The boonie. What a great design for a hat.

[scottish steve]

As some of you may know, I am a hat person. I haven't been wearing two of the three hats I brought with me very much, as they don't really go with T-shirts and Suzhou tends to be either really warm or quite cold, so my tweed cap has seen a lot of use (one man I know calls it "your Scottish hat"), but my Tilley TH5 and my Hoggs "Indiana" have been languishing on top of the wardrobe.
On Friday I went to Mudu, a town to the west and found, of all things, an Army Surplus store. I was with an American friend who was on the army for a bit, so he explained that the brim is supposed to be all wierd and it is deliberately unboxed. He and his fellow soldiers apparently used to trail them in the dust to get them looking as natural as possible before going out on training exercsies etc. Anyway, armed with this knowledge I started to look at them in a new light and I trawled through every one they had, eventually buying three.
I have found that this style of hat goes very well with T-shirts and does well what a hat should. The wrong one looks, frankly tragic, but the right one, crenellations and all, looks very personal and distinctive. I was wondering whether this choice of everyday apparel might be a bit unusual in America, what with so many people in the army. It's not too common in Scotland, but wouldn't raise any eyebrows. Any non-professional boonie-wearers out there?

[scottish steve]

I have a blaze orange one with gore-tex , a camo one with face netting, several sage green models.. a very well designed hat.

Did you have to try on loads to get one that looked right?
At the moment I've got one drying on a table with a towel under it, to try to see if it'll flatten out a little. I don't mind the way it is, but thought I'd give it a try in case it gets mangled in future and needs to be reshaped.

[camjr]

I've got a light olive boonie that protects my shaved head at athletic events such as my kid's soccer games, in the Texas dove fields, while floating the beautiful Texas Hill Country rivers, hiking, camping, and mowing the lawn. Great design with great functionality. All in all, a great use of $15.


link to the hat from Academy Sports: http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/st...boonie&Ntk=All

[little Big feather]

The boonie hat is not a part of the everyday U.S. Army uniform...It is as the name implies...Only worn in the field, out in the "Boonies".
It is not even issued to troops unless deployed in a combat zone or to "Special Operations Groups" in training. Or Troops in Adverse Climate
Areas

[Miles]

I love my boonie hat. Usually it's relegated to car repair/wash duty, but it's seen a fair share of hiking trails and the occasional bicycle ride. I've an olive green one that's rumpled all to hell and actually a bit gross with the sunbleached salt stains from sweating in the heat. The upside is that a run through the washing machine never hurts the looks any.

[ThePatrician]

For more casual wear in the US "bucket" style hats used to be more preferred, but lately boonie hats have been making a definite comeback. I've got one that I got at Quantico for a class I was taking, just before it started raining heavily. It kept the rain out of my eyes, just as it was intended to. A very versatile and crumple-able hat, but it doesn't get quite as much use as it should. For hard use and hard wearing, a boonie hat is terribly hard to beat. There's virtually nothing they can't take.

[cb91710]

Yup... when I'm working, if I'm not wearing a straw hat, I'm wearing a Boonie or bare-headed.
And yes, the salt and sweat stains can get quite nasty, so I get cheap ones from the surplus store. They might get washed 2 or 3 times before they start to fall apart and are replaced. I'll go through 2 or 3 a year.

When not working, it's a felt fedora or Panama.

[professorchaos]

Yup. A waxed boonie and a coat get me through rainstorms.

[scottish steve]

I wish Tilley would make a hemp version at their usual quality. My reshaping experiment didn't seem to work, in fact when totally sodden it got so floppy it was next to useless, but this was, of the three, by far the lightest. I got 2 of quite heavy-duty fabric-I think it's a cotton canvas; one purple camo, one wierd chinese art print, which does actually do the job. The light one is pixellated deciduous forest camo and good for the heat- not so good for the rain. I'll probably get some cottonproof for the heavier ones, though monsoon rain is a real test for anything.

[MrMurphy]

Wore a DCU pattern boonie for a while deployed.

It accidentally got washed with some uniforms and the industrial grade washers shrunk it. I replaced it, and then the new one ended up getting signed by Robin Williams. Old one went back into service, new one went into a ziploc.

I know a guy, former Rhodesian who does custom boonies (add your features, brim length, color, etc) and have considered getting another, or a Filson bush hat, which isn't as squishable, but is about the same size and general shape. The boonie does make an excellent field hat.

[MASSDRIVER]

One word for a quality boonie; Slangvel. (might be who Mr. Murphy is referring to.)
Behold...
Brent.

[Legion]

Hunter S Thompson was one of the few people who could pull one off, IMO.

[scottish steve]

The Slagvel one is a lot smaller in fit than mine. HST's looks like a quality item.
Last night I soaked the boonie in question in very hot water and hung it by a clothes peg. Today it's dry and has an almost perfect brim, such that it in fact looks less like a std boonie and more like a designer one which has had a bit of wear and tear applied to it. I don't know if it looks better. I'm gonna setup a tripod soon and get some shots, just for your opinions on fit etc. I might have to look further afield for a few really good ones when the opportunity arises. In comparison my TH5 is obviously the better hat, but that would necessitate buying some more collared shirts or maybe some polo shirts instead. My Old Faithful, UQ have some nice ones in. Hhhmmm. It never ends, does it?

[camjr]

I had a Panama Jack hat with the side snaps for years similar to the one worn by HST in the picture above. I lost it on a river trip in some rapids where I simply forgot to drop the strap down under my chin. Lesson learned.

[scottish steve]

Some shots. 'Scuse the quality. The lightweight one is definitely my beater. After a few hurs in the humdity today it flopped big style, so no real love for this one. i'm very happy with the other two.

[scottish steve]

..........

[MrMurphy]

Yeah, I was referring to Slangvel. From all i've seen he makes good hats, though I have yet to decide just what to order.

In the above, none of them look overly 'floppy'....just standard boonie.

[scottish steve]

The "tiget print" one is so unusual. I love it! I doubt you'd get that outside China.

[little Big feather]

Looks like a boonie looks...

[Legion]

I could see myself wearing one in the boonies... maybe. But not around town.