Mike Reviews His Hat

I've been wanting a nice hat for awhile.  It's taken me something like two years to get around to it, mostly because it doesn't seem like many people sell hats in my area.  I mean, sure, you can get a ball cap just about anywhere you go; I've got more of those than I know what to do with.  And yeah, you can buy cheap fedoras at Target, but that's not what I wanted either.

Finally, a store in my area started selling them, albeit at around $70.  When they finally went on sale at a price I was willing to pay, I was told that it was a doorbuster price and I'd missed it by two hours.

Having seen what I wanted in a hat, and having a price in mind, I eventually wound up at JC Penney's website, of all places, where I found the pictured hat for just $29.99 with free shipping.  The price seemed better than anything on Amazon, and was certainly better than what I'd seen at the other store, so I bit the bullet and bought it.

The hat in question is from Dorfman Pacific's Scala Classico line.  The style is called Outback; it's a style similar to a cowboy or western hat that originated in Australia.  It's even been said that Outback hats are are Australia's version of the cowboy hat, although there are differences.  The crown is shorter and teardrop shaped, and the brim is shorter and doesn't turn up as drastically as a cowboy hat.  If the Outback is Australia's cowboy hat, then Akubra is Australia's Stetson, and an Akubra worn in Disney's "The Man From Snowy River" is credited with making the Outback style popular in America.

There's not a lot of bad to say about the hat.  It's made of a crushable wool felt, so the idea is that you could sit on it, roll it up, jam it in your pocket, whatever you like, and it'll smooth back into its natural shape.  It's also waterproof, which makes it well-suited to western Pennsylvania's unpredictable weather.  The hat is a subtle black felt with a simple leather band and single small feather.  It's stylish enough to look nice with nice clothes, but versatile enough to be a work hat.  It's also exceedingly comfortable.  It's warm enough that you'd want to wear it in the winter to keep your head warm and dry, but not so warm that it feels hot indoors.  In fact, it seems comfortable enough that the protection it provides from hot sunshine would make it comfortable in the hot sun without making your head too hot.  This isn't particularly surprising, since that's actually the purpose of the Outback, but it's good to know that its a design feature that wasn't lost in translation, as Dorfman Pacific is a Californian company.

I'm sure that there are better brands, like Akubra, but I more or less got what I wanted at a very reasonable price.  Final Score: A