I’ve been getting asked a lot recently: what is that thing on the bill of my hat? Well, for the past couple of years, I’ve been wearing and reviewing hooded sun shirts – I now have quite the collection!

I tend to travel a lot above treeline and it can get really windy – and that’s where the hood of my shirt tends to fly right off. Different sun shirts have different designs to help keep that hood on. Some use a high button near the top of the neck, or a zipper that zips really close to the chin. Some do a good job by using a small cinch strap like of like you’d find on a sweatshirt hoody.

For problem hoods, I find bringing a small binder clip can prove handy. I can attach the front of the hood with the bill of my hat with that binder clip. That works pretty well as a cheap, lightweight way of keeping that hood from flying off and keeping my head and face covered. I can store the clip on the hat itself, or in a pocket on my pack.

I’ve tried other solutions, like tucking the hood underneath my hat, but that stops the hood from covering up the sides of my face nice and close, so it’s not ideal. I may try sewing velcro to my hat and sun hoody – but then I’d have to do that for all my hats and hoodies!

You can use binder clips for other tasks that require you to keep two pieces of fabric together. I sometimes have a hell of a time keeping the rain fly door of my tent from coming loose – especially if it uses a weak magnet. Binder clips to the rescue.

Or, you can use the binder clip as a second tiedown point to help organize some of that loose fly material, letting in more sunlight and air into the interior of your tent So next time you go backpacking, take along a small binder clip or two.

Who knows?

It could be what holds your trip together.

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