The Real Deal Brazil

Is It Hat in Here, or Is It Just Us?

2012-01-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

When digital artist/professional photographer Dan Wampler wrote and said he was planning to take a few pics of his favorite hat (that is, an original Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat!) with a model or two (that is, a couple purty ladies!), we liked everything about the idea (that is, we were like, hey, yeah, you go, dude!). We just didn't realize that our hat might, at times, be near about the only thing separating his models from being whatcha call, well ... wearing next to nothing besides our hat!

A couple of the artful pics Dan sent us were so, well, whew!, that we simply couldn't share them here. Sorry. You'll just have to trust us that our hat looked fierce, whenever we could remember to look at our hat.

That said, here's several more of Dan's RDB-inspired shots. Some are sassy.

Some are sexy.

Some are damn sexy.

And some are a lot damn sexier still.

Based in St. Louis, Dan mostly does infrared photography (http://danwampler.zenfolio.com/). He's actually the Official Prilosec OTC Infrared Photographer (no joke; the "purple pill" has an official infrared photographer).

This next shot, while really showing off the infrared, has nothing to do with that!

Also, some of Dan's images are included in a free Mac-device App called "Isla at Your Fingertips” (http://islaapps.com/fingertips/), which has, he says, more than 9,000 downloads from 47 countries. He's now working on a new app, to be called “Caribbean at Your Fingertips,” which will feature his photography exclusively.

So Dan travels quite a bit.

"And I have my standard wardrobe, which includes my 'Cool Hat,' your tarp hat," he noted in one of his e-mails to us. "I got it as a gift a couple of years ago, and I love it. It is the perfect travel hat and has saved my hide quite literally in areas where the sun is strong."

Our thanks, Dan, for the great vote of confidence, and for this extended glimpse into your vividly colored world.

Dear Real Deal Brazil: You’re All That and Then Some!

2012-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

We’re suckers for a little Real Deal Brazil excitement. Thatsaid, we received this in an e-mail recently, utterly out of the blue:

“I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you thatyour hats are amazing!!!”

That’s right, amazing.With three exclamation points, !!!, and like that. As in triple wow, which is,of course, the very definition of awesome. At least in our own dictionary, itis.

So after getting our usual blushed up and stuff over such righteouslyboisterous praise, we read further into the e-mail … and then wound up evenmore impressed with ourselves still! See, those hella-pleasing props above comefrom a source we’re proud as a recycled-tarp peacock to be associated with:Matt Jarman, U.S. Army officer. Currently stationed somewhere along the EastCoast, U.S.A., Matt is preparing very soon to go civilian – retiring, as hesays, “from an illustrious career as a Drill Sergeant, a Paratrooper, and AirAssault.”

Whoa! AirAssault! We don’t even know exactly what that might mean beyond our “Call ofDuty” fanboy fantasies, but it sure sounds wicked dangerous and cool. In fact, Mattsigns-off all his e-mails with this: "Only 2 things fall from thesky......Bird sh*t and paratroopers, Airborne!!"

That’s Mattin the three pics you see here, putting his RDB through its paces in snowyoff-road mountain-bike fun, a favorite downtime hobby of his.

Anddude’s on our side, let’s not forget.So maybe don’t go messing with us is all we’re sayin’. Cuz Matt might jump outof an airplane in his RDB and land all up in your business. That’s just whatReal Deal Air Assault heroes do, we figure.

Matt’s great note to us continues:

“Being in the U.S. military Iknow how to push things to their breaking point and I am not easyon equipment by any stretch of the imagination. The hat that I got(from an authorized dealer) has survived rainstorms, hail, and even thewashing machine (it was getting a little ripe with sweat). Whatever ‘hell’I have found myself in, it has stood, or better yet, surpassed the testand still it comes out looking BETTER with age and abuse. Your slogan ‘Donot take care of it, it'll take care of you’ is dead on accurate!! Keep it upand thanks for a great product.”

If all that wasn’t enough, he adds:

“Thank you for making such a durable, reliable hat that will probably outlast me!! All while using recycledmaterial....Friggin'Genius!!!”

That’s right, genius. And the friggin’ variety, too. Not tomention three exclamation points, !!!, and like that. As in double friggin’smart, plus one. As in Steven Hawking, eat your damn heart out.

And all thistime we’d just thought we were uncommonly great looking. Now it turns out we’vegot a whole heap of brains, too! If we weren’t already in a serious long-termrelationship with our fans, we’d seriously want to date us. Who wouldn’t,right?

But all goof-assing aside here: Thanks a million, Sgt. Matt! Having fans of your caliber tells us we’re getting it right. And that truly is the highest form of praise we can get.

Customer Tips: How to 'Zombify' Your RDB Tarp Hat

2011-10-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Pompton Plains, N.J., firefighter Ken Collucci happily came into possession of his second Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat recently. A longtime RDB fan, Ken knew that Real Deal hats tend to vary, often dramatically, from batch to batch; yet as fate would have it, his own second hat turned out to be pretty close in color to his first.

Ken obviously liked that color just fine (that's him at left in his well-worn original RDB). Just not twice over.

"Two hats of the same color?" he joked in his note to us outlining the steps he took to refashion the look of his second RDB. "NONSENSE!!! Options ... I like options! :)"

Ken had decided to go all Hollywood on his second hat, aiming to convert it to something close to the rich, dark hue of the iconic RDB of zombie-killer kingpin Tallahassee in the 2009 movie blockbuster Zombieland.

He was, he said simply, gonna "zombify" his newest hat.

Ken recognized that dyeing the hat alone wouldn't achieve quite the look he was after; actor Woody Harrelson's own movie RDB has, after all, a slight dull sheen to it, a cool quality created by the movie costuming department. So how could Ken achieve something similar to that?

"I figured a darker (hat) would look better after it was waterproofed," he told us. But a sprayed liquid like Scotchgard wasn't going to provide that little-extra-something effect; Ken instead chose beeswax, that age-old military method of waterproofing canvas.

So here are Ken's explicit instructions on proper hat zombification:

Items you will need:
An RDB Tarp hat (DUH!), RIT Dark Brown Liquid Dye (or any color of your choice), Kiwi Camp Dry Beeswax Waterproofer, a hair dryer or heat gun, a cold frosty alcoholic beverage.

To dye your hat:
In a large stock pot full of hot water, pour in half a bottle of the RIT dye and mix thoroughly. Pre-soak your RDB hat and (then) add it to the stock pot, making sure to saturate every inch of (the hat). Let it sit in the pot for 20-30 minutes, or until you reach your desired shade. Remove the hat and rinse with cold water and let dry overnight."

Ken's original RDB, at left,now his summer hat, and newer "zombified" addition.

Now on to waterproofing, which is apparently a slightly more complicated process than dyeing, involving soaking yourself a bit (!) as well to, y'know, get in the proper spirit of things.

Ken's waterproofing steps, including aforementioned "cold frosty alcoholic beverage":

To make your hat water-repellent:
1. Lay your hat out on an old towel or rag (using the good towels is NOT recommended). Drink for 3 seconds.

2. Using your fingers, slather copious amounts of beeswax into the brim, under the brim, and on the top of your hat. You do not need to slather up the inside of the hat. Drink for 3 seconds.

3. Work the beeswax in by hand until you have a consistent color and no clumps of wax visible. Drink for 3 seconds.

4. On a low setting, use a hair dryer or heat gun to melt the wax until it soaks into the hat. The towel will absorb any wax that seeps through. Drink for 3 seconds.

Let your hat sit overnight. Test your hat's repellency by using a spray bottle. Water should bead up on it. It is does, you have succeeded. Go have a beer!

Success! Ken's "zombiefied" hat, waterproofed.

"So far the waterproofing has been put to the test and it is holding up very well," Ken notes. "I have had to re-wax the seams when I realized I missed a few spots, but other than that, it's fine. Water beads up and runs off."

Zombies! Everywhere, Zombies! So This Halloween, Go Zombie KILLER Instead!

2011-10-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

Zombies.

They’re soooo right now. You can send zombie greeting cards between hits on your zombie bong, scarfing Zombie Mints and looking altogether dead-ly in your zombie boxer shorts, wife beater and slippers. It’s a brave new corpsed-up world.

How zombified have things gotten, really? Google “zombie” paired with pretty much any other word, from A to, well, Zed, and you’ll get a legion of legitimate hits. “Zombie apple?" Ripe for the pickin’! "Zombie zeitgeist?” Well, duh! Just be prepared to unearth a little zombie kinkiness/nastiness as well. Because one Haitian voodoo daddy’s zombie cucumber is another person’s, um ...

So what’s a thoughtful tricked-out treatster to do this Halloween to stand out from the inevitable ratty horde of would-be rotting meatbags? Simple: Go the opposite of zombie! Get your dress-up on as the world’s most kick-ass zombie killer instead.

Rule Halloween night like a redneck king! Strut the zombie-choked streets as Tallahassee, the Twinkie-obsessed undead-dispatcher from the 2009 Hollywood smash hit Zombieland. See our simple costuming tips, immediately below.

rule #1: badass hat. The essential bit. For true Tallahassee attitude, only the right hatitude will cut it: Duding up in country-singer cowboy headwear is gonna miss the mark, podnah. The real thing, in this case, is the Real Deal Brazil, our genuine handmade-in-Brazil recycled-truck-tarp hat, chosen by Columbia Pictures’ costume department to give Tallahassee his crazy-ass sense of comic s***kicker cool. And once Halloween has melted back into the shadows, we’re confident your RDB hat will still be making mucho guest appearances atop your own crazy-ass cabeza.

rule #2: shades ’n’ scruff. Try the sunglasses-tree at just about any dollar store for suitable NASCAR-country-boy eyewear. And if you can’t muster up some fast whisker growth for a sloppy goatee, then dot your cheeks and chin with an eyeliner pencil for a quick patch of 5 o’clock hair-face.

rule #3: he-man neckwear. Wood beads, heavy chains, metal or fake-bone pendants. Kind of a Cracker Jacks-prize approach to men’s jewelry, really. Here again, any available dollar store should get you there.

rule #4: v-neck shirt. There’s something about a lowcut T-shirt that just says you’re badass. (Unless, of course, you’re a real lardass, and wearing sweatpants. Then it kinda says 3 a.m. Wal-Mart shopper instead.) Maroon is Tallahassee’s color, but any dark V-neck T should do the trick.

rule #5: leathers. You could probably pull off a jean jacket in a pinch, but Tallahassee is all about classic heavy leather, when he’s not seriously rednecking it up in snakeskin. Just not leather with too much sheen to it, and more motorcycle-style than bomber.

rule #6: the belt. Something with a big ol’ metal buckle.

rule #7: weapon holder, or (fake) weapon. The average leather gun holster is too small, but a leather sheaf for a long fish-filleting knife would do it, strapped to your belt, and then tied at the bottom around your left thigh with yet another belt. In the absence of that, just get yourself a toy rifle, or a toy AK-47, if such a thing is available at, y’know, Toy Guns ’R Us. The key word here is “toy.” Halloween surprise + packing real heat = bang, bang, someone’s bad-dead, not just funny-undead.

rule #8: classic denim. No designer “holes,” acid-washed streaks or black thread; the simple workin’ man’s denim-jeans standard, Levi’s, is best. To achieve that I’ve-just-endured-the-apocalypse feel, rub charcoal on your hands and then smear them on your thighs. You dirty little zombie-killer, you!

rule #9: boots. Cowboy, not biker. Suede or natural says serious boot-wearer, but snakeskin lends kick-ass redneck cred in a red-hot second.

other fun props. Jack Daniels bottle, Hostess Twinkies, banjo, long-handled pruning shears.*

* Note of caution: Hard liquor, mystery-cream-filled snack-cakes, poorly played bluegrass music and sharp garden implements can cause serious harm to the still-living.

Our Hats and Bags Are the Very Tarp of the Heap!

2011-10-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

Real Deal Brazil founder Walter R. Perkins Jr. has a longstanding love affair with Brazil, and would likely find some excuse to get there even if work didn't periodically require it!

On his last trip there, Mr. P., as we all call him, got a couple snapshots of one of the coastal markets he likes to frequent, wandering around and looking at local wares. It was at just such a market in 2008 where Mr. P. chanced upon the prototype of our own distinctive headwear, which he later took to a remote inland town known for its hatmaking, employing a family sewing business there to modify the design into what has since become our classic Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat.

Coastal Brazilian market, No. 1.

Coastal Brazilian market, No. 2.

But Mr. P. returned from his most recent trip to the steamy south loaded down with a lot more than just photos and his usual stories to fill us with envy cuz wedidn’t get to go with him! This time, he also brought withhim a huge sheet of weathered old canvas truck tarp, that heavy, tightly wovencotton material at the very heart of what we do.

Our hats and bags are, of course, handmade from recycled tarps that once stretched across the beds ofcargo trucks, like the ones in the photo immediately below.

Cargo trucks outfitted with protective canvas tarps.

In Brazil, theworld’s fifth-largest country, most cargo is transported by trucks, theirpayloads frequently protected by such heavy canvas tarps, which wind up beingpummeled by deluges of blinding rain,baked and broiled by scalding heat, whipped by harsh winds and assaulted byvarious road debris. By some estimates, there’s enoughtarp barreling along Brazilian roads to cover the entire surface of the moon,and then some!

Above and below left, workers at the small São Paulo business that collects old truck tarps for us
to send to our sewing group in central Brazil.

In the last fewyears, enterprising small Brazilian businesses have begun buying up old tarps fromtrucking agencies, making all that road-seasoned canvas a bit more scarce thanit used to be – though, happily, also helping to keep even more of it out oflandfills. We work with a little company in Brazil’s largest city of São Paulo to secure recycled truck tarps for ourRDB sewing group. (Click on the photo with the guy in the red shirt and all the bundled tarps, and check out the heels on our SãoPaulo business partner’s shoes; in Brazil, personal style never takes aholiday!)

The final photo, below, is of Mr. P. back in the U.S. of A., in hometown Greenville, N.C., holding up that recycledtruck tarp he brought back from Brazil. (Note the cool printing on the tarp,which explains how snippets of Portuguese lettering and unusual graphicssometimes pop up on our hats and bags.)

Mr. P. back in the United States with a sheet of recycled Brazilian truck tarp.

The Real DealBrazil – because one person’s old tarp is another’s new treasure!

You're Never too Young to Be the Real Deal!

2011-08-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

It's that age-old question: Are people born the Real Deal, or are they instead raised that way? In the case of young Spencer Robert Gordon here, the answer would seem to be ... BOTH!

Spencer's photo came to us in an Aug. 18 e-mail from his mom, excited new Real Deal Brazil hat owner Debi Gordon of Voorhees, N.J. Debi writes:

"My family and I were in Nags Head (N.C., on the Outer Banks) this past week and we had an amazing time! Truly the best vacation ever…..for many reasons…one of them being , we walked into (local business) Nags Head Hammocks and were looking around and all of a sudden the hat caught our eyes! It is the most perfect hat for my husband and we also bought a bag …..then I went back and bought 3 more hats for our friends back home ."

Debi says of her son, age 3, and his borrowed RDB hat:

"He looks wonderful in it (yes even with the binky) and he truly is the real deal."

We couldn't agree more!

In closing, Debi adds:

"Thanks for all of your wonderful products we will be ordering more very soon."

We do so love a story with a happy ending!

A Real-Life Good-Time Recipe From the Nice Folks at The Real Deal Brazil

2011-08-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hey you adult Real Deal Brazil party people! The next time you feel like vigorously killing some time (and, OK, a few brain cells), try this:

Fill a blender about half full of ice, crushed being best. Fill the rest of the way with chunks of fresh seedless watermelon. Add as much Malibu rum (the new Malibu Black, flavored with coconut, is dangerously tasty) as you feel safe with, then splash in about a half a cup of skim milk. Blend heavily. Pour. Hide your car keys, cuz you will drink more, and then probably more again. In fact, you may drink every damn bit.

Sharing is, of course, optional.

For a little extra appalling decadence, add whipped cream. A cherry. A slab of pineapple.

Whee! Summer's almost gone, but with this tasty newly improvised concoction (we just made it up this evening out of what was on-hand), you can serve up a little of the lazy season all year long.

It's kinda like the taste of a vacation to Florida, in a glass.

Lucky Winners of Our 2,000 Fans Contest

2011-07-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

It's that magic time, Real Dealers!

Twenty winners were randomly drawn this morning from the 190 Real Deal Brazil fans who entered our 2,000 Fans Contest. Winners are listed below, in the order they were chosen at random-drawing site Random.org. We included current Facebook profile pics of each winner, cuz we're just like that.

Congrats to all you folks, and our sincere thanks to everyone who took part. Some of your answers were positively inspired (Kermit the Frog? Really? We love it!), and we'll definitely post several here in their entirety as soon as we get the chance.

Winners should drop a note to frabey@realdealbrazil.com before Friday, July 29, to secure their prizes. Subject line: I WON!

For the rest of you folks, rest assured, we'll be doing something new in the not-too-distant future to spread a few more hats around (it'll either be really obvious, or else it won't; we love us a good puzzle!). Cuz every now and then, a thank you from us to all of you is in order, for letting us continue to do what we do ...

And now, drumroll please ...

THE 20 REAL DEAL BRAZIL 2,000 FANS CONTEST WINNERS ARE:

1. Scotty Byard

2. Jonathan Will

3. Robert Fitzgerald

4. Brad Simmons

5. Peter J Murray III

6. Christopher Plyler

7. Anna Schubarth

8. Jed Mcilvain

9. Ted Stanley

10. Barry McCalla

11. Michael Carlson

12. Darin Gagne

13. John Carbaugh

14. Patrick Buttermore

15. Ken Collucci

16. Eric McWilliams

17. Jacob Martin Prater

18. Erik Allen Garrison

19. Buddy Lique

20. Rob Peck

How Cool Are We? Let Us Count the Ways!

2011-07-12T11:04:00.001-07:00

We're just sayin'. Cuz we can. Cool. Us. Yep.

But how cool? you ask. Oh, let us count the ways ...

1) Cinema cool, No. 1:

Woody. Zombieland. Natch.

2) Cinema cool, No. 2:

Cougar. The Losers. He'll shoot ya, if you're a bad guy. Bang-bang, and like that. You'll never even know you're dead until you're, y'know, dead.

3) Cristo cool:

As in Cristo Redentor, of course. The big guy in the sky in Rio.

João Paulo and girlfriend Debora are here visiting the towering Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Brazil's trendsetting city. João Paulo is a fan of the original Real Deal Brazil hat design; Debora beautifully sports our Pretty Ugly style.

Our hats: handmade in Brazil and worn in Brazil, and believed in almost religiously by RDB fans everywhere!

4) Kringle cool:

Santa. Believe that.

5) Crazy cool:

The formidable Larry "Bug" Wooten, a native of Grifton, N.C., and an engineer and deckhand aboard the Capt. Ted tugboat out of Havre de Grace, Md., striking a Japanese-anime pose with Real Deal grace while docked in Woodbridge, Va., along the Potomac River.

"Go, go, Mecha Sheba!" Bug wrote us last year when this shot was taken, though being anime-unfamiliar, we have no idea what that means. It sounds really, really cool, though.

6) Camera cool:

Real Deal Brazil fan Brian Sampson of Fontana, Calif., getting a cool shot of himself getting a cool shot of himself while visiting the historic town of Tulum, Mexico, during a 2010 nine-day getaway to the Yucatan Peninsula with fiancée Irma Hernandez.

7) Camel cool:

And not that damn Joe Camel, neither (don't smoke, kids; really bad for ya.) A Real Deal camel.

Geologist Sam McKay of Norfolk, Va., and friend, in the sub-Saharan East African nation of Djibouti, doing cool geologist stuff. Djibouti, by the way, is a funny name to say. Djibouti. Like booty, but with a juh. Heh, heh. Funny is cool.

8) Cactus cool:

Where to start? There's just so much what the hell going on here. That's Texan and longtime RDB buddy Mack Simpson, post-tequila ritual in praise of, well, probably tequila. And with a piece of cactus on top of his hat on top of his head, because, well, why the hell not?

So did we already mention tequila?

9) Canine cool:

Jack, the Jack Russell. He was, in a word, cool. Sadly, he's not with us anymore. May he rest in peace, the hat-nabbing, spring-loaded lunatic. Bark on, little dude. Bark on.

10) Big-claw cool:

Real Dealer Jennifer Tyrell, hatted up and holding a tawny eagle at the Center for Birds of Prey in Charleston, S.C., where she works. She's holding a damn eagle, people. An eagle.

11) Big-cat cool:

Canadian world-traveler J.P. Zambo of North Vancouver, British Columbia, having a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife encounter in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, during one of the famous preserve's Lion Walks, in which the big African cats wander around you untethered and unbound.

Nice kitty! Cool kitty.

12) Kayak cool:

Natalie Sutton and her trusty RDB, paddling happy in Wekiva Springs State Park in central Florida, just north of her hometown of Orlando, and clearly a million miles from the no-smile-no-job Land of Mickey.

Real happy is, by the way, really cool.

13) Camping cool:

Darin Gagne of Manchester, N.H., took this 2011 camping shot (one of his two photos in this blog entry) at Boscawen, N.H., "alongside of the Mighty Merrimack River," he wrote us. Mighty cool, amigo.

14) 'Caching cool:

Geocaching, of course. Modern-day treasure hunting with a hand-held GPS device, a passion for the great outdoors and a willingness to get covered in mud and other nature gunk if the searching gets a bit off-road and bumpy. This charming group shot was taken at the 2011 edition of GeoWoodstock, geocaching's biggest annual event. A treasure-trove of Real Deal Brazil tarp hats!

15) Cartoon cool:

Manchester, N.H., Real Dealer and avid outdoors guy/geocacher Darin Gagne, photo-chronicling his "essentials" (minus beer, and a GPS, he notes): his Real Deal Brazil hat, his Jeep and, well, Goofy. "Goofy," Darin explains, "is what I am."

Goofy the blundering Disney dog is, of course, kinda cool. That said, Goofy is really pretty goofy, isn't he? Thus, being goofy itself must also be cool. That's just simple logic talking right there.

16) Cavortin' cool:

As in cavortin' all over the globe. Cuz we're the travel hat that actually feels like you're going somewhere and doing something. Travel as real life, in other words.

That's Easter Island in the photo, out there in the South Pacific. We chanced upon this pic in a 2011 Coastal Living magazine. What happened next they couldn't photograph, apparently. Those big-head statues got right up and beat hell out of that guy (in their defense, it's really rude to stare). Then they took his Real Deal Brazil hat. One of them's probably still wearing it right now ...

17) Kilimanjaro cool:

Joshua Corsa, then a medical student at East Carolina University in our own Greenville, N.C., in front of the iconic African mountain in Tanzania, summer 2010. "My hat and I have now traveled on three continents and Central America, and it hasn't even looked frayed," Joshua wrote us at the time. Oh, give us time, Josh! We're proud to say we'll fray one day. It's a great look for us. A damn cool one, if we do say so ourselves!

18) Guitar-chord cool:

Musician Rob Chism of Detroit, Mich., sporting his Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat on one of the many stages he's graced as a member of rock/country band the Chism Brothers. "You might want to add music to the list of destinations the Real Deal has traveled," Rob told us. Done!

19) Celtic kilted cool:

Houston, Texas-based Celtic rockers The Rogues, international road warriors of the first order. They ain't playin' your dear old auntie's beloved "Danny Boy" here, lads and lassies. These bad boys are a kick in the Irish arse. And just dig that Ghostbusters sporran! Who ye gonna call?

20) Craft-brew cool:

May we present our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat and Craft Beer Cap Hat Band, enjoyed with a bottle of Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout. Which is, by the way, one very cool beer, especially when served not too cold.

21) Cerveza cool:

This little-slice-of-heaven postcard comes to us from Isla Mujeres, along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The shot was taken by longtime Real Dealer and home-brewer Joel Benge, who hails from the Baltimore area.

A cold Dos Equis on a warm Mexican beach. Ahhh ...

Stay thirsty, indeed, my friends!

22) Cowboy cool:

In this case, that kinda famous mostly clothing-free one, in Times Square, New York City. He's got on a pair of undies, out of view. Tighty-whities, in fact. Because would a guy who bills himself as the Naked Cowboy be caught dead in boxers? Please.

23) Commitment cool, No. 1:

Do you take this Real Deal Brazil hat? I do, I do, I do! Kyle and Heather Bullock of Washington, N.C., tying the knot on the beach in Negril, Jamaica, May 2010.

24) Commitment cool, No. 2:

You're still the coolest thing ...

Spartanburg, S.C., residents Kerry and Larry Easler, celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary along the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina's picturesque swath of the Appalachian Mountains. This is the second marriage for them both.

The two, who also share a love of geocaching and ice hockey, met at a tailgate party for an East Coast Hockey League game. "Less than two years later," Larry wrote us, "I found myself proposing to her at center ice, in between periods, in front of over 5000 fans." Cool, in every single way!

25) Care-free cool:

That guy's eating a friggin' rainbow!

Chester Elizondo of San Antonio, Texas, April 2011, during a week of island-hopping in Puerto Rico with friends. Throughout his crew’s “exploration adventure," Chester sported his highly personalized Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, its bendy brim sculpted by him into a unique style he dubs, appropriately, “The Chester."

As our cool Texan tells it: “I swam in that thing ... buried it in the sand ... stuffed it in my back pack ... had sex in it ... filled it with ice and used it as a small ice chest ... at one point it was my loin cloth while I chased a chicken naked down the beach (not sure how I ended up naked ... and the chicken was very very fast)."

26) Can-do cool:

The hat above belongs to David King of Pinewood, S.C. But it ain't just Dave's favorite head-topper; it's a wearable survival kit, too. Get this: Sewn into the brim is 12 feet of Para-Cord, the survivalist's friend. The cord itself houses several sewing needles, for possible clothing fixes and temporary medical self-repairs. Fitted inside the hat are 10 yards of 20-pound-test fishing line, four fishing hooks, a few Band-Aids and a tiny compass. And on the back there? A miniature flashlight.

"Nobody, and I mean NOBODY gets to wear my hat," sez Dave. "Not even just to try it on." We're cool with that!

27) Crocodile cool:

Apologies to the late, great Steve Irwin ...

And thanks, we think, to Real Deal Brazil fan Dylan Smith of Durham, N.C., who first pitched our boy Frank as Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, at left, and then Hawaii Real Dealer Randy "Rancho" Francis ran with the idea and made his own take on it, at right, that's, even, well, crockier.

You people have too much free time, you know that?

28) Centurion cool:

We received this from an anonymous Real Dealer who does a lot of traveling. This shot, from a 2010 stop in Rome, came about when a couple of Italian guys dressed up as gladiators to score paid-for pictures with tourists were really taken with our journeyman's way-cool hat. One of the two kept motioning that he wanted to try on the RDB, and encouraged that his picture then be taken. He didn't even try to charge our traveler for the shot, which is just about unheard of anywhere near the coliseum. However, the wannabe centurion was not, reportedly, that keen on returning the hat when it was over.

Greed over a Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat: the real reason the Roman Empire fell?

29) Camo cool:

U.S. serviceman Trey Perry in early 2011, during his Afghanistan assignment. We're proud you chose us for your downtime headwear, soldier! Real damn Deal proud.

Salute!

30) Beach-cut cool:

Buff guy Michael Bowe-Rahming, officer and diver, U.S. Navy, on the beach at Agnone Bagni, Italy, August 2009. Mike and his family, among the finest folks on Earth, are still in Italy, where he's stationed.

Mike is cool. Italy is cool. And that hat? Oh, yeah! That pretty well covers it.

31) Coolin' out cool:

Our own Waylon Warren, on a Memorial Day 2011 pontoon-boat trip on eastern North Carolina's Albemarle Sound. It was major-league hot that day, and Waylon had the ingenuity to string a nylon parachute hammock under the boat's elevated center section, to where he was actually reclining in the tannin-dark water, fully in the shade. Not that he didn't manage a little sunburn before his trip that day was over, though the Jack Daniels, he told us, did help with the pain. "I started early," Waylon explained with a grin.

32) Damn cold cool:

The ever-globetrotting Gary Crawford of Greenville, N.C., hangin' with the weird tuxedoed birds on an island off of Antarctica. As in down there at the South Pole.

Gary's been to the other pole, too, the one way up north. The one with the weird lights in the sky. And Santa. Never forget Santa. Cuz Kringle, after all, is cool.

33) Need-a-cold shower cool:

We're not telling you who she is. Forget it. Go wander around back on our Facebook site, back quite a few months, and you might learn a thing or two about this Real va-va-voom Deal Floridian. But don't get too obsessed with the idea. That would be, y'know, uncool.

34) Kick-ass cool:

One of our all-time favorite customer pics. Scott Fortner of Mount Pleasant, Mich., who stands 7'1" and weighs in at about 550 pounds. Scott used to be a bar bouncer, till he got shot in the knee. He's on our side in the fight for cool. Which means we win.

35) Kickin'-cancer's-ass cool:

Rob Colby of Manchester, N.H., October 2010, early into his chemo treatments for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Rob's concern when all this life-changing stuff started? Not his inevitable chemo-caused sickness. Not even the nasty C word itself. His worry was about losing his hair ... because then his much-loved Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat would no longer fit him!

Rob ultimately lopped off all his hair – all two feet of it – and donated it to Locks of Love, the nonprofit group that provides hairpieces to underprivileged kids living with long-term medical hair-loss. Until his hair started growing back, he put padding in his hat to still be able to wear it.

We are humbled by such outrageously awesome cool.

36) Carpe diem cool:

Newport News, Va., Real Deal Brazil fan Glenn Woodell, during a short break from windsurfing off the wild-and-wooly Outer Banks of North Carolina. And yeah, you're looking at that photo right. One leg is a leg, the other is space-age metal, a prosthetic. A volunteer EMT who's also into drag racing, Glenn does the stuff that most people only talk about doing, and then don't do, yet without all the parts that most people have with which to not do it.

The guy's just a class act. Cool, cool, cool.

And if all that wasn't enough:

37) Chuck cool:

Yeah, Chuck.

And not Schwab, not hardly. And certainly not that round-headed kid in Peanuts. Chuck as in there is no chin behind his beard; there is only another fist.

Chuck as in he does not actually wear Action Jeans; Action Jeans cling to him in desperation, in fear he will choose Levis instead.

That Chuck.

Our great thanks to Real Deal Brazil fan Trevor Payne for this righteous bit of photo mischief. Sez Trevor: "It is NOT POSSIBLE to (be) cooler than Chuck Norris in a Real Deal Brazil Hat." Argue with that.

No, seriously. Argue with it. We dare ya.

38) ...

The One-Ton-o'-Real-Deal-Fun Contest: 2,000 Facebook Fans R Us!

2011-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Small company, big fanbase. Go, us!

A few days ago, our Facebook site crested the 2,000-fan mark, a big dang Real Deal to us. So it's giveaway time again, RDB brethren and sistren! And while we may not still be able to pull this type of thing off if we reach, y'know, 20,000 fans, we guess we'll just have to see what shakes out, won't we? So bring it, people! Bring it!

For now, we're happy to offer this, as a serious thank you to all of you Real Deal Brazil fans, outright RDB junkies, geocaching hatters, photo posters, world travelers, sarcasm purveyors, hunters, fishers, hikers, loungers, beer swiggers, et al., and generally just truly fun folks (Our fans are the best! All you other sites can go to hell!), for giving us your dedication, and your time:

Twenty (yes, 20!) lucky fans will each receive one classic Real Deal Brazil recycled tarp hat, plus a choice of either a Real Deal Brazil Hat Hitch Wind Strap or Real Deal Brazil Coconut Hat Band.

One Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Ballcap and one Real Deal Brazil Wallet (either Bi-Fold or Tri-Fold).

Not bad, huh?

So how do you enter? Well, ya gotta play to win, folks! Ya gotta play to win!

CONTEST RULES:

It's simple: Answer a question posted on our Facebook page. Every day of the contest, we'll re-post the question, as well as a link back to here, in case you forget these outrageously complex rules.

NOTE: You only need to enter ONE time; additional postings will NOT increase your chances! Though the cleverest response, judged by, well, us, won't get you any further in this contest, we do so love us a clever response!

Anyone who becomes a Real Deal Brazil Facebook fan before the contest closes is eligible to enter.

The contest closes at 8:30 a.m. Monday, July 18, at which point we'll collect all names of fans who've posted real responses, and provide those names, as soon as we reasonably can, to the random third-party drawing service at Random.org. Then, as soon as we hear back from them, we'll post those results on Facebook, and here at this blog as well.

The question:

If the Real Deal Brazil recycled tarp hat were a celebrity (other than Woody Harrelson), who would it be, and why?

(Frank, our Site Administrator Guy, only thinks he's a star. Some people.)

Both parts of the question are required to qualify as an answer! Clean answers only; naughtiness, however much we might get a kick out of it, will get your answer yanked, and you disqualified. And remember: Go back to our Facebook site to answer. Don't answer here!

So what the H are you waiting for? Get busy answering, and get entered!

The Real Deal Brazil, THE Geocaching Hat? The Proof Is in the Picture!

2011-07-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

The "official" GeoWoodstock IX "flashmob" photo of our growing Real Deal Brazil geocaching army, whom one day we hope to take into battle, hats on heads and GPSes in hand! OK, just kidding on that last part. Maybe.

Our great, great thanks to Jenn "Kunve" Kunze, Geoacaching Goddess, for all her efforts in coordinating this shot, and in running flak for us when people kept asking why we weren't at GWS9 ourselves.

Gosh, folks, we didn't know ya cared so! Now we're feeling a bit warm and fuzzy all over! Also,a little guilty. Warm and fuzzy and guilty. (We may need a cold shower, a shave, some therapy, and a drink. Hell, screw the therapy! Who's buyin' the drink?)

So why weren't we, in all seriousness, not there this year, with hats and bags for sale, and a little attitude to burn? We don't have a good answer, beyond this: We honestly didn't realize the degree to which our brand had become so prevalent within the geocaching community, which is a little humbling, thank you very much! (And by thank you very much, we really mean it: Thank you all. Very much.) On top of that, we are a small company with not a lot of budget, quite honestly. We have to be extremely selective in what we can do by way of travel, etc., which usually has to equal not much.

That said, this photo, and the planning that went into it, and the big group who turned out just to be a part of it, has us saying this: If it can happen that we can attend GWS10 (May 25-26, 2012, in Sellersburg, Ind.), it will!

That ain't just talk, brethren. If it can, it will. And we hope it will!

Especially since Jenn owes us a couple of beers. Just don't tell her we said that. She probably thinks we're buying!

Contest in the Rearview, Contest on the Horizon

2011-07-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

At the Real Deal Brazil, we like giving stuff away. Obviously, as a small company, we can't just go nuts about it; yet when we can, it's our way of saying thanks to all of you for being such dedicated fans of who we are, and what we do. Which explains why we're really into contests. Giveaways, and what have you. Sometimes, we're very, very obvious about it. Other times, not so much.

And as to the latter:

Recently, we wrapped up a contest that you had to have been really paying attention to even know was going on. Many folks still doubt it happened; consider this recent fan comment from our Facebook site:

"I keep hearing about contests, secret or otherwise, but have yet to actually see one."

Ah, but one happened, good fan! One happened!

It went like this: For a couple of months, we added roughly one letter a week to the corners of our changing profile pics, thus:

(We can't not comment, by the way, about how much we love the above pic of South Dakota Real Deal Brazil fan Rafael Andrade! Raf is reacting here to the rattlesnakes he's been warned might be lurking in the scrubby brush all around him in his home state's Badlands National Park.)

Admittedly, we did intentionally skip one week of posting letters with profile pics, and we did also double up on letters at least twice, just to be, y'know, jerks. Heh, heh.

Strung together, the letters ultimately spelled out: GOHEREYOUWINAHATDOTCOM.

Even once people started to catch on as to what was being spelled out, it threw some folks for a loop, because they tried to make the whole thing a URL, as in GoHereYouWinAHat.com. Alas, that wasn't it. You had to see the "GoHere" part as a direction, as in:

Go here: YouWinAHat.com.

So if you haven't been, go there and see for yourself!

The first three folks to find their way there each won a Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, and a choice of RDB Hat Hitch Wind Strap or Coconut Hat Band. Everyone after that likely just gnashed their teeth a bit, realizing they were, as the saying doesn't quite go, a day late and a free RDB hat short.

Still, a pat on the back to any and all of you who figured it out. Because when it was all said and done, not all that many folks caught on to what was going on.

Our winners, in order of their arrival:

1. Jenn Kunze of West Barnstable, Mass., seen immediately below, giving the world a friendly hello, of sorts.

2. Mack Simpson of Richardson, Texas, appearing below in the midst of a mysterious Texas ritual involving RDB hats, cacti and tequila. And from what we can gather, a lot of tequila.

3. Eric Spence of Winthrop, Mass. Unfortunately, we have no photo of Eric to share.

Jenn and Mack have been Real Deal Brazil fans for quite some time, so we've managed to accumulate a few photos along the way. The two pics posted above are obviously among our favorites.

Our belated formal congratulations to all three smarty-pants winners!

As for all the rest of you fine folks: If you see something unusual on our site, assume we might be up to something; we often are! But one piece of advice: If you think you're on to us, don't necessarily share your suspicions on our site, as you might tip someone else off to winning something that could be yours instead (this happened more than once in the contest in question). Not that we in any way advocate greed and failing to help out your fellow fan -- that would, after all, be wrong! We're, y'know, just sayin', is all.

And as for Real Deal Brazil contests yet to come? Look no further than soon. Really, really soon.

Is it tomorrow yet?

Real Deal Brazil Group Photo Planned for GeoWoodstock IX

2011-06-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

It's good to have fans. It's even better to have the best fans.

Case in point: There's a whole lot of geoachers out there who are pretty passionate about our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat. They wear their own religiously while out on their intriguing pursuits in fields and forests and even urban jungles. This brings us much happiness here at the Real Deal Brazil, as we happen to think that geocaching is quite cool, and the 'cachers we've gotten to know through their own love of our hats tend to be even cooler still.

Which brings us to this happy note: Jenn Kunze, righteous Real Deal Brazil fan and reported geocache goddess (we've heard; we cannot confirm) is trying to organize a group photo at the fast-approaching GeoWoostock IX/GWS9 of fellow 'cachers who are also Real Deal Brazil hat owners.

GeoWoodstock, the world's largest gathering of geocachers, will be held this year July 1-3 at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Pittsfield, Penn.

That's Jenn third from right in the above photo, by the way, with her trusty RDB hat, a bunch of her 'caching homies and the prize booty of that particular day's geo-search expedition.

The only requirement to be in this pending group photo other than attending GeoWoodstock IX: You've gotta be wearing your own Real Deal Brazil hat. Some come one, come all, you geocaching RDB lovers! There might even be a nifty little gift in it for a couple of ya.

This photo is tentatively planned for 12:20 p.m. Saturday, July 2 at GWS9; actual location at GeoWoodstock is TBA, and we'll post it on our Facebook site as soon as we know it.

Geocaching, for you geo-phytes (we think we just made that up, though we probably didn't; however, until someone tells us different, we're feeling pretty clever), is a modern-day form of treasure-hunting involving a handheld GPS device to track down "geocaches" ("caches," for short) that fellow geocachers have planted at points near and far, all around the world. These sometimes-farflung treasure troves are typically waterproof containers of different sizes, with many holding only a logbook for signing with your recognized geocaching name/handle to document your success, though sometimes the containers also hold small toys or trinkets for trading.

The point, as in any fine pursuit, isn't the object of the search but really the search itself.

Geoacaching dates to roughly the year 2000, when Dave Ulmer (aka He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) placed the very first cache in Portland, Ore.

And yes, that is indeed a Harry Potter reference. Want another? If you never knew that geoaching even existed before this, that makes you, guess what? A Geomuggle.

These geocachers: They're a clever bunch.

Real Deal Daddy-o!

2011-06-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

What’s Dad really need this year? Some free time he can spend getting into all the best kinds of trouble with the kids, and his very own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, natch. Because an RDB hat is the right kind of trouble just waitin' to happen.

The photo of quality dad time, above, comes from Roger Pinckney, avid Real Dealer, resident of sparsely populated Daufuskie Island, S.C., and senior editor of Sporting Classics Magazine. And with his photo came this fabulous explanation:

“Boys with their first 22 rifle and hunter orange get up. Christmas 2010 Daufuskie Island SC, no bridge, no ATM, no yoga, no yogurt and the fast food as fins, fur, or feathers.”

Intriguing guy, huh? This one-of-a-kind dad only gets more interesting the more you learn about him. Pinckney’s life is a testament to all that aforementioned trouble, and then some:

As a young man, he packed all he owned into an old truck and struck out from his home in the South Carolina Lowcountry for Fairbanks, Alaska, never to get there:

“Stranded on a chilly roadside in Northern Minnesota,” reads one of several online bios on the man, “Pinckney bought land, took up with a long string of Norwegian girls, raised horses, cattle, babies, learned to dynamite stumps, cook maple syrup, and drive sled dogs.”

Not long ago remarried, Pinckney, an avid conservationist, is an equally avid hunter. He dropped us an e-mail update back in early February 2011 of the trouble he and his boys and his hat were then getting into:

"Knocked over a limit of quail in S Georgia riding on a mule wagon and am heading out to shoot ducks on the Santee Delta on the 15th. Meanwhile, we organized the locals and put a serious dent in our huge population of island whitetails. 200 deer, times an average of 40 lbs of boned meat off each, (subtracting the back straps, adding the pork butts) equals four TONS of sausage. … The head DNR deer man said it was our civic responsibility to shoot more deer and, brother, we rizz to it this year.”

If ever there was a Real Deal kind of dad, Pinckney is all that and then some.

Real Deal Brazil Funny

2011-06-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

Among the funniest things we've found lurking online about our hats is the following exchange encountered today on a survivalist forum with the provocative title "You Ain't Seen Bad Yet But It's Coming," in a forum topic devoted to our "Real Deal Brazil Bush Hat":

"You have no idea how hard it is to google the words 'Brazil' and 'bush' together and not get distracted by the main results."

To which another forum participant commented just a few days later:

"sometimes google finds what you weren't looking for."

Our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat: Seek it, and no telling what other of life's mysteries ye may stumble upon along the way ...

RDB All Funked Up? Tips on Cleaning Your Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Hat

2011-06-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

Dirt happens. Also, sweat. And when the two get together often enough, especially in high-heat, high-humidity climates, they can add up to some really nasty s***. And, really, who's ever happy when s*** happens, especially when it happens to a beloved Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat?

The horror, right?

But no real worries, actually. Because while you will never, ever, ever get the funky out of your Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, you can easily eliminate that certain foulish funk that's one day likely to seep in following heavy, serious wear.

Cleaning your hat couldn't actually be much easier. If you're in a bind and needing rapid mild-funk relief, just spray your groady headwear with a garden hose, then let the hat air-dry. If it's a warm day, and the RDB is left out in the sun, a couple hours should do ya.

When the funk gets a bit more serious, though, and you've got a few more minutes to spend on upkeep, we recommend hand-washing that dirty bad boy in the sink. Dilute some detergent or even use dish soap, soaking your RDB in the sudsy solution and, depending on the degree of nasty, maybe even scrubbing your hat a little with a rag or soft brush. Rinse thoroughly, then let your RDB air-dry, preferably outside. Done, and done!

And, presto: powdery-fresh kick-ass hat.

Of course, some funk is really, really bad funk. Consider this very real note we received a while back:

"Love the hat. But it has become covered in wild hog dung and needs to be washed. It is currently hanging in a tree. Any recommendations?"

In this weird case, add a little OxiClean to the soap-and-water mix, and maybe squeeze in a little fresh lemon juice, too. And don't be surprised if you have to repeat the whole process at least once. Wild hogs. Honestly. You people.

That said, we've had people put their highly funked-up RDBs in the dishwasher to good effect as well, though if there's any spot-scrubbing that needs doing, you're really right back to hand-washing as your best option, y'know?

We discourage machine-washing our hats, however. The agitator arm in a standard washer can beat hell on the hat's crown stitching, particularly if the RDB is crowded among other clothes, and can't easily work free. Don't chance it. Ain't worth it.

We also strongly advise against putting our hats in dryers. For one thing, all that tumbling can add a new shape to the brim that might then be hard to work back out. Air-dry, people! Air-dry!

So to recap: In a pinch, hose off your RDB, easy-peasy. Otherwise, for general cleaning, hand-wash with mild detergent/dish soap, rinse thoroughly, air-dry.

A word or two on air-drying: We recommend actually hanging your newly clean hat outside to dry vs. wearing it right after rinsing and waiting on it to dry that way. Your hat's heavy canvas fabric can soak up a whole lot of water while being washed/rinsed, and all that agua is liable to run all over you if you immediately slap your beloved, newly funk-free RDB right back on your eager head. Of course, if you really like, or even need, a good soaking yourself, then y'know, have at it.

Let it be said that there are certainly other effective methods for cleaning your hat. A little Real Deal ingenuity, and there's no telling what you can come up with.

Of course, some seemingly inspired ideas should probably be questioned a bit before being put into practice. For instance, no matter how brave your Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat might make you feel, please do not, under any circumstances, put it on your head and then attempt to walk through one of those automated car washes. This is pretty much guaranteed to end badly, and certainly much worse for you than for your hat. In a match between your body and a big, swirling brush attached to an insistent mechanized arm, odds are on the brush, every time.

Long-standing Real Deal Brazil fan and funk-problem-solver Mack Simpson of Richardson, Texas, has a much less potentially hazardous suggestion toward getting a fouled-up RDB all spiffy again:

"I have a technique for cleaning mine that's worked every time. Beware, though: It is a long, drawn-out process that follows many steps, any one of which that might be missed could lead to total disaster. So here it is: 1) Place your RDB snugly atop your head; 2) jump in a chlorinated pool; 3) slosh about a bit, preferably with a pool-safe beer can in hand; 4) repeat as necessary; 5) leave your RDB out to dry overnight.

Please be sure to remember this is a professional-grade cleaning and not intended for amateurs. If necessary, I can provide you with my address for sending your hat and a case of beer. Expect your hat to return to you in clean condition in 7-10 working days."

That's some real generosity right there! Our fans, as we've always said, are just the best. The Real Deal best.

Down-Time on the Water, Real Deal Brazil Style

2011-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Waylon Warren, the Real Deal Brazil's own intrepid photographer, showed his equally heightened talents for inspired relaxation during a Memorial Day 2011 trip with girlfriend Lisa Chesson and several friends. The group took a pontoon-boat trip on eastern North Carolina's Albemarle Sound, putting in at Mackeys Creek, not too far from where Waylon lives.

"It was a good little outing," he says.

On that hot day, while the boat drifted and Lisa and fellow passengers lounged up top or on inner tubes floating nearby, Waylon had the ingenuity to string a nylon parachute hammock under the boat's elevated center section, to where he was actually reclining in the tannin-dark water.

"Turned out to be a pretty big hit with most of the crew," he says. "It was extremely comfortable, and cool, being half in the water and under the boat in the shade."

When he had to deal with sun -- sometimes you just have to man up and give your friends a few minutes in your under-pontoon hammock, after all -- his Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat kept things a little less sizzly. "It kept me from getting burnt to a crisp," Waylon says.

It protected his head, anyway.

"My shoulders and back were not so lucky," he admits.

But the Jack Daniels certainly helped with the pain.

"I started early," Waylon says with a grin.

Dyeing Your Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Hat: Tips From an RDB Hat Owner From Down Under

2011-04-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Tony Dymock of Cairnlea, Australia, near the city of Melbourne, contacted Real Deal Brazil customer service not long ago wanting tips on dyeing his new hat. Tony had bought both a RDB hat and a bag, but wasn't as crazy about the lighter-colored tarp on the hat. After several back-and-forths with us, Tony took the plunge. He was kind enough to then send us back his own steps in applying the dye. Since we get periodic requests for info on this very subject, we offer Tony's own insight here.

His notes to us always begin "G'day." We love that.

Tony writes:

"The dyeing worked well! I don’t know what you guys have in the States, but I bought a packet of Dark Brown Dylon dye from a fabric store here. Basic procedure is:

1 - Wash the hat and leave it damp.

2 – Dissolve the 50g satchel of dye in 6L of hot water with 250g of salt. Stir until all the grittiness is gone in the bottom. Best to use a stainless steel sink for this!

3 – Submerge the hat, making sure to get the dye in all the cracks. Stir the dye for 10 minutes continuously. After that flip the hat over every 10 minutes and give it another stir, repeat until an hour has passed in total.

4 – After an hour pull the hat out, drain the dye from the sink and run cold water over and through the hat until the water comes out clear. Won’t take very long because the canvas sucks the dye up and won’t let it run!

5 – Put the hat somewhere out of direct sun and heat and let it dry. During this stage you can mould the peak as well and it’ll stay that way once it dries. Because the hat was a bit big on me I put the front peak in by squeezing the sides. Now the hat fits perfectly!

6 – After 24 hours, the hat should be dry and you can wear it!

7 – Step back and admire the sexy darkness.

Just for comparison, I’ve attached a pic of the hat resting on top of the bag. The hat was the same colour as the bag when it arrived in Australia. Any cotton dye should do the trick.

Not bad for a straight guy who’s never dyed anything before I reckon."

Not bad, indeed. To quote Tony himself, just check out that sexy darkness!

Real Deal Brazil Fan Gets Foamed at Colombia's Famed Carnaval de Barranquilla

2011-04-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

We're delighted to get a pretty constant stream of pictures from devoted Real Deal Brazil customers, but now and again, there's one that really stands out. The shot above reached us today from Real Deal Brazil owner Kurt Runkle of King of Prussia, Penn. Even with explanation, it's pretty hysterical.

Here's the note that came with it:

"Your hat helped protect my head from the sun but couldn't protect my face from the foam at Carnaval in Columbia South America. :)"

Kurt means Carnaval de Barranquilla, held this year March 5-8 in Colombia's second-largest city, along its northern stretch of coast. Carnaval de Barranquilla is among the world's largest Carnival celebrations, and one thing they're known for is shooting off these big canisters of foam at members of the crowd, particularly if your obviously not local. Thus the photo ...

We were so intrigued with Kurt's foam-bearded photo that we asked him to tell us a little bit more about his Carnival experiences, and also how he came to own his own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat.

He writes:

"I bought the hat over a year ago. I can’t remember exactly where I saw/heard of it. Maybe a radio station? I had just seen the movie Zombieland and the ad mentioned Woody’s hat was a RDB. So I looked it up and loved the style and the story behind it. I have given it as a Christmas present for some of my relatives. They loved it too.

As far as Carnaval. I have a friend who does tours in South America. (He loved the hat too and is getting one soon). Starting last year, me and a bunch of my friends made a pact to go visit him once a year in a different county. Last year was Belize. This year he said he was going to be in Baranquilla for Carnaval. Carnaval has always been on my bucket list. So it was a no brainer. I chose Columbia because the opportunity was there, less travel time, less chance of getting in trouble.

I shaved my head last year for charity and have kept it shaved since then. I definitely needed a hat for the South American Sun, and there was none better to take than the RDB. It is tough enough to get crammed in my back pack and pop out ready to go. Plus it looks cool, is water/foam proof and does a great job protecting me from the elements.

As far a foam. They sell 2 foot cans of foam there and anyone who looks like a gringo gets bombed. I guess I didn’t blend. It was all in good fun and we had a huge foam war with the locals. We met up with some guys from Ireland and hung out with them in the stands. So it was team USA (5 of us), team Ireland (4 of them) against team Baranquilla (everyone else). Lots of laughs, lots of drinking, lots of great experiences.

We were in Baranquilla from March 2nd until March 7th, then went to (nearby) Taganga and chilled on the beach until March 10th. It was a great vaca. And no sunburn on my dome thanks to the hat.”

Outstanding stuff! We're thrilled to have made the trip with you, Kurt!

Real Deal Brazil Adds Dog-Lovers' Gallery at Facebook Site

2011-04-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Just added a fun new gallery at our Facebook site, devoted to Real Deal Brazil lovers who are dog-lovers alike.

Check out The Real Deal Brazil: Something to Bark About, here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Deal-Brazil/106664188492#!/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150170806463493.316204.106664188492

The Real Deal Brazil Does Mainland Portugal

2011-02-23T17:47:00.000-08:00

The Real Deal Brazil-topped traveler who sent us the shots we posted recently from the Portuguese island of Madeira also spent some time on the European country's mainland.

Whenever he met someone who expressed an interest in his Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, he encouraged them to try it on -- and then he snapped a picture of them. Some were fellow foreign travelers; some were native Portuguese. Several of those shots, plus a few snaps of some newly stylish statues, are now included here.

We've kept our traveler's name a mystery; he actually asked that we refrain from including it if we decided to run these photos. Your secret's safe with us, Mr. Real Deal Rambler!

The Real Deal Brazil Revists the Ancient Far East!

2011-02-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

Pet Dr. Phil is back in the RDB house!

Last May, we received a superb set of travel photos from Real Deal Brazil owner Phil Caldwell, a Los Angeles small-animal veterinarian and aspiring writer. Phil had documented in pictures a trip he'd taken to Cambodia, one of his favorite places in the world. In his happy travels there, Phil was routinely accompanied by his stalwart Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, even through the incredible ruins of Angkor Wat, from the ancient Khmer Empire.

Phil took another trip in late-November, 2010, and we lucked out to again receive a few shots from his enviable travels, presented below. Sorry it's taken us so long to share them!

For more on Phil's trans-global travel exploits, visit his compelling personal blog, "Scribbles From a Midnight Diary," scribblesfromamidnightdiary.blogspot.com.

The Real Deal Brazil Tarp Hat Tours Idyllic Portuguese Island

2011-02-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

We recently received a set of images from an intrepid Real Deal traveler who spent some time on the island of Madeira, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal. Wherever he went on this beautiful island, he took his Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat. If people asked about it, or even seemed interested in it but spoke no English, he encouraged them to try it on, and snapped their delighted pictures. A number of these impromptu shots are presented here.

This is more than just a spotlight of our nifty hat, but a slide show of a lovely locale of mountain cliffs, rocky beaches and charming Old World towns that so many may not have realized even exists. Enjoy!

Real Deal Brazil 1,500 Fans Contest-Giveaway

2011-01-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

If you haven't dropped by the Real Deal Brazil Facebook fan site in the last few days, it's now official: We have 1,500 fans! We're a little company, not some mammoth swish-y shoe manufacturer or everywhere-you-turn coffee-shop chain, so that much love is a pretty grand thing!

And as promised, upon hitting that big 1,500, we've launched another giveaway, our way of saying thanks for all that love. We, y'know, love the love!

Fans of our scrappy little brand are a dedicated bunch, and we hardly take that for granted. Because let's face it, there's a lot of neat stuff out there if you take the time to look. We're thrilled so many folks have put a bit of their faith in us.

This time out, 15 lucky folks will each win one classic-style Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, plus their choice of either an RDB Coconut Hat Band or a Hat Hitch Wind Strap. This drawing is, however, going to be a little different than the last two. Our goal is to thank, in particular, those fans who actively visit, and interact with, our Facebook site. So this time, we're asking fans to actively enter the contest by showing off a little of their Real Deal creativity.

The contest itself started at 6 a.m. today, Jan. 11, and will run for exactly one week, ending at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18.

To enter, go to the RDB Facebook fan site (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Deal-Brazil/106664188492) before 6 a.m. Jan. 18, and if you're not a fan, sign up! Then post an answer to this question, posted prominently there: What's the most unusual thing you can imagine using your Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat for? But keep those answers clean; truly off-color stuff, however fun, will be deleted, disqualifying that entry.

Though this will be a totally random drawing, note that simply posting your name won't work; you've gotta at least attempt to answer the question! When the contest closes at 6 a.m. Jan. 18, we'll then collect all names of fans who've posted real responses, and provide those names to the third-party drawing service at Random.org. Then, as soon as we know who won, we'll post the drawing results on the Real Deal Brazil Facebook site, and sort out sizes, mailing addresses, etc., with each winner individually

The best of Real Deal luck to you!

What We’re Thankful for at the Real Deal Brazil

2010-11-25T19:17:00.000-08:00

It’s that gracious time of year again.

We at the Real Deal Brazil have certainly got our own list of grateful fors. So, in no particular order, we’re thankful for the following wildly fulfilling, utterly fantastic stuff:

You. Cuz, gosh, you’re swell. Seriously, you buy our Real Deal Brazil hats, and wear them. You get your friends to buy our hats, and wear them, too. You order ’em as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, Dad’s Day gifts, anniversary gifts, gifts for Guy Fawkes Day (our hat is great at British bonfires!), even Halloween gifts to yourself. So we’re just all about you, ya big lug, you!

Brazil. Lots of hot people there, often wearing little more than dental floss for clothing. Plus, that Brazil nut is indeed a tasty thing. And as for that Terry Gilliam movie – a hoot! Not to mention they sure can make a nice hat!

Woody Harrelson. The environmentally minded lunatic actor saw something utterly him in our atypical headwear early on in the filming for Zombieland, and requested that our Real Deal Brazil hat be added to his badass wardrobe for the film. Then many, many people obviously saw our hat because of wonderful the zombie-slaying former goofy Cheers bartender and, well, life is good.

Beer. It’s good, too. Well, the good stuff’s good anyway. The other stuff is just beer. Which is still good.

Cocoa. It’s just nice. Cozy. Happy. Especially with those little marshmallows in it.

Irish whiskey. Jameson, Bushmills, OK! Goes really nice in cocoa, and is also very useful for making really bad decisions that later wind up being great stories you can’t tell your kids. Especially since one or two of those bad decisions might actually have ended up becoming, y’know, your kids!

Our men and women in uniform. They do what they do so the rest of us can be who we are, and then too often take that fact for granted. Doesn’t matter what we think about this war or that politician, cuz when you get right down to it, our service men and women live the sacrifice. You sirs and ma’ams just rock!

Snoozing. Screw that Black Friday 4 a.m. shopping mess. You can have your hand-held plasma TV toaster-oven vacuum cleaner with wireless remote. We’re sleeping in instead!

Family. They make us nuts, cuz when you get right down to it, they’re us and we’re them. And what could be better, or worse? We just wish we could figure out how we’re supposed to be related to “Uncle Arnie.” That guy’s a total freak.

Friends. They’re like family, except we can ask them to leave, and they actually will.

Pets. They’re like family, but with fur. Also, they don’t require money for college. Just no goldfish, please! That damn Uncle Arnie keeps putting them in his beer and drinking them.

Cake. It’s cake, after all.

Pie. It’s good like cake, except that it’s pie. And by pie, we mean pumpkin. Or, really, pretty much anything else for that matter. Cuz it’s pie.

Chainsaws. Sometimes, you need to carve up a pumpkin really quick, right? For pie. Also, chainsaws can be used in a pinch on zombies, assuming you don’t have a gun handy, or have suddenly run out of guacamole and the undead are all at once making a beeline for your brains.

Zombies. We love us some zeds! Just maybe not in our kitchen at the end of a holiday party. Because zombies just never want to go home when the night’s over. They eat all the guacamole with their flesh-rotting fingers. They drink out of the toilet and pee right in the potted plants. On the plus side, if the party gets really out of hand and someone feels the need to shoot somebody else, or get busy with, say, a chainsaw, zombies are already dead, so no harm, no foul, y’know?

Santa. An in yes, Virginia, we at the Real Deal Brazil very much believe in Mr. Claus! We also believe that the Jolly Old Elf wears our hat whenever he can get away with taking off that pointy red thing with the big white bob on the end of it. Because why wouldn’t he love our hat? Our headwear is, after all, sanctified fabulous. Or, in this case, Santified fabulous! Plus, our Real Deal Brazil hats and bags make for the coolest present you could hope to find under your holiday tree. Find one there, or put one there, and see.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast reruns. One word: Brak.

Warren Zevon. The late, and unfathomably great. We firmly believe that the guy who wrote “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” (and, yes, “Werewolves of London”) would, if still with us today, be all over our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat. And even if, by some fluke of fate, he wasn’t, well, we sure wear our own RDB when we listen, often, to his genius music!

Terriers. It’s on FX. That Donal Logue is a funny guy.

The Big Bang Theory. Oh, Sheldon!

Snoopy. As in the dog. He howls and hangs out with a slightly oversized yellow bird and fights World War I air battles atop his doghouse. Plus, he would seem to cook a good Thanksgiving turkey in that Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special we just now watched again for the 183rd time.

Thanksgiving-dinner leftovers. Especially pie. Hopefully, there’s a little of that pumpkin still left …

The Real Deal Brazil in Way-Cool Windsurfing Pics, Part Two

2010-11-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

Four blog entries back we posted a great set of pictures of Newport News, Va., Real Deal Brazil fan Glenn Woodell indulging his passion for windsurfing off North Carolina’s Outer Banks … all the while wearing his Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat!

We thought that was plenty cool enough, what with Glenn skimming fast across the waters of the Pamlico Sound with our hat somehow staying perched atop his head, even without the benefit of our Real Deal Brazil Hat Hitch Wind Strap (sadly, Glenn did later lose his original RDB to the salty depths). And the dude wears that tarp hat well! He’s got that whole rugged-individualist thing going hard.

But then we got a note from Amber Malish-Sconyers, the photographer who shot Glenn’s windsurfing pictures, one of which appears again above, and we suddenly realized we had no idea just how cool …

Amber sent us four additional photos of Glenn windsurfing off Hatteras Island (those new pics follow the text here). Seeing them was a bit of a shock after viewing the first set – because in the new set, Glenn is missing a leg.

But that can’t be right! Glenn’s got two legs in the pictures we posted earlier!

Actually, come to think of it, you don’t see his lower legs at all in the original photos. But surely he’s got two legs, right? The guy’s windsurfing, after all. That takes balance and coordination and grace and all that stuff that most of us like to pretend we’ve got in droves, but then, there’s actually a reason most of us didn’t grow up to be Olympic gymnasts, or become the pro partners on Dancing With the Stars …

In the new set of pictures, you obviously do see Glenn’s legs. Or rather, you see his one leg. In place of where you readily expect the other one to be is a prosthetic, and a very space-agey one, at that.

Glenn, it turns out, is an above-the-knee amputee. He lost the lower part of his right leg in a car accident back in his 20s.

After several e-mail conversations with Glenn since, we figured out that he didn’t include any pictures that show the prosthetic in part because he intended the photos to be about our Real Deal Brazil hat, and not about him. We’re obviously very flattered by that.

Because yes, including shots with the prosthetic kind of asks people to focus on the prosthetic instead, the upshot being that many of those same folks (including, we confess, us here at the Real Deal Brazil) then find themselves tempted to regard Glenn’s accomplishments on the board as somehow larger than life.

Glenn does, after all, make something that most of us couldn’t do on two legs look ridiculously easy, and he’s only working with half as many full limbs!

This is the same guy who also enjoys drag racing and roller-skating, for Pete’s sake. Not to mention that he volunteers as an EMT with his local hospital, and takes the time to visit soon-to-be amputees to offer positive insight into living with a prosthetic device.

So it really is easy to think of this guy as being pretty extraordinary, y’know?

But don’t, he says.

“I am Glenn who just happens to have five less toes than most people,” he explains, “rather than Super Glenn who overcomes all obstacles.”

OK, so let’s go with this, then: Glenn is a guy who’s actively chosen to turn an adversity into both a challenge and an opportunity, something the rest of us can no doubt draw inspiration from. And in this mad, often inhospitable rush called modern life, inspiration is routinely in woefully short supply.

Which is to say that while we at the Real Deal Brazil are normally more than willing to give all credit for coolness to our uncommon hats, the fact remains that Glenn probably deserves at least a few of those props himself!

Thanks for making our great hat look even better, amigo.

A Real Deal Story of Real-Life Recovery

2010-11-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Some adventures we don’t seek. Don’t ask for. Don’t want. Yet it’s these things, of course, that often do the most to define us …

This posting from Real Deal Brazil fan Kim DeVoid Colby of Manchester, N.H., about her husband, Rob, appeared on our Facebook fan page Oct. 24, and gave us real pause:

“Today my husband did something noble,” Kim begins.

Rob, we then learn, was recently diagnosed with cancer, specifically, Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Knowing what treatment he was facing, and that it would inevitably result in temporary baldness, Rob decided to do something proactive. He lopped off his hair – all two feet of it – and donated it to Locks of Love (http://www.locksoflove.org/), the wonderful nonprofit group that provides hairpieces to underprivileged kids in the U.S. and Canada living with long-term medical hair-loss.

And through it all, what was Rob’s biggest concern about himself? Not that he was going to be bald from the chemo. Not even that the chemo, in fighting the cancer, would be brutal on his body. No, Rob’s pressing worry was about his hat. His beloved Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat.

“His one thought … will his Real Deal hat still fit??” Kim writes. “We love your products and while his hat will fit him again ..., he will be hatless until I can make a skull cap to keep it in place. Thanks for being his number one concern while he loses his hair that has been long for 16 years!!! LOL.”

We’ve since received several notes directly from Rob himself. In one he included a few pictures detailing the beginning of his journey with chemotherapy.

In the first photo, above, we see Rob still with his long hair. He’s contemplating, he says, “the vast journey soon ahead of me.

“As with all great adventures, one must make a sacrifice,” he muses on his decision to donate his long-held long hair. “An offering to those who look down upon us and bless or curse the path before us.”

The next two photos, which follow the text here, are post-haircut. In the first of those, Rob is on his way in to beginning chemo at Foundation Oncology and Hematology in Nashua, N.H., about a half-hour’s drive south of Manchester. (“I am still missing the hair,” Rob writes.) In the second, Rob is “all hooked up and getting the stuff pumped into me,” he notes.

Rob has unfortunately been no stranger to health concerns even before the cancer diagnosis. He’s someone who routinely lives with a lot of pain, suffering from reflex sympathetic dystrophy (or RSDS, a poorly understood syndrome associated with compromised immune-system function), fibromyalgia, bursitis and arthritis.

Any of that would be enough to turn a person’s thoughts dark and squarely inward, yet that’s hardly what comes across in Rob’s e-mails to us. Instead, what shines through is his ready good humor: "If I could offer any advice to anyone who has to get chemo," he says at one point, "get a seat near the bathroom. Man, I was peeing every 5 minutes...”

The other thing most apparent in Rob’s notes is his quickness to praise the folks taking care of him, from the oncology doctor who called him on her own time to ask if he had any questions before beginning chemo to the nurse who tried to ease his boredom by teaching him to knit – “which,” Rob notes, “I am doing pretty good at if I do say so myself.”

In fact, Rob simply can’t say enough about the nursing care he’s been receiving. The nurses at Foundation Oncology and Hematology, he says, are “the Real Deal when it comes to helping others.” (We couldn’t have ever said that any better ourselves, Rob!)

“The nurse who is in charge of my treatment went out of her way to find out a bit about my RSDS and Fibro and how my body would react to the treatments,” Rob reveals. “She didn't have to so this, (but) because (she did anyway), they made sure to give me a bit more of the anti-nausea meds to hopefully spare me the extra pain the vomiting would incur.

“It might be the Chemo and me feeling icky and sick,” he adds, “but I'm getting all sorts of emotional thinking about what I have seen (the nurses at Foundation Oncology and Hematology) do for people so far and I've only been there two days. I still have about 4 more months and can only imagine what I'll see.”

Kim is actually in nursing school herself at the moment, and Rob, she says, keeps telling her, "You better get some learning out of this; I want all this crap to amount to something."

The nurses, Kim adds, "are sooo nice there; they keep teaching me more and more."

Rob is right now going through something none of us wants to imagine could ever happen to us, and his concern for others throughout is incredibly admirable, and more than a little humbling. “Noble,” as his wife has put it.

So at the Real Deal Brazil, we’re really honored to think we’re any small part of Rob’s healing process, and wish him our heartfelt best on his path to his own revitalized Real Deal future.

The Family That Real Deal Brazils Together ...

2010-11-09T04:36:00.000-08:00

Joe Swenson of Boulder, Colo., has been with us almost since we started in the way-cool-hats-and-bags business, the kind of fan who just doesn't quit. Once Joe had become sold on the Real Deal Brazil -- and how that happened is a story in itself, which we'll get to in a moment -- he immediately started spreading the good word, first buying Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hats and then, later, Real Deal Brazil bags, for family members and friends as well. And at every turn, Joe and his family were not only proudly wearing and using our products, but talking us up, to boot! We could not ask for better Real Deal Brazil ambassadors, and we're grateful to the nth degree.

A few months ago, Joe, a self-described "recovering lawyer," sent a new terrific batch of pictures of him and his family doing one of the things they love best, fishing. We kept trying to figure out the best home for these shots, since we really wanted to share them all. So at long last, after having the kind of a-ha moment that made us feel dumb, since it was so obvious -- The blog! Let's put them in the blog! -- we're including them here, in our blog.

The bulk of the photos appear at the end of this text. And in all of these pics, the Swenson family is back, you might say, at the scene of the crime. Huntington, N.Y., on Long Island's North Shore., where they vacation each year at Grandpa's house.

It was there that the family's ongoing Real Deal adventures first began more than two years ago, toward the end of their summer stay in 2008.

It goes like this: Joe and wife Cyndy, plus son Zach, then age 13, and daughter Elle Joe, then 11, were taking a midday walk on the beach. A storm the previous night had littered the water’s edge with the typical flotsam. However, Zach spotted a clump up ahead that seemed out of place. The thing was covered in sand and seaweed, rolling around in the unusually choppy surf. Maybe, he thought, it was some kind of fabric ... ?

“We expected some old, cruddy rag,” Joe wrote in an e-mail to us not long after, “but Zach found a treasure instead.”

It was a hat, the family discovered, kind of like the Indiana Jones one, but way brawnier. The logo on it said "The Real Deal Brazil." The story of how the hat was made was printed prominently inside. “It was like finding a message in a bottle, of sorts,” Joe noted.

Other than some fraying around the brim, which only added to the hat’s rugged character, the dense recycled-truck-tarp fabric appeared unmarred by its mystery seafaring adventure. So after rinsing the hat and shaking it off, everyone tried it on; fittingly, it fit Zach perfectly.

“Now he’s the envy of the entire family,” Joe said.

And soon enough, Joe had bought RDB hats for Cyndy, Elle Joe and his own brother, as well. And also, yes, one for himself. But that really was just the start, and we've long ago lost track of how many more he's picked up since!

In the note accompanying this great batch of family-at-fun photos, we received an update from Joe on how he now uses his Real Deal Brazil Iguape messenger bag: "I tried the Bag as a Briefcase in my alter-ego life as an Attorney," he wrote us, "but The Bag was too cool for the Courtroom. It works perfectly as a Surf Tackle Bag, it's original purpose set out by its designers, I am sure."

But of course, Joe! Whatever fantastic way you happen to put it into service is absolutely the way we intended it be used.

Our ongoing thanks to you and your family, for being so dang Real Deal, every step of the way.

Real Deal Brazil Hat in Way-Cool Windsurfing Pics!

2010-11-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

At the Real Deal Brazil, we get a whole lot of cool pictures from fans of our distinctive, each-one-one-of-a-kind hat. Sometimes, we get a slew of photos from just one person, and then have to decide on one or two of the bunch to post at our Facebook site, just to keep the size of the galleries down, and to keep from overwhelming potential viewers.

But then, every now and again, we get a batch from one person that's just impossible to whittle down to one or two photos – the whole set is fantastic! Such is the case with these shots from windsurfer Glenn Woodell of Newport News, Va., the bulk of which appear below this text. We weren't about to pick. So we're putting them all up here instead!

Glenn sent us a terrific note along with the photos:

"I have been wearing one of your tarp hats and it's the best hat ever. I even bought one for my dad. I have been wearing it for everything for the past year, especially while windsurfing. Unfortunately today while I was windsurfing in the wind and waves from tropical storm Nicole, I got tumbled in the big shorebreak and my hat got ripped off my head. I let go of my gear and went after my hat but after getting hit by another large wave I lost sight of it forever. I searched for almost an hour after that to no avail. So I am going to have to order a new one. I got my first one while on Hatteras Island, NC but I can't wait to go back so I'll order one online but with the strap that you now sell. :)

Thanks for making such a cool hat."

Our thanks backatcha, Glenn, for being such a cool guy wearing our cool hat!

How The Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Hat Saved All of Humanity. A True Story.

2010-10-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

What follows is sort of long. But give it a few minutes. Because doing so could just save your life.

To begin with, you should know that at the Real Deal Brazil, our own zombie-killing bona fides run far deeper than just our being the hat worn by that wildass Woody Harrelson in Zombieland.

Because we at The Real Deal Brazil have prevented the worst of all possible things, something of cataclysmic awfulness, something formerly just the realm of horror flicks and fantasy fiction. We have, you see, recently foiled an insidious global plot to enslave us all – by turning us all into zombies. Real ones. We’re talking full-on zombie horde here, with horrible oozy dead people lurching around lusting after the tender sweetmeats of the still-living, plus the usual stuff going boom, societies collapsing, the human race going out like a light, etc., the whole apocalyptic ball of wax. This is all true, of course, else we wouldn’t be telling you about it.

We should mention here that we didn’t do all of this on purpose. But accidentally saving humanity still counts! Cuz while most of you have been busy going to work, or maybe beating the Metropolis level in Halo 2 or finishing a crossword puzzle, we, on the other hand, have made it so nearly everyone alive is not now lumbering around soulless, in rags for clothes and with one eye hanging out of their heads, trying to eat the mailman’s brains, while one of the few remaining living human beings – decked out, no doubt, in one of our fabulously protective Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hats! – tries to blow all your undead brains out with a sawed-off Smith & Wesson loaded with chopped-up construction nails. Your welcome.

We don’t, however, suggest you try confirming any of this. It’s just not safe to do that! The People Who Control All the Stuff You Always Secretly Suspected Was Controlled by Someone Who Would Kill You if Ever You Learned About It will surely track you down, toot sweet. These pitiless evildoers will then arrange it so you yourself might quickly qualify to become a zombie, so to speak. See, these are just bad people. Truly awful. So it’s best to simply trust us on this one, OK? We’re heroes of the highest order, after all, which automatically makes us very trustworthy.

The story here is expectedly dark and twisted, traversing oceans and spanning continents, and involving, of course, shadowy ne’er-do-wells with unlimited financial means and hard-to-pronounce names jam-packed with consonants and very few vowels. But mostly it’s about a guy named Ted, a laid-off Coney Island Tilt-a-Whirl operator from Jersey City prone to lousy judgment, and with a fashion sense straight out of a Nick Nolte mug shot.

This whole thing actually went down only about a month ago. Really, it was just that recently, and you hadn’t so much as the faintest idea, right? Scary stuff.

It happened like this: Ted, resplendent in an ocean-blue nightmare of a shirt excruciatingly detailed with orange parrots and blood-red hibiscus blooms, was camping out at his cousin Tony’s Hamilton Square Condo, on the opposite side of Jersey City from Ted’s own rent-free room in his parents’ single-story walkup. Tony had a steady state job, and sometimes his ex would even let him keep his 9-year-old son, though mostly, no. It was a few minutes after 11 p.m. on a Friday, following two solid hours of Ted and Tony slamming Jaeger shots with Heineken chasers every time someone on MTV said “yo!” A hammered Tony had just turned in, scheduled to pull a double the next day working a turnpike tollbooth. (You can safely check this last detail. Call the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. Ask if they’ve got a guy named Tony working for them. They do. You’ll see.)

With Tony off to bed, Ted made a beeline for his cousin’s fridge; per usual, there was nothing good to eat in there. And Ted had a sudden yen for a salami-and-cheese sub, though he probably should have just settled for a couple slices of Tony’s bologna. Good sense, never in overabundance with Ted anyway, was right then in particularly short supply. Because he was actually a whole lot more hammered than his cousin (Ted had taken a shot even when someone on MTV said “you,” reasoning that it was still “yo,” just with an extra letter). But how was he gonna make it the dozen blocks south and half a block west to Esperanto’s Pizzeria before they closed at midnight? Ted couldn’t see blowing his unemployment on a friggin’ cab ride, y’know? Of course, if he’d just checked with the restaurant to begin with, problem solved; Esperanto’s has free delivery. If he’d checked, which he didn’t.

And so it was that Ted set out from Tony’s precariously perched atop Tony’s kid’s nuclear-green BMX bike with the big silver sticker that said “CHAOS” on it. Ted’s knees came up so high he could barely keep his balance, but sometimes you just want a nice salami-and-cheese, so what the hell, y’know? Ted also nabbed a Heiny for the road, plus that crazy-cool Real Deal Brazil hat his cousin had bought online after seeing that effed-up zombie flick with the bartender from Cheers in it. And damn if it didn’t make him look kind of cool, too – in an out-of-work-carny-in-a-loud-Hawaiian-shirt-and-swim-trunks sort of way. Seeing himself in the hall mirror reminded Ted he really needed to ask his ma to do some of his laundry soon. His swim trunks were the only thing by way of pants that were sort of clean when Tony had dropped by to pick him up earlier. Up until then, Ted had just been kinda laying around in his underwear.

Ted got his directions fouled up from the start, wobbling out of Hamilton Square going north. A few blocks and a poorly chosen right turn later, and he was pedaling due east on 12th Street, coming up short on a slowing Sunoco gas truck. In another what-the-hell moment, he grabbed hold of the truck bumper with his left hand, figuring the driver would be going slow through town and Ted wouldn’t have to pedal any more for a bit. He was already badly winded. It was all he could do to hold his beer in his right hand and still keep a grip on the bike handlebar, too.

It occurred to Ted a bit too late that he was now, in fact, headed straight into the Holland Tunnel, unseen in the truck shadows. As the lanes converged down to two and the driver started speeding up, Ted had the sudden presence of mind to freak out a little, letting loose of the bumper. Confusion gave way to terror as Ted found himself squeezed between the two lanes of westbound traffic, which were actually moving at a pretty good clip for the tunnel. Gritting his teeth through the horn blats and eff yous, Ted pointed the bike just as hard as he could, straight down that blessed centerline. There was nowhere else to go but forward.

After what felt like hours of frantic peddling – it was actually right at 17 minutes – Ted glimpsed the tunnel exit just ahead. The relief that overcame him caused him to lose all focus. “Oh, God!” his mind screamed, upon realizing he’d just drifted too far left. “Oh, Jesus! I’m dead! I’m dead!”

Ted wasn’t aware he’d maneuvered himself into a brief lull in left-lane traffic. Immediately, he jerked back wildly to the right, his spastic movement launching him straight over into the other lane instead; Ted’s head came just inches from colliding with the souped-up Impala then passing fast beside him. So it seemed almost like a dream when he heard what later he was pretty sure was a car grinding against the left tunnel wall behind him, then a sound back to his right like metal being pounded apart by giant hammers. But all that was drowned out by an unholy explosion, followed then by sudden wave of heat pressing against his back like a furious fist. “I shoulda just had the bologna!” Ted’s mind howled. “I shoulda just eaten Tony’s freakin’ bologna!”

And then Ted and his little green bike were spilling out into the cool air of Canal Street in lower Manhattan, just feet ahead of a careening metal fireball that finally scraped and skidded and slammed into a mangled heap against the left guard wall.

By then Ted had become blind terror itself. Scooting down every side street he chanced upon, he finally came to an exhausted halt at a stoplight about 15 minutes later, more sober than he’d ever been in his life, and with his heart beating about two feet in front of his chest. Ted found himself then on Catherine Street, the heart of Chinatown, with a tiny wrinkled woman in an oversized straw hat trying to sell him a live chicken. He started laughing in a gasping sputter, then promptly burst into tears. Only later, after scarfing down an egg roll that tasted like a grease fire, did Ted realize he’d left Tony’s wearing his cousin’s favorite hat, and that hat was now no longer atop his head. Tony was going to take a pretty dim view of this. Also, come to think of it, Ted had Tony’s kid’s bike, too. And then there was that whole thing about a car that apparently had, y’know, blown up behind him. And all he’d freakin’ wanted was a freakin’ Italian sub, y’know?

It took Ted much of the rest of the night, but he managed to pedal all the way down to Coney Island. He still had a couple bucks left, and when the parks opened in the morning, he was gonna ride the Tilt-a-Whirl.

Cut to about eight months prior, to the tiny Eastern European country of Banglivoria, a place you’ve never heard of because some – including the citizens of Banglivoria themselves – insist it doesn’t even exist.

Banglivoria is less a distinct country than it is a ferociously guarded private theme park of bad, worse and worst – imagine a Disneyland for the world’s tyrants, terrorists and thugs, for those ex-CIA goons who killed Kennedy and the NASA jokers who faked the moon landings, for the bloke pretending to be Paul McCartney, for former Third World despots and Illuminati New World Order-ites, for blood-diamond profiteers, Facebook spammers, horse thieves and beyond. Also, Simon Cowell, ex of American Idol. The tiny Balkan country’s ruling elite decided, upon carving out the place in the mid 1980s from hinterlands its neighbors had no use for once a certain outlandish selling price was established, that it was far more profitable to auction itself to the highest bidder than to bother with such vagaries as the global economy or such bureaucratic claptrap as taxation.

In Banglivoria, they don’t return phone calls, and all mail addressed there comes back stamped “SORRY, NO SUCH PLACE.” Though appearing on no map and not recognized by any other country, Banglivoria is, in fact, very real, the world’s most secretive, and permissive, service economy. (Think Vegas, but with a thick accent and Texas-size bollocks.) For the right price, your every nasty little wish is their very willing command.

It was here that a small summit of the world’s most powerfully and imaginatively corrupt met to discuss a plot to bring about the kind of global domination usually only boasted about in Superman movies with a young Gene Hackman. Turn the people of the world into nonliving, breathing zombies, the thinking went, and then turn those zombies into slaves for us, the world’s most powerfully and imaginatively corrupt.

“Oh, please,” you yourself may now be saying. “That’s all just more silly movie talk.” Oh, if only. If only!

Offer a bunch of godless scientists some fat cash incentives and killer stock options in the expanding Asian market, a mention in People magazine of having once dated Adriana Lima, a catered dinner with Leonard Nimoy and an open bar, and just watch how long before humanity isn’t drooling all over itself in hunger for a taste of its own flesh is all we’re sayin’!

These science sellouts began by extracting the potent alkaloids from what’s commonly called devil’s weed (scientific name datura stromoniom, the basis of the Haitian voodoo paste known as the zombie cucumber) and infusing it with select DNA strands swiped from hemodialysis blood from Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, the crusty eye deposits of several South American three-toed sloths and liposuction leftovers from unaging pop icon Cher. They then added a couple shakes of powdered human pineal gland, two jiggers of Vicks Nyquil and roughly 17 ounces of that artificial maple syrup flavor in Jimmy Dean’s Chocolate Chip Sausage & Pancakes on a Stick, irradiating the whole horrid brew with a highly focused blast of Strontium 90. And voilà, liquid-evil concentrate.

This undeath-dealing concoction was to be unleashed into select urban water supplies worldwide by simply pouring it into any sink, shower drain or toilet. Once drawn back to the water-treatment facility and then piped out again, the life-corroding compound would, even after heavy filtration, chlorination and massive dilution, begin to fulfill its despicable purpose, with just a few seemingly innocent sips from a glass of tainted water turning a living human being into an ambulatory enslaved corpse with a raging case of the cerebellum munchies. As in first you’re dead and then you’re not, and then it’s all “Zombie, fetch me my slippers” and “Zombie, go overthrow the government” and “Zombie, tell me you love me.”

The inaugural test site had always been a foregone conclusion. New York City. Of course. Because the world would simply overlook the widespread manifestation of zombie traits as just another example of what typically passes in the Big Apple as native charm. Then, by the time the wretched truth was fully understood, the new zombies would already, in essence, be breeding their own, in their inevitable quest for untainted human flesh.

Bingo, the start of your basic zombie apocalypse.

Ten lead-lined vials of the vile solution were shipped into Newark on a pallet of Chinese plush toys that themselves would have sent any working Geiger counter into a whacked-out conniption fit. The vials were to be shepherded into New York City by a former Geffen Records executive, the same guy who had signed pop super-group ASIA back in the ’80s. An unrepentantly evil man, and already something of a zombie himself, when you get right down to it. Once in the city, he’d drive a block in any direction to a Starbucks where, following a quick latte, he’d pay a visit to the bathroom, shut himself in the stall and basically flush humanity straight down the toilet.

The driver had been uneventfully navigating his black Lexus eastbound through the Holland Tunnel when, just within sight of the exit, he was startled by some moron in an atypical hat and an impossibly loud shirt furiously pedaling a kid’s bike straight down the centerline. The bicyclist himself then appeared startled, jerking the bike headlong into the driver’s path before overcorrecting in an arc that nearly sent him into the side of another car bearing up hard on the right. With one arm up as if to block the feared collision – and what the hell was that in his hand? A beer? – the guy on the bike promptly knocked loose his hat and dropped his brew. The hat, tumbling over his left shoulder, bounced atop the hood of the Lexus and up against the windshield. The driver impulsively flipped on his wipers, which promptly hung up on the sturdy fabric of the Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, jamming the twitching blades and blocking all forward visibility. At once blinded, the driver involuntarily yanked down on the steering wheel, and the Lexus struck the left curb at a hard angle, its wheels catapulting upward to be pinned against the metal pedestrian barricade. The fireworks display of sparks from rims grinding against steel caused an immediate chain reaction in drivers to the rear; slamming brakes brought traffic to a standstill amid a sea of fender-benders. In the minutes to come, the stalled New York and Jersey drivers, exceptionally skilled in the art of verbal offense, found themselves with that rare stage worthy of their talents. You couldn’t get an eff you in edgewise.

Things for the Lexus were meanwhile getting worse. The metal barricade collapsed, slamming the left side of the car against the base of the tunnel wall, where the torque from the spinning wheels jerked the vehicle even further left, flipping it onto its hood. The Lexus careened then like a pinball across the tunnel, rocketing off the right wall and hurtling back left again to go skidding straight out into Canal Street. The gasoline pouring from the car’s cracked tank about then found its opportune spark, converting car, beheaded driver and dark cargo into a blast of blistering energy that finally slammed to a mangled halt about five yards beyond the tunnel’s mouth. And just feet ahead of it all was Ted, pumping the pedals on Tony’s son’s tiny bike and staring straight ahead with all his earthly might.

Wow, huh? It just kind of staggers the imagination a bit, doesn’t it?

Just think of it: If Ted had set out that fateful night wearing just any hat, where would the rest of us all be about now? On our way to ordering the new McBrains Sandwich at McZombie’s and using splinters of our former neighbor’s bones to pick at our crumbling teeth, that’s where!

So at the risk of stating the obvious: Without our heroic Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, the world as we know it would be on its way to a blunt, brutish life of continual undeath. A tragedy of almost inconceivable magnitude, to be sure, and averted by us, the humble folks at The Real Deal Brazil.

But please keep in mind that the formula for that toxic zombie-making concoction is still out there, in the hands of those who would so willingly enslave us all into a life that is little more than death on rotting feet. So in the interest of your own continued existence as a free and living being, go out into this troubled world only with a head armed for battle, and a hat that says, “Bring it!,” even to the worst of all possible fights. Do not venture into life’s great, uncertain adventure without first donning your very own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat!

Good luck out there, brave pilgrim. And, by the way, you’re welcome.

This Halloween, Don't Go Zombie; Go "Zombieland" Zombie-Killer!

2010-10-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

Need a quick zombie fix?

There’s an iPhone app for that (actually, there’s a whole slew of ’em). And that’s just the tip of the funky corpse, of course. The living unalive are cropping up in gory, oozy glory pretty much everywhere lately, from the legion of Zombie Walks spawning worldwide to the University of Baltimore’s much-ballyhooed fall 2010 course in zombie lit, to ZombieMe.net letting you gross-up photos of yourself as flesh-flapping zed-heads, to that green-blood-zed roommate on Comedy Central’s devilishly delicious Ugly Americans, to the AMC channel’s new The Walking Dead series, launching this Halloween night, to ... .Yet when Barnes & Noble starts hawking a cutesy zombie plush toy (“Zombie Buddy,” with little Xs for eyes and toting a bag of candy corn), could it be that all this post-deadification has maybe lurched a bit too far beyond the bodiless grave, out into the fickle mainstream still choked with last summer’s plastic Twilight vampire fangs? (Coming this Christmas: Zhu Zhu Zombie Pets! Don’t scoff; it could happen.)

So this Halloween, enlisting in the ratty ranks of costumed rotting meatbags isn’t, alas, all that likely to set you apart. (Oh look, a zombie and, hey, there’s a second one and, over there, it’s … another freakin’ zombie.) Wanna have some real fun instead? Then suit up to go hunting the increasingly ubiquitous undead. Go zombie killer. Go as Tallahassee.

Pulling off the amped-up Panhandle-cracker look of the quintessential Twinkie-lusting zombie-whacker is easy, actually. It’s all about a great, big dose of attitude and the right hat, and everything else is just the plastic wrapper on the Twinkie. And by right hat, we mean, of course, our own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, the same headwear worn by Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) in the 2009 box-office/2010 DVD smash Zombieland, as he shot, stomped, stabbed pummeled, sheared, etc., the ravenous undead. “Nut up,” as Tallahassee himself would say, “or shut up.”

Tips on tapping into your own inner Tallahassee? Check below. You dirty little zombie killer, you!

"Field & Stream" Spotlights Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Hat

2010-07-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

We've certainly said it before: Our uncanny recycled-tarp hat his hit some true high-points, press-wise, in its still-young life. Today, we're compelled to say it yet again!

We've waded deeply in the mainstream: Reader's Digest gave us a great nod last year, as did Entertainment Weekly.

We've scored huge with the Web-crawling crowd: BoingBoing.Net, the self described international "Directory of Wonderful Things," was emphatic, saying of our hat: "This thing is just great!"

Reviews have, in fact, spanned the cultural divide; we've received raves in both Tattoo magazine and on Treehugger.com, the world's top green-products blog. We've even become a staple subject on a prominent online forum devoted to the act of being a sniper. If we're gonna be in that group's sights, we're obviously much happier being loved rather than hated!

Then late yesterday, we hit another very cool press milestone, getting positively reviewed in a popular blog on the Field & Stream magazine site, reaching an increasing segment of our customer base, the avid fisherman.

That's a snapshot of the page at right.

One of blog writer Joe Cermele's comments from the piece just kills us: "I would sooner wear this hat made well by a small company with a unique idea than just stroll into Wally World and buy a Gilligan hat or something." Beat that.

Which is to say: Thanks, Joe. We're honored as all get-out!

If you'd like to see some of the varied comments that readers have posted along with the article, visit http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/fishing/2010/07/cermele-brimming-durability, and scroll to article's end. At last count, there were 21 comments, including a couple great ones from Joe himself.

Here are just a couple, as a sample:

Posted by er1128: "I bought one of these hats in April and it has withstood this brutal South Texas summer admirably, even through all the rain we have at this canvas is fantastic. I have put it through the ringer in the past 3 months and not only does it help to keep cool but it is a lot more comfortable than my old straw cowboy hat."

From Del in KS: "That is a cool looking hat and just what I need so sent my order in a moment ago. "

From highrack: "Love the hat, I want one."

We hear ya, highrack! And we thank you, too.

The Real Deal Brazil: A Geocacher's Hat of Choice

2010-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

From angling to alpining, hiking to hunting, kayaking to kicking back, camping to canoeing, gardening to gun-shooting, traveling to tailgating, hoedowning to hoisting a few, zombie killing to just killin' time, our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat is the hearty, hardy headwear to beat! And now you can add modern-day treasure hunting to that growing list of livin'-large leisure pursuits.

We've been hearing more and more frequently how our hat just fits in with the whole geoacaching idea, and how geoaching fans are constantly praising our rugged headwear to fellow cachers. About a month ago, in fact, we found ourselves happily mentioned in yet another geocaching forum, http://www.utahgeocachers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7601&highlight=realdealbrazil+com (Thanks, TeamThom!)

So today we added a new photo gallery at our Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Deal-Brazil/106664188492) dedicated to the increasing number of geocachers who've adopted our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat. The photo here, of Chapel Hill, Tenn., geocacher Brad "Monkeybrad" Simmons, was taken during a geocaching trip to Florida's famous gator-filled swamps in early 2010.

For the Muggles among us -- not non-wizards a la Harry Potter, but non-cachers, in geo-speak -- geoaching is an intriguing outdoor activity in which a GPS device is used to find "hidden treasure" stashed in often out-of-the-way spots around the globe. Geocachers tend to be environmentally minded folks; their "cache in, trash out" motto means they spend a bit of time cleaning up the site after finding their cache.

We're thrilled to be part of such a cool and clever pursuit, the swag that tags along!

The Real Deal Brazil in "Zombieland" -- New Revelations on How It Came to Be!

2010-06-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

With a lot of important stuff that happens in life, we never get a full picture of how it came to pass. Often the info is just not there to know, or else it takes some time, and maybe a very indirect route, before the whole story shakes itself out. Which brings us to our own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat, and the blockbuster horror-comedy Zombieland, which upped our hat's profile more than we ever could have imagined.

We'd always understood that our hat's star-turn in the film, which came out in October 2009, was due solely to someone in the Zombieland costuming department being charged with finding some really cool headwear for Woody Harrelson that also had the unusual distinction of being exceedingly Earth-friendly to boot. And all that is, in fact, true. However, it's only part of the truth. The whole story, which we just learned only recently, and totally by accident, is more complicated, and also a whole lot cooler still!

The total tale dates back to a wildly favorable article that appeared early in our company's history, in Tattoo magazine, and a guy named Steve Barnes who read that review thinking the Real Deal Brazil hat, and its recycled origins, were right up his own alley.

"I saw that hat and just thought it was too cool," he says.

So he bought one through our website. And he loved it.

"Too cool," he reiterates.

That's Steve in the picture above with his hat and a just-caught lake bass, during a trip to Shreveport, La. Steve actually lives in Houston, Texas, working as a directional driller, which means land, ocean and inland-barge drilling, often for oil. Steve explains his work with words like "azimuth," "porosity," resistivity," "payzone" and "geo-steering," none of which we remotely understand. All we know for sure is that he's obviously way smarter than we are!

Some months after reading that Tattoo review and buying his own hat -- Steve thinks maybe as much as a year later -- he was bound for a drilling job and loaned his much-loved RDB to his brother, Patrick, who works as a film-set crane operator. And it just so happened that Patrick was then part of the initial filming in south Georgia for a much-buzzed-about zombie flick starring Woody Harrelson -- you probably can guess the one. So there was Patrick on the Zombieland set, his brother's Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat perched upon his head.

Woody Harrelson, ever the hat guy, noticed Patrick's distinctive headwear almost immediately. "He saw it, and loved it and wanted more just like it," Steve says.

The outcome of that decision? Well, Woody looks pretty cool in that Zombieland hat of his, huh?

Of course, Steve didn't learn any of this right away. "Patrick didn't tell me about it until after the movie came out, and I asked for the hat back," Steve recalls.

We didn't learn any of this ourselves until Steve sent us that fishing pic of him in his influential RDB hat. And the rest, as they say, is our own company's recent history: The Zombieland costuming crew contacted us and asked us to overnight them a bunch of samples, which we obviously, and very happily, did. Flash-forward another year from then, and our hat has become iconic perched there atop Woody's own badass head, with Zombieland fans responding accordingly, buying bunches of Woody's badass hat for themselves. So now we hear ourselves called "that Zombieland hat," and we just have to smile. Yep. That's us, all right!

And so now we offer even bigger thanks to our new hero Steve the driller, for his thinking so much of us in the first place, and for then sharing all that RDB love with his brother, Patrick. Another nod to Patrick, for sporting that hat pretty dang well, apparently, in Steve's absence. And finally, our thanks, too, to Tattoo, of course, for giving us the, y'know, ink!

Our own Real Deal Brazil hats are off to all of you!

Free Real Deal Brazil Shipping for Father's Day!

2010-06-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Dad's Day's 2010 is now not quite a week away! In honor of honoring the old man, and as our own Father's Day gift to our ever-growing legion of Facebook fans, we're temporarily offering free shipping on all RDB orders.

2010-05-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

A Real Deal Brazil Ramble in the Cambodian Temple Ruins

We received the coolest set of pictures yesterday from Real Deal

Brazil

recycled-tarp hat owner Phil Caldwell, a small-animal veterinarian and aspiring writer living in Los Angeles. Phil recently took a trip to

Cambodia

, accompanied through several of the formidable ruins of the ancient Khmer Empire by his trusty RDB hat.

"I used it while I toured the temples such as Angkor Wat near the town of Siem Reap," Phil writes. "The hat survived extreme heat, humidity and countless children asking to wear it."

For Phil's well-written, way-fun insights about his Cambodian trip, his second visit to the temple-dotted Asian country, check out his own blog post.

Now, check out these great photos he sent us!

2010-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Real Deal Brazil Facebook Page Gets Big Photo Facelift

What the blazes is going on in that picture over there? We don't know, but we love it all the same!

We recently got wildly behind on posting fan-submitted photos on the Facebook site, so in the last few days, Frank, our Site Administrator Guy, has been feverishly working to get photos posted. The result: Lots of fun new content reflecting both the dedication and diversity of RDB fans. Hope you'll stop by for a peek!

And if you like what you see, and love your own hat and how it looks on ya, then by all means, send along a picture of the two of you together, to frabey@realdealbrazil.com. We'll proudly post it, rest assured!

New Real Deal Brazil Story Posted at Zombie-Fan Site

2010-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

So embarrassing! We've been so busy with the success of our way-cool hat lately, from the jump in sales from our star in turn in both Zombieland and the upcoming release of The Losers, that posting here has fallen off like the arm or leg of one of the unlucky undead! So much to try to cover since the last post that it'd be just plain silly to backtrack -- check out our Facebook fan site for a blow-by-blow account of the great stuff that's been happening.

For today, a new Real Deal Brazil-related post you might check out at ZombieInfo.com (http://www.zombieinfo.com/?p=1522) with our Facebook site's administrator, talking about how the movie tie-ins came to be. A warning: The site where the interview is posted, while great, kitschy fun, also contains very adult language.

2009-10-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Weekly tries on Real Deal Brazil Recycled Tarp Hat, Likes Fit

It's been a great couple weeks for us! First, Zombieland opened not only to great reviews, but also to great box-office, and that meant a lot of new folks very quickly discovered our hats. Then about two weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly contacted us to say they'd had a bunch of requests from people wanting to know where they could find the hat Woody Harrelson wears all through Zombieland. Next thing we know, we've got a half-page write-up, above, in one of the largest entertainment publications around. We greatly appreciate the kind words, and even more, the huge jump in the number of folks who've now joined our Real Deal family!

The Good Word on Our Zombie-Killin' Hats

2009-10-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

"Zombieland" opens tomorrow, Oct. 2, with our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat squarely atop its gored-up head. In the last couple of weeks, we've received a lively body of press that has us eternally grateful to all who took the time to speak their non-dead minds about us. Not to cannibalize our own good fortune but so much, but here's a list of tasty online remarks in celebration of our reanimated headwear's ascension to the top of the zombie-killin' heap:

● Woody Harrelson Is Riding High With "Zombieland," Opening Oct. 2:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-woody-harrelson-interview-zombieland,0,5420505.story

● The Real Deal – A Hat for a Real Man: http://www.modernhippiemag.com/2009/09/30/the-real-deal-a-hat-for-a-real-man/

● Woody Harrelson Keeps Zombieland Green With Special Eco Requests: http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/09/23/woody-harrelson-keeps-zomblieland-green-with-special-eco-requests/

● Recycled Truck Tarp Hats Used in Zombieland Move: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/recycled-truck-tarp-hats-used-in-zombieland-movie.php

● When Did Woody Harrelson Turn so (Bleep-Bleep) Cool Again? http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2009/09/when-did-woody-harrelson-turn-so-bleepbleep-cool-again.html

The Real Deal Brazil Recyled-Tarp Hat -- Not Just for Zombie Killers Anymore!

2009-10-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Lest we forget in all this zombie-killing talk surrounding our Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat's star turn atop Woody Harrelson's head in "Zombieland," the RDB is one wildly unique, tough-as-you-wanna-be head-topper, regardless of who's wearing it. Our distinctive hat was righteously cool long before ol' bad Woody and his movie's mob of angry undead arrived, and is designed for the long haul, way beyond the current zombification of our culture. Just check out what Boating, the world's largest powerboat magazine, has to say about our dang-fine hat in its October issue. (Click on the graphic above to view a readable version of the Boating article.)

2009-08-27T05:20:00.001-07:00

The Original Zombie-Killing Hat,

aka the Zombieland Hat!

We're geeking pretty hard on this whole Zombieland thing around here. Our Real Deal Brazil hat has quickly become the world's undisputed leader in zombie-killing headwear. Would Indiana Jones' trusty fedora have stood up to the angry undead? We think not!

Online attention to the upcoming Columbia Pictures horror-comedy has ratcheted up sharply since Zombieland trailers hit theaters recently; zombie chatter is now splattering everything from movie-nerd sites to general blog posts, a happy, bloody, reanimated mess of fanboy speculation and fashionista fun. On top of that, Zombieland is now opening sooner than originally scheduled. Initially, the opening date was set for Oct. 9, but due to some studio conflict, national release has just been moved up one week.

The movie is now set to hit theaters Friday, Oct. 2. So prepare to get your weekend zombie on! Zombieland, starring badass Woody Harrelson as a crazed zombie killer who does his undead re-demises via iron skillet, car door and AK-47, all while sporting one of our very own Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hats, looks like a scream (no pun intended). It'll be, to say the least, a very lively bit of entertainment (OK, pun intended that time).

If you go to see it, then don't be shy: Wear your own RDB hat to the theater! And if the goober behind you says anything about his view being blocked by your stellar head-topper, stand up and announce to everyone there that you can do any damn thing you please. After all, you're the only one in the room in a true zombie-killing hat!

To the South Pole and back!

2009-03-09T06:58:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was handed some very awesome pictures. A fan of ours had traveled to Antarctica with his hat and had some once in a lifetime kind of shots taken with it. I wanted to share a few to you because they are so cool. If you’re a true adventurous person I think our hats capture that spirit and displays it for the whole world to see, even from the South Pole!

Our hats have almost been all over the world and if you have any pictures of where you and your hat have been please send them in!!! Email them to us!!

TAIBA!!!

2008-12-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Beautiful - Absolutely Beautiful! Taiba is a wonderful little fishing village along the Brazilian Coastal line. Everything here was very relaxed and I felt as if I had almost stepped into one of those brochures people hand out to tourists. You know the ones with all the happy, smiling beautiful people and the beautiful scenery. When I was walking along the beach I was captivated by the boats that scattered the shoreline. Now not the boats your thinking of, not the huge sport and fishing boats we see here, these boats had the look and feel like they had been passed down from generations to generation to fish with. Here are some pictures of a couple of guys pushing their boat out into the ocean to go fishing with.

Belem!

2008-11-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

First, let me apologize for not posting this sooner. It's been a little hectic around these parts, actually I think its been a little hectic everywhere!

The 2nd destination on my last trip to Brazil was Belem, you could kind of consider this city as the entrance way to the Amazon. It is a very busy place and everyone is constantly moving. I flew there because to travel there by boat would have taken about 96 hours, now I like a nice boat trip but that is a little too much even for me!

Here are some pictures from the flight;

This city was amazing and there was so much to see and do. While I was there I found out that approximately 2 million people in this city, I believe it. Every street was packed with people and every corner had a merchant or two on it.

Manuas!

2008-09-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

These are just a couple of pictures I took while visiting Manuas. After going back and looking at these pictures I got to thinking about what I found so interesting about them - I think besides the beautiful colors and atmosphere its the shear size of everything. This town is inland on a huge river (and I mean HUGE river) named the Rio Negro. For more information about this town check out this link.

This first picture is the view from my hotel room.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It's a picture of a riverboat, this is one source of main transportation in Manuas, and the smaller boats that this boat is pulling are used to carry to your destination if the riverboat can't make it.

I took this picture as I was wondering around. This town is very busy, the street is lined with different merchants selling a variety of items.

The fish market - look at all those people and this is just a section!

I captured this picture because to me it was just so interesting. One small boat on a huge river - it really shows the immense size of the Rio Negro and really helps put things into perspective.

You can't see it in this picture but the trees down there are just big, lush and beautiful.

One section of the town. It may be to small to see but the river front is lined with merchants.

I was walking down to get on this boat and saw these kids just having the time of their lives. Man how I envied them!

Traveling through Brazil

2008-09-12T07:25:00.001-07:00

I’ve just returned from Brazil, as always want an amazing place! You may not know this but we have added some Real Deal Bags to our collection (we decided that just a hat wouldn’t do), you can view them here.

You may notice that some of the names of these bags seem rather peculiar, maybe somewhat interesting. Well I can show you exactly where they are on a map. I’ve visited each town and this time I brought back pictures of just about everyone of them so that I could show you what a wonderful little towns they are and why they deserve to have something named after them – after all they are what inspired us to get into this recycled tarp business.

On this map you can see where each city is and I even marked out my trip.

Check back next week to see pictures of Manaus!

Awesome Picture!

2008-07-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this picture, it's from David over there at thegoodhuman.com. He was recently on a trip in New Mexico and his wife captured this stunning picture.

Beautiful Brazil

2008-07-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

No matter how many times we go to Brazil, I am still entranced by it. Maybe it’s the heat that plays with our minds, either way I still find Brazil to be a beautiful and truly mysterious place. The culture, the people and even the land just seem so real and maybe it’s just the fact we feel that much closer to earth here then anywhere else.

I’ve got some more pictures I would like to share.

What is truly amazing to me is just being able to walk around and see all these different things, how often are we truly mesmerized by our surroundings?

Some pictures

2008-03-10T08:25:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! We are still real busy getting things squared away from our last trip so I thought I would post just a few picks we got to take while we were down there.

This first one we thought was pretty neat – it’s modern meets old, it’s amazing how you will see cars and motorcycles and then horses transporting people and things.

This pictures on the right is of a bunch of tarps getting ready to be cleaned and made into hats!

This picture on the left is a guy cutting out the different parts to make hats. This guy was amazing to watch, he moved so fast it was like watching a magician work.

The picture on the right didn’t come out like I would have hoped but it is a picture of a gas station – which just happened to be the hotel we were staying at.

This guy on the right was selling pineapples from the back of his truck, if you look above him you can see tarps! They are used on just about all the trucks down there. Most likely the tarp you see in this picture will be used to make a hat in the future.

The picture on the left is from when we were in the car taking a tour when I looked to my right and there was this guy, in one of our hats riding a bike. I took a real quick picture because to me I thought it was just pretty cool to see.

On the right is one of the town markets from a village we visited.

We would love to see pictures of the different ways people are wearing their hats so if you have some, email them to us and if you would like we would be more than happy to post them here to show everyone your unique style.

Just got back from Brazil!

2008-02-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

Wow! We have been in Brazil for the past month and what an adventure we've had. Even though we are working around the clock it doesn't seem like it, we go down there and from the time we get off the plane until we get back on it, it is nothing but fun and excitement. All of us love going to Brazil so much - the people, the atmosphere - everything there is just phenomenal! We met a lot of great people who are willing to make our hats for us out of used car tire wire and tarps from the cargo trucks there. And ever better then that, they are going to send us some sample of some new items like bags, backpacks, shoulder packs and so on. As soon as we get them we get some pictures of them loaded up here.

While we were visiting these different towns, we were amazed about how many tarps they have left over from trucks. To think this heavy duty material wasn't being used for anything is just appalling! We are so glad we can put it to some good use. Here is a picture of a pile of tarps one place had.

Everywhere we went we saw trucks that use tarps to cover their cargo around - this stuff is really used a lot down there. From what we could gather from people there is that one of the main reasons you see tarps used so much more then a metal covered cargo area, is because of the heat factor! It's so hot there that a metal covered bed would be like a death trap and so hard to load and unload stuff. Which this makes perfect sense - it was a 104 degrees in the SHADE while we were there! Here are two pictures of a truck we saw with the tarp covered bed.

Hopefully I can get some more pictures up here in a few days from our trip, there is just so much to do now that I can't get them all done!