The Minnesota State Fair is twelve days long, and most of them are spent on your feet in the sun. You walk miles without meaning to. You stand in line for the good stuff. And somewhere around the second hour, the back of your neck starts to tell you it wanted a hat this morning.
That's the part of the fair we can help with. We're back again this year — the same Walkabout booth, the same hat walls stacked floor to ceiling, and the same yellow sign out front that says "Crikey — Come Say G'day." If you've walked past it before, you know the one. If you haven't, this is your year.
We've been making hats since 1992, and a fair is about the truest test a hat gets. Heat, dust, long hours, and no shade to duck into. So we bring the hats that hold up to exactly that, and we let you put them on before you decide. No guessing from a photo. You try it, you walk a lap of the booth in it, you see how it sits.
Why a good hay matters more at the fair than you think
A ball cap shades your face and nothing else. At the fair, it's the sides and the back of your neck that take the beating, hour after hour, and that's the part a proper brim covers. Heat is the other half of it. A hat that traps warmth on top of your head on a ninety-degree afternoon is worse than no hat at all — which is the whole reason mesh exists.
The soakable mesh hats are the ones people come back for. The crown is a breathable mesh panel, so the heat lifts off your head instead of sitting on it. And when it's really cooking, you dunk the hat in cold water — there's a fountain right at the booth — wring it out, put it back on, and it cools your head and neck as it dries. You can feel it. That's a trick that only works on the soakable mesh hats, so don't go dunking a leather or wool hat and blame us
What to try on when you find us
Come in and put a few on. That's the whole point of the booth. A photo can't tell you how a brim sits over your ears or whether a crown fits the shape of your head, and everybody's head is a little different.
If you're after cool and light, start with the soakable mesh sun hats — that's the wall of tan and brown breeze hats you'll see first. If you want something with more presence, we've got the leather hats further in: tooled leather, cowboy shapes, the works. People wander over "just to look" and walk out wearing one. That happens a lot
A few tips for finding us
We're at the fair every day it's open, right through Labor Day. If you're only coming once, mornings are calmer and the light's better for trying things on. Weekends get busy — worth knowing if you don't love a crowd.
If you buy a soakable mesh hat, soak it before you even leave the fairgrounds. Cold water, a good wring-out, back on your head. You'll spend the rest of the day wondering why you ever walked the fair without one.
And if you find a hat you love but you're not ready to carry it around all day, note the name. Everything we sell at the booth we also sell online, so you can pick it up later and we'll ship it out.
Looking for recommendation? See the Walkabout Voyager →