The game-changing $30 travel gear that has hat lovers rejoicing

Anyone who has travelled with a wide-brimmed hat knows the pain of it all.

If you squeeze it into your suitcase, it gets squashed. If you bring a hat box, say goodbye to efficient luggage space. Or perhaps you wear it on the plane and look borderline bonkers.

Then there’s the day-to-day struggles. Does one commit to wearing it all day, or bring a bag big enough to pop it in when you don’t want to wear it any more? Or maybe you’ll just hold it (famous last words) and deal with the possibility of losing it later.

There’s just no winning . . . until now.

Klipsta has an innovative solution: a hands-free magnetic hat clip that I believe will have hat lovers rejoicing (I know our fedora king, Stephen, certainly is).

We ordered a Klipsta to put its magnetic abilities to the test and can confidently report that it might just be our new favourite piece of travel gear.

It’s $29.95, available in six colours (black, stone, tan, pink, navy and green) and is proudly made in Australia.

The ingenious idea came about when Klipsta founder Kelly Walker grew frustrated at her children constantly losing their school hats, and decided to turn her passion for problem solving into action.

“Look at the lost-property area of any school, and you’ll see how many hats go missing every day (and end up in landfills). I knew I could solve this problem,” she tells Travel.

“I invented the Klipsta Hat Clip in 2019 and was blown away by the response worldwide. After receiving hundreds of five-star reviews, being approached by stores, and seeing the impact of solving a common problem, I knew my mission was to solve more problems.”

Kelly continued to innovate and went on to release two more handy gadgets — Spex glasses clips and the Flex clip — truly living up to the brand’s mission of “making life easier, one innovative accessory at a time”.

The Spex glasses clips follow the same magnetic premise as the hat clip, but it attaches to your clothing and retails for $24.95. The Flex clip is essentially an extension of the hat clip with a large elastic cord to attach to your bag, luggage or pram to carry items that are heavier than a hat, such as headphones, sports gear, water bottles, clothes and more.

Klipsta is sold in thousands of stores in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and the USA. To shop online, visit klipsta.com.