techstraw

was just reading about this new synthetic straw. impervious to water, packing, not sure what the heck it is exactly. from the pictures it looks like straw. kind of expensive, about $60.00 for a hat. I wasn't moved to buy it, was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it, if it feels offensive to the touch. If i were to ruin a couple of fancy straw hats I might go with this one as a spare. i think it was designed for water sports. could be good for going into the ocean, going out when it looks like rain...available at orvis.

I purchased one at REI a few years ago for travel, and wasn't pleased with it at all. It has several things going against it:

a) while it looks like straw from a distance, it definitely feels like plastic. and looks like a fake straw hat once you get it within arms-length.

b) it's a suprisingly thick hat. Couple that with the plastic, and you end up with a very hot hat that doesn't breathe at all. Sort of like wearing a plastic bag on your head in the summer.

On the plus side, it's definitely built with indescrutiblity in mind - it sprang back to shape with no problems after being crammed in a suitcase.

It struck me as the sort of hat that might be good for river rafting or some other situation where you knew you would get drenched, and getting overheated wouldn't be a big problem

Its just a fancy name for paper

They just use alot of lacquer on the hat. Its woven paper.

Paper panama: Cone or capeline made of Japanese Toyo paper, woven to imitate natural Panama.

Toyo: a shiny smooth straw made from shellacked rice paper and used especially for hats.
Normally seen in cream or white although sometimes dyed. This simple blocked shape can be rolled and packed without damage.

Same as woven rice paper. Value about $1.00


Sharpey

Sharpey, I think that we may be talking about different hats. The "techstraw" that I reviewed above is the Riverz Safari, which can be found at

www.noggintops.com under the Straw Hats category.

Trust me on this one -- there's nothing paperlike about the beast, it appears to be 100% genuine plastic fiber. If anybody is interested in a sliightly used one in a Large/ 7 1/4 feel free to PM me -- but don't say that I didn't warn you.

SHARPETOYS said:

I bet that thing is hot as blazes?? Right??
Thanks,

Sharpey

Click to expand...

You have no idea how hot.

My daughter is active in a children's dance troupe here in Seattle. Two years ago, the dance group was invited to an international children's dance festival in Salvador, Brazil. And, as long as we were going to fly several thousand miles south to Brazil, decided to take a side trip after the festival to visit the Amazon rain forest - so we ended up booking some time at a tourist lodge a few miles up the river from Manaus, Brazil - in the middle of the Amazon basin.

In prepping for the trip, I was looking for a hat that was packable, had a decent brim on it to protect from tropical sun, and could withstand a good downpur -- after all, this is the Amazon rain forest, right? The hat sounded like just the ticket, at least on paper.

So we step off the plane in Manaus -- and the heat and humidity hits us like a sledgehammer. 95-100 degrees, and 100% humidity. That hat was tolerably warm in the cool maritime breezes of a Seattle summer -- but was positively miserable in the heat and humidity of the Amazon.

Interestingly, you would think that the Brazilians would wear hats due to the intense sun -- Manaus is only 2 or three degrees off of the equator. By and large, 98% of the folks were bareheaded, and the few that were wearing hats were wearing variations on the typlcal baseball hat. So I stuck out like the Portugese version of a Gringo. I even looked for a lighter weight version of a straw hat to replace the Riverz monstrosity, but couldn't find anything -- at all.