'Ripping Frosty's Head in Two': Another Real Deal Brazil Gift-Success Story!

Not sure which we've enjoyed more, the photo, below, of new Waco, Texas, Real Deal Brazil owner/fan Jeffrey Piht Bull Quintavalle and his darling young daughter, dwarfed under daddy's great, big hat, or Piht Bull's killer just-got-an-RDB-for-Christmas note, a little further below.

Piht Bull's note, in its entirety: 

Just got to say something. I have drooled over RDB hats from the moment I saw Woody's hat in the Zombieland preview. I am a hat guy but I could never find a hat that was just right. I gave away a $300 felt Stetson just because it wasn't right. I wanted a certain look and feel. I watched Zombieland and the hat had the beat up battle-worn look I wanted. So I dreamt of this hat but could never find the extra cash to get one. 

Well Friday the wife and mom and her partner let me open a gift early. I unwrapped the Santa paper to reveal a snowman shirt box. My initial reaction was "a shirt?" That’s not special enough to open this early. So I cracked the tape off of one side and caught a small shimmer of frayed canvas and stitching. I could not believe it! It was my RDB hat! I tore open the box ripping Frosty's head in two and pulled out the most badass hat in the world. Just the right color a few patches that ARE covering holes. Stains from the beautiful Brazilian weather and probably greasy military hands.

This hat I know will outlive me and that’s exactly what I want. After I’m gone I want grand or great-grand kids to pull it out and remember the stories I told them about my roller coaster adventurous life. 

The only two modifications I will make is add a hat band I’m making out of random stuff I'll find in the woods and I’m getting the wife to draw a pit bull on it. I really want to thank you guys for the amazing work on both sides of the company. My mom said customer service was amazing and I can see the hard work that went into turning what would be trash to most people into a lifelong work of art I will wear daily and very proudly state its REAL DEAL BRAZIL when asked. I live in Texas and I assure you I will be asked daily about my hat. Well I could rattle all day about this rugged masterpiece so I guess I better cut this off now.

Thanks again. I’m a fan for life.

With fans like Piht Bull, we are indeed conquering the world, one cool head at a time ...

So, You’re Still Alive, Huh? Good for You!

(ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED TO POST 12/22/12, BUT, NADA; CURSES, BLOGGER.COM!)

By now you’ve probably noticed the gas mains not exploding, the absence of fireballs raining from on high, the extreme lack of streets buckling and buildings collapsing into rubble. Also, a plane has utterly failed to fall on your boss and the ocean hasn’t risen up and swallowed the coast of California whole.

Mayan Apocalypse? End of Days? 12/21/2012? Meh. We’re all still here, and still very much alive, including your boss, that bastard.

So congrats to you on, y’know, not dying. In fact, here’s a snazzy personalized trophy from all of us at the Real Deal Brazil, to commemorate how pleased we are that you aren’t toast.

Feel free to print it out and tape it to your wall, a reminder of your own continued existential success. And, really, no need to thank us – you and everyone else earned it!

There are definite downsides to this dearth of cataclysm, of course: You few straight guys who might have made it through the staggering destruction and unprecedented loss of life won’t now be able to swagger up to any post-apocalyptic hotties and say, “It’s our responsibility to repopulate the Earth; we owe it to humanity!” and have that line possibly work for ya.

Still, it’s better to focus on the positive here: Not only are you, dear reader, not resoundingly deceased, but you’re also not careening around in smoldering ruins with one leg snapped in half and your head on fire. Great, right? And that’s not even to mention that terrific trophy we just gave ya!

Sometimes, when a widely publicized apocalypse fails to happen, it’s the little things that make it tolerable.

Speaking of which: Us! The Real Deal Brazil! We’re not only still also among the living, but still also the bestest hat to have if ever TS truly does HTF (didn’t get that? Think: a fan, some hitting, and poop). Because the next pending apocalypse typically is just around the corner …

 Personally, we’re hoping it will include zombies.

What Hat Will You Wear to the 12/21 Apocalypse?

Dec. 21. One week from now. That’s it. Boom.

Earthquakes, Volcanoes. Tidal waves. Tornados. Hurricanes. Cities in flames. California plummeting into the sea. Also, an end to the Twinkies, though that was gonna happen anyway.

Just in case you haven’t been keeping up with the Facebook posts from that one creepy-intense guy from high school who always said the moon landings were faked, it’s simple: The Mayan calendar is about to run out, so we’re all gonna die. And no doubt wretchedly, which is generally regarded as the worst way to die.

There is the very faintest chance you’ll live. John Cusack did in that movie 2012, and yet his career’s kinda been in the toilet for a while now. Which means there’s gotta be some hope for at least a few of us, right?

Potential ragtag band of survivors. Lucky for humanity, all are wearing RDB hats.

So if you end up among the ragtag band of survivors entrusted with repopulating the planet, you won’t have the luxury of being dumb. You’re gonna need a good hat. Life in a post-apocalyptic hellscape is a whole lot better with a good hat.

So choose wisely, would-be-survivor. Choose wisely.

Hat Terrific, but Please: No 'Ripe Oyster' Smell

We get the greatest notes and letters. So we give you, in full, this one from eastern North Carolina resident Tracy Sanderson, about her husband, Kevin, the guy in the photo below:

"Dear Real Deal Brazil,

Today, my husband came home from work telling me about a hat that he had found ... in the river.  I thought this was a little strange, seeing that my husband works for the North Carolina Department of Transportation ... and normally works on roads ... not on rivers. My water loving husband proceeded to tell me his hat tale. He had parked the machine he was running and was taking his lunch break. He decided to walk along the rivershore to 'see what he could see.' It was at Adams Creek, which also serves as part of the Intercoastal Waterway (in North Carolina). This body of water is part of my husband's favorite shrimping waters. The tide was out and he was looking along the rivershore when he spotted what looked like a hat. He was concerned that there might be a body along the rivershore that went with the hat. But back in the summer, he and his buddy were out shrimping, and Shaun lost his hat that he had gotten in Australia. Kevin thought it would be cool if he had found it."

A hint from us: It wasn't the one from Australia! So guess what it was! Oh, guess what it was!

Sorry. We already know the ending, and we're pretty easily excited.

Please continue, Tracy:

"Kevin is kind of like the seagull from the Little Mermaid ... he will pick up just about anything. Over the years, he has brought home snakes, wallets, boat cushions ... you name it. All of which he has found on the side of the road. Just last week he found a camera bag with marijuina scales, which was turned over to the authorities. Today, it was a hat covered with mud and river algae. After bringing it home and power-washing it, he discovered the label on the inside that proclaimed it to be a Real Deal Brazil canvas hat. We looked up your website (www.RealDealBrazil.com) and decided to tell you his adventure for the day. We are including a picture, which we wish had scratch and sniff ... so you would be able to smell the 'ripe oyster' smell that is embedded in the hat." (Emphasis is ours; we just think that's funny!) "Kev says the he sure wouldn't mind if you send him a new one ('xl' he says) ... preferably a non-smelly one. But for now, it will serve as an ornament on the wall of Kev's garage man cave."

Oh, and yeah: Kev's absolutely getting a new original Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat from us -- minus, of course, that dreaded ripe-oyster smell. His wife's story is payment enough!

The RDB tarp hat, so you're not SOL WTSHTF

Owners of Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hats tend to be a mighty resourceful lot.

Consider amateur-radio operator Mark Reep of Cherryville, in North Carolina's western piedmont, who shared with us these two shots of his own RDB. The first one, immediately below, is of a very cool hat, if we do say so ourselves, embellished with a nifty homemade hatband made from 20 feet of paracord.

"I love my hat!" Mark enthused in the note accompanying the pictures. Nonetheless, he felt it needed a bit more individualizing. Which brings us to the second photo, of the back of the same hat, which begins to tell a more involved story ...

"Had to make it mine," Mark explained, "so I added a few things I might need on my adventures."

In addition to the homemade paracord hatband (added at least as much for its potential survival benefits as its smart looks), Mark sewed a number of interesting items into the hat itself, under the patches already there. Here's his list:


• A water container and purifying tablets

• Fishing line and hooks

• Snare wire
 Knife

• Signal mirror

• Orange tape

• Whistle

• Safety pins

• Magnesium fire stick

• $20

Then, as you can see a bit more readily, Mark also clipped onto the back of the hat both a compass
 and a mini-flashlight.

"I know when TSHTF I better have my hat on!" he said.

And assuming Mark knows how to use all the stuff he's integrated into his RDB, then we reckon we wanna be hanging with him if ever things really do go to straight to hell!

The Real Deal Brazil Reaches New Heights

Real Deal Brazil owner Jeff Walters, from Atlantic Beach, Fla., but now based in Costa Rica, last year set out on one of the greatest, most intense, vacation treks you can take -- and he was nice enough to send us some pictures of his favorite hat and him, up there in the sky! As in the great sky city of the lost Inca empire. The heights of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is, in fact, both the name of a peak in the Andes Mountains, and of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the abandoned Inca city that holds some of the most impressive ruins on the planet, a 15th-century fortress 7,970 feet above sea level. Way up there where the thin air can make you fall-down sick if you're not used to it.

The two photos that follow show Jeff reaching the end of his journey. It's day four along the fabled Inca Trail, which takes ambitious travelers through everything from cloud forest to alpine tundra, passing through settlements and even tunnels, and offering views of a number of Incan ruins along the way up, up, up, before ending at the fabled Sun Gate on Machu Picchu Mountain.

The photo below is during a day tour through plateau tundra on horseback.

We're damn pleased to have made the journey with you, Jeff! So very, very cool.