Sunday, 9:00 AM. 4 degrees, wind S, calm. The sky is ovecast and big fluffy flakes are drifting gently down. The barometer predicts partly cloudy weather.The Stormy Kromer Cap is one of the icons of the Northland, an essential part of the outdoorsman’s (or man about town’s)wardrobe in these parts. Its lineage goes back over one hundred years, and was born out of peculiar necessity. Stormy Kromer was a semi-pro baseball player and railroad engineer. He always wore a baseball cap, but often when sticking his head out the engine window the wind blew his cap off. His wife was a seamstress, and he asked her to devise a practical way to keep his caps on his head. She developed a variation of the typical baseball cap, but with pull-down ear laps which would snug the cap around his ears and back of his head in such a way that the cap did not need to be tied under the chin, but stayed on snugly on its own. Not only did this solve the problem of losing caps while driving his engine, but it created a cap that kept ears and neck warm. The cap soon evolved into a winter chapeau, made of good wool, windproof and water proof, sticking to the sportsman’s head no matter how blustery the weather.
One potential problem with the Kromer cap is that many do not understand how the ear flaps function. You pull them down over the ears, one does not roll them down as with most cap ear flaps. This is essential, because pulling the flaps down allows the cap to hug the ears and head very tightly, it conforms to the ears and nape of the neck precisely. Properly fitted and affixed, this cap has everything…it will not blow off, it is warm, protects the ears and has a proper sun and weather visor. I have been told by some skeptics however that I, at least, look like I just got off the boat when I wear it. But, style is in the eye of the beholder, is it not?
Stormy Kromer's cap is still proudly made in America and is well worth the cost.
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