I was at IOT in 1987. As a former University Cadet, I had received an outfitting allowance and had bought my hat (Moss Bros, I think). But the system changed, and the Direct Entrants were issued with hats (and, I think, uniforms) from clothing stores. One windy day, we were marching up and down when the CWO decided that we should were our chinstraps to prevent our hats from being blown off. It transpired that on the hats that were issued by stores the chinstraps were for show only and were non-functional. The result was a very unhappy CWO.