Autumn Rituals: The Fall Practice Toque

Fall is the season of getting dressed twice.

You leave home in a sweater, add a jacket at the door, then go back for a toque. By lunchtime, you've shed half of it. By four o'clock, you're reassembling the layers.

In the Pacific Northwest, this becomes a way of life. Before long, the toque stops being the thing you put on before going outside. It's simply part of what you're wearing. It follows you into cafés, through the grocery store, out for the evening.

On a crisp October morning, when the pickleball courts are still damp, the sun hasn't quite reached the baseline, and X-40s shatter on even slow exchanges, you arrive in layers. The jacket comes off during warm-up, followed by the sweater and then the raglan. The toque stays. It keeps the hair out of your eyes.

At an early morning pickleball camp, it stays on until the sun reaches the courts. At indoor practice, it's the last layer to come off. At Jamboree, it goes back on between games, and for the quick march to the car after.

Eventually, it lives wherever you left it last. In your bag, on the passenger seat, in the pocket of yesterday's jacket. You spend half the season looking for it and the other half wearing it.

We like things that find their way into your life like that. Things that become familiar through use, without requiring much thought.

It's the idea behind much of the Jamboree Field Kit.

Eight colours, each embroidered with the Jamboree logo. Some carry Practice Culture on the reverse. Some carry GPS coordinates to the next Jamboree. Some are blank, so you can sew on your own patches.

By the time the rain really settles in, you'll probably have a favourite.

It's a toque. Not a beanie. If you know, you know. And if you play pickleball in this part of the world at this time of year, you know.

Order your favourite colour. Pick it up at the next Jamboree:

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