Pair this with felt vs straw cowboy hats, how to store a cowboy hat, and the different straws — or book a free hat fitting and we'll help you rotate your whole lineup.
As we approach Felt Season, I figured we would take a quick look at when to switch over from straw to felt...
Most Important: These are just some basic guidelines and not hard and fast fashion rules. The biggest factor should be based off of personal temperature tolerances. If you want to wear a felt in straw season, go for it, people do it all the time.
We already covered felt vs straw as materials. This is about timing: when to actually take the felt off rotation and put the straw on, and why the date on the calendar is the least useful part of that decision.
"Felt after Labor Day, straw after Memorial Day" gets repeated over and over again. It's a decent rule of thumb. It is not a law of physics, for example in our home in Northwest Arkansas it's honestly a little late in the spring and a little early in the fall.
Where the Labor Day rule actually came from
It's newer than people think. Straw Hat Day and Felt Hat Day were once fixed dates — May 15 and September 15 — and hat merchants ran ads to increase sales. A 1933 Fort Worth ad put it plainly: "It's time to discard the old straw and don a New Felt, so come in tomorrow — Felt Hat Day, and get yours." The switch got condensed into Memorial Day and Labor Day sometime later.
New York took it further than anyone should. In 1922, young men in the city made a sport of physically knocking straw hats off strangers' heads after the unofficial cutoff — it escalated into days of street fights and arrests, and history remembers it as the Straw Hat Riot. True Story.
What actually tells you it's time
Forget the date, thats just marketing. Watch the weather and choose your hat.
Straw's season is over when the cold starts working against you, not for you. Straw breathes — that's the point of the weave — which means once mornings turn cold, that same airflow is pulling warmth off your head instead of pulling heat off it. If you're reaching for a jacket before you reach for your hat.
Felt's season is over when it stops being about warmth and starts being about sweat. Felt holds heat in, which is exactly what will cause you to sweat.
Occasion still overrides both. A wedding, church, a nice dinner — felt carries formality straw doesn't, regardless of the forecast. See felt vs straw for the full breakdown on that.
The changeover itself
Don't just swap hats and forget about the one coming off. Do it right and both hats last longer:
Give the outgoing hat a real once-over before it goes away. Felt should be brushed clean — see How to Clean a Felt Hat if it picked up sweat rings or dust over the season. Straw coming off for the winter should be spot-cleaned and checked for any crushing before you put it away, because a temporary spot left alone tends to become a permanent one.
Store it properly, don't just shove it on a closet shelf. A hat sitting out for six months collects dust, loses shape and in a damp closet — risks mildew. This is exactly what a hat can is or. Full detail in How to Store a Cowboy Hat.
Need to freshen a hat up after it's been in storage? A hat that's been in a can for longer than six months can still pick up a stale smell or a slightly flattened crown. A quick steam and reshape at our hat bar fixes both!
If you only own one hat
Then the seasonal question doesn't apply to you the same way — wear what you've got and let occasion, not season, make the call. But if you're on a hat more than a couple times a week, owning more than one of each stops being a luxury and starts being the practical move.
Browse felt hats or straw hats, or come try both on and let the weather make the decision for you.
The short version
Signal to switch: reaching for a jacket (straw's done) or sweating through the sweatband (felt's done) — not the date.
Before storage: clean it, then can it. Don't just shelve it.
Occasion still wins: felt for anything dressy, any time of year.
Come see us at 2218 N College Ave in Fayetteville, or book a free hat fitting. Bring whichever hat is coming off rotation — we'll clean it, check it, and help you find what replaces it.