Best Sun Hats for Men of 2026

The Bora Bora's brim is soft, and that's the whole trade. On a still afternoon it's cool and comfortable; in a crosswind off the water it lifts and folds back, and you spend the walk holding it down. Columbia lists this one as discontinued, which is worth knowing before you fall for a particular color — what's in stock is what's left.

The venting is the reason to pay for it. Vents sit above the headband, the fabric is light enough that you stop noticing it by mid-morning, and it dries quickly after a soaking, which makes it a reasonable hat to get wet in. The drawstring adjusts the fit, and the hat folds flat into a daypack without complaint.

On a hot, still day this is the hat we reach for first. The airflow is the best of anything on this list, and the brim keeps the sun off your face and neck without any weight behind it. What you give up is brim structure, and it's the premium pick here, so that calm-weather limit stings a little more than it would on a cheaper hat.

Neck coverage is the reason to buy this hat, and the way it's handled is the reason it stays on our list. The flap hangs off the back of the crown, shades your nape and the tops of your ears, and rolls into a small pocket sewn for it when you're back in town and don't want to look like you're on a survival course.

The rest is a solid UPF 50+ boonie: a wide brim, mesh panels around the crown, and a shell thin enough that the whole hat goes into a backpack without folding. Sun protection is what it does best — brim and flap together keep the burn off your face, ears, and neck through a long hike or an afternoon of yard work — and it's light enough to forget you have it on.

The crown runs snug. Bigger heads will want to loosen the sizing string, and it can be pulled out entirely if you need the room; the brim and flap are generous, so fit is the only place this hat asks you to compromise. For everyone else it settles in within an hour and stays where you put it.

This isn't the hat for a stroll through town. It's the one for mowing two acres, spraying the orchard, or sitting in a boat under a cloudless sky for six hours — a wide brim, a neck flap, and a mesh panel that comes down over your face.

Both covers detach. The neck flap comes off at the back and the face panel at the sides, so the same hat can be full coverage for the worst of the day and an ordinary brimmed hat for the drive home. The mesh in front of your mouth and nose is breathable enough to work in, and the fabric is light and dries fast when you sweat through it.

The face panel takes a few minutes to get used to — you're looking through a screen, and it sits close to your nose. The one size is a compromise: it sits big on a small head and snug on a large one, so cinch the chin strap and expect to fiddle. Check the box on arrival, too, since the two covers are separate pieces and both should be in there.

None of that changes what it's for. If your summer is measured in hours of exposure rather than afternoons at the beach, this is the most coverage you get on this list, and the detachable pieces make it far more usable than a fixed-flap hat. It's the one we hand over for yard work and long days in the open.

Wet-to-cool fabric only works if you're willing to dunk it. Soak the MISSION bucket in a sink or a cooler, wring it out, give it a shake, and the fabric starts pulling heat off your head. MISSION rates the effect at up to two hours, and the hat reactivates with another soak.

The rest is a decent bucket: a 3-inch brim all the way round, UPF 50+ fabric that MISSION says blocks 98% of UV, and a soft 92% polyester, 8% spandex shell. It's listed as not water resistant, which is exactly right for a hat you're supposed to soak, and it's machine washable — something most hats here can't claim. It also packs flat and takes up almost nothing in a bag.

For a boat, a festival, or a beach day with a cooler within reach, this is the one we take, because nothing else on this list actually lowers the temperature of your head. The cooling fades as the fabric dries, so plan on re-wetting every couple of hours — a small chore on a hot day, and a pointless one if you're nowhere near water.

Some trips need a hat for the trail and some need a hat for the terrace at six o'clock. This is the second kind: a straw Panama with a wide brim, a fabric band, and enough shape to make a linen shirt look deliberate rather than accidental.

It's a travel hat despite the straw. The crown keeps its curve through a flight — it arrives with a plastic insert holding the brim, and it survives a case without collapsing — and at 7.05 ounces it's lighter than it looks on the head. The inner band adjusts, and the detachable chin strap means you can wear it on a breezy ferry without holding onto it.

Two things to know. It doesn't fold, so it rides on top of the case or in the overhead bin rather than crushed at the bottom of a duffel. And the crown runs large: the band takes up some slack, but a small head will swim in it. Neither matters much if you're wearing it rather than stuffing it, and the brim throws enough shade to read under.

Mesh across the top of the crown does most of the work on a boonie in July, and the Sol Armis has plenty of it. The chin strap then keeps the hat down when the boat comes up on plane, which is the difference between a hat you keep for years and one you chase across the lake.

The UPF 50 brim covers your face and the back of your neck, the camo patterns are half the reason people buy it, and it's light enough to forget you have it on. It's soft, it holds its shape after being stuffed in a tackle bag, and the top vents keep air moving when you're standing still in the glare.

Sizing is where it slips. The band is snug for a one-size hat and the brim reads narrower in person than in the photographs, so a larger head gets tight rather than roomy. If you're at the top of the hat-size range, this is the one to skip.

For everyone else it's a very good fishing hat: light, airy, steady in wind, and adjusted with a simple strap and cinch. It earns its place for the boat and the bank rather than the beach.

Bucket brims usually droop. The Victory 5 keeps its curve, which is what makes it usable for golf, a walk into town, or anything where a floppy brim in your line of sight would drive you mad. It's a clean bucket in white or black, with the logo doing the only talking.

At 3.2 ounces it's about as light as anything here, and it folds into a jacket pocket when the sun goes in. The chin strap tucks up inside the crown when you don't need it — a small thing that makes the hat look less like equipment — and the brim comes back to shape after being folded and stuffed. This is the one we take when a hat has to pass as normal clothes.

It isn't the hat for a week of exposure. There's no neck flap, and the brim shades your eyes and ears rather than your nape; for a day of fishing or yard work, the boonies here cover more. You buy this one for how it looks with a collared shirt and how little space it takes in a bag.