Tilley Hats
Dave and Helen Damouth www.damouth.com
minor update 2 July, 2002
The Tilley hat is, IHMO, the worlds best and most comfortable hat for general outdoor use by active people. An on-line catalog and list of retailers is at www.tilley.com/
Tilley is a Toronto-based manufacturer of premium-priced outdoor clothing. Their main claim to fame is that their clothing is guaranteed not to wear out, forever. They don't even say "in normal use".
Tilley clothing is indeed durable, but of course doesn't last forever - it's just an advertising gimmick. But they get a lot of good advertising mileage out of the few things that they have to replace under warranty. Their Toronto factory store has a museum with the best examples of stuff that has been returned for warranty replacement, with a little story about what happened to each item. The best story in the museum is about an item that is represented only by a photograph - about the elephant keeper whose Tilley hat has been snatched off his head and eaten, three separate times, by an elephant. A day or two later, he rescues the hat from the manure pile, washes it, and puts it back on his head. So far, he has refused to send it back for warranty replacement - he sez it still works fine. We consider this store/museum a must-see when in the Toronto area. Their catalog is a lot of fun, even if you never buy anything.
The hat was developed over a period of many years, primarily for sailing use, and is the official hat of the Canadian Olympic Yachting Team. But we find it works well for all outdoor use. It's waterproof heavy-weight cotton canvas, with a broad brim stiff enough to stay spread out, but soft enough to fold up and stuff in a pocket. It's incredibly comfortable - until I got this one, I hated hats. It is designed to fit loosely and fairly far down on the head. It comes in three brim-widths and a couple of colors (nearly everyone buys the off-white unbleached cotton version), has a very clever three-way strap that will hold it on your head in a hurricane, but tucks neatly out of the way when not needed.
Helen and I like the T3G - natural cotton color, medium (2 3/4") brim, with dark green lining on the bottom of the brim. Price is about US$49.
The hats are available in some specialty retail stores in the Northeast, and are beginning to spread across the country. The rest of the Tilley clothing must be ordered through the catalog, unless you live near Toronto.
Note added 2 July 2002: I am now wearing the new Tilley LT3G lightweight hat, obtained as a free replacement for a T3G which wore out after about two years of almost daily wear and frequent machine washing. (I did have to pay the price difference between the old hat and the slightly more expensive nylon version). The new LT3G is esentially identical in dimensions to my old T3G, but made of Nylon. It's lighter, probably more durable, and supposedly water repellant. So far I like it, but haven't had it long enough to be sure.
Note added 7 May 2004. I still like the LT3. A bonus is that is sheds dirt more than the old cotton version - doesn't need washing as often. But it's not quite as waterproof. If I cared, I'd be more diligent about using Scotchguard after washing.