Recommendation for Outdoors Hat

[RJR]

Bottom line is that Akubras are tough and a real value.

 

[jlee562]

If you're looking for a durable outdoors hat, you will not regret spending $100+ on an Akubra. It's a far superior value to any other hat you'll find for less.

 

[gtdean48]

If you're looking for a durable outdoors hat, you will not regret spending $100+ on an Akubra. It's a far superior value to any other hat you'll find for less.

:arated:

 

[Lt.hats]

Ditto on all of the above comments, Akubras are one heck of a hat!

 

[Zombie_61]

...If you go cheap you will just spend more on multiple hats.

Spot on. You can replace those $25-30 hats every couple of years and end up spending far more, or buy an Akubra and wear it for the rest of your life. In the long run, an Akubra will give you far more bang for your buck.

 

[pbekkerh]

I have 3 Acubras and they look amazing but I find them impracticable, because they are so stiff. Maybe they're hardwearing but you can't stuff them in a pocket in your jacket or backpack. I am thinking of buying a Stetson Merced. Its crushable but also so soft that its very comfortable to wear, where an Acubra doesn't adapt so well to your headshape.

 

[Historyteach24]

You haven't broken them in then. They will never be packable but I find mine have become more pliable after putting them through their paces

 

[Yarbles]

I have 3 Acubras and they look amazing but I find them impracticable, because they are so stiff. Maybe they're hardwearing but you can't stuff them in a pocket in your jacket or backpack. I am thinking of buying a Stetson Merced. Its crushable but also so soft that its very comfortable to wear, where an Acubra doesn't adapt so well to your headshape.

You could try the Akubra Travellor which I believe is designed to be crushable..

 

[RJR]

Yes,the "traveler"is crushable.

 

[Nyah]

You could try the Akubra Travellor which I believe is designed to be crushable..

Yes,the "traveler"is crushable.

Does it not have a reed?

 

[RJR]

I can't answer the question about a reed.

 

[gtdean48]

Doesn't look like one in mine

 

[Big Man]

I've never owned an Akubra so I can't personally attest to them, but I've never heard anything but good comments about them. I have a Moose River hat from L.L. Bean that I use as my camping, hiking, outdoor adventure hat. It's in the $100 or so price range, but is well worth it in my opinion.

 

[shrek]

I've always been of the mindset to spend a little more up front usually no regrets later.

 

[Duper]

I have a Traveler. It has a cloth sweatband. Been a good hat and it is definitely crushable and packable. Mine is in the sand colour and I had to wait a bit from EA because it is not a stock colour from Akubra.

,,,Mike

 

[Bob Roberts]

Right outta the chute Akubra quality represents alotta value. The current prices combined with the customer attention provided by Sam Menche at Everything Australian are both incredible. If you like the Traveler (which sounds like the hat you're looing for, I wouldn't hesitate. Especially if there's a wait... Ps. Its absolutely well worth the wait! Plz let us Loungers know what u decide to do. Good Luck.

 

[MothPrey]

Just my two cents, but I have some reservations about felt hats for this sort of thing.

I've got a lot of Akubras.. maybe 7 or 8 now. Four Campdrafts. I also have a number of other felt hats, and I've spent a lot of time on the trails backpacking with hats, though that was before I owned any Akubras.

The big problem for me is overheating. Heading uphill you heat up VERY fast, and if you don't take that hat off you're going to be pouring sweat and then be in heatstroke territory pretty quick, even when it's pretty cold out. Your body has to get rid of the heat somehow, and it's really hard to shed layers without stopping and a lot of fuss when you're wearing a pack or have a rifle slung, that only leaves your head. Felt hats are just hot, especially when it's humid as well.

So, you take it off.. now what do you do with it? Having a stampede string or similar cord doesn't really help if you're wearing a pack, there's nowhere for it to go, and with some pack rigs or rifle slings it can get tangled up and ruin more than your day.

As much as I love felt hats, as much as I prefer them for daily wear, when I'm heading out on foot and I know I'm going to be working hard at it at some point, or when I need to pack a functional hat in a suitcase for a trip, or store one for emergencies (as I do in my motorcycle), I reach for a Tilley. I've got a number of those too, most cotton canvas, but also in nylon and hemp canvas, and you just wad them in any pack, stuff bag, pack pocket or coat pocket, and aside from always being wrinkled to some degree they just don't care. I've had the crowns of even some pretty expensive felt hats develop holes after only three or four accidental crushings, just from being sat on in a car or having people back into me in an elevator when it was in my hands, that sort of thing, and although I do have a Borsalino traveler that is supposed to be crushable I just don't have that much confidence in it, and don't really like it better than the Tilleys anyway. They have their own drawbacks and their own lore to learn, but they work.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Just my two cents, but I have some reservations about felt hats for this sort of thing.

I've got a lot of Akubras.. maybe 7 or 8 now. Four Campdrafts. I also have a number of other felt hats, and I've spent a lot of time on the trails backpacking with hats, though that was before I owned any Akubras.

The big problem for me is overheating. Heading uphill you heat up VERY fast, and if you don't take that hat off you're going to be pouring sweat and then be in heatstroke territory pretty quick, even when it's pretty cold out. Your body has to get rid of the heat somehow, and it's really hard to shed layers without stopping and a lot of fuss when you're wearing a pack or have a rifle slung, that only leaves your head. Felt hats are just hot, especially when it's humid as well.

So, you take it off.. now what do you do with it? Having a stampede string or similar cord doesn't really help if you're wearing a pack, there's nowhere for it to go, and with some pack rigs or rifle slings it can get tangled up and ruin more than your day.

As much as I love felt hats, as much as I prefer them for daily wear, when I'm heading out on foot and I know I'm going to be working hard at it at some point, or when I need to pack a functional hat in a suitcase for a trip, or store one for emergencies (as I do in my motorcycle), I reach for a Tilley. I've got a number of those too, most cotton canvas, but also in nylon and hemp canvas, and you just wad them in any pack, stuff bag, pack pocket or coat pocket, and aside from always being wrinkled to some degree they just don't care. I've had the crowns of even some pretty expensive felt hats develop holes after only three or four accidental crushings, just from being sat on in a car or having people back into me in an elevator when it was in my hands, that sort of thing, and although I do have a Borsalino traveler that is supposed to be crushable I just don't have that much confidence in it, and don't really like it better than the Tilleys anyway. They have their own drawbacks and their own lore to learn, but they work.

I think the heat factor is largely mind over matter. The idea that the head area significantly looses heat or gains heat was debunked by the British Medical Journal some years back; the myth originated in a US army training manual from the 1970's. Akubrahs were designed here to be worn all day in 115 degree heat. I have done so for years without problems.

 

[MothPrey]

I think the heat factor is largely mind over matter. The idea that the head area significantly looses heat or gains heat was debunked by the British Medical Journal some years back; the myth originated in a US army training manual from the 1970's. Akubrahs were designed here to be worn all day in 115 degree heat. I have done so for years without problems.

Really? You realize that you're probably challenging the main reason that hats exist at all? And, for that matter.... why we have hair mostly on our heads? I don't think either evolution or ancient cultures were deceived by a US training manual from the '70s.

Sorry, but with several decades of experience to draw on I personally have real trouble believing that. I've used a variety of hats and caps to control body heat loss far more effectively, awake and asleep, than adding or subtracting layers to any other part of the body. So did untold thousands of years of our ancestors ("... she in her kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled down for a long winter's nap..."). I don't think it was just a fashion statement for ten thousand cultures.

It is a fact that a large amount of the body's blood flow (and thus heat) goes to the brain, it is a fact that the body cannot afford to throttle that blood flow down much for obvious reasons, it's a fact that people's heads shine like miniature suns in infra-red photography in the cold, and with proper equipment tuned well enough you can even see the convection currents pouring off of their heads like flame off of a match head. I'd have to see some really compelling evidence that thousands of my own experiences confirming all that are based on some sort of illusion or self-deception.

Sure, we wear felt hats in extreme heat in the West here too (where I'm originally from), and it's a whole lot cooler than without them when the sun beats down unrelentingly, especially if humidity is low, especially if the crown is high enough to keep the sun-blasted top of the crown away from your skull and the brim wide enough to provide some shade, and especially if there's some breeze. A hat in the desert or high mountains can be a literal lifesaver, you will die much faster without one. None of that violates what we think we understand about the thermodynamics, and none of it is any consolation when hauling a load up a mountain or otherwise doing heavy exercise in the generally-shaded, still, humid, heavy air of the Southeast where they simply do not work in the same way. You'll be a whole lot more comfortable and a lot less sweaty just taking it off, and I don't mean "mind over matter".

 

[Big Man]

I've worn (and continue to wear) felt hats in all kinds of working (real, physical kind of work) conditions and all kinds of hiking, camping, hunting, and general outdoor conditions, in all seasons and in all kinds of weather. Maybe it's just that I'm not too finicky, but being "too hot to wear felt" has never been an issue with me. If it's hot and I'm working and sweating, I'll take off my hat, wipe my brow with a handkerchief, put my hat back on and go back to work. No big deal.