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Apparel

The premium hat company that just landed Phil Mickelson as a partner

Sean ZakBy Sean Zak
January 22, 2020
Phil Mickelson will be wearing Melin hats on Tour all season.
Getty Images

When a hat is priced at twice the industry average, look a little closer. There’s probably a reason for it.

For the folks a Melin Headwear — the company that just partnered with Phil Mickelson — there are at least 18 reasons. That’s how many pieces make up their premium hat.

The brand has been around for six years, but is just now making a jump into golf. President Brian McDonell picked apart the classic ball cap and intended to improve on every piece, from the construction of the bill to the thread that holds it all together.

What Melin rebuilt — called the A-Game — is particularly high-tech for a hat company, thus creating an above average price point. Consider, for a second, their hats to be recipe-based, in which every ingredient is an upgrade from the normal golf hat.

  • The bill is made from resin, not cardboard, and is less dense than water so it floats if dropped in the lake.
  • The exterior material repels water. Stay tuned for Mickelson playing in the rain sometime this season.
  • The underbill has anti-glare material. It also has a rubber seal designed to be a safety net for handling the hat when your hands are dirty (think about how many times your thumbs clean off your club face.)
  • The sweatband is triple-quilted to grab, grab and grab sweat and salt to keep it from leaking into other portions of the hat.
  • The interior fabric creates another sweat-wicking pocket to keep the front of your hat clean. It also features a tiny besom pocket, like the ones commonly found in suit jackets.
  • It’s heavily perforated to keep airflow constant, to help the major head-sweaters from ruining another hat. Look long and hard for another perforated hat on the PGA Tour other than the one Mickelson now sports. You’ll struggle to find one.

Add it all up and the hats are promised to last five times as long as typical golf hats.

Melin launched the A-Game hat this week, but those who follow the pro game closely saw it on Mickelson’s head last week at his 2020 debut at The American Express. According to McDonell, Mickelson first received the brand’s hat as a gift from his wife, Amy, fell in love with the gear and quickly expressed interest in a partnership deal.

The hats go for $59, and can be purchased online, or found at high-end golf resorts. (Think Bandon, Pebble, Pinehurst, etc.) That’s the type of golfer Melin wants to cater to — the player who wants one go-to hat they can wear repeatedly. And the kind of who find themselves chasing down rounds at premium golf courses.

If you’re a rope-hat aficionado, don’t worry. They’ve got one of those coming soon.

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