I am a hat guy. Since around 1970 while in high school, I took to hats. A good hat can become part of your life and personality while giving the added advantage of protecting from solar rays, twigs, cold, blowing dust and the occasional falling objects like acorns and defecating bird debris! A well-chosen hat can even add a bit of style and raise an eyebrow or two.
Over the years I have had many brimmed hats: varied felt crushers, Boonie hats, a Pendleton Tweed fedora, Akubra Stockman and Cattleman hats (my favorites for over 25 years), Straw hats of various brands (handy in hot, humid climes) , Filson Packer and Tin Cloth Bush hats, Tilley Airflo and even the rare Tilley Winter Hat in Harris Tweed -supposedly only sold in the British Isles- along with other long lost, used up, discarded and forgotten chapeaus. I have also had billed hats, i.e. “baseball” or “trucker” hats, toboggans, a stocking cap, and a “Mad Bomber” hat, but I have always enjoyed the shade of a wide brim. As you can imagine, I rarely venture outdoors without a good hat on my head. I have even had people that I know well not recognize me due to the fact that I was not wearing a hat at that moment.
The Tilley Airflo hat is a bit pricy, but I had a couple off-brand copies that did not hold up well before I broke down and got my Canadian hat. I am on my second Airflo (a Made in Canada) model, and consider it a good piece of gear; it does its job well. It is not the least expensive hat that I have owned but not the priciest either. With outdoor gear quality counts and as the old saying goes “Buy quality once or cheap repeatedly”. I am hoping that since the Airflo is now being made on the other side of the Pacific that Tilley keeps their standard of quality up.
Enjoy your hats, and should you see another hat wearer, strike up a hat-based conversation. You may meet a like-minded new friend.