Don't sweat Father's Day gift giving. Every dad can use a new summer hat or a cap.

Ties? Got ’em. Cufflinks? Got ’em, never uses ’em. Cologne? Got it. Rarely uses it. Arts-and-Crafts projects? You’ve outgrown making them.

What on earth is left to get Dad for Father’s Day?

Why not get him a nice summer straw hat or a lightweight linen cap? Dad will look great sporting a hat this summer. Plus, it will help protect him from the sun’s harsh rays. You will definitely be his favorite if you keep him looking sharp while saving him from skin cancer.

Consider the All-American straw fedora like the Stetson Pasadena. It delivers classic style in a sand-colored straw or black. Made by Stetson, you know it is a quality fedora. Best of all, you get all of that for fewer than $100, so you won’t break the bank.

Maybe your father is more of a cap-wearing type of guy. Why not get him a tried and true Linen Newsboy Cap? Relatively inexpensive, these 100% linen caps are American made and come in 10 different colors.

If neither of those will do, don’t worry. Hats-Plus has more than 600 models of hats from which to choose online.

The Hat Whisperer emerges from the deep burrough where straw hats are stored. What does this mean? Spring and Summer are closer than they seem. Hang in there, America. This winter has to die eventually.

Spring and Summer can’t be that far away.

Honestly.

Otherwise we wouldn’t already be changing over our store with straw hats!

Our work has only just begun, but we are already boxing up some of the wool and fur felt. Better yet, we’re bringing up the straw and linen.

Best of all, new models of summer hats are starting to arrive from Stetson, Biltmore and Dobbs. Some of them are already on display in the store, if you can swing by to see. If the internet is as close as you can get to us, check back regularly because we soon will be adding them online!

Until then, think warm thoughts. This winter has to end eventually.

Here is a Borsalino Bellagio, just like the one James Spader wears in "The Blacklist."

Conspiracy, intrigue and detective work are the foundation of the thrilling NBC show, “The Blacklist.” On it a hat-wearing ex-FBI agent played by James Spader is a most-wanted criminal who turns himself in. Looking for leniancy, he offers to use his underworld connections to capture a top terrorism suspect. Among his requests is one that he only work with a raw recruit just out of training. She is a profiler named Elizabeth Keen.

“The Blacklist” is a tense and thrilling show.

However, our main star is the hat James Spader wears. It is a black fedora with the brim snapped down in the front and up in the back.

We are 99.99% certain it is a Borsalino Bellagio. This is a very handsome men’s hat with a center dent crown. It’s double-tailed grosgrain bow band is a subtle flourish. Ours come with the rare lapel strap.

Made from a refined fur felt, the Borsalino Bellagio is a luxurious testament that proves “they” still make great hats in our modern world. Other great characteristics of note are the supple leather sweatband and the satin lining of the hat, both of which are there to help your hat last a long time.

We stock the Bellagio along with other great Borsalino hats at Hats Plus. Be sure to check them out, especially if you want to look like your favorite Hollywood stars such as James Spader and the many others we’ve profiled on Hollywood Hatties.

Add some style and color to your winter with a brown Henschel Leather Basketweave Fedora

Too many people fall prey to gloomy winter months with hats and caps that seem to suit that mood.

Henschel’s new leather basketweave design is a smokin’ hot way to keep warm while avoiding the winter blahs. The two-tone brown model is especially handsome with its mahogany-colored woven crown and dark-brown stingy brim. The brim is stylishly preformed. Even the all-black fedora is made more interesting by the woven leather design.

Each hat is satin lined and given a comfortable cloth sweatband that make it a treat to wear all season.

Click here to keep your look interesting all winter with the Henschel Leather Basketweave Fedora.

The company has Colorado’s largest selection of hats and caps.

All headwear will be discounted 25% to 60%. Customers who spend more than $250 will get a free gift.

If you’ve never shopped at a real hat shop before, you will love the experience of trying on a new personality with each hat. Finding the perfect fit in your favorite hat or cap is a great in-person experience, as is seeing and touching the headware.

The company’s Boulder warehouse is generally closed to the public, as it services hats-plus.com and the company’s Chicago headquarters shop. Hats Plus carries headwear by Stetson, Kangol, Dobbs, Biltmore, Borsalino, Goorin Brothers, Capas, City Sport, Bailey and many other name brands.

Hat Plus–Boulder will be open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and week days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It is located at Chicago, IL. It may be reached at .

Hats Plus has been one of America’s leading hat shops since 1987.

The new Stetson Belfast is one of the fastest selling hats at Hats Plus. High fashion at an affordable price helps to pave the way for its grand success.

The Stetson Belfast is fast becoming one of the most popular new hats in Hats Plus.

Why?

Well? What’s not to love?

The Belfast features Stetson’s classic, top-notch design and construction with its teardrop crown and snap brim that can be adjusted to be worn up or down to best suit your style. The handsome self band also catches the eye with its two-tone design.

Equally impressive is that this traditional man’s hat has an entry-level price that is much more affordable than other Stetson hats.

This pricing is made possible by Stetson’s use of a wool-fur felt blend that still looks fantastic without sacrificing quality. In fact, the wool used in this fedora helps to make the hat water repellant.

Is it any wonder why this hat is selling so quickly?

Hats Plus is making the glorious transition from summer to winter hats. Stop by the store or visit online to see all of the latest new hats and caps.

This season there is a lot of excitement in the air, as we are introducing a ton of great new hats and caps.

As we’ve already mentioned, we now carry a complete line of women’s hats by Betmar.

We also have three great new hats coming in from Stetson. The Belfast fedora is already selling rapidly. The Stetson Belfast offers great style and Stetson quality all at an extremely affordable price. The Stetson Emmett is another hat bound for great popularity, as it blends urban fedora design with a classic western leather hat band that is ruggedly handsome from Tulsa to L.A. Listen, mate, if you want a Stetson cowboy hat with rugged Australian styling, you will love the new Stetson Spencer. It is crushable, water repellent and very affordable. Perfect for wrangling kangaroos or any outdoor activity.

If Kangol hats are more your speed, be sure to check out the new leather Kangol Galaxy! The Galaxy delivers all of Kangol’s style into a supple leather newsboy cap. Women should be sure to check out the Kangol Diva for an edge, feminine fashion statement.

More winter hats are on their way. Be sure to comeback again soon to see what hats and caps are new in store at Hats Plus this fall.

Hard plastic hat cases are a good way to travel with a prized hat that you don't want damaged in transit. A crushable fedora by Bailey is another good option for packing a hat without damaging it. Our hat cases come in large and small sizes. The mid-size one in this photo is really a large that has a tier removed to make it more photogenic.

A reader recently asked us to address the issue of traveling with hats. Yes, yes. No doubt there are some glib readers out there already firing up the comments section ready to deliver the punchline answer to today’s title…”with it on my head.”

However, serious hat-wearing travelers know that packing a favorite topper on a vacation or business trip can be fraught with peril. Crowns are easily crushed. Brims are easily distorted. Excessive sunshine, heat and moisture will shrink and warp your chapeau. Even a quick pit stop to fill the gas tank and check the oil might accidently transfer grease and grime from your car to your hat with one forgetful touch.

So, just how do you travel with a hat and keep it safe?

It all depends on the hat. The easiest thing to do might be to get a hat designed to be packed in luggage or a coat pocket. Guerra’s Falbatravel is a nice fur felt fedora that is specifically designed to be broken down and rolled up to fit in a coat pocket or suitcase. As soon as you need to wear it again, you can unroll it and pop it back into shape in fewer than 30 seconds. If you are a summer traveller who prefers a straw hat, Bailey’s Roll Up does the same thing.

Many of our Bailey wool felt hats are designed to be “crushable.” All you do is gently crush the hat from side to side. (Do not crush it from up and down because that will ruin it.) Then you can carefully place it in a suitcase. As with the Guerra, these hats pop right back into shape. As an added bonus, Bailey wool felt hats are almost all equiped with a rain repellent finish that that helps you to fearlessly brave a light rain or snow.

That said, if you have a favorite fur felt Stetson or sisol straw Borsalino you want to take with you—never, ever put it in a suitcase or duffle bag. These hats are best traveled with the original cardboard box in which it came. Hats Plus also sells special hat travel and storage cases. These sturdy, hard plastic cases with steel latches come in two sizes. One is a single hat case, that can sometimes hold two hats, depending on the height of their crowns and the large case holds up to 6 hats.

Packing a hat in one of these boxes or cases is fairly straight forward. If your hat has a snap brim, be sure to put it in the up position. This helps to minimize any warping of the brim while it is in storage. If you are stacking hats in the cases, they will likely all be the same hat size and can be placed gently one on top of the other. It is preferable if you have a 2” or 3” cardboard or styrofoam ring around the base of the crown to keep the hats from getting stuck together and/or crushing each other. If you are taking several different size hats, put the smaller hat sizes on the bottom and put them in ascending order. Think of the Russian nesting dolls; it will help keep all of the hats fitting together nicely.

The single hat case costs $50 and the large hat cases cost $125.

Okay. So you have limited space in your car or for luggage on a flight, and you still want to bring a nice hat that isn’t crushable, what do you do? First of all, never put it in an overhead compartment of an airplane because it will get smashed. If you are on a flight, just snap up the brim and keep it on your lap. If you are taking a cross-country roadtrip and don’t want to risk crushing it in the trunk, keep the brim up and lay it flat on an empty passenger seat. Try to keep it out of the sun and heat for long periods, especially if you’ve left the car parked with all of the windows up. That type of intense heat will eventually shrink your hat and possibly warp the brim. Bring it into your hotel room at night or wear it to the diner at lunch. If you drive a convertible with the top down, the wind might buffet the hat and send it flying, but if you have a conventional hardtop and AC, you’ll be fine.

I hope this helps with your hat traveling concerns. I love hearing from our readers, and if you have any other suggestions or topics you would like to see written, please send us a comment. Thanks!

Today’s special shout outs go to John Primer and Willie “The Touch” Hayes.

Blues drummer Willie "The Touch" Hayes has played with everyone from B.B. King to Koko Taylor. Here he is at a recent visit to Hats Plus trying on a Dobbs Eldorado.

The Touch is originally from Clarksdale, Arkansas. He’s a classic blues drummer who has played with all of the best! Willie has played the skins for B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Big Twist and The Mellow Fellows. That’s only a handful of the great blues musicians with whom he has performed. In fact, Hayes has a new CD out featuring cuts with some of those artists. The CD is called “A Tribute to A Lifetime of the Blues.” In this photo he is trying on a Dobbs Eldorado.

Blues guitarist John Primer also paid a recent visit. He learned from and performed with legends such as Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy.

John Primer is a true Mississippi bluesman. Learning the guitar while growing up working the cottonfields, the blues were his ticket to a successful career in Chicago. Here he learned from and played with the best including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Pine Top Perkins, to name just a few. Primer has a new CD out called “Knockin’ Around These Blues.” In our photo he’s trying on the Monterrey Arizona.

With its two-tone design and dynamic hat band the Stetson Andover makes for a great choice for a summer hat with a little swagger.

Unless you have unlimited resources, odds are good you will buy just one or two hats or caps for your summer wardrobe this year. And that’s where the trouble begins. With more than 600 different models to choose from at Hats Plus, this isn’t necessarily your easiest task.

Your best bet is to assess what you need. Whatever you choose should clearly be “you,” but if you are spending 8 hours a day outdoors in the sun, your first choice for a hat probably shouldn’t be that open-weave party hat with a stingy brim.

Ask yourself these questions: Where am I going to wear this the most? (The office? In the car? Out socializing?) How much solar protection do I need? Is it always windy? If so, do I want the wind blowing through my hair or do I want to make certain my hat won’t go flying? As you start narrowing down your choices, keep your wardrobe in mind. A shantung or natural straw hat will go with anything, but that really cool looking peach color fedora you like might only work with one or two of your outfits.

Assuming you have already read our post about the different types of straw used to make straw hats, let’s dive into some good ideas for helping you to pick out the right hat for you this summer.

ALL PURPOSE

No one will ever go wrong with a straw fedora or even a linen newsboy cap. Both will keep the sun off the top of your head and provide a little shade for your eyes. Plus, they are appropriate to wear for most occasions. A fedora with a 2-inch or 2 ½-inch brim will give a little better job providing shade.

However, a straw hat or linen newsboy will work well with a suit or a T-shirt and shorts. Each adds a little class to your wardrobe without making you look pompus or stuffy. Many fedoras can look downright playful, especially if you snap the front brim in the up position.

SUN WARRIORS

If you are outside all day gardening, doing lawncare, working as a lifeguard or any other outdoorsy job, you are going to want to protect yourself from the sun’s harsh rays. If you are especially fair skinned, you can get a sun burn in just 20 minutes between noon and 2 p.m.

You will most certainly want the most protection you can get and will likely want to get a hat with a 3-inch brim at the least. You will also want to make certain the crown either tightly woven or layered like a milan hat. This helps keep the sun from baking the top of your dome. The Stetson Rustic is a nice option. The downturned brim Capas Panama is another good choice. It only has a 2 1/2-inch brim, but the downturn brim helps to shade more of you.

Some straw hats come with special cloth liners in the crown or under the brim of the hat to make certain to block 99% of UV rays. The Stefeno New Mexico features these special linings.

If you need a little more pizzazz with a wide brim, try a gambler such as the Ozark Panama Gambler or Dobbs Kingston. Some golfers really enjoy the style and shade while the hat doesn’t get in the way of their play.

BATTLE the ELEMENTS

There is nothing like a day out on your sailboat or a weekend camping with your family, but we all know nature can be one bad mother. There is only one brand who can take all that she can dish out: Tilley.

These Canadian-made hats are made of a light-weight cotton that will deliver unparalleled solar protection. It will also help keep your head dry in the rain. Even if the hat (and you) get completely soaked, these hats are washable and guaranteed not to shrink. Many of the Tilley hats can float, which makes them easier to retrieve on the lake. PLUS, many Tilley hats have straps to go under your chin and the back of your head, thus denying the wind the opportunity to steal your hat.

PARTY TIME

If you just want to look your best while out socializing, you have a ton of options. Stingy brim straw hats are all the rage. Be sure to check out our popular straw hats by Bailey. You also might like the Goorin Good Life.

If you want a traditional fedora with real color and pop, try the Dobbs Rosebud or Stetson Andovers.

We probably should have mentioned these first, but Kangol carries a wonderful line of ivy caps like the Tropic Ventair, and ball caps, players, and army caps. They come in many colors and are instantly recognized as a fashion leader all over the world.

POMP & CIRCUMSTANCE

Finally, there are those who have a zillion special events to attend this summer: weddings, graduations, company picnics and more.

With so many events for which you must dress well, you might want to consider getting a more formal hat. A highly refined Montecristi panama hat by Biltmore will make you look like a million bucks. Maybe you would rather go Great Gatsby with a straw skimmer. Or you could really take it up a notch and get a straw Hamburg, also known as a Godfather. From its upturned, bounded-edge brim to the crease of the crown, a hamburg like the straw Dobbs Eldorado is a hat that always is sophisticated and debonaire.

We hope this has helped you to sort out what hat might be best for you this summer. Always feel free to ask any questions. We love hearing from you.