Tilley Hats are the iconic Canadian canvas hat, famous the world over for their time honoured design and style. RLR Yachting began stocking Tilley Hats last year and they were a hit with our customers straight away as they are so useful for sailors, beach goers and hikers in Malta. In this article we’re going to show you how to care for your Tilley hat so that you can treasure it forever. Tilley also offer a unique Guarantee For Life warranty, which means they will repair or replace it free of charge for life if you fill out their easy Reigster Your Hat form on the Tilley website.

How To Register Your Tilley Hat:

To take advantage of Tilley’s Guarantee for Life, you must register your qualifying hat through our website within 90 days of purchase.

Gather the following information to register your hat:

1. The style, colour, and size of your Guaranteed for Life hat. If you’re not sure of your hat’s details, look on the hat hang tag or on the inside label.
2. The name of the store you purchased your hat, the date of the purchase, and the transaction / reference number on the receipt.
3. If you purchased from Tilley.com, you will need your order number.
4. If you don’t have one already, create an account on Tilley.com. 
5. Once logged into your account, click on Hat Registration in the account dashboard.
6. Fill in the registration form and submit.

You will receive an on-screen message confirming your registration.

Care Instructions: How To Wash A Tilley Hat

If you take care of your Tilley hat carefully it will last you a lifetime. Below are some instructions to help maintain the high quality fabrics and shape of your Tilley hat.

Standard washable Tilley hats

1. Check the label to make sure your Tilley hat is washable. Follow any special care instructions on the label.
2. Machine wash your Tilley hat, preferably alone, using a delicate cycle of warm or cool water. Alternatively, you can wash it by hand by gently using a scrub brush with any soap that does notcontain bleach or any type of whiteners.
3. While the hat is damp, smooth and reshape by hand, then set it out to air dry. Do notput your Tilley in the dryer – it will come out misshapen. If it needs a bit of a stretch, do this once it’s dry (see further instructions below).

Non-machine washable Tilley hats

1. Check the label on your Tilley hat. Follow any special care instructions on the label. If your hat is dry clean only, please have it professionally cleaned.
2. If your hat is hand-wash only, use warm or cool water. Gently use a scrub brush with a soap that does notcontain bleach or any type of whiteners.
3. If your hat is spot-clean only, use a soft, dampened cloth to clean any soiled areas. Most of these hats have a removable sweatband that may be hand-washed in warm water and soap and then air dried.

Removing sweat stains

Your best defense against sweat stains is frequent cleaning. Please care for your Tilley hat as noted on its label, this will help prevent any sweat stains.

There is no universally applicable way of getting sweat stains out once they occur. Perspiration is composed of many chemicals, and the composition of each person’s sweat is unique.

Some Tilley fans have success with Palmolive dish detergent and warm (not hot!) water. Once the hat is wet, pour the detergent directly on the stained area and use a soft brush, even a toothbrush, to scrub the area. Rinse in cool water, reshape, and let it air dry.

Do not bleach or use a detergent with any type of whitener. This will damage the fabric of your hat and results can be very unpredictable. Bleaching a Tilley hat will invalidate its guarantee.

How to Shape A Tilley Hat

Stretching your Tilley hat

Although Tilley preshrink all fabrics, hats will always contract and expand with washing and wear, just as denim jeans do. Whenever you’d like the hat a bit looser – like on those hot Malta summer days – take it off and give it a quick stretch.

Here’s how:

1. When your hat is dry, stretch it by putting your knee in the crown and pulling firmly on the opposite side.
2. Rotate the hat over your knee and repeat this process until all sides are stretched to your liking.

There is a video tutorial from Tilley ambassador Craig Shipp available on Youtube here that shows you this process step by step.

We hope this guide helps you to get the most out of your Tilley Hat. We have been stocking the Tilley range at RLR Yachting for over a year now, and use their hats ourselves every week. We are continually impressed by the comfortable fit, the use of both natural and engineered materials, and the lifetime warranty. Tilley say that their designs are created to enhance your life out of doors, and we can recommend them wholeheartedly to any of our customers in Malta.

RLR Yachting Team Feedback:

RLR Yachting Chandlery Manager, Julia Ripard, recommends the Iconic T1 Bucket Hat in Natural colour cotton duck canvas. “I chose this style because I liked the modern take on the original Tilley hat design” said Julia “and also the fact that it has a sun protection rating of UPF50+, which is important to consider in Malta.”

Julia’s brother Tom Ripard, who runs the yacht management side of RLR Yachting wears the LTM6 Airflo Hat in Rock Face grey. This is the widest brimmed hat in the Tilley range and the extra sun protection is ideal for Tom given that so much of his time is spent out in the sun sailing and looking after yachts for RLR customers. It also has a DWR (Durable Water Repellent) Finish and extra buoyancy, so it’s easy to recover from the water just in case you forget to use the hat cord on a windy day!

Come and see the full Tilley range in store at RLR Yachting by visiting us at 296 Ta X’biex Gardens, Gzira.

Our opening times, contact telephone and full address can be found here.