I’ve had my Spyderco Trucker Hats for a couple of weeks now and I figured I might as well throw up a quick review of them for anyone interested in getting one for themselves or as a gift for the Spydie fans in their friend/family circle this coming holiday season.
I ordered two of the hats—one in loden green and a second one in charcoal—from (the revived) S&R Knives in Brampton, Ontario. They cost C$49.00 each, which is about C$9.00 more than if I had ordered them direct from the Spyderco website based on the current exchange rate, but when international shipping gets thrown into the mix, getting the hats from a Canadian retailer instead of the Spyderco website works out to be cheaper overall for me overall. My first impression was that they looked and felt like real quality stuff. I’m somewhat used to sketchy, throwaway branded merch, stuff like overpriced, ill-fitting band t-shirts one can get at a concert, or the corporate branded travel mug I got at the end of that one training exercise that can’t even keep my coffee warm through my commute. These trucker hats weren’t like that at all.
A quick look under the hats revealed that they are custom Richardson Sports 112 Truckers. Richardson Sports is a very well-regarded maker of high quality headwear and baseball uniforms based in Oregon, and their model 112 Trucker Hat is touted in their marketing as “America’s favourite hat”. I want to highlight Spyderco’s choice to go with Richardson Sports because the company adheres to a Supplier Code of Conduct that is a cut above what is commonly seen in the garment/clothing industry. I won’t derail this review by talking much more about that here, but here is
a link to a page with the full text of their Supplier Code of Conduct. Suffice to say that I think that now, perhaps more than any other time, it’s very important that we be mindful of where the stuff we buy comes from, and that we make a conscious effort to give our business to companies and corporations who go the extra mile to do right by their employees, their community, the people who work for their suppliers, the environment, and just society in general.
The leather patches on both hats don’t seem to be made by Richardson, however (I don’t think Richardson currently makes leather patches). If I had to hazard a guess, they look like they might have been made and stitched on by the KC Laser Co., a small family-run operation out of Kansas City (I’d love to get confirmation on this if it’s at all possible, just to satisfy my curiosity). Regardless of who made the patches, they are very detailed and are properly centred.
Both patches look very similar apart from the colour, but they actually have different details. The brown patch features the Spyderco Bug emblem and the text “since 1976” in the centre, and the words “Spyderco Reliable High Performance” in a ring around the logo. The black patch, on the other hand, has a slightly larger Spyderco Bug emblem in the centre, and the words “Spyderco Knives & Accessories Golden, Colorado, USA, Earth” arranged in a circle around it.
The reverse-etched details on the charcoal model’s black leather patch are a bit harder to see than the conventionally-etched details on the loden green model’s brown leather patch, but that can be a plus for those looking for a discreet trucker more suitable for a workplace where the wear of attire with obvious logos & graphics is discouraged or outright disallowed.
Anyway, there’s not much more to really say about these hats except that they fit me well (they are the usual One Size with an adjustable snapback). A female co-worker commented “nice hat!” the first time I wore the charcoal-coloured hat to work, which is the only time I’ve ever received a compliment on what I was wearing at work in the decade that I’ve been at my current job. And as someone who doesn’t really keep up with fashion trends (I’m a solid colour t-shirt and jeans/cargo pants kind of guy), that compliment is probably a more valid endorsement of the Spyderco Trucker Hat than anything I could provide
.
Stable Mules; Z-Max, Z-Wear, Magna Cut, Magna Max, SRS13, Rex 76, Rex T15.