Hats you like all out of proportion to their quality

deadlyhandsome said:

No truer words....

Click to expand...

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Out of proportion - My Sunbody for sure. To say I have a choice in straw or felt hats is truly an understatement of enormous proportion. This Sunbody I picked up used for just over the price of a couple of fancy coffees. It has been really used hard during hot weather in June/July this summer. Dipped in the lake, hosed off with the garden hose and run over by my dog. This hat keeps on "ticking." I thought I would dislike the "cloth" sweat. Quite the contrary, I wet the hat and band and I am cooled.





A toss up between the Sunbody and my Tilley as to the best everyday warm, sweat in it, work hat. The Tilley I picked up this past winter for less money than a Ramen lunch. It too is a superb hard wearing hat. As much as it professes to have cooling features - I do not find it so. That said, it does not take away from its work ethos.



Cheers.

Not a specific hat as much as a style. I have close to a dozen of these 3-5X Beaver hats from stetson and Resistol (I prefer Resistols of this era). They all have 3 1/2 inch brims and 6 1/2+ inch crowns. Most have 6-cord western crown “ribbons,” but some are the more common 2-cord ribbons. They were made in the 1970s to the 1990s (approximate) and the felt is not great and nothing about them is exceptional. They just work for me. I have them in many colors including Silverbelly, sand, black, cordovan, and navy, and more. I have reshaped them all and they now have several different creases. Most of them cost me around $50 with several quite a bit less and very few more.



Not only do I like the style, the brims are wide enough to provide significant sun protection and the age mellowed western felt is soft while being able to take hard use and inclement weather. All this for about a third of the cost of an Akubra.

This Panama that I found thrifting several years ago fits this thread well. It's not my oldest, nor my finest, just a mid-grade unblocked body that I finished myself. I have fancier straws, and nicer looking ones with brim curls and such, but this one is the one I reach for most of the days I want a straw.


There's just something about a hat you made, refurbed or repaired yourself. I find myself more attached to those in my collection I worked on than the others, and tend to wear them more frequently.

Sometimes you find a hat with no redeeming qualities other than it turns into a 'grab and go' favorite. This Hat City Hat Co. cheap quality is such an animal. The felt it OK, but nothing special, other features are telling of a very low end hat of the late 50s period. Probably no more than $5 bucks. It fits great, I don't have to baby it, and is great for a work hat in the yard or down at the theater. Kind of fits this threat well.

Kind of a shame this thread died out.

Who? said:

Kind of a shame this thread died out.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I am the sort who just wears hats. Fortunately I have" an ample" amount of hats on my hat rack. This means the "hard wear" gets spread out amongst many hats.

I share another one of the hats that has a perfect niche. A hat to wear when it is raining and you need to be out for some time. This modern, 2013, Stetson Whippet is a plastic coated straw with a leather sweat. It kicks in the rain. Eventually the water comes through and my head gets damp. You do have to remember to spill the water off the teardrop shape and brim were it can puddle. It mostly sheds the hardest rain. Grand for this use. It has the mid 2010's leather sweat from Stetson which was thick and infused with all kinds of leather oils and conditioners. It makes it perfect for my use.

I picked it up from the Stetson Outlet store for a song and it has seen lots of use in the rain. Anywho, here's pics.







Cheers, Eric -