The legendary Canadian hat maker and travel clothing retailer Tilley Endurables is up for sale.

“I am 77 and it’s time,” founder Alex Tilley said in a telephone interview late Tuesday, after running a newspaper ad inviting potential buyers to make an offer.

The announcement raised doubts about the future of the company’s made in Canada policy and its Don Mills factory.

“We’re hoping a Canadian investor will find it interesting. It’s not a matter of money. I’ve got to have the right person, with a similar philosophy, who wants to do the very, very best,” Tilley said.

“I have felt very strongly we should maintain our manufacturing in Canada,” Tilley added. “I don’t know if they (the new owners) will. I hope that they will. But they’ll have their own ideas.”

Despite his age, Tilley’s decision to sell came as a bit of a surprise, the company’s chief executive officer Mary-Coleen Shanahan said in an interview.

The buyer will need to be someone who understands both manufacturing and retailing, she said. “I’d like to think it would stay Canadian. That would be ideal. It’s pretty hard in today’s world to mandate everything,” she said.

The sale is being handled by BDO Canada. Ken Pearl, the BDO contact, referred an email request for more information back to Tilley.

The company now sells to more than 300,000 clients a year in 18 countries through its six Canadian stores, its website and its 3,800 retail partners, the ad says.

The brand is identified with premium quality, superb staff and is made in Canada, the ad also says. Everything in the stores – except the socks -- is made in Canada, most of it in a factory behind its flagship store in Don Mills.

“The successful suitor will bring strong sales and marketing resources because there’s so much more to do,” the ad concludes.

Worn by royalty and ordinary adventurers, the Tilley hat was originally created for sailing after Alex fell in love with a 30-foot handmade sailboat moored at Toronto’s National Club in 1980.

He went in search of the perfect hat to match.

Disappointed in what he found, he oversaw the creation of what became the Tilley Hat, a cotton-duck hat with an Aussie-style snap-up brim that caught on with friends and family and other sailors.

“It took three months to work on a hat for myself. One that was worthy of my boat,” he recalled.

The grommets provided airflow, the chin strap kept it on during a gale, and it floated if it fell overboard.

The current version of the original hat now sells for about $80 and still comes with an owner’s manual, a lifetime guarantee and a series of stories of adventure and friendship.

As part of Tilley culture, customers are encouraged to post a “Tilley Tale” on the company website, featuring hats that have survived camel rides in Egypt, or treks through a Ugandan forest, or a close encounter with a python.

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The hat business was initially a sideline to his real job, renting and selling works of art to Toronto businesses, Tilley told The Star in a 2009 profile.

But after dabbling in shorts and trousers, built with special pockets for wallets for sailing, he discovered many of his customers were buying the hats and pants for travel.

“That changed my life,” he said.

Thus was born, in 1984, Tilley Endurables Inc., a company that specialized in lightweight, easy to pack, practical travel clothing – as well as hats.

Tilley hasn’t been its CEO in more than 15 years and now lives in Muskoka. But he’s remained involved as chairman. Neither of his two daughters is involved in the business.

“Alex is in full health and vigor. If he were to wait 15 years to do this, he would not be in as strong a position to negotiate. We’re very pleased he’s picked now to do it,” his brother, John Tilley, said in a telephone interview.

John’s children, Nikki and Jeff, own and operate the Vancouver store, which is not part of the sale.

The west coast outlet, Tilley’s largest dealer, will work with whoever buys the business, John said.

The company now sells more than 50 different hats in various materials and styles. But they all come with Alex’s trademarked “Practise Safe Sun” slogan, Shanahan said.

Most of its customers are baby boomers, she said.

Alex Tilley, meanwhile, is about to start his next adventure.

“I’m off to Cambodia for three weeks to help assembly bicycles for about 1,000 children. I doing with that with Rotary International,” he said.