IF THE CAP FITS

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I don't wear hats like the ones that Richard does. You know, those cowboy hats he's been photographed wearing.
I left my cowboy hats, guns and boots back with my other toys in childhood.

Up here where I live the sun is fierce so wearing some sort of hat while gardening, walking or engaging in any outdoor activity is advised.
For gardening I have a neat straw hat that I've stuck a feather in. The Old Girl hates it but it gets the job done.

For walking, kayaking, golf and tennis I prefer caps. These allow the wearer a bit more flexibility in movement and don't interfere in what you are doing.

The problem is though that most caps to buy are bloody crappy and the designs have hardly moved on in half a century or more.

The American baseball cap or the farmer's cap has become the design for most freebie advertising apparel and the expensive sports clothing brands have followed suit so that most of the offerings are  simple variations of the above designs.

To make it worse, companies wanting to promote their identity or brand select the cheapest suppliers (usually from China and India) so the quality of the materials used are usually crap.
Sports brand companies (Nike, Adidas, and all the rest) who sell their caps at outrageously expensive prices also use the same basic designs and the cheapest supplier so the 
quality of the materials used are usually crap.

I've got dozens of caps at home. Most are company branded from the companies I've worked for and brands I've marketed along with supplier's company names that I've dealt with and brands that I've purchased. Others are the sport's company brands I've purchased or been given. Yet more others and becoming the greatest percentage by far are the caps I buy in the op shops. These only cost me a dollar or two and seem OK in the store but when I bring them home and toss them in the washing machine (some are brand new) they seem to be too flat, too tall, too wide, too awful for other reasons or, quite often, portraying brands or services I don't believe in.

Whenever I bring a new cap home The Old Girl remonstrates and threatens to throw all the old ones out. I have to remind her of the number of pairs of shoes she has and it goes downhill from there.

What I really need is a reliable supply of a few - four at the most, good quality and stylish caps that fit well and will suit me.

There's a wellington hat making company Hills Hats that I need to check out.
A few years ago I bought a nice (and very expensive) cap in a 'Gentlemen's Outfitters' in Auckland. It's an English wool tweed baseball cap made by Hills Hats and still fits well after about 6 years.

I got the image from Hills Hats' website and saw that the new price of this cap is $123.90. Ouch!

It does fit well though and has lasted so I will have to pay a visit to their factory or showroom sometime in the future. Then (without telling The Old Girl the cost of the caps) I might be able to buy a few different ones for different occasions and, to her joy, throw out all of the old ones.

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Even millionaires have trouble buying caps that they look good in.