A good hat gains character as it ages. Dad hats with muted colors and worn leather straps, vintage ball caps with faded stitching and sun spots from summer days at the park—like other clothing, the imperfections can become part of the charm.
But hats are not like other garments when it comes to washing. Clean a cap wrong and you risk ruining it. Different hats, different ways to destroy them in the name of cleanliness. And when you’re dropping upwards of $50 for a standard-issue MLB ball cap—to say nothing of the three-figure designer models out there—that’s not just unfortunate, it’s costly.
It’s pretty easy to ruin a hat, and a lot of that comes down to structure. The anatomy of a baseball cap varies, with some built to withstand years of wear and others far more fragile than they look. Modern hats often use plastic in the brim, which tends to hold its shape better when exposed to water and heat.
Older hats, like vintage truckers or promotional caps from the ’70s or ’80s, can be a different story entirely. Many used cardboard or paperboard for the brim, both of which can warp, split, swell or permanently lose shape once soaked.
Click here for the 411 on hat maintenance.
