Dad’s Cap
Fort Stevens, Oregon, early 1990s. Family archive.
Some memories stay attached to objects. From our family camping trips along the Oregon coast, one of mine is my dad’s fishing cap. Fort Stevens seemed to come with near-constant rain. Against the grey, soaked campsites, his early-’90s Portland Beavers promo cap was almost impossible to miss, bright neon nylon with a sharply peaked crown. I still associate it with standing on the dock at Coffenbury Lake, catching what felt like an endless stream of rainbow trout.
The original Portland Beavers promotional cap.
Inside the original cap. The small construction details became part of the reference.
Years later, it became the reference point for the TFTO Camp Cap. Remembering the Details. Rather than recreate the original literally, we started with the things that made it memorable. The peaked crown stayed. The nylon twill was replaced with ETA Proof, a technical cotton developed for real-world protection from the elements. The fabric has a history of its own: the same type of tightly woven cotton construction was used in early mountaineering clothing, including equipment associated with Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest expedition. The original snapback became a reinforced polyester strap, chosen for longevity rather than nostalgia alone. And then there were the smaller details. Inside my dad’s cap was a crown support that I remember pulling down and using as an improvised eye shield. It was an almost insignificant piece of construction, but exactly the kind of detail that stays lodged somewhere in your memory. We kept it.
The finished Camp Cap carries embroidered Tales from the Outdoors lettering, a lightweight satin-taffeta under-visor and a small Yodel flag at the back. But the point was never to reproduce an old baseball cap perfectly. It was to take something remembered, a color, a shape, a few small details, and allow it to return in another form. Some objects disappear. Others wait around long enough to find their way back into use.
Related Object
The object that came out of the story.
The TFTO Camp Cap is inspired from an old cap my dad wore fishing. But we didn’t stop there. Just as the early mountain climbers who scaled Everest put their trust in Stotz Eta Proof cotton, we used that same Swiss performance fabric. The Eta Proof Rip Stop fabric selects from the Ivy League equivalent of cotton and is tightly woven to create a water and wind resistant barrier. Inside the cap, we added a mesh lining to provide some crown support, or if in dire need, flip down for make shift shades. We finished off the cap with a vintage satin lining under visor and a thick polyester strap with a center clip closure.
Size
Adjustable size fits 7 - 7 3/8 (22’’ - 23’’ / 56 - 60cm)
Fabric
EtaProof 220 RS 220/sm waterproof cotton
Lightweight satin taffeta polyester under visor
Trims
Center release buckle closure
Embroidered eyelets
Thick Polyester webbing
Embroidered Tales from the outdoors. word mark
Made in Europe