Tactical Cap Review

Ever since I was little, I've loved a good hat. Because of this I've collected quite a few hats over the years, which started to take up more and more space. Around 5 or 6 years ago I came across my first tactical cap at an Airsoft Extreme store. This was a Condor Multicam cap with Velcro sewn onto it to attach and easily swap out patches. I instantly loved the idea of having a few caps and simply changing out the patches. Now after purchasing my fourth tac hat, this seemed like a great time to compare them and see how they all stacked up against each other.

All of the hats have some sort of Velcro for attaching patches and are low profile with the top button removed so that they can be easily worn under helmets or heating protection. The Mil-Spec Monkey Cap has the most amount of velcro with attachments in the front, top and back, and the most ventilation with 4 mesh panels in the back. The Goruck has the heaviest weight fabric, is second for ventilation with two mesh panels on the sides, and has velcro attachments on the front and underside of the brim. This hat is also the only one in this review that is US made. The Condor has the lightest weight material and velcro attachments on the front, top and back. Both the Condor and Goruck hats are velcro adjustable which also works out great for those of us that like to wear ponytails. The newer Gorucks are larger with longer Velcro straps as seen in the pic below. The MSM hat is a Flexfit which has a snug comfy fit.

The Condor cap is the cap that I'm the most likely to forget that I'm wearing it, because it is so light. It's completely unstructured with six panel construction. This model has a Velcro closure with a metal loop. There's other models out there including a buckle closure, which people with short hair have reported that it digs into their head. The metal loop is low profile and so far has been comfy even while wearing the cap backwards. The velcro strap is short, which is fine for me, but might be a bit small for those with larger heads.

A few years back I wore it for a four hour adventure race - in a kayak, under a bike helmet while mountain biking, and while trail running. I was impressed at how light and comfortable it felt and how quickly it dried. it held up looking and feeling like new by the end of it.

Other reviews of this hat seem mostly favorable, but it is produced over seas and there does seem to be some inconsistency with quality control. Best bet here might be to buy it in person. Then again, for as little as $6-$7 for the hat (a few more dollars for the Multicam) it could be worth the risk.

In September 2010 while getting ready for the Tough Mudder, I came across this post on the side of there page for this thing called the Goruck Challenge. Clicking on the link led me to a bag manufacturer with one of the coolest hats I had ever seen. This sucker looked like it could survive Armageddon and come up smiling. Here it is pictured on a climbing trip in Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas.

I paused slightly a the $35 price tag, but then ordered one up right away. When it arrived it looked to be just as tough and well made as it did in the pictures. This hat is definitely the sleekest looking of the hats. It's made out of 1000D cordura, same as the Goruck bags, but without the water repellency treatment in order to allow for more breathability. To further allow for breathability it has military grade mesh panel inserts on the side. It only has the two Velcro attachment points with them being on the front of the hat and the underside of the brim. It has a Velcro strap closure in the back. The strap, especially on the newer caps is a bit long for me and I would like some way to tuck the excess back into hat to keep it looking sleek. The hook side of the velcro strap is closest to the head causing it to sometimes fold underneath and catch on my hair. This is pretty minor given the rest of the hats features.

The hat easily made it through that Tough Mudder, two more mudders, including World's, three Gorucks, and a whole bunch more events and abuse. Overall, the hat has stood up great and feels better broken in. the only signs of wear are some occasional fraying along the seams. Since the hat is cordura, I snip down the frayed part add close as I can to the hat and then lightly apply a lighter (standard disclaimer, if you choose to do this, you do so at your own risk). This seems to do the trick. Hand washing instead of machine washing like I did the first time should also keep the fraying to a minimum.

This hat is my standard go to hat. The best example of how much I like this hat happened a few months ago. As I was walking down Las Vegas Boulevard a 70mph gust of wind came along and blew my hat off my head and into traffic before I could even try to grab it. I chased at down the street as it wove it's way through four lanes of traffic and came to rest next to the center divide. As I was trying to figure out how I could get it back another gust of wind came along and blew it back across the four lanes of traffic and against the retaining wall on the busy corner next to New York New York. I anxiously waited for a slight break in the traffic flow. After at least a good five minutes or so one finally came. I jumped over the 4' retaining wall, claimed my cap, and jumped back over in the five seconds I had before becoming road kill on the Las Vegas strip. I wouldn't have done that for just any cap.

I also have the Goruck Green Beret Fund donation cap. This cap has the GBF patch sewn on the front and Velcro compatible material on the underside of the brim.

What's of note is that while this hat is less than a year newer than my first GR TAC hat, there are a few design changes. The hat is bigger with longer Velcro straps in the back to offer more adjustability. The hat has a lower profile though, so even while being bigger, it felt better right out of the box on my tiny little 6 3/4 head. For more info on the GR Tac hat check out the link below.

www.goruck.com/news/gr-tac-explained

The Mil-Spec Monkey CG Raw mesh cap in Loden green is my latest addition, having had it about a week. It's pictured here with the MSM Pirate Skull Die Cut patch. I was pleasantly surprised to see that MSM is based locally right here in San Jose. The cap is a standard Flexfit cap available in S/M and L/XL, and fit as such. I've found the low profile Flexfits to be very comfortable and this is no exception. The MSM cap has the biggest patches of velcro. It is the only cap that has enough room on the back to attach both a name tape and a patch. The IR patch on the top is big enough to diagonally fit the 2" skully patch. What's great about the velcro on this hat is that even though there's more, this is the only hat where the sides of the velcro are stitched down keeping it from peeling up or snagging on things. The larger size in the front gives more attachment options than the standard 2x3" velcro patch. I absolutely love the color of this hat. It looks very much like the green Nomex I wore during my Forest Service wildland firefighting days. Another cool feature of this hat is the lanyard attachment in the back. This could've saved me from having to play in rush hour traffic during that 70 mph windstorm. The only difference between the Raw and the DLUX version is that the DLUX version has integrated retractable ear protection. This video does a great job of explaining the design of the hat.



At $24 for the RAW version and $28 for the DLUX version this cap is a great buy.

For anyone that's found the info on this site useful, and/or believes in doing positive things for yourself and your community, the NS6 skully patch is available for $3 with $2 flat rate for shipping on patches. Send an email to NS6Athletic@gmail.com and I'll send out a paypal invoice and then I'll ship it out to you. It makes a great under brim patch.