The 9 Best Running Hats 2025 - Best Running Caps

A wet and wild Pacific Northwest spring didn’t take it easy on them either.

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I went decades running without a cap, but then I gave it a try one day when I couldn’t find my sunglasses, and it’s been my preferred on-the-run sunshield ever since. A running hat not only keeps the sun and rain off your face, but I’ve found that it stays in place while in motion better than a pair of shades. Depending on the hat, it can also offer additional benefits like greater solar protection, moisture management, and even storage.

But not all caps are good for running, and some are better suited to one runner’s needs rather than another’s. So to help you find the right lid for you, below you’ll find our picks for the best running hats, spanning a variety of categories and scored on factors like sun protection, comfort, moisture wicking, and other essential considerations.

Fit and Adjustability

I think there is no factor more important in a good running hat than its fit. You need a hat that’s secure enough to stay in place, but that does so without feeling overly tight or uncomfortable in any way. You may also want to make sure that it doesn’t fit so low around your dome that it interferes with sunglasses or headphones.

A key aspect of a hat’s fit involves its adjustability. While most are adjustable, not all do so easily. It may help to seek a hat with an adjustment strap that has a bit of stretch to it, which allows you to size/fit it securely without being too tight.

Strap and clip combos are common and typically allow for fairly easy, precise adjustment. Velcro is great for getting the right fit, though it doesn’t deliver any stretch. Drawstrings are good for keeping weight down, but aren’t always great at locking in place.

Wicking

A good running hat will help with moisture management by wicking sweat away from your skin and drying fast. Nylon or polyester are usually used to achieve this, as their hydrophobic properties are great at wicking away moisture. Moreover, if this material is thin or porous, it can rapidly dry. This not only allows air to penetrate and evaporate moisture, but provides a boost of breathability to prevent your head from overheating.

Some hats include a thick sweatband along the inner brow. This is great for preventing sweat from running down your face and obscuring your vision, but it also tends to retain moisture and won’t dry completely until the hat is removed. For example, the Nathan Run Cool Stash Hat, our Best Storage hat, tends to hold moisture in the band. However, this is partly on purpose, as the band holds ice and acts as a sort of cold compress to keep you cool while running.

Flexibility

Many running hats offer a higher degree of flexibility than normal caps—usually the bill or crown is very bendable—which allows you to fold and scrunch them into a pocket if you need to remove them while on the run. In our selections below, I noted which I was able to crush and fold, and those that require more care to prevent bill crease.

Extra Features

While many running hats are fairly standard in terms of design, some offer extra features that may come in handy depending on your needs. These can include extra sun shields, UV protection, storage pockets, ultra-lightweight materials, reflective elements, and more. While most runners will probably be fine with a more standard design, those running in races, especially high sun, or other specific scenarios may benefit from having extra reflective elements or UV protection.

To choose the best running hats, I tested some two dozen of the latest releases from the top athletic brands, putting them through their paces in sun, rain, and wind to ensure they provide the proper protection and fit to handle whatever your run throws at you. The Pacific Northwest spring meant the weather frequently alternated between sun and drizzle within a single run, providing plenty of opportunity to see how each hat handles the elements.

To judge the fit of each, I considered whether it remained securely in place without bouncing, pinching, or applying otherwise uncomfortable pressure. And I gauged flexibility and durability via lots of folding and scrunching. Additionally, I asked a seasoned runner friend of mine to test our female-specific picks, ensuring that I’d get an accurate gauging on how women’s options felt.

As a lifetime runner, I’ve spent plenty of time pounding the pavement beneath different lids, and this experience has been essential to recognizing quality from questionable. I verified my impressions against reviews from other outlets like GearLab and iRunFar, as well as reviews from real-world buyers to ensure that these truly are the best running hats.

The new Arc’teryx Bird Word is an all-around great cap. It’s exceptionally comfortable to the point where it feels like it’s not there at all, and it looks sharp for any occasion, unlike some running hats that can look very specific to athletic activity.

Designed with climbers in mind, the Bird Word is made of a slightly stretchy material that keeps it gently secure on your head. This is great for running, and I never once felt it shift out of place, even when the wind kicked up. An adjustable strap and clip make it easy to dial in the perfect size. Its 100% polyester material is great at wicking sweat, dries quickly, and is breathable enough that I never felt overly warm.

While you can crush the crown without issue and there is some give to the bill, the latter will crease if folded too sharply. It also costs a few bucks more than most other hats on the list, but it has excellent durability and looks and feels like a premium product.

The Nike Club Cap has been a staple of athleticwear for decades now, and thanks to a combination of its overall quality and frequent sub-$30 price, it’s hard to argue that any other hat offers such excellent value. Changes in its design have been few over the years, with good reason. Except for modest improvements to its moisture management and the addition of an easy-to-adjust velcro strap, it’s done its job well for many years and still continues to.

I’ve tried a lot of comfortable hats, but the Club Cap stands out among them. The velcro strap allows you to fit it to exactly the right size, and the headband is pillowy soft. Its porous polyester is great at wicking sweat and dries quickly, even if it’s not the most breathable hat around due to its relatively thick crown. It can take some rough handling, but beware that the bill will crease if folded. There are cheaper hats out there, but none offer such a perfect balance of quality and cost.

If you’re looking to shave off every possible gram on race day, the On Zero Cap is as feather-light as they come. It weighs in at a mere 34 grams, and for the sake of comparison, that’s roughly the same as 30 paperclips (I checked). Its thin-as-can-be material proved to be excellent at wicking moisture, and even better at drying quickly. Its slight stretch also ensures that it stays securely, yet comfortably atop your head.

It’s also surprisingly foldable and durable, allowing you to scrunch it up and stuff it in a pocket without damage. My only gripe is the drawstring-style adjustment strap, which can make it relatively tricky to find and keep the right fit, though it is lighter than a clip or velcro. So if the goal is to go light, you’ve found the right cap.

The Sun Goddess Hat from Vimhue was designed specifically with women in mind. Not only were its panels contoured to better fit smaller head shapes, but the bungeed section at the rear provides space for a ponytail to protrude and even expands to make it roomier for long hair. It’s meshed along the sides to provide a boost of breathability, and a velcro strap makes it easy to find your fit.

It also delivers an extra helping of solar protection thanks to its UPF 50+ material, which blocks harmful rays. It offers decent sweat wicking and dries fast. Our tester had questions about the durability, as the nylon feels a little cheap and like it could wear somewhat quickly, but beyond that it delivers a lot of smart features for women.

For runners who like the looks and extra coverage of a trucker-style cap, we suggest the Patagonia Duckbill Trucker Hat. It’s a great looking hat, but its relative light weight, secure fit, and excellent breathability and moisture control also make it perfect for running. Its effective water resistance and moisture wicking help regulate sweat and precipitation, and its 3/4ths mesh crown ensures rapid drying. The sweatband is soft and comfortable, and it adjusts via strap and clip.

I really like the broad bill, which blocks the sun better than many smaller-billed running hats. That being said, its all-around lower profile could get in the way of especially large sunglasses or headphones. But the bill is made of foldable, resilient foam that bends and bounces back into shape nicely.

If you need a hat for particularly or perhaps even dangerously high sun and heat, you can’t do better than the new GOCap Solar Elite from Ciele. For starters, it has a retractable sun shield that can fold down to provide extra coverage across your ears and neck. That in itself is a big step forward in terms of solar protection, but its techy materials take things even further.

A ceramic ripstop material across the top reflects the sun to reduce heat. Moreover, a carbon yarn woven across the top and sides helps to dump heat off your head and regulate temperature, and UPF sun protection keeps you even safer from harmful rays. Weighing just 38 grams, it’s the second lightest hat on our list, and the foam bill folds and jams in a pocket with no fear of creasing.

At just shy of $100 it’s definitely expensive, and its unique style isn’t really suitable for casual settings. But, in our opinion, no other lightweight cap provides such outstanding sun protection.

Saucony knows running, so it’s no surprise that their Kinvara Mesh Hat is such a well-rounded running cap. The fit is comfortable and secure, though its single size may fall a bit low on smaller heads. The polyester mesh material, however, delivers excellent sweat wicking and breathability, and dries fast. I also really like how pliable the bill is, making it easy to stuff in a pocket without worrying about creasing.

This running hat receives high marks from us when it comes to visibility. While the black color, reflective logo option is only modest in that regard, the fluorescent yellow and white/silver colorways are as bright as can be. It’s an outstanding running hat by any measure, but is a particularly smart buy if you expect to run in low-light conditions.

The New Balance ’47 Clean Up Ultimate Run Hat harkens to the style of a classic baseball cap, but it does so using modern materials that are more sports-friendly than players had access to back in the day. The result is a great looking cap that delivers excellent moisture control, breathability, and comfort.

I particularly liked the ever-so-slightly stretchable headband, which allows for a secure yet comfy fit while in motion. The magnetic clip on the adjustment strap is an interesting touch, although I’m not sure it adds much in a practical sense. It’s certainly unique, though.

Really, the only thing to keep in mind is that the bill is made of a sturdy material that isn’t remotely foldable. But it’s slightly longer and wider than most other running hats, so if you’re looking for a bit more sun shielding, it’s an excellent choice.

Some runners prefer nothing swinging in their pockets, and the discrete side pocket on the Nathan Run Cool Stash Hat provides the perfect place to carry small items like a key or card. The company specifically designed it for storing a few ice cubes to keep your head cool when running in high heat. It’s only moderately effective at wicking and drying moisture due to its relatively thick headband, however, so keep that in mind if you like to keep a dry dome.

One element I appreciated was its horizontal, rather than vertical, panel design. This feature provides a uniquely comfortable fit, especially with the slightly-stretchy headband, which keeps it securely in place while on the go. The reflective adjustment strap also provides a boost of visibility from the rear.

Can you wear a running hat in any type of weather?

Absolutely! In fact, a running hat can come in handy in pretty much any weather condition. If it’s bright and hot outside it can help shield the sun and keep you cool, and if it’s rainy or cold it can keep the rain off your face while providing a bit of insulation. Some running hats are better suited to specific weather conditions, so look for one that provides the features most relevant to your climate.

Are running hats more resistant to UV rays than regular hats?

Many running hats are UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) rated, meaning they can block the sun’s most harmful UV rays. Although, some, not all hats may have this feature. If you’re prioritizing UV protection, avoid hats that have wide mesh holes in the crown, which allow more sun through.

How do you find the right size running hat?

While hat sizes can differ slightly from brand to brand, most are sized based on the circumference of your head as measured from just above the eyebrows and ears. The easiest way to determine this is with a tailor’s tape measure, which wraps flush against your head. If you don’t have one of those, you can use a string to measure your head, then measure the string with a ruler or tape measure.

Does running in a hat make you warmer?

That depends on the hat. While in many cases, yes, the extra layer of a hat can provide insulation that will trap heat around your head, most running hats provide ample breathability to keep your head cool using materials such as polyester or nylon. If you’re more worried about keeping cool than solar rays, look for a hat with lots of mesh in the crown to let air circulate.

Nick Hilden is a writer, globetrotter, and jack-of-many-talents who has written gear reviews for the likes of Runner’s World, Popular Science, Men’s Health, Thrillist, the Daily Beast, the Los Angeles Times, Greatist, and the Manual, and his lifestyle, culture, and tech writing has also appeared in Scientific American, Afar, Salon, Vice, Healthline, and many others. Before entering journalism some 15 years ago, he worked as a bartender, brewery manager, sound engineer, recording and touring musician, cook, teacher, and in a variety of other trades. These days, he lives all over the world, performs music sporadically, and spends a lot of time thinking how to best improve his Honda Element conversion.

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