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Poll: What is Your Opinion of Tilley Hats

What is your opinion about or experience with a Tilley hat?

  • The best canoe hat I've ever worn

    Votes: 10 20.4%
  • A decent hat but nothing really special

    Votes: 12 24.5%
  • Never wore one, don't really care to, and have no particular opinion

    Votes: 11 22.4%
  • Yuck! It's too expensive, or overly trendy, or overrated, or an embarrassing fashion item

    Votes: 5 10.2%
  • Something else: What?

    Votes: 11 22.4%

  • Total voters
    49
I have had one for years, and I like it-and that is saying something as I despise hats in general. Recall arguing with one of my Little League coaches about not wanting to wear a baseball cap. Went back and forth for a few games before I finally flat out lied to him and told him I had lost it.
 
And the missus.

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Never owned a Tilley, always seemed too pricey. I like military surplus boonie hats. My most favorite one was left hanging in a low tree at a lunch stop on the Big Rv in NW Ontario in 2016 A hour or so and several portages later I realized I had left it behind but did not go back for it. Last year a buddy went through the same route and did not locate it. This route is quite isolated and little traveled.
 
There are a couple things I like about Tilley hats. One is that if you read your owners manual and follow the instructions you should never lose your hat. There are two straps, front and back, so it won't blow off. The straps are important on a proper fitting Tilley. The Tilley is designed to stay on by gravity only. It should fit loose for comfort and lay low on the forehead for best sun shielding when it's low in the sky.They also have built in floatation, so it won't sink if it goes overboard.

Another is the little hidden compartment where it is recommended to stash some emergency money. It has saved me in the past when I've forgotten my wallet. I also can keep an extra leader in there when flyfishing.
 
I remember some very windy days when it was difficult and even dangerous to paddle on Lake Laberge and the few long straight strretches paddling directly into the wind and between low open islands twisting through the Yukon Flats. I was very happy to have the two straps securing my Tilley firmly and comfortably onto my noggin.
 
I remember some very windy days when it was difficult and even dangerous to paddle on Lake Laberge and the few long straight strretches paddling directly into the wind and between low open islands twisting through the Yukon Flats. I was very happy to have the two straps securing my Tilley firmly and comfortably onto my noggin.
that's one thing I loved about my original Tilleys- the ability to snap up the sides in high wind or heavy rain, stiffening the front and making it leas susceptible to wind, and the ability of that pinned up hat to shed rain far away from your neck and collar while also keeping that same rain off my glasses.
 
I love my Tilley hat. The brim should not flip up in the wind if one uses the two straps correctly. They both go behind the head and one is pulled tight under the base of your skull. It should be good to at least 30 mph wind.
For all of you concerned about looking like a dork I would advise that it won't be long and you will graduate high school and will learn that function trumps looks. For the others that think its dorky ask your dermatologist what they think when they are removing your skin cancer.
 
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.
 
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Five or six years ago, I found a Tilley on the ground, at a Yellowstone bear jam. There was no one around, so I picked it up and took it home. I now love it to wear at bear jams, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, and backpacking. It stays on my head. It keeps the sun out of my eyes. The brim is flexible, so when I look into my camera’s viewfinder, it gently crumples. The brim on the back folds, instead of continually bumping against my pack, but I have enough brim to keep the sun out of my eyes and off my neck and ears. It doesn’t look too stylish, as it has been washed enough to be a few shades lighter than the olive green it was when I found it, plus, even though I washed it after most every trip, it has some sweat stains. Maybe it doesn’t look stylish because *I* don’t look stylish. It does look used. (So do I.) I liked it enough that I had been considering buying a light colored one, so I’m glad you have brought it to my attention that they are now made somewhere else, and not as durable as they once were. :-( It’s not a hat, it’s my gear.
 
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