Chicago Hats

Chicago is the third-largest city in the country and, until now, the only one of the big hometown four (Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh, New Jersey) without a collection of its own, despite having the richest, most nationally-recognized in-group vocabulary of any of them. These hats carry both the badges and the arguments. LAKE SHORE DRIVE and CHICAGOAN name the place and the people in it plainly, the way a transplant explains where they're from before anyone asks a follow-up. The food fights get their own lines, because in Chicago the food fights are the identity: NO KETCHUP ON HOT DOGS states the house rule as a fact rather than an opinion, ITALIAN BEEF DIPPED, HOT specifies the order the way a regular would, and DEEP DISH IS REAL PIZZA settles an argument every Chicagoan has had with someone from out of town. DA BEARS and JAGOFF carry the sports loyalty and the all-purpose insult-as-endearment. IT'S STILL THE SEARS TOWER refuses a rename official since 2009, and CITY OF BIG SHOULDERS borrows Carl Sandburg's own nickname for the city as a flag. CHICAGO HAS TWO SEASONS, WINTER AND CONSTRUCTION closes the set with the weather/road-work running joke. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. The two strongest non-basic lines, NO KETCHUP ON HOT DOGS and DEEP DISH IS REAL PIZZA, each get a second colorway. Pick the one that sounds like you, or the cousin who still corrects people's pizza order at every holiday.