Poll: What is Your Opinion of Tilley Hats

[Boreal Birch]

Wool Crusher, boonie, Filson shelter cloth packer, Akubra stockman, old gray fedora, original Stormy Kromer, made in Milwaukee, WI, Navy surplus watch cap, French Beret, beaver fur trappers hats are all in my use.
Never cared for the ubiquitous ball cap, brim worn fore or aft. Doubt I would ever be caught wearing a Tilley, just to dorky looking on me and most people that wear them trying to say “Look at me, I’m a canoeist.” Plenty of much cheaper and potentially better hats.
My bride brought back from Scotland a Harris Tweed salmon fishing hat and Barbour waxed cotton flat cap like the British Gillies and bird hunters wear. Both are current favorites in appropriate weather.

 

[scoutergriz]

I was given a Tilley as a wedding present a few centuries back and wore it on every trip since, I loved that hat right up until it "disappeared" off the dash of my truck one day. I got a replacement after Tilley sold out and it's pure garbage, failing seams, misshapen, and leaks like a sieve at 3 years old....

 

[Robin]

I never owned a Tilley, but I always have a hat on while in the canoe or even out. Mostly ball caps, but on a trip, I prefer something with a brim all around.
My current hat, is sorta like a waxed canvas import, it fits nicely and sheds water,

 

[alsg]

After I bought and returned a Tilley, I purchased a Shelta and now, six years later, Shelta is still my hat of choice for canoeing. Looks like a bucket hat except the front of the brim is shaped and stiff like a baseball cap, a feature I very much appreciate when I am paddling into a headwind or when it is raining.

Shelta High Performance Sun Hats

Protect yourself from UV rays with High Performance Sun Hats. PATENTED No Flop Visor and Convertable Cord System with UPF 50 sun protection. The best sun hats for fishing, sailing, golfing, stand up paddle boarding, SUP, also Kayak hats, tennis, pickleball, jet skiing, hiking, rafting, and...

www.sheltahats.com

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Tilley Hat For Sale Since 2017

 

[clemency]

Here's a basic overview of hat styles. Clearly hat styles can reflect cultures and fashion, both subject to history.

List of hat styles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I am sure there's a hat to suit every head out there. No one alike. And that's fine.

Having looked at that my definition of bucket hat is way too broad. I wear one of these my wife bought me a few years back. By some measures I'm a Patagonia fanboi, so it is appropriate.

Patagonia Wide Quandary Brimmer Hat

Built for hot days and dusty trails, our Patagonia® Quandary Brimmer has a wide, glare-reducing brim, a quick-wicking sweatband, and a secure toggle closure.

www.patagonia.com

 

[devils son in law]

Wool Crusher, boonie, Filson shelter cloth packer, Akubra stockman, old gray fedora, original Stormy Kromer, made in Milwaukee, WI, Navy surplus watch cap, French Beret, beaver fur trappers hats are all in my use.
Never cared for the ubiquitous ball cap, brim worn fore or aft. Doubt I would ever be caught wearing a Tilley, just to dorky looking on me and most people that wear them trying to say “Look at me, I’m a canoeist.” Plenty of much cheaper and potentially better hats.
My bride brought back from Scotland a Harris Tweed salmon fishing hat and Barbour waxed cotton flat cap like the British Gillies and bird hunters wear. Both are current favorites in appropriate weather.

Stormy Kromer is located in Michigan's upper peninsula, Ironwood. I own a few of them, they make great products!!

 

[JohnSand]

I had my first Tilley decades ago, loved it for sailing and travel. A guy offered to buy it from me in Mexico. I lost it out of a boat somewhere. I've had a couple more that seemed less substantial, a fresh breeze or steady rain bends the brim over my eyes. I've used an Ultimate Hat sailing for a number of years and like it. That company stopped selling hats. As I get older and my neck stiffer, I prefer a ball cap, easier to look up at the sails.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

There is just no shade on the water when I canoe. Thanks to scores of pre cancers on my balding pate, my Tilley hat is the first thing on, last thing off on a trip. I like that they offer multiple sizes instead of "one size fits most" or S, M, L, XL at best. When it gets really hot, I dip the cotton hat in the water. I couldn't come up with ideas to improve on it.

 

[Boreal Birch]

Cliff Clavin here again……
I said “original Stormy Kromer, made in Milwaukee, WI”. That wasn’t quite true. Prior to being made by the outfit in the UP of Michigan,the cap in question was made in Milwaukee, WI, but was called KROMER BLIZZARD KAP, that’s what it says on the label on the inside of the two caps I have. I have been wearing those caps since the 1970’s. At one time all the dog mushers of any note were wearing them or else down river bow hats from Big Ray’s on Second Avenue in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Try the interweb for history of George & Ida Kromer and the hat they created.

 

[Boreal Birch]

I also have a couple of the Ironwood, MI Stormy Kromer hats, wool & cotton, nothing wrong with them other than I do like the higher crown and longer bill on the older Blizzard cap. All make good night caps in colder weather while out on the trail. Pull the flaps down over your ears, it will stay on your head all night.

 

[scratchypants]

I have one, but full brim = no hood - not so great with a bug jacket. I also find it too floppy in the wind. Ball cap and tube scarf for me.

 

[Rippy]

I bought one at Canoecopia years ago as an impulse purchase. I have never worn it yet. I always reach for my Filson hat.

 

[pblanc]

I still have two, roughly early 1980s vintage, one white, one brown or olive drab, or whatever they called it. They haven't seen any use for quite some time. Nowadays I tend to wear cheap straw hats, often purchased at Walmart, which keep the sun off about as well and are no great loss if the get blown off and wind up in a location from which they cannot be retrieved.

 

[Erica]

The brim is too narrow and too floppy on a Tilley hat to suit me.

My favorite hat disappeared in Costa Rica and I’ve never found another like it.

After losing many baseball caps, I made an impulse purchase of a wool felt hat made by a Swedish folksinger. That has turned out to be best of all. Very wide stiff brim all the way around. Holds it shape when filling with water to pour over head when hot. Has chin straps for wind.

 

[snapper]

I purchased a Tilley knock-off at a paddling event in Charleston, SC back in 1991 when the sun broiled my head; and everyone else's too! One of the vendors was paying his monthly mortgage with the sale of those things. I wore it at that event, never really liked it and while I still have it, it rarely sees the light of day. At this point I wear a LL Bean nylon cap that covers my bald spot yet doesn't make me too hot. I've been wearing this one for about 10 years now and unless it blows away, it will continue to accompany me whenever I take to the field.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[clemency]

I purchased a Tilley knock-off at a paddling event in Charleston, SC back in 1991 when the sun broiled my head; and everyone else's too!

The East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival (now the East Coast Paddlesports and Outdoor Festival)? I used to go to that, though not back in '91. Always a fun date day with my wife.

 

[Alan Gage]

I bought one once. I didn't know what it was at the time. Only that I needed a hat that weekend and it was all I could find at the Cabela's store.

I treated it terribly and it did a fine job before eventually falling apart years later.

I'll admit that once I visited their website I felt a little sheepish every time I wore the hat fearing I would be associated with the wilderness fashionistas. Perhaps that's what I treated it so poorly. It certainly wasn't going to be mistaken for a fashion item.

It pretty much lived on the floor of my car so I could grab it whenever necessary. On multiple occasions, for both my dog and myself, it served as an emergency receptacle for upset stomach when we were cruising down the highway with no time/place to pull over. I'd just rinse it out at the next lake or river we passed.

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

Me.

 

[Frenchy19]

Tilley Hat For Sale Since 2017

That is funny!