Men's Hats & Caps
Buy and sell men’s hats and caps in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s best-known hat is the chonete, the soft white canvas hat of the Central Valley farmer, still worn for field work and brought out again for the fiestas patrias parade. Around it sit the caps most men wear day to day: curved-brim adjustables, flat-brim snapbacks, fitted New Era caps and mesh-backed truckers, along with bucket hats and straw hats for a long day in the sun. Listings cover new and pre-owned. On a cap, the size label, the sweatband and the sticker on the visor tell a buyer more than the logo on the front.
Chonetes for the field and for the fiestas patrias parade:
it is the same soft, short-brimmed canvas hat, and what changes is the cloth. A working chonete is cotton canvas in raw or white, sometimes with a flap of cloth at the back to cover the neck, and that is the one to look for if you spend whole mornings in a coffee row or a cane field. The ones sold for school acts and Independence Day are often acrylic or polyester, printed with the flag or the painted flowers of a Sarchí oxcart, and they wear hotter than they look. Chonetes come in letter sizes rather than numbers, so try one on or ask the seller to measure the inside.
Curved-brim, flat-brim and mesh-back caps:
the brim and the back decide the fit. A curved-brim adjustable such as the New Era 9FORTY has a lower crown and a strap or buckle, and suits most heads. A flat-brim snapback sits higher and squarer. A fitted cap such as the 59FIFTY has no adjustment at all and is sized in eighths of an inch, so the size on the label has to be yours: there is no strap to rescue a near miss. A trucker cap lets heat out through its mesh back panels and is the cheapest to replace. A cap leaves the ears and neck in the sun, which is why men who work outdoors end up in a wide-brimmed hat or the chonete with the neck flap. Caps with a club crest or a racing team sit naturally beside the shirts in men’s sportswear, and for glare off the road, pair one with men’s sunglasses.
A licensed New Era cap against a canvas chonete:
a curved-brim New Era cap carrying an MLB team or a Formula 1 team runs from about ₡20,000 to ₡30,000 new, while a cotton chonete costs a few thousand colones. That gap shapes the second-hand trade. A licensed cap that has never been worn, still with its visor sticker and tags, sells close to what it cost new, especially if the team or edition has gone from the shops. Once the band carries a sweat line, most buyers want a big discount, because a cap never comes fully clean the way a shirt does.
The sweatband and the visor sticker on a used cap:
turn it over first. A yellow or white salt line on the band, a front panel gone soft enough to fold inwards, a warped brim or a snap closure with broken teeth all count against it, and a dark crown fades fast on a car dashboard. On a straw hat, look where the crown is pinched and where it meets the brim: straw that has dried out cracks there first. New Era is the name that gets copied most. A genuine cap has a sizing sticker on the visor, inner taping printed with the New Era name, a stitched care label at the back and a small side flag with clean, even embroidery. Loose threads, a blurred logo or plain taping give a copy away, and so does a box-fresh cap at a fraction of the usual price.
A cap from a collection, or a chonete from one parade:
photograph the front, both sides, the inside with the band and labels, and the top of the visor with its sticker if it is still there. Give the size exactly as the label states it, and for a chonete say whether it is cotton or synthetic and use both of its names, since many older people in the countryside call it a sombrero de lona. Wash a worn cap before you list it, and say that you did. A buyer coming from Grecia or Ciudad Quesada for a fitted cap will ask for that label size before setting off. If you have several chonetes left from a dance group or a school act, list them together with the sizes in one line: someone dressing a whole group can take them all in one trip.