Arizona Hats

Arizona has one of the most recognisable regional jokes in the country: it's a dry heat. Joan Rivers answered it in 2012 by saying the inside of her microwave is a dry heat too, and residents have been repeating the line, with eye-rolls, ever since. This collection leans into the vocabulary Arizonans actually use for heat that is too big to be modest. Locals trade the same survival checklist: burning yourself on the steering wheel or seatbelt, wearing barbecue mitts to drive, baking cookies on the dashboard. Phoenix once logged 113 consecutive days at or above 100F, so a line calling the city a suburb of the sun is closer to a report than a boast. Monsoon season runs from mid-June to the end of September, and the haboob, the wall of dust that rolls off a thunderstorm downdraft, is a word every Valley resident knows. In 1968 the legislature opted the state out of daylight saving time, partly for the extra evening hour of air conditioning. These Arizona hats put the state and city names beside the jokes, including the seatbelt branding iron and the dry-heat line in two colorways. Every design is custom embroidered on a dad hat, for residents, snowbirds, and anyone who has parked in the shade of a light pole.