Al Roker Successfully Campaigned to be the Headwear Association’s Hat Person of the Year, Beating Rihanna By 58%

Britt Aboutaleb

Al Roker in a hat. Photo: Getty Images

Al Roker just beat Rihanna in a fashion fight—by 58%. The Headwear Association of America—yes, it’s real—just named the Today Show host Hat Person of the Year. He won the competition by a whopping 59% in an online poll in which his supporters came out in spades. Rihanna, who took home the CFDA Fashion Icon of the Year Award just last year, only got 1%. Sandwiched in between the two were Jessica Alba with 36%, Bruno Mars scored 3%, and Taylor Swift who scored 2% (Justin Timberlake tied RiRi with 1%).

The Headwear Association claims to be the oldest trade association in all of fashion—they’ve been around for 107 years—and a press release reads “their mission is to promote hats and the headwear industry throughout the world, and to foster goodwill and fellowship among those engaged in the headwear industry.”

One way they do that, apparently, is by crowning a winning Hat Person each year. Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Kate Middleton, and Pharrell Williams have all won in the past (as has Kate Moss, whom we’ve maybe never seen wear a hat. Ever?) Roker was chosen for his decades long devotion to panamas, trilbys, and fedoras. And for this:

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