Collection: Beanies

They are the same hat under different names, and which one you use depends on where you grew up:

Beanie is the term most of the English-speaking world settled on.
Toque is the Canadian word, often spelled tuque there.
Toboggan is used across the American South and Appalachia, borrowed from the sled because the hat was what you wore to ride one.
Stocking cap is the older American name for the same thing, and it is still in use.

The one shade of difference is in the shape people picture, not in how the hat is made. Some sellers use toque for the plain, thick, close-fitting knit with a folded cuff and keep beanie for the lighter, slouchier versions, but nobody manufactures them as separate products. Ghelter lists all of them together under beanies, so shop by the cut you want, not by the regional word.

A beanie should grip the back of your head and sit level, with the edge covering the tops of your ears and the front stopping just above your eyebrows.

It should stay put when you turn your head without squeezing, and it should not leave a mark across your forehead when you take it off. If you can feel the knit pulling at the crown, it is too small.

How far you pull it down is a style decision, not a fit problem: worn snug with the cuff turned up it reads classic, and left loose at the back it reads casual. At Ghelter this is simpler than it sounds, because 264 of the 272 beanies in the range stretch to fit instead of offering a size to choose. The exceptions are almost all the kids' models, which are sized by age and head measurement and are worth checking before you buy for a child, as our guide to buying for children explains.

Warmth comes from how a beanie is built as much as from what it is made of.

A tight rib traps more heat than a loose cable of the same thickness, a doubled cuff gives you two layers exactly where your ears are, and a fleece or sherpa lining is what stops wind, because a single layer of knit lets air straight through no matter how thick it looks.

On fiber, cotton and acrylic do most of the work and each has a real advantage. Acrylic holds its color and its shape through repeated washing and costs less; cotton is comfortable and breathable, which suits mild weather and indoor wear; wool carries the most warmth for its weight but needs more care. Ghelter's range is built mainly on cotton and acrylic knits, with wool and lined options among them, and the material is listed on every product page.

Yes to both, and the material is what makes it work. Indoors, a thin cotton or fine-knit beanie reads as part of the outfit rather than as winter gear, which a thick wool cable never will. The same applies in spring and fall: drop the lining and the bulk and the hat stops looking out of season.

The two things that make a beanie look wrong out of winter are weight and coverage. A lightweight knit worn further back, off the eyebrows, sits comfortably in a mild month or in a warm room. Runners and cyclists use the same trick year-round with thin technical knits, which our piece on training in cold weather covers.

Wash a knit beanie by hand in cool water with a mild detergent, and never wring it. Heat and agitation are what shrink and felt a knit, so a machine cycle is a risk even on a gentle setting, and a tumble dryer is the fastest way to lose a wool beanie for good. Acrylic and cotton knits tolerate more than wool does, but the same method keeps all three in shape.

Dry it flat, not hanging. Press the water out between towels, reshape the hat by hand while it is damp, and leave it flat on a dry towel away from radiators and direct sun; hanging a wet knit stretches the crown out of shape under its own weight.

Ghelter lists the material on every product page, so check it before you wash anything, and our cleaning guide covers each fiber in detail.