The workshop eventually grew to industrial production, and in 1888 the company moved to a new factory designed by Arnaldo Gardella, located on Corso Cento Cannoni, Alessandria.

In these years Borsalino produced 2,500 hats a day, but when the company won the Grand Prix, an important quality certificate, at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, it spread the brand's fame globally.

In 1987 the hat factory moved from the historic center in Alessandria to the current one of Spinetta Marengo, in the suburbs of the city, and the president, Vittorio Vaccarino, the last descendant of the Borsalino family, sold the company to a group of Milanese entrepreneurs.

[9][10][11] The Borsalino business dynasty has made an important contribution to the city of Alessandria, building the aqueduct, the sewerage network, the hospital, the sanatorium and the retirement home.

[12] The historic headquarters of the company, currently located in Corso 100 Cannoni, now hosts the University of Eastern Piedmont Amedeo Avogadro and the Borsalino Hat Museum.

A joint initiative by Alessandria town council and the Borsalino company, the museum covers an exhibition area of roughly 400 square metres (4,300 sq ft) and houses about two thousand hats, displayed in the historic Chippendale style cabinets made in the 1920s by Arnaldo Gardella for the factory sample room.

Since the birth of advertising in Italy, at the turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Borsalino has entrusted the realization of its posters to the most important artists of the time.

This privileged relationship with art has been confirmed over time and has led the company to collaborate with Cesare Simonetti, Giorgio Muggiani, Giovanni Dradi, Franz Laskoff, Marcello Dudovich, winner in 1910 of a competition organized by Borsalino to publicize the Zenit hat, Giuseppe Minonzio, Gino Boccasile, Luigi Bompard, Jeanne Grignani, Luigi Veronesi, Max Huber and Armando Testa.

The relationship with the cinema was destined to last: in addition to Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca, Marcello Mastroianni in 8 ½ and Jean Paul Belmondo in Breathless both wore a Borsalino.

These have led to the creation of capsule collections with Nick Fouquet,[31] Tom Ford, Gianni Versace, Krizia, Valentino, Moschino, Yohji Yamamoto, Marni, Gianfranco Ferré, Rochas, Italia Independent and DSquared.