The Bourbon, Missouri based co.’s new golf hats are powered by the aforementioned Coolcore, a moisture activated fabric technology that accelerates wicking, transportation, and regulated evaporation in the service of keeping fabric temps against your noggin up to 30% cooler. The innovation eschews polymers, gels, crystals or phase changing materials, achieving its cooling properties through hollow fibered thread in the textile which goose air circulation while regulating moisture evaporation. That’s all pretty hat-tastic, right?
Testing the Claims: Even a broad brimmed top of the line ventilated Tilly made from their proprietary Nylamtium with breathable mesh to boost airflow will feel uncomfortably hot after enough time in the blazing sun so the real question is if comfort is enhanced, and that answer is a resounding, YES. Compared with my collection of pedestrian textile golf caps and worn on a blazing 90 degree late spring day on the range I did feel perceptibly less hotheaded and any wind at all seemed to the hat.
Now it’s not buzz-cut in the breeze cooler but the difference is quite discernable. Golf’s a game of increments and the Coolcore endowed Imperial hats certainly turn down nature’s thermometer on hot days and help players keep their minds off the weather and on their game. Still to be sure I wasn’t experiencing the placebo effect, in a climate controlled setting I filled a coffee mug with water, popped it in the microwave for one minute and 25 seconds and proceeded to pour the hot liquid contents onto the cap (in a variation of Imperial’s towel demo). Then I shook the hat in the air for a little less than ten seconds, plopped it on my head and the heat was gone.