Ape & Bird

Handmade Hats for Every Aesthetic

Where I Found Them

I first discovered Ape & Bird in October of 2016 at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market.

If you’ve never been, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A chaotic blend of artists, vintage sellers, tattoo culture, handmade goods, taxidermy, and enough strange objects to keep you wandering the aisles for hours.

I remember spotting their hats from a distance and making a beeline for their booth.

The hats were five-panel camp caps with flat brims, bold colors, and a small pocket stitched into the side designed to hold a pencil or a Sharpie. They felt immediately approachable, high-quality, and unlike any hats I’d owned before. Rugged, but not aggressive. Functional, but still stylish.

Up to that point, I’d never been a flat-brim hat person, but I immediately loved the Ape & Bird hats and knew they would fit into my aesthetic.

I didn’t buy one that day.

But I grabbed a business card.

And a few weeks later, I ordered my first hat from their website.

The First One

The first hat I bought was their Caramel five-panel cap made from heavy cotton canvas.

It was the same hat that caught my eye at the flea market. The color was what pulled me in first, but the craftsmanship sealed it. The stitching was clean, the structure felt sturdy, and the material had that slightly rugged texture that suggests it will age well.

It struck me as the kind of hat that would look completely at home paired with a Carhartt duck jacket.

Practical. Durable. Unpretentious.

A working hat, but one that still felt intentional.

That hat is now nearly ten years old.

And it’s still around. If I’m working on a project at the house, that hat is almost certainly on my head with a pencil stowed in the pocket at the ready.

The Personality of the Brand

One of the things that separates Ape & Bird from most menswear brands is how human it feels.

April and Richer send exactly one email newsletter per month. It arrives on the first Thursday, like clockwork. Inside, you’ll find their “hat of the month,” which is usually a unique pattern available until it sells out, never to be made again.

They also run what they call the Secret Shop, which functions a bit like a members-only catalog.

Subscribers get access to limited runs, unusual fabrics, and sometimes completely experimental designs.

Every month, they also give away a free hat to a Secret Shop subscriber.

I actually won that giveaway once.

It felt like winning a tiny lottery.

Beyond that, the newsletter reads more like a personal letter than marketing. They’ll share workshop upgrades, projects they’re working on, or photos from trips they’ve taken. It’s refreshingly free of the constant spam most brands push into your inbox.

They feel like people. Friends, even. Not a company.

The Aesthetic

If you had to place Ape & Bird somewhere stylistically, it would live somewhere between New England Americana and heritage workwear.

But that description only tells half the story.

Because once you start exploring their catalog, things get weird in the best possible way.

One of my hats is a heavily embroidered burgundy-and-green floral pattern on a tan base that they affectionately called “Gramma’s House,” because it looks like a pattern straight off your grandmother’s couch.

And they weren’t wrong.

Other patterns drift even further from traditional territory. Birds. African-inspired prints. Palm trees. Garden vegetables. Fortune cookies. Tacos.

The structure of the hat stays consistent. The materials stay high quality. But the patterns give you room to express whatever aesthetic you’re feeling that day.

And if you join the Secret Shop, the options become even more adventurous.

Where It Fits in My Wardrobe

In my daily life, these hats are my casual default.

If I’m heading out to dinner or traveling through an airport, I’m usually wearing a scally cap. But if I’m running errands, working around the house, driving somewhere, or heading out for a day of sightseeing on vacation, there’s a good chance an Ape & Bird cap is on my head.

They’re comfortable. They keep the sun out of your eyes better than most hats. And they pair effortlessly with the rest of my wardrobe.

Jeans, boots, flannels, sweaters, T-shirts, sneakers.

The solid colors lean toward classic workwear. The patterned ones lean toward personality.

Which direction you take is entirely up to you.

The Compliments

Interestingly, I probably get more comments about these hats than I do about my Boston Scally caps.

One of my favorites happened during a video conference call with the CMO at my company. He’s a flamboyant Manhattan personality who dresses as if he walked out of a Chelsea fashion editorial.

One morning, I logged into a meeting wearing an indigo denim Ape & Bird cap.

He stopped the meeting before it started.

“I refuse to begin this call until Alan tells me where he got that denim hat,” he said. “It is SO CUTE. I need it.”

That one made me laugh.

Another time, a colleague noticed the pencil pocket on the side of one of my hats and bought two for her husband, who works in film production lighting and is constantly losing Sharpies on set.

That tiny design detail solved a real problem for him instantly.

Which is exactly the point of high-quality, functional gear. It looks great, but it also works.

Why I Keep Buying Them

I went and counted while I was writing this article.

I own eleven Ape & Bird hats.

That number will probably increase soon because my birthday is coming up, and there are currently two more sitting on my family gift list.

But that loyalty isn’t unusual for me.

Years ago, someone stole a long-sleeved Nine Inch Nails shirt I owned from 1996. I still check eBay occasionally to see if one appears in my size. The last time I looked, someone was selling one for $1,000.

And I’m not going to lie. I’ve thought about it.

When something earns its place in your life, you don’t stop wanting it.

Ape & Bird hats earned that place years ago.

The Takeaway

Ape & Bird works because they care about craftsmanship.

They care about materials.

And they offer such a wide range of colors and patterns that almost anyone can find something that feels like their own.

But more importantly, the brand still feels human.

Two people.
One workshop.
Fourteen years of making things carefully.

In a world increasingly filled with disposable clothing, fast fashion, and anonymous manufacturing, that kind of authenticity stands out.

And once you experience it, you know you’re going to keep coming back.

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