If he'd gone and bought a cowboy hat in the last few weeks, they would've at least attempted to sell him a summer hat (straw) instead of a winter hat (felt). Not definitive but strange.
Edit: Please read what I wrote before replying. Texas isn't a desert does not mean Texas has no desert. 90±% of the state is not desert, including where the vast majority of people live.
Yeah and that's not where the people or cattle live, minus El Paso. Texas is <10% desert. To act like the whole state is a desert is straight up wrong, yet annoyingly common for people who have never been here.