Feldmütze
Feldmütze is the name of my YouTube, Playeur, and Rumble channel. The channel focuses primarily on firearms and firearms-related content, such as reviews and technique demonstrations.
An oft asked question I have received is “Why do you go by Feldmütze?”
Feldmütze is German for “Field Cap” (for once a German phrase that translates cleanly into English!), and refers to the German field hats that I frequently wear in my videos.
“Why do you wear German field hats specifically?”
I have found the German field hats* to be, by far, the best designed for practical usage. While this may seem contrived for a mere hat, I spent several years wearing numerous designs of hats with different gear setups (especially over-the-ear hearing protection/comms) and found varying degrees of problems with every other type of hat available. The main benefits are summarized as follows:
- When worn with over-the-ear hearing protection, there is no sweatband pushing into the sides of your head, even on the M43 field hats which feature an externally folded ear flap. I have found that wearing over-the-ear hearing protection especially with baseball caps causes hot spots resulting in a tension headache.
- The iconic peaked design is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also significantly improves ventilation above the top of your head, which better helps in regulating your body temperature and allows more sweat to evaporate as opposed to soaking into the hat’s fabric. The M43 and Bundeswehr field hats incorporate added ventilation grommets on each side of the hat which especially help in hot weather.
- German field hats are sewn in an oval shape as opposed to the standard circle found on American patrol or baseball caps. For my head shape, I’ve found this contributes to a better and more comfortable fit however I recognize that people with different head shapes may not benefit from this design change.
*I have extensively worn the M41, M43, and Bundeswehr field hats specifically. Some Finnish, Austrian, and older (early 1900s) European military field hats have a similar design and may yield similar promising results, however I do not have experience with these to speak on their qualities.
“Where can I buy a German field hat for myself?”
If you have an Army Surplus store near you, there’s a good chance they will carry surplus Bundeswehr field hats. If not, or if you’d rather have something a little different, I have compiled a list of my recommended vendors below.
- Fritzsch KG. This is a German manufacturer that sews both official Bundeswehr field hats along with various custom limited run hats in unique camouflage patterns. Their Bundeswehr field hats can be bought anywhere that sells Bundeswehr equipment, such as ASMC, meanwhile their custom hats can be bought from their eBay store. I have several of their hats and I’ve found them to all be excellent quality. They unfortunately tend not to restock their custom hats very frequently (or in some cases, ever), so if you find one in a camouflage pattern you particularly like, it is a good idea to order it sooner than later.
- ASMC. This is a German reseller that offers a wide array of outdoors equipment, however they also have a decent selection of field caps available, including Fritzsch KG manufactured hats as mentioned above. I would avoid the Mil-Tec/Sturm field hats available on their site as I’ve found Mil-Tec to have poor quality control.
- Military Harbor. This is a Chinese manufacturer that sews WWI and WWII reproduction uniforms and, naturally, hats. They sell on both their own website (MilitaryHarbor(dot)com. I’m not linking directly to their website as it has questionable security. Ordering from their site using PayPal seems safe, at the least, as I’ve done so several times) and on Amazon. I own several M41s and M43s made by them and I am overall quite impressed with their quality. If you’re a reenactor, be aware their Deutsches Afrika Korps M41s are extremely yellow/orange, and appear closer to RAL8000 in-person, however their shape and overall design is excellent. I personally try to avoid ordering anything from China as much as possible due to the country’s particularly exploitative labor and manufacturing practices (among a litany of other issues), so if you know of a better manufacturer that fills this particular niche, please let me know as I would love to check them out.
I have no affiliation with any of the sellers recommended above and my evaluations are based purely on the quality of the items I purchased myself.