Crown Your Cap With Better Paper Stock

It goes without saying that baseball caps are popular among fishermen year-round. During the summer months, they often get replaced with what I often refer to as "full-brimmed nerdy/floppy hats," especially among anglers conscientious about trying to protect their skin. Even then, though, you'll see people carrying both styles on their fishing day--using the nerdy hat on the water and the baseball cap at all other times. At least, that's the way I roll.

Crown inserts for many baseball caps you buy today notoriously are of inferior quality, and if you sweat as much as I do on a normal summer day, the inserts quickly become nothing short of a genuine wrinkled, stained mess. That thought was on my mind when I recently bought another new hat and decided to test an idea of my own. It came to me during a shopping expedition with my wife.

We were in a local hobby store when I happened upon an aisle with all kinds of paper on the shelves. I picked up a tablet of 11-inch-by-15-inch watercolor paper, which is thicker than the flimsy cardboard crown inserts you usually get with new hats. I bought the tablet, containing 12 sheets (at a cost of $13.99, not including tax) and used the cheap insert in my new hat for a pattern to cut out and replace the flimsy original.

I figured if these sheets are designed to hold up to painting with watercolors, they also should withstand more of the sweat I produce during the hot summer months. Only time will tell if there's any credibility to my way of thinking, but if I'm right, the price per crown insert will be negligible. For example, consider that I should be able to get three of them out of each sheet, which will yield a grand total of 36 from the 12 sheets. Based on those numbers, each insert only will have cost me approximately 39 cents.

For the sake of comparison, I did a quick check of Amazon and found 3 packs of what appeared to be similar inserts (already cut), running anywhere from $8 to $13.

The bottom line here is pretty evident: If you're willing to invest a little do-it-yourself time, you probably can save a few bucks and have something just as good as the higher-priced items. Just know that I offer no guarantees here, though.