The North Face Horizon Breeze Brimmer Review

The North Face Horizon Breeze Brimmer Hat scored highly in the areas of comfort and breathability. It outshines other bucket hats in the small design details, which help this stand out among its peers. It also comes in at a great price.

Protection

The Horizon Breeze Brimmer hat doesn't have the largest brim, but at 2.9 inches all around, we found it adequate to keep the sun out of our eyes and off our ears. It's also constructed from a 50+ UPF material. This hat does not provide as much coverage as hats with neck capes, but it looks a little less dorky than a hat with a cape does.

The Brimmer includes a neck cord to help prevent the hat from blowing around during bouts of high wind. The brim on this hat is pretty floppy, so it has a tendency to blow around in the wind. But, since the brim is so floppy, it didn't pull the hat off our heads when a big gust hit us in the face. And, we found the neck cord and elastic sweatband kept this hat securely on top of our heads in high winds, so it protects well in all conditions.

Comfort

The Horizon Breeze Brimmer is extremely comfortable. The lightweight construction made us feel like we weren't wearing this hat at all sometimes. We loved how comfortable the elastic sweatband was on this hat. The elastic gently squeezing our heads made this hat feel like it wasn't going anywhere. But it wasn't so tight that it made our heads hurt, either. If you are caught in high winds without that chin strap tightened, the strap even has a piece of rubber as a toggle, so it won't hurt badly if it hits you in the face. And the rubber toggle felt cozy when the strap was tightened against our chins.

This hat gets a lot of the details right when it comes to comfort. There's a cinch cord around the crown to dial in the fit, and it's made of a flat piece of elastic cord that's less noticeable. It's a small detail, but it makes the hat that much more comfortable. And, unlike some other wide-brimmed hats, we can't feel the brim digging into our heads when wearing this one.

Breathability

The Horizon Breeze Brimmer breathes better than most hats we tested. We wore this hat while hiking all day in direct sunlight. When we would take this hat off, it actually felt hotter than when it was on our heads.

The Brimmer includes a mesh panel that goes all the way around its crown. And, this mesh panel is covered by the hat's very light main body material. However, unlike most other hats we tested, the main hat material is not sewn down along the base of the crown. This allows even more air to flow through the mesh of this hat than most other hats.

Packability

The Horizon Breeze Brimmer was sufficiently durable to be shoved into the pockets of our packs and then taken out again all day. When we placed it inside a small ziplock bag for half an hour, it showed some fairly substantial creases. However, these creases disappeared quickly enough. The hat is quite floppy in general, too, so a few creases don't really make it look any different than it did when it was brand new.

After a week-long backpacking trip, the material showed no dirt stains, either. The ripstop material doesn't absorb dirt and oils very easily. And if the hat does get dirty, we found it dries quickly after dunking it in water.

Style

The Horizon Breeze Brimmer has that old disheveled fisherman's hat vibe going on. So, if that's not your vibe, hopefully, you aren't planning to wear this out to the bar. In short, no bucket hat of this kind is very stylish. That's not to say it's ugly, by any means — we do love the modern color of this hat, so it makes up some points there. Compared with other full-brim hats that typically come in more neutral earth tones, the Brimmer stands out with its vibrant yet subdued color.

While it lacks a bit in the style department, the Horizon Breeze Brimmer leans into the classic bucket hat design. And we think it does a great job at doing exactly what a bucket hat is designed to do. Another feature worth noting is that the neck strap is removable. So, when you aren't worried about the wind blowing your hat away, you can gain back a few style points.

Should You Buy The North Face Horizon Breeze Brimmer Hat?

We think this hat is awesome. It's comfortable, breathable, and inexpensive. It performs equally well on long, strenuous hikes as it does on slower-paced leisure activities. While we wouldn't necessarily go on technical trail runs with this hat, the elastic sweatband and cinch cord make it possible to perform most fast-moving activities. All-in-all, we appreciate its blend of a classic bucket style with modern materials and colors, all at a great price.

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