About

Our Roots

Our master hatter, friends and family have built a truly state of the art hat brand.  Bjork coming from the Icelandic word for birch tree inspires us and our commitment to nature throughout our process.

Handcrafted using classical traditions, Bjorkstam products are created using natural materials, with classical technology and techniques from start to finish. 

Bjorkstam is proud to craft true hats from Crested Butte, CO...

Meet The Hatter  

I grew up a scatter brain. Probably still am- well I know I am.

But I’ve found a passion that I know is about to stick with me forever and that’s what wakes me up in the morning feeling passionate every single day. I moved back to Crested Butte after a year back home in Oregon trying to figure out what i was after and wasn’t quiiiite finding it. It was a hell of a year sifting through personal experiences and covid all directly after college and trying to roam free in the world while feeling like I had a grip on life. I had about 50 million things I wanted to do and was half assed trying to go after all of them. I thought marketing and remote social media work was my calling for a career after being an Olympic ski racer was out of my card deck and working for a kite board company behind a desk 9-5 was clearly not a path I was really stoked about.

I broke up with a boyfriend and then about 2 weeks later decided to move back to Crested Butte on a whim really not sure what I was going to do. I picked up a serving job at a cocktail bar and very swiftly decided I needed to do something more if I was gonna live in a ski town- what can I say I’m high maintenance and need a lot going on every second haha. I drove to Denver one weekend and had a plan of walking into a bunch of hats shops and hoping that someone would just tell me how to make a hat- news flash that doesn’t happen. I did however meet a guy named Kip who steered me in the right direction to a guy named Mike who lives in the middle of nowhere Tennessee- one of the very last places I ever thought I would see myself every going. I called up mike and begged him to teach me the skill and he agreed. I hopped on a plane a week later with teary eyes which was interesting but I just had this weird feeling that I was really supposed to do this and that dropping all other ideas was a good idea.

I spend a few days in Tennessee and come back with full plans to start making hats out of my garage. Turns out roommates don’t like that and a one car garage isn’t quite big enough. It also turns out that the materials and tools are HARD to find and you’re very lucky to find them if ever.

That year I spent working up at irwin a high class backcountry ski and cat ski location out of crested butte for my main job. I made a deal with the local art center to give me a small temporary space to set up a very loose hat making workshop. I remember the first day I stretched a felt body over a block and sanded that baby until it was shiny and smooth. I couldn’t believe it worked and I had actually accomplished one step in the entire hat process all on my own without mike or anybody. Then I did another step, and another and finished a hat that people told me looked so good- I was so amazed! I started taking local orders and doing my best to make sure they fit properly etc. which I have to say is one of the most stressful parts of hat making: *THIS BETTER FIT THEM* as I ship it off across the country now a days.

Spring was starting to show itself and the snowy peaks were melting off fast as my time at the center for the arts was coming to an end and so was my job at Irwin. I put out some posts in the marketplace and spread the word that I was looking for a garage or room to move into to continue hat making. I was getting some hits and felt confident that this could continue to be a really fun and developing side hobby for me. Not a week later, and I’m walking down elk avenue as William Oberling is locking up one of the units in the grubstake building right in the center of Elk Avenue. I took a sip of my latte and thought what the hell I’ll talk to this man he looks approachable! I tap his shoulder and he glares at me like “oh brother what does this little blonde girl want and she’s for sure going to slip in those stupid boots she’s wearing.” I ask about the space he’s locking up and get the details that it’s about to go up for rent. Well to be honest the days after that conversation are pretty much a blur and all I know is I was turning my hopeful 5 year plan of owning a hat shop into a sudden 4 month plan. I called emailed texted reached out and got really good with a sander and a few other power tools. 2 months later and a few meltdowns and I had myself a storefront. I couldn’t have done it with out the assistance of family and friends coming together to help me build it and my hat mentor, Mike, who told me I needed to do it and that I would never look back. I did just that and here I am! June 4th, 2021 Björkstam opened the doors on Elk Avenue and to this day I still don’t even know what just happened I just run around and make hats and day by day learn new things about running a business. I have to say it doesn’t matter that I went to business school, being a business owner will kick your ass even if it’s a hat shop in a ski town in the middle of Colorado.

I have hopes to expand to other locations whether that’s next summer or a few years down the road, I want to build the company with intentions of using it to live my dreams as well as help others that need it. I am a strong believer in being an outdoors athlete and living in the mountains while also having good style if you want to and rocking cool fashion pieces wether that be a high end western hat, a cool jumpsuit, vintage ski boot shoes, you name it- own it! But I want to use this opportunity that’s been given to me in my life to help others that are in need and have a hard time even surviving. It fulfills me knowing I can make a positive difference in other people lives and help them- in this case donating proceeds from the business I created.

Thank you for supporting Björkstam or even reading about the process of the business and I getting to this point.

Cheers,

Elle Truax