Heisenberg Hats

Everyone in Manhattan wants the chapeaux:

Mr. Percoco had taken the day off work at Rutgers University so he could ensure he was at the front of a line of about 40 customers waiting outside the Goorin Bros. Hat Shop on Bleecker Street in the West Village on Thursday, when the hat went on sale for the first time in New York.

...Goorin Bros. has produced only 1,895 Heisenbergs....  The company has made this number because its business began in 1895 ,when craftsman Cassel Goorin started creating custom-made hats in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Heisenberg, which retails for $212, was first released during the Comic-Con event in San Diego in July and sold out immediately.

...Marc Rosenzweig, 49, from Long Island, said he had tried to buy the Heisenberg online several times when it was available earlier this year, but the Goorin Bros. website kept crashing due to the high demand.

“I’ve been waiting for this hat for months,” said Mr. Rosenzweig, who runs a pet hotel in Deer Park, N.Y., and had been waiting since 9:30a.m.

“I bought a cheap knock-off from a street vendor a year ago, but it’s felt. This will be a nice wool hat for fall, and I’ll wear it for Yom Kippur,” he said.

King Tommy Au-Yeung, 33, from Astoria, purchased the Heisenberg, the Captain Cook knit hat and another hat inspired by “Breaking Bad,” a baseball cap for $30.

“I’m all about ‘Breaking Bad,’ I’m completely obsessed with the show,” said Mr. Au-Yeung, who compared the narrative to an American classic such as J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”

“I own 12 ‘Breaking Bad’ t-shirts, some mugs and the DVDs on Blu-Ray,” he said.

...On Friday morning, there were three Heisenbergs left at the West Village store after Thursday night’s rain saw the queue disperse, said Goorin Bros. shopkeeper Alex Mroz.

“This is the one and only time we’ll have them, it’s a brief love affair with these Heisenbergs,” said Mr. Mroz.