A couple weeks ago I saw an older lady in the lobby of the building I work in, on her way to one of the art galleries that are housed in it. She was wearing a really awesome winter hat that caught my eye. I looked closer and realized that it was a tank driver’s helmet, thanks to the fact that I’m a major geek when it comes to military history. So, I got my Ebay on and sought ought a similar helmet. This is the one I settled on:

The helmet has a padded leather shell with genuine fleece inside. Raised pads on the top and front protect your noggin from the constant bumping around the steel interior of a T-52 or T-72 tank.

Underneath the ear flaps are heavy-duty headphones that plug into the tank’s intercom system. I removed them from the hat in order to get a more streamlined look to it. It took about 20 minutes and a razor to cut the stitching.

The particular hat pictured is the actual one I bought from Ebay for about $60. It’s an East German Army version, an authentic Cold War relic.

It’s more rare than the Russian M60 variant, but I preferred it because it has three pads with one positioned in the center. The Russian one has four pads and is not quite as striking. I think it’s about 30 years old, and I’m going to have the leather re-conditioned and the flaps sewn down by a professional tailor soon. It’s a real bad-ass winter hat, and although it’s getting warm now as spring hits NYC, I’m gonna rock it next winter.