Wondering How to Pack a Straw Hat for Travel? We Have Answers.

You're a person who loves hats and wants to take one with you everywhere. Not to worry, there are a lot of options when it comes to traveling with your favorite hat. 

For brimmed hats like a fedora or pork pie, our top recommendation is to wear your hat on the plane. You can put it in the foot well or on your lap during flight. Absolutely do not put it in the overhead compartment. Shifting suitcases can crush, and depending on what it’s made out of, destroy your hat. While you’re in the airport or walking around, you can use on of our hat magnets to attach your hat to your bag or suitcase.

But if you really want to do it, we'll show you how to pack a hat in a suitcase, but do yourself a favor and use a hard-shell suit case. We do not recommend this technique for true panama (toquilla fiber) hats – just wear it on the plane or opt for an easier to pack material such as a braid. Fill the inside of your hat with underwear, socks, or t-shirts. Simply pack the rest of your goods around the hat, being careful not to crush it.

• If your hat has a leather sweat and/or has a firm finish, use the above technique only. This kind of fedora should not be rolled, folded, or crushed.
• If your hat has a wire in the brim and is soft, you can fold it flat with the brim up against either side of the crown. We don’t recommend leaving your hat like this for any longer than is necessary, though I did have a customer backpack through Europe of a couple of months, squishing his Bailey lite-felt pork pie (!) hat into his backpack this way and honestly, I would not have guessed it had been smashed into a backpack.
• Some felt hats can be rolled and put in a suitcase. If your fedora does not have a wire in the brim and have a cloth sweatband, you can roll it and put it in a suitcase. Snap the brim down and pop the crown of the hat up. Fold it length wise, from the pinch to the back and loosely roll. This is also a great way to travel with a bucket hat.
  
• If your beach hat is wider than your suitcase, it's okay to tuck the edges neatly between the edge of the suitcase and your clothes.

If you’re traveling with a newsboy or ivy cap, you can easily pack it in a suitcase with little worry. You can stuff the inside of the cap with small soft clothing like t-shirts, underwear, or socks to prevent wrinkling. The other option is to fold it with our easy technique. Just tuck the brim into the sweatband and smooth everything out for easy wrinkle free travel (this is also a good way to stash your cap in a coat pocket or even to keep your newsboy wrinkle free at home). We’ve got a great how to fold a cap video.

>>> Pro Tip: A good hat has a memory and will, give enough time, fall back into place. If your hat gets a bit misshapen while traveling, put it back into the correct shape – pop the crown back up, smooth the brim. Then leave it sitting out for a few hours. If you’re in a hurry or fresh air and time didn’t do the trick, try some steam. Use an iron at the highest steam setting (you’ll need to be at least half way up in temperature settings for the steam to work properly) to gently steam the hat and smooth it into shape. Mind your fingers (steam burns are real burns) and do not touch the iron to your hat.