I recently vacationed in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and while at a hammock store I came across am interesting hat. There were also messenger bags, baseball caps and I believe backpacks, but this particular style of hat has always appealed to me so I was drawn to it immediately. They all looked as if they had been dragged through the muck and mire of an African safari and back, then hopped a jet to the Philippines to aid resistance fighters before making a bee line for the hammock shop in Kitty Hawk. Upon turning it over I noticed a text on the inside of the hat, informing me that it was made from recycled cargo truck tarps used in the amazon and other parts of Brazil.
This. Is. Awesome.
2 minutes and $30 later I was the proud owner of a Real Deal Brazil hat. According to the explanation on the inside of the hat, this hat should stand up to nothing short of 30 odd years in the jungle with a side of urban combat. Now, my previous hat was a black, 100% fur wide brim hat (same style), and needless to say it did not stand up to the riggers of being dragged up and down every slope and hill around the Patapsco river, not to mention the early summer rainstorms I have been caught in. Now it seems to have taken more of a hobbit fisherman look with the brim all distorted and wavy.
My favorite line in the description is "There is nothing you can do to the this hat that hasn't been done before." Ignoring immediate implications of this statement, I have decided to run this hat through every terrain and conditions I encounter and see how its doing in 12 months.
So far this hat has a lot of character, is a great conversation piece (as if the flint knife and buckskin bag on my side with bow drill in hand wasn't enough already), all while doing its part to prevent many tarps from being burned up and wasted.
Their website is http://realdealbrazil.com/
They also have a blog at http://realdealbrazil.blogspot.com/
