If you own a hat business or you just want to send a beautiful hat to a friend of yours, then you might be familiar with the most common issue which might occur. How to ship a hat? Hats, by their nature, aren’t meant to fold. They can lose their shape and in worst-case scenarios stay that way forever. And, if you are, let’s say a hat retailer, the last thing you may want is that your customers get a hat which is unusable.
Therefore, we need to dig a bit deeper into this issue. In this article, we’ll cover everything there is about hat shipping. From various hat types to pick the best shipping method depending on which hat you are sending. The aim of all of this is that in the end, you just know how to ship a hat the right way. Simple as that. So, without further ado, let’s see what are the most important things you need to take into consideration when shipping a hat.
What Type of Hat Are You Shipping?
First and foremost, you need to know what type of hat you are shipping. This step is crucial. There are endless hats out there and they are all different. From timeless fedoras to casual baseball caps, every single hat type has its own story. We won’t cover all of the types here but they all do have some similarities. For example, see from what material is your hat made of. Is it soft? Or sturdy? Is it made of wool or leather? Some types of hats are generally more prone to transport than other ones. Take a rigid straw hat for an example. This type of hat can be crushed with ease and therefore, you need to be extremely careful when transporting it. On the other hand, hats that are made from cotton or wool are better for packaging and you don’t need to be super cautious when transporting them – since they can’t break.
How Should You Package the Hat
After you pick the hat you want to transport, the next thing is to package it. Now, keep in mind that this step is directly connected to the one above – picking the type of hat. There are a lot of things you need to take into consideration. Things like the material, size, and the look of the hat. With so many variations, things can get pretty complicated.
Thankfully, we are here to help you out. Usually, there are some typical hats that most people wear and therefore, we’ll cover some of the best tips about transporting those types of hats. In most cases, if the hat you are packing isn’t listed here, it will usually have some similarities with the ones we mention so you can apply the same concept to them. So, let’s see how to transport different types of hats.
Cotton or Synthetic Caps
Hats such as baseball hats, beanies, and other soft material caps are probably the easiest to transport. They aren’t sturdy and therefore they won’t lose their look when transported. They can be bent, folded and so on. So, if the hat you want to transport falls under this category, you shouldn’t be scared. Just place it in some kind of package and it’s ready to go. Also, the shipping cost of such a hat will be much smaller since it doesn’t need any special transportation.
Keep in mind that if you try to ship a vintage hat you should be more cautious. Like with everything vintage, the time takes its toll and the hat which was once flexible might not be so much when it gets old.
Wool Hats
Next on the list are wool hats. They are very similar to the category above but yet, they do have some things you should keep an eye on when transporting. What we mean by this is that the size of the wool hat dictates how it will be transported. If the hat isn’t big, then you can treat it the same as cotton or synthetic caps. However, if the cap is large in size, you need to package it a bit differently.
Logically, a large wool hat will have a large brim. It might also have some additional details such as feathers or a ribbon band. What you want to avoid is wrinkling. To do this, you should stuff your hat with a regular paper and its surroundings. You can also place a hat in a large box (if you have one) and repeat the process. What this will do is protect the hat from crumbling and it will stop possible wrinkles.
Straw Hats
This type of hat is often very difficult to transport. The main thing you should consider when transporting this hat is the strength and texture of the straw. If the straw is flexible and you are able to bend it (you need to be certain that it will go back to its original form) you can pack it without too much thinking. Those types of hats won’t lose their look.
If you realize that the hat is brittle and that it won’t bend or that it will crash if you try to pack it, then you need to be more careful. Find a box that is big enough to place the hat into it and doesn’t try to squeeze the hat in a small package on the force. That’s no way to go and the hat will be deformed 9/10 times.
Leather Hats
Leather is a premium material and you should treat it that way. In general, leather hats can bend with ease but there is one important notice about this. If the leather stays in the same position for too long, it will develop wrinkles and that is something which can ruin your hat-wearing experience once and for all. In other words, your hat can become unusable. So, how to prevent this?
If you don’t know, there are a lot of “leather protection sprays” out there. Basically what this does is that it protects the leather from moisture, wrinkles, and dust. So, if you ship a leather hat, be sure that you spray some of this stuff on your product. It will keep the hat safe and your friend/customer will surely be thankful that you keep their hat in safe hands.
As for packaging, there isn’t much to talk about. Leather hats are in most cases small in size so if you can find a decent box to place it in it should work out. If you don’t have a box nearby, you can just wrap the hat in some newspaper and place it in a bag. It will keep it safe during transportation and ensure that wrinkles don’t show.
What Type of Box Should You Use?
This one is pretty self-explanatory and connected to all the points we mentioned above. Depending on which type of hat you want to transport and everything we said above, you should pick the box for packaging accordingly. Small hats don’t need big boxes and vice versa. It’s obvious. As a plus, try to always use a generally small box since it will minimize the transportation cost.
With that being said, if it’s possible, don’t use a box at all. If you can just wrap your hat in a plastic bag with some paper, then go for it. Most soft hats can be transported this way. This will halt your transportation cost and if you do it like this you shouldn’t be scared that your hat will lose its original shape.
Transportation Cost
As mentioned before, the cost of transportation varies mostly on the weight of the package and its size. So, your aim when packaging should be to minimize the weight your package has. What this means is not to place too many hats in a single package. If it’s possible, you should separate the packages and send them individually as it is often more cost-friendly.
Also, try to send hats that are small in size. Smaller hats have less weight and therefore will cost less to transport. If you really need to send big packages, you should notify the receiver of the package about the cost of such transportation. Then you can arrange who will pay the cost of it. In most cases, big packages need to be placed in big boxes and that’s something which will pump the cost of your transportation by quite a bit.
Even though it might not seem like a big deal, you need to be careful when transporting your hat. It’s important that they don’t lose their original shape and you need to do everything that’s in your power to ensure that it doesn’t. Hopefully, after reading this article you’ll know what are some key points you need to acknowledge and you’ll become the master of hat packaging. After all, you wouldn’t want to receive a wrinkled hat yourself, right?
