CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:

To walk into the Bollman Hat Company, in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, is to walk into the past.

Since 1868, America's oldest hat maker has made everything from fedoras to cowboy hats — and each part of the process — from the way the wool is cleaned and felted, the materials pressed, and hats are shaped is a throwback to an older America.

While still making hats largely the same way it did in its earliest days, this past January the employee owned company added a new brand to their Pennsylvania assembly line – Kangol.

Coming to prominence in the U.S. in the 1980s, the British brand was an integral part of hip hop – a constant accessory of early rap luminaries like Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash & LL Cool J .

Founded in 1938, Kangol hats were made in the UK for about 60 years before moving to China.

In 2001, the Bollman Hat Company acquired the global license to design, produce, and distribute Kangol headwear.

Then in 2014, the Chinese plant producing the Kangol hats closed in order to move to Bangladesh for cheaper wages, forcing Bollman to find a new production facility.

And like its role in hip hop, Kangol is once again trendsetting – joining a growing roster of products formerly made in China.

Through a combination of state grants, online fundraising and company investment, Bollman bought and shipped the Kangol knitting machines from China to Adamstown.

Don Rongione is the company's CEO.