Lids

Pros:  broad selection of teams, high quality, free shipping to local store

Cons:  some teams have more hats than others

The Bottom Line:  Hat World is one of my favorite online stores. You can get your favorite team's best looking hats here.

Full review
I really like hats. Specifically, baseball caps. There is no better way to show your support for your favorite team than to display their logo on a hat. For some reason, my wife does not seem to share my love of hats. She thinks that I have more hats than I could possibly wear - but how can that be? I have to have my Atlanta Braves hat on when they are playing, and my Saint Louis Rams hat for NFL games. My favorite college teams would not be as successful if I did not wear my hat during their games. There is a formula behind this that only us guys can understand. When you support teams outside your geographic area, it can be difficult to find a hat for your team. That is where Hat World Online comes in. While they have a nice selection in their stores, the web site brings all of those hats to one place for your shopping pleasure.

Hat World specializes in hats, period. Think of it as a shoe store for your head. They have all sorts of caps, to match anyone's desire. The front page of the site is fairly simple, really. Along the left side of the screen you see menus for different categories of sports: Major League Baseball, National Football League, NCAA. They even have categories for NASCAR racing and Golf. On the right side of the screen you will see the featured items. Across the top of the screen you can choose to look at the Hat World Specials, track your existing order, or contact Customer Service.

When you choose the category that you want to browse, the site gives you a pull-down menu to use to find your team. For example, let's say you want to find a hat for the Nebraska Cornhuskers under the NCAA category. After you click on NCAA, you would look in the pull-down menu and scroll down to the "N's" to find Nebraska. They have a large selection of colleges to choose from, so you have to scroll down quite a bit. Regardless of which category you select, Hat World gives you the pull-down menu to find what you are looking for quickly.

Once you find the team or group that you want, the next step is to select which hat you like. As you might imagine, some teams have more items than others do. There are many more hats for the San Francisco 49ers, for example, than there are for the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane. You cannot fault Hat World for this; it is simply a case of supply and demand. Some teams have more products made because of their larger fan base. Nonetheless, I think you will be surprised at just how many teams are available at the Hat World site.

Once you make your selection, the process gets even easier. You click on the hat you want, and click the "order" button to add it to your shopping cart. After you make the selection, you can go to Checkout, just like most other sites. The next step is to choose your shipping method. They have standard UPS Ground for $4.99, with expedited shipping more expensive. If you prefer, you can have your order shipped directly to your local Hat World store for free. This allows the customer to get that special hat delivered to their area without having to pay the extra shipping cost. I think this is a great feature, and it is one that I have used in my purchases here. Once you choose your shipping option, you are prompted to enter your shipping and billing information, and then you are all through. Within five days you will have the hat of your dreams!

The products offered on the site are all of high quality. These are not the cheap five-dollar hats that you find at your local discount store. These are hats from top of the line companies, such as Nike, New Era, and Zephyr among others. Many of the hats are one size fits all, although they do have a nice selection of fitted hats as well. These are the same lids that are sold at your favorite sporting goods store for twenty dollars or more. When you look at the regular prices at Hat World, the website offers the very same prices that your local store does. Have your order shipped to the store for free, and you are paying the exact same price that you would off the rack.

In my orders at Hat World, I have been very pleased. The products are very good, and the site fills its' orders quickly and without problem. The order-tracking feature allows you to see where your order is at any time. Since I have had no difficulties, I have never had to use their Customer Service; but based on the professionalism of the rest of the site, I would say that it would also be top-notch. I can recommend Hat World Online without reservation, and look forward to making another order there myself soon.