Citron

The brim that shades your eyes standing still is the brim in your sightline the second you look up — serve toss, overhead, any ball above the net tape, which is to say the shots where losing sight of it costs you the point. Everyone who plays knows the workaround: spin the cap backwards mid-point, then spin it back. Published buying guides for tennis hats say to keep the brim under three inches. Nobody sells one that does.

Brim

Two inches

Fabric

Quick-dry performance knit

Price

$38

First run

A dozen hats

The entire product is one measurement

Citron is a quick-drying five-panel cap with a two-inch brim, made to be worn on a court. The crown sits closer to your head than a baseball cap, so it stays put through a serve instead of riding back, and the fabric is a performance knit that dries fast and washes without losing its shape — it's going to get wet every time.

A dog made the prototype

The measurement wasn't designed; it was found. A dog chewed the bill off a cap I liked, I cut what was left back to clean fabric, drilled the edge and stitched it with leather thread, and wore the thing for a season because it turned out to be better than what it replaced.

Six colorways, named like racing silks

Two colors on the jacket, two on the sleeves — the constraint is the design, the same rule that makes silks readable from the far turn.

• Citron with court-green seams
• Clay with citron hoops
• Chalk with a clay sash
• Court green with citron diamonds
• Citron with clay chevrons
• Ink and citron halved

Nothing to buy yet

$38 when it exists. The short brim isn't new — Ciele's GOCap gets it almost exactly right at $55 and sells entirely to runners, while Nike, Lacoste, and Fila carry real court credibility and three-inch brims; the problem is in their own buying guides. The first run is planned at a dozen hats, small enough that finding out nobody wants them costs almost nothing.