US Open Hats Are the Grand Slam’s Signature Accessory

As a college student at New York University, Morgan Riddle paid almost no attention to tennis. But she always knew when the U.S. Open was underway at the end of August.

“When I was out in the city for my internships, I would see the hats,” Ms. Riddle said.

Ms. Riddle, 27, an influencer and the girlfriend of Taylor Fritz, the top-ranked American in men’s tennis, is now the owner of two different examples of the tournament’s signature piece of merchandise: a basic ball cap featuring the year and a flaming-tennis-ball logo.

Each year, thousands of U.S. Open hats leave the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens on fans’ sweaty heads. By early September, the hats trickle into the city’s gyms and onto its pickleball courts.

Ms. Riddle has a blue one and a white one in her vast closet of tennis apparel. A camouflage version has caught her eye, but she is not yet convinced: “I don’t know how I feel about it,” she said, laughing.

Each hat costs $40, a steep price for fans who may also be balancing the cost of tickets and the tournament’s other marquee accessory, the $23 Honey Deuce cocktail. But many consider the bragging rights worth it: More than 200,000 U.S. Open hats are expected to be sold this year, said Mary Ryan, the senior director of merchandise and licensing for the United States Tennis Association.

“We sell the heck out of them,” said Ms. Ryan, who last year placed an emergency hat order mid-tournament to keep up with demand. “It’s not uncommon to see someone walking away with six or 12 hats.”

On a sunny Friday during Fan Week, when the grounds of the tournament are open to the public for free, customers streamed into a merchandise store outside Arthur Ashe Stadium. Its back wall featured an array 30 hats wide by four hats tall of black, green, lilac, tie dye and sequined headwear. (There are around 60 colors and styles, Ms. Ryan said.)

Heshy Zweig, 49, who had come from Lawrence, N.Y., tried on a navy hat for himself and handed white and green ones to his two daughters. He picked up a U.S. Open-branded rubber ducky and noticed that even the toy was wearing a hat.

“You have to buy a hat,” his daughter Ava, 19, said.

Lui Suansing, who was visiting from Manila, carried a stack of 10 caps for himself and his friends. He already had hats from the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon earlier this year — the merchandise equivalent of a Grand Slam.

The hats’ increasing popularity — 71,184 were sold in 2013, compared to 185,350 in 2024, according to organizers — might have to do with growing interest in the intersection of tennis and fashion, some fans said: This was, after all, the year of Zendaya’s tennis-heavy press tour for the movie “Challengers.” Other visitors had underestimated how difficult it is to watch tennis with the sun in their eyes.

Some of the most coveted headwear involved an extra step: Top players often sign hats for fans, with some from the past being listed on eBay for more than $500.

Pavanee Giroti, 23, a graphic designer who lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, had maneuvered to the front of a throng of fans to get her hat signed by Novak Djokovic at a practice session two days earlier.

“It was me and, like, 100 other kids, so that was very embarrassing,” she said. “I fought for this.”

Ameliya Chan, 9, wore a white cap that had been signed by the players Danielle Collins and Emma Raducanu. She sat, rapt, in the stands as Ms. Raducanu warmed up for a practice session.

“It’s always a conversation piece,” said her father, Kevin, who wore a blue camouflage version signed by the Austrian player Dominic Thiem.

Rhonda Dauway, 61, and Harriet Green, 66, had met the day before, when Ms. Dauway dropped an orange U.S. Open hat while getting off the Long Island Railroad at Woodside. Ms. Green picked it up, and the two avid tennis players and fans struck up a conversation. On Friday, they met up to watch practice sessions together.

The stadium grounds were crawling with hats from the past five years, but fans seemed especially impressed by older versions. Jennifer Grabowski, 39, a paralegal in Long Island, wore a white visor with pink lettering from the 2013 tournament.

“I think it was the only one they had,” Ms. Grabowski said. “Or maybe the cheapest.”

Michael Feller, 65, a certified public accountant who lives in Plainview, N.Y., wore a U.S. Open hat from 1997, the year Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in Queens. “It was pretty amazing to go from the old Louis Armstrong stadium to such a big stadium like this,” he said.

Mr. Feller grew up in Queens and estimated that he had watched the U.S. Open about 25 times. He flipped the hat over to show its yellow-stained inner brim.

“This is dirty from sweat, but it’s probably been washed,” he said. “Just a few times.”