American Hat Company Range Hat, by Thomas Christianson

A range hat is designed to allow over-the-head, earmuff-style hearing-protection to be worn comfortably over the hat. It accomplishes this by forgoing two features that are common to most baseball caps. Those features are a fabric-covered button (squatchee) on the crown of the hat and the hatmaker’s buckram reinforcement of the front two panels of the hat. Without the squatchee and the buckram, a ranger hat is better able to conform to the shape of the wearer’s head under the muffs.

The American Hat Company version of the range hat is made of lightweight, ripstop cotton with a comfortable sweatband and a velcro adjuster in the back. It is just as comfortable for everyday wear as it is for range wear. As an added bonus, the hat is made in the USA.

The range hat cost $29.99 at the time of this writing from The American Hat Company at https://theamericanhat.com (By the way, this is the American Hat Company of Columbia Station, Ohio. It is not the American Hat Company of Bowie, Texas.

Background

I began losing the hair on the crown of my head many years ago now. Suddenly, an appropriate head covering became important whenever I spent any time outside. A sunburned scalp was my first clue that I needed scalp protection in fair weather. Then icy raindrops taught me that a hat also provides important protection in foul weather. Later on, when I began wearing glasses, water spots on the lenses during precipitation also became an issue. At that point, it became important that the head covering that I was wearing have some sort of visor or brim. More recently still, I have found a hat to be essential in keeping deer flies from attacking my bald spot while I am out walking around our property. So for me, headgear is not primarily a matter of style. It is a practical necessity.

The practical benefits of a covered scalp have motivated me to always keep an eye out for good headgear. So when I recently ran across a nice looking range hat that is made in America, I wanted to give it a try. I contacted The American Hat Company and asked if they could provide me with a foliage green sample of their range hat for testing and evaluation. They were kind enough to agree. A few days later, a sturdy box arrived via USPS Ground Advantage.

First Impressions

The sturdy 8.25 x 8 x 6.5 inch box contained a packing list and the range hat. The box had been shipped from The American Hat Company, 27548 Royalton Road, Columbia Station, Ohio, 44028.

The range hat is similar to a baseball cap in that the round crown is composed of six main panels, and there is a bill-style brim in front. As mentioned above, unlike most baseball caps, there is no squatchee in the middle of the crown where the six panels come together. And there is no buckram supporting the front two panels. Those two front panels are attractively decorated with an embroidered tonal American flag patch.

The brim extends 3 inches from the front of the hat. The 3 inch brim is standard for major league baseball caps, although Ted Williams preferred a 3 1/8 inch brim while Brooks Robinson preferred a very short brim.

The brim is moderately curved. That moderate curve is just right for me. A slight curve helps to stiffen the brim. But if the brim is curved too aggressively, then the edges come into contact with the sides of my glasses. This causes them to slip down on my nose and produces discomfort.

The black sweatband on the inside of the hat appears to be made of cotton, and is quite comfortable. The seams that connect the 6 panels that make up the crown are reinforced with the same material. No other extra material has been added to stiffen the crown.

The tag inside the hat indicates that it is made in America by Red White Blue Apparel. Some online research seemed to indicate that The American Hat Company and Red White Blue Apparel are both owned by the same individual. Red White Blue Apparel seems to offer all of the hats offered at The American Hat Company website for the same prices, plus a wide variety of other products. Perhaps the purpose of The American Hat Company is solely to highlight through its name that Red White Blue Apparel hats are made in the USA.

The velcro adjuster at the back of the hat allows it to be fitted to most heads. When I first put on the hat, it felt great after only a slight adjustment. The hat is comfortable, light, and breathes well. It is well designed and well executed.

My Testing

I began wearing the hat daily, over a period of more than a month. I found it to function well. I wore the hat while walking our dog in the warm summer dusk as blinking fireflies brought a festive air to the edges of our route. I pulled a headlamp over the hat to light my way while walking the dog in the cool of the night. I put over-the-head, earmuff-style hearing protectors over the hat while mowing the lawn. I wore it going to the beach, running errands, and participating in a Life Walk in support of the local crisis pregnancy center. I wore the hat in the blazing sun and in the pouring rain. It kept my scalp cool in the sun and dry in the rain. It kept off the deer flies that attack anything that moves along our driveway.

I also wore the range hat at the range. What a novel idea, to wear a range hat at the range! It was comfortable with hearing protection worn over the crown. The hat was also comfortable turned around backward so that the brim did not bump into my rifle scope. I was fully satisfied with the performance of the hat at the range.

Because the hat is cotton, I know that I cannot expect it to provide any insulation value at all when wet. That is fine, because I typically wear a wool jeep cap in cool, wet weather when insulation might be helpful. And in hot weather, I can dampen the range hat to help keep my head cool.

Baseball Cap History

A range hat is basically a slightly modified baseball cap. As mentioned above, the two most significant modification are the elimination of the squatchee from the top of the crown and the buckram stiffener from the front two panels of the crown. This makes wearing hearing protection with the range hat more comfortable than wearing it with a typical baseball cap.

The modern baseball cap can be traced back to the headgear worn by the Brooklyn Excelsiors baseball team about the late 1850s or so. Their hat looked kind of like a beret with a bill-style brim. But the beret-like crown was composed of six panels with a squatchee on top, just like a modern baseball cap. For many years, baseball caps were made of merino wool. Over the course of time, the crown gradually became more form-fitting and the brim gradually became longer. Then buckram was added to reinforce the two front panels of the cap so that a logo on the front of the cap could be seen more easily. By 1954 the current form of the major league baseball cap became more or less standard with one exception: major League Baseball did not switch from wool to polyester until 2007.

There are reports of catchers removing the squatchee from their cap back when they still could wear their standard cap rather than a helmet under their catcher mask. This made the cap more comfortable under the top strap of the mask. The strike plate inside of a door frame was reputed to be the best tool for removing the squatchee. So perhaps catchers anticipated the development of the range cap by many years.

As baseball caps became a fashion statement as well as an item for practical use, non-major-league caps developed in an almost infinite variety of ways in terms of materials, brim shape, adjustors, and other factors. About the only two characteristics that most modern baseball style caps now share in common are a crown constructed of 6 panels and a bill-type brim.

Conclusions

The American Hat Company Range Hat is an excellent hat for the range or for everyday wear. It is comfortable, light, and provides good protection from the sun and rain (and deer flies too).

Disclaimer

The American Hat Company provided me with a sample of their Range Hat in foliage green for testing and evaluation. I tried not to allow their kindness to interfere with my objectivity, and I believe that I have succeeded. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.