I have a confession: I care about how I look while running. I鈥檓 a style disaster in any professional setting but will suffer for fashion on the trail. That鈥檚 why I鈥檇 rather cramp up from lack of water (like I did last year during the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon) than wear a running vest or belt. I鈥檝e been known to wear chafe-inducing cotton shirts because a teenager once heckled me about a tight, shiny synthetic top.
I鈥檝e also sworn off the nerdy, lightweight, tight-fitting, moisture-wicking run-specific hats and have instead opted for a trucker. Now, I consider hats essential, as I鈥檝e spent too many years as a raft guide under the blazing sun. That, plus I hate getting sunscreen in my eyes. But hats tend to have a few inherent issues: They fight the sun but don鈥檛 breathe well, they don鈥檛 prevent forehead sweat from dripping into my eyes, and they鈥檙e ugly.
Over the past couple years, I鈥檝e gone through a number of trucker hats鈥攊ncluding an MSR promotional hat that had 鈥淲anna Spoon?鈥 on the panel鈥攂ut by far the best one I鈥檝e ever tried is .
This hat, which I鈥檝e used nonstop for the past eight months, has all the style of a trucker with some smart technical details. For starters, a purpose-built wicking sweatband keeps my eyes sweat-free, even when I鈥檓 running on stupid-hot 90-degree days. The band is twice as thick as what you鈥檇 find in a normal cap and absorbs, then wicks, all the water coming out of my pores.
Unlike normal trucker hats with solid, not-very-breathable front panels, the Trail comes with a perforated panel with holes so big I can stick my pinky through them. Out back is regular mesh. Combined, all those breathability features make for a hat that vents like a cheese grater when I run. There鈥檚 constant airflow.
The Trail is also comfortable for long stretches at a time, thanks in large part to its flexy bill. This might seem like a minor detail, but it creates a lot less pressure on my forehead than a rigid bill, so I can stand to wear the hat for the time it takes to run a 50K.
The only two downsides are price and bacteria buildup. The thick headband can get funky: I have to be careful to hang the hat in in the sun after a long run, and maybe (gasp!) hand-wash it occasionally. And at $30, the Trail is at the top end of the trucker hat market and probably costs five times what you鈥檇 pay for a gas station option. But compared to other pieces of gear鈥攍ike, say, your pricey shoes鈥攊t鈥檚 a reasonable investment. Sometimes you have to pay the price for looking good.