News

Wicking, Absorbing, Drying: What Your Hat Is Actually Doing to Your Sweat
Sweat has three separate jobs before you feel dry: moving, absorbing, releasing. Most hats — and most fabric marketing — only talk about one. Here's what's really happening, and where cotton fits in. Read more...
Close-up of a weathered natural-fibre Rawa Co. cap showing the embroidered Made to Breathe lettering
Hemp Is Not a Hippie Fabric. It's the Reason Our Hats Work.
Hemp isn't a hippie fabric or an eco statement — it's a naturally UV-resistant, luxury-grade fibre, and the reason it's the base material behind every Rawa Co. hat. Read more...
Why We Started Rawa: The Problem With Plastic aka Polyester Headwear
What problem are we trying to solve here?  Read more...
What Actually Happens When You Throw Away a Synthetic Cap
Throwing away a synthetic cap isn't the end of its story — it's closer to the beginning of a 200-year breakdown into microplastic fragments. Here's what actually happens next, and why the fibre choice at the design stage is the real fix. Read more...
Synthetic Caps Are Marketed as "Cooler." The Science Says Otherwise
"Synthetic is cooler" is repeated so often it's treated as fact. The science says otherwise — especially for a cap, where breathability, not moisture-wicking, is the property that actually matters. Read more...
The Hidden Route: How Microplastics Slip Into Your Bloodstream Through Heat and Open Pores
Most people think microplastic exposure means what they eat or drink. Far fewer realise heat, sweat, and open pores are a real exposure route too — especially through skin-close synthetic fabrics like caps. Read more...
Behind the Scenes: Getting Ready for Melbourne
We're planning something a little unusual for our Melbourne launch, and we wanted to let you in on it early.   Instead of just telling people our hats are made from natural fibre, we're going to let them feel it for themselves. Picture a tank of water in a high-traffic spot, filled with real natural fibre plants, next to two hats: a standard plastic-based cap, and a RAWA hat. Same shape, same size, completely different material story. Dunk them, wear them wet, feel the difference in your hands. That's the... Read more...
merino/linen
Eight Fibres, Zero Plastic: A Guide to What We Use
Updated [August 13, 2026] — originally published July 18, 2026 Every RAWA piece is made from one of eight non-synthetic fibres. No polyester, no acrylic, no nylon — ever. Here's... Read more...
Why We Started RAWA: Built to Breathe
RAWA started with a simple frustration: we couldn't find a hat that actually breathed.   Between Kuala Lumpur's wet heat and Melbourne's four-seasons-in-a-day, most headwear on the market is built from polyester and acrylic — materials that trap heat, hold odour, and eventually end up in landfill for decades. We wanted something different. Something that moved with the climate instead of fighting it.   RAWA is a Malaysian-Australian label, and that heritage shows up in everything we make. We draw on the tropical know-how of breathable weaves — linen, hemp,... Read more...