Caps not Hats

A lot of things have gone sideways with bicycle racing and bicycle technology these days, but there is one conundrum that’s easy to fix: Let’s all wear cycling caps—especially on the race podium, which has been sullied for years by baseball hats.

Wearing a cap is a gesture of respect for the long history of the sport, and of personal sartorial acuity. The cap is all ours and only ours — one of those idiosyncratic traditions of mysterious origin that symbolizes and expresses what it is and means to be a cyclist.

Spare, flashy, logoed to hell, handmade, new, old, nuovo retro, pulled down low and tight, worn backwards, lofted, only while riding, only in sight of your bike…You will hear and read all sorts of rules regarding the cycling cap. We believe you should find your way: Make cap-wearing as much of your own as you want and can, as long as you know and appreciate what has come before.

The Caps Not Hats cause is important fun. As you spread the ideal, enthuse rather than abuse. Cajole rather than coerce. And judge your belief not by the quantity of hats which remain but by the quality of the cap, which endures.

Join the movement and get your special-edition cap was inspired by Bill Strickland, designed by Superissimo, and produced by Walz, here.