One thing about me is if I go somewhere, I’m gonna get a hat.

Doesn’t matter if it’s a weekend trip, a work conference, or a college tour with the kids. If there’s a hat (and it’s not terrible) it’s coming home with me.

I used to feel a little guilty about this but now I don’t, and here’s why.

The Case for the Hat

A hat is one of the last genuinely inexpensive souvenirs left.

It’s getting tougher to find a great t-shirt for $25 anymore, but a solid hat is still in that range almost everywhere you go. For that price, you get a few things at once:

  • A physical memory of a place you’ve actually been, sitting on a shelf instead of buried in your camera roll
  • A way to mark a specific trip or weekend without writing yourself a journal entry about it
  • A quiet signal that you’re part of something, a team, a town, a group of people who get the reference
  • A low-cost way into a brand’s world, before you’re ready to spend real money finding out if you actually like them
  • A way to hand a few bucks to a friend’s side hustle without making a big thing about it

That last one matters more than people give it credit for.

Buying a hat from a friend’s new venture is one of the easiest ways to show up for somebody. It’s low pressure, it’s useful, and it doesn’t require either of you to make it a bigger deal than it is.

Buying this Imperial Headwear x Sometimes Draws collab was an easy way to support to two brands I love

Yes, I Have Too Many Hats

I’ll admit it: I own more hats than any one person needs. More than I could rotate through in a normal year.

I reach for the same three or four constantly, and the rest sit there, mostly unworn, taking up space I could probably use for something else.

That used to bother me, but those days are over.

Here’s why: every single one of them has a story attached to it. The same way I think about my watches, actually.

I’m never going to wear all of these hats in heavy rotation, and that’s fine, because that was never really the point. The point is that I know exactly where I was and who I was with when I got each one.

That’s a pretty good return on twenty-five bucks.

Consider This Your Permission Slip

So here’s your assignment, next time you’re headed somewhere: build in some time for guilt-free hat shopping.

Doesn’t have to be good. Doesn’t have to match anything else you own. It just has to be from there.

You’ll end up with a closet shelf that tells the story of everywhere you’ve been, one hat at a time, and that’s a shelf worth having.