. So we flew to Tibet again in 2015, trying to get more Tibetan herders to join our craftsman program. Our search was not as difficult as the first time, because many Tibetan people saw that making hats in their free time could also bring in income, and were so impressed that they took the initiative to find us and ask to join. By 2020, 200+ Tibetan craftmen had joined our Craftmen Plan, and at the same time, our products began to be sold throughout Asia and Europe.

In the years that followed, as our products became more popular, we were always looking for more craftmen to work with. Until 2024, our Craftmen Plan reached 1000 people, who became more and more familiar with the process of making cowboy hats and made them faster and faster, and now each of them can make 3-8 hats per day. We are very grateful to these crafty yet hardworking and simple Tibetan people, and we give them condolences or allowances every holiday.

Starting in 2022, my brother and I hope that our Craftmen Plan will continue to grow and bring more income to the Tibetan people to improve their lives. So we wanted to recruit more wholesalers to sell these beautifully crafted cowboy hats all over the world. So we created shopify.