>>19553476I've seen knit hats like that in Japan. I saw several in that style in this odd little shop in Nakano from wayyy back in 2001, and the last Time I was there in 2012, that shop is still there and they still sell such hats - crude thick wool threads, and very irregular 'ends', some with odd colored 'loops' and some with fake wool 'hair'.
I've seen another couple shops that sell similar items in Shibuya as well as in Sapporo.
Pretty sure it's just them going for some other kind of hat that's relatively popular at the time, though definitely the wrong climate for it (then again, so was his entire R/S attire - makes me think they were thinking about doing a colder locale at first and just kept the protag designs).
