Max Raab & The Magic Of A Quaker Marine Hat
Learn about the legendary sportswear pioneer, film producer, Philadelphia native, and avid Quaker Marine wearer who made the introduction that eventually led to our relaunch.
There’s a hat on a desk in our Brooklyn design studio. It looks as though its owner, Max Raab, forgot it and is about to walk back through the door to reclaim it. How we wish that was possible! Max was a great friend and legendary human being. He died in 2008 and when Merle, his widow, gave the hat and this photo to Kevin, our creative director, last summer, it brought back a lifetime of memories.
Back in 1976, Kevin was working for an exclusive preppy clothing store on New York’s Upper East Side. The owner had tasked Kevin with visiting various vendors to cancel their orders so most people weren’t too happy to see him. But, when Kevin showed up at the J. G. Hook office in the Fuller Building at 57th and Madison Avenue, Max, the owner, simply shrugged and said, “comme çi, comme ça,” and they became friends.
From the first meeting in the J. G. Hook offices to the day he died, Max was a wonderful mentor and friend to Kevin. Max loved sailing catamarans and catboats off the Jersey Shore and in the Caribbean and he always wore Quaker Marine hats. One day, he introduced Kevin to Joe Kadison, a fellow Philadelphian and WWII Coast Guard vet who started the company in 1949. While Joe could never have imagined that Kevin would one day own Quaker Marine Supply, that’s exactly what happened.
Last summer, when Max’s favorite Quaker Marine hat showed up in Kevin’s life, we like to believe it was a wink from Max and a nod from Joe. That’s just how things work around here.