A sweltering August day, New England's muggy summer in full swing. Below my apartment, the rustle and rumble of people moving furniture. I wonder who my two new neighbors might be, and so I peek out the window.

"Aha, geeks," I immediately realize. Well, maybe not both of them. But at least one of them is a geek, or one of the friends helping them move is one – and then it's guilt by association.

What's the giveaway?

Below me, standing in the brutal heat and pulling on a chair, is a man wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt covered with some logo (and tucked in, as if to accentuate his pudge), and black sneakers. He's got a bushy beard. But what really gives it away is the fedora.

The fedora. For much of the 20th century, this simple hat was an essential part of male fashion. Take a look at any photo of a crowd from those decades past, and you'll see a field of brims. Dressy or casual, a man didn't go anywhere without a hat. But the rapid change in fashion throughout the 1960s made the hatstand obsolete. Nowadays, if a man is outside with a hat, it's most likely a baseball cap, leaving the fedora as a relic of an era gone by.

...except among geeks. For whatever reason, geeks love the fedora. Love it like it never went out of style. Go to any sci-fi convention, any gaming store, any line outside a movie theatre on the day a Lucas movie premieres, and you'll see far more fedoras per capita than you have since we liked Ike.

Why is it that geeks are so attached to this particular fashion accessory? For the answer, I turned to luminaries from various aspects of geek culture, posing them the question: What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

Lore Sjöberg was the co-creator of the legendary Web humor site Brunching Shuttlecocks and is the author of the Book of Ratings (and its Web site.) He is also the brain behind Lore Brand Comics, and writes for Wired magazine.

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

Geeks recognize cool when they see it. They just don't quite understand the subtleties of context. I have the same problem — I'll see a cool facial hair configuration on a villain that makes him look all sinister and mysterious and dashing, I'll try it on myself and I look like a hotel clerk in an I Love Lucy episode. Geeks often don't understand that as keen as fedoras looked in 1953, wearing one today is like wearing tights and a codpiece. Hell, some of them don't even understand that about tights and codpieces.

Do you own one?

No, but I do own a top hat. I used to own a bowler as well, but I don't know what happened to it.

Pete Abrams is the creator of the popular online comic strip Sluggy Freelance.

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

It saves them the problems of washing and combing their hair, while still giving them a "I took a shower" feel that baseball caps do NOT convey! Ingenious!

Do you own one?

Not since the 80's when it was in style for no one!

Jeremy Bernstein is a screenwriter for USA's The Dead Zone and has written Star Trek trivia for Paramount's Web site. He is a second-generation Trekker.

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

My grandfather still wears fedoras when it's cold out. I stole one from him when I was in high-school. I think I originally took it for a play, but I decided that I liked it. I must've worn that thing day in and day out my entire sophomore year. And, of course, I wore it in every play it was appropriate for all through high school.

I think a lot of the appeal of the fedora is that it's a safe, inoffensive way to stand out in a crowd. Many geeks hate being perceived as "normal". Some choose to stand out in a crowd by wearing goth make-up and black leather, or pointy ears and a Starfleet uniform. But that's extreme behavior, acceptable only among the fringes of geek society, let alone normal society. Whereas wearing a fedora is perfectly acceptable, if somewhat idiosyncratic, in mainstream society.

And it isn't just a good way to stand out. It's also a good way to stand up. There's something classic, or classy, about a fedora. It's a little bit of history, a little bit of culture, and even a little bit of formality, in that way that everything that was popular in the 50s feels more formal to us today. Whereas the guys in leather or a Starfleet uniform get looked down upon, people in fedoras get to feel elevated above those around them.

Do you own one?

Not any more. Actually, that's not true. I own an Indiana Jones fedora, which I wear when it rains. As I live in Los Angeles, I don't often wear it (which is fine, as it doesn't really fit all that well...)

Richard Dansky is the former line editor for White Wolf's popular Gothic roleplaying game Vampire: the Masquerade. He is the author of the horror novel Shadows in Green, and currently works as a video game developer for Red Storm.

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

Fedoras are, I think, seen as implying a certain amount of class. After all, Bogey wore them, and he was about as cool as you could get. A fedora instantly, in the wearer's opinion, adds that certain air of noir mystery and retro style, and, because it's a hat, you don't have to worry about it fitting, about it wrinkling - you name it. Just put it on and you're set – there's no worry about fit or style or anything else. It's part of the same reason trench coats are so popular, I think – they're a classic garment that evokes a period and doesn't cause you too many problems with exact fit. Note that when Lawrence Fishburne went all geek-shaped in the second Matrix movie, they immediately put him into a black leather trenchcoat. He looked like the world's most expensive Vampire LARPer.

It also saves people from time spent worrying about their hair or lack thereof, but that's a whole other issue.

Do you own one?

Of course. I've had this one since 1993, when it got run over by a trolley on the B route of the Green Line in Boston. It recovered, thankfully, and it still looks damn good.

Kevin Kulp is a contributor and moderator of the popular online message boards at ENWorld, devoted to roleplaying games. He is the author of the roleplaying game product Of Sound Mind, and is an award-winning roleplaying game director.

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

I think the answer lies in the geek's tendency to embrace counterculture. The natural inclination is to say, "I'm already different. What's wrong with being more different?" A hat is an external symbol for the internal uniqueness that this sort of geek embraces.

But why a fedora and not, say, a fez?

The person's self-image is boosted because the hat is a symbol of something that society once embraced. A fedora hearkens back to the 1940s and 50s, an era where hats looked good! Has there ever been an era when Americans thought fezzes looked good? I think not. If the geek is going to borrow that shred of respectability from the collective gestalt, he's going to do so with an icon that makes a definitive statement for cool. Never mind that nowadays wearing a fedora with a gaming t-shirt is eroding that societal image of the hat as something formal and classy.

Do you own one?

...no, I don't own one, at least not one that fits.

Theodore Calvin is the co-founder of one of the nation's largest science fiction conventions, and remains involved in its operations. (He asked to be identified with a pseudonym for tax purposes.)

What exactly is the geekish appeal of the fedora?

I think that any popularity that the fedora has amongst geeks is due to two important geek films. These are two films that show your average Joe Schmo geek as a cool guy. This is what most geeks aspire to in their heart of hearts. The movies I refer to are Casablanca and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

How can one consider Bogart to be a geek? Well, Rick has several geekly qualities. First, Rick is an outcast. This is something that a large number of geeks can relate to. Then there is that funny geeky affectation of the stiff lip. What is up with that anyway?

Even more important to geek culture is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here is a story about a mild mannered geeky archaeology professor, complete with glasses, who turns into a super adventure hero simply by grabbing his fedora and his whip. What more could any geek ask for?

Do you own one?

No.