Understanding Caps
CAP DESIGNS
If you were born in the 90’s or later, you might be forgiven for believing that caps have always been an accessory that transcends gender, style, culture, and generally time. But there are many subcultures within the products that we wear today that reflect different styles. For example, although men’s snapback caps or the classic trucker caps haven’t found their way into every subculture, thanks to the iconic Polo Ralph Lauren brand, a certain type of fitted unstructured baseball cap can be found protecting the heads and faces of anyone from your ankle-biting nephew to your grandma’s tennis team.
So how do we know the difference? Let's take a closer look at the key cap styles.
BASEBALL OR 6 PANEL
It comes down to two key features - a snapback, and six panels.
It’s all about the back. Snapback refers literally to the plastic snap closure at the back of the hat. From sporting origins, men’s snapback caps and women's versions have been adopted by pretty much every major brand over time, moving further than just sport.
The fashion world has well and truly adopted the black baseball cap as a wardrobe staple, with fashionable ladies the world over donning some form of fitted baseball cap as a casual streetwear wardrobe staple.
TRUCKER
You don’t have to be a trucker to wear a trucker cap, nor do you have to be a man. This style was huge in the early 90s and again in the 2000s, yet popularity eventually trickled out as they saturated the market for a time. If you look for classic styles, block colours or a black trucker cap, you’ll find these easily tie into your street style.
FIVE PANEL
While a six-panel cap is often high profile, five panel caps are loved for their typically lower profile style, originally catching on with skaters and youths and working in a strange yet perfect contrast to the baggy pants of the 90s. You can find both curved cap and flat cap styles, but as a general guide, a flat cap style is synonymous with skate / motor cross culture, while a curved cap is more widely accepted.
FLAT PEAK CAP
Synonymous with street cred, a cap with a flat peak carries a little more attitude by default. While five panel styles have their roots in street style, six panel styles with a closed back offer a bit more of a premium men’s cap look, especially when sticking to one shade.
UNSTRUCTURED DAD CAP
These are pretty much the daggy cool, vintage style of cap. Worn by everyone from your favourite uncle in his ten year old faded version on days out fishing, to teenage girls opting for bright hues and that Polo badge, this is the comfy, floppy style with the back buckled closure that you love to wear in, and kind of hope will span generations.
While subcultures remain in the cap realm, and different styles better suit different outfits or events, there’s no reason you can’t give every one of these styles a try!
FINDING YOUR SIZE
Take a measuring tape and place it around the circumference of your head, slightly above the ears, with the tape held fairly closely to your head. Measure your head and then compare the measurement with the table below to find your hat size. If you don’t have a tape measure, then use a piece of string to measure around your head and then check the length using a ruler or other measure.
OSFM, many of our caps come as a One Size Fits Most fitting with further adjustment achieved with rear metal buckle, velcro or snap back closures being fully open or fully closed.
| Metric | Size |
| 56cm - 60cm | OSFM |
| 55cm - 56cm | SMALL |
| 57cm - 58cm | MEDIUM |
| 58cm - 59cm | LARGE |
| 60cm - 61cm | X/LARGE |
