This past weekend I spent most of the day outside enjoying the sunny weather by the lake. I made the mistake of forgetting to apply sunscreen regularly and got a nice painful burn on my face and shoulders. Plus, I applied no sunscreen to my scalp and also burned there, which is a first for me (does that mean my hair is thinning??).

As I look back on it now I realize that I should have been smarter. To this day my dad wears a hat all the time whenever he is outdoors. So based on my unfortunate circumstance I figured I’d post a little PSA to share some of my favorite seasonal caps that I don’t consider “dad hats”.

(I will preface this by saying I am a huge fan of baseball hats but not current sports team specific. This is partly due to the fact that I live in a city where I am not a fan of the local baseball team. In fact, I am a fan of a rival team so I err on the side of non-fan oriented apparel.)

I’m really only going to break this down into summer and the rest of the year as I think the spring, fall, and winter can all share a similar hat style.

Summer hats:

I was never a fan of trucker hats, just wasn’t my thing. Until I found some really awesome ones from Patagonia (if you are a regular reader you know I’m a fan boy). This summer I picked up this hat and am loving the color scheme and how it keeps your head cool but protective from the sun. I now understand why this hat style is so awesome.

Another of my favorite summer hat styles is a 5-panel camp hat. These are a bit 70s in their styling and aren’t for everyone but I do enjoy the fit and summeriness of the look. The way the 5 panels are structured fit my head so well that it almost feels like I’m not wearing a hat. This is great when camping or hiking because all the sweat gets wicked away from my head.

Winter hats:

For the winter months, I go for a fitted wool cap from Ebbets Field. There really isn’t any other hat I want to wear (except for the occasional beanie if I want to warm my ears). I think that the fitted hat is one of the most manly things a guy could own (besides a nice hatchet of course). To have a hat fit your head perfectly like a glove is, to me, a wonderful feeling and makes me happy. I know own far too many wool hats from Ebbets and each year I always see another I want.

As I mentioned above I don’t love current sports team apparel. However, I love the way that Ebbets has reached back in time to reproduce some of the best of the classic hat designs. The colors and logos of retro sports teams are a huge inspiration to my design aesthetic. To be able to wear that on my head daily (fortunately, my day job allows this) is icing on the cake.

Another cool feature that Ebbets offers is the ability to produce your own custom hats. I have seen a lot of awesome variations on this offering including this set from my friends over at Ugmonk.

If you are a hat guy I hope that these links and suggestions are helpful. If you are an aspiring hat guy that feel similarly about sports caps, then maybe I’ve given you some new information to find some really awesome hats. Either way, here is a glimpse into how one dad tops his dome.