Tales of Real Deal Brazil hats lost, and found

Our hat winds up in some pretty surprising places, no question.

There's the story of this guy, Shawn, from Kiowa, Kan., whose father gave him a Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat after Dad fished the then-new RDB out of a Dumpster in Longdale, Okla. After seven years of constant wearing since then, Shawn sent his RDB, above, back to us for some re-stitching around the brim; once fixed, this trash-to-treasure hat will be bound back to Shawn's waiting head.

Not only do we think that's a really cool story, but Shawn’s much-beloved hat turns out to be one of our very first, a literal prototype, from 2008, with an oversized logo on the side; we're not even sure if we would have sold that to anyone. So how it ended up in Oklahoma, we'll never know ...

 And then there's the phenomenal story recently emailed to us, also from an RDB-wearing Sean, the scuba guy immediately above:


"I am from Pinedale, WY and often go scuba diving in the clear mountain lakes we have here. This past Sunday, I was diving at about 30 feet in Fremont Lake when I saw something that didn't belong. As I swam over to the irregular shape lying on the bottom among the rocks, I was surprised to find this RDB hat. I picked it up and put it on my head and immediately started to surface. It dried beautifully and one would never know it had (been lying) in the bottom of a mountain lake for who knows how long.

Inside the crown, you make the claim that you can do nothing to this hat that hasn't already been done. I would bet that this is the only RDB hat that has laid on the bottom of a mountain glacier lake at an elevation of almost 8000' and been recovered to be worn again. Only the hat knows for sure.

A big thank you to the person who was unfortunate enough to lose this great hat."


Also, a big thank you from us, to these two guys for sharing these stories!