Dreading this news. New Era caps have always sit on my 7 1/4 head like Abraham Lincoln's tophat. The only "square" fronted hats I can wear with dignity are the captain and hitch styles - both of which have an old-school 90's/80's feel to them. These, along with the mitchell and ness hats, have become my go-to and it took me a long time to discover them. Good thing is, I've got a decent collection and dont NEED more hats. On the other hand, any takeover for official clothing by New Era is welcome as they expand. Lord knows the MLB has had an awful season with the fanatics jerseys - absolute garbage.
I'm a fan of New Era 5950s fitted hats, I love them & they Finnish off a fit. I to am from the UK so are choice is limited we have only 4 companies for the whole of Europe :- New Era, Topperz, Hatstore & FamCapStore. I shop at Topperz mainly, there the best hat shop by a country mile I really like there products. Hopefully everything will work as usual! 💯
Hi Doug I'm a baseball cap fan from the UK, I have always loved baseball caps, since I was a kid, they have always been a bit harder to come by in the UK mainly in terms of choice of style. As a bit older age cap collector & female (not that that makes any difference) I prefer low profile, 9forty & 9twenty style. I recently started purchasing caps from the UK New Era site & Topperzstore UK/ Europe site. There is a lot less choice in the verity of styles especially Topperzstore UK/ Europe in the same team cap mainly MILB, but may I add both are really excellent companies with an excellent quality of service. I've noticed recently that Topperzstore have been selling 9forty A frames which seem to me a bit like the 47 Brand (which they do sell) style we can get here in UK so I'm not shocked about the take over by New Era because it seems the A frame is a similar style to the 47 Brand. I hope we dont loose more low profile/unstructured crown caps because it is already a more limited choice here in the UK. Many thanks for your informative video's keep up the good work 👍
Always great content, Doug. I had not realized ACON was involved in New Era. And an IPO is planned? I was hired by an ACON held company, Funko, post IPO. Let me tell you how this will likely go. I’ll keep it short. ACON loves companies that hold licenses. Licensing deals, especially pop culture events, create fast revenue and keep brands relevant. ACON sucks the profits out of every company it holds. Pre-IPO, ACON extracted $98M in dividends from Funko. The Funko IPO was to recover that $98M in lost capital and get another $150M for growing operating expenses. The IPO was one of the worst in NASDAQ history. Funko never recovered financially and has been chasing cost efficiencies ever since. New Era will be forced to have the same playbook as Funko. Get a ton of licensing deals for both New Era and ‘47 brand. Think 5950 “limited editions” with the latest Disney movie release. Memes embroidered on a Snap Back. Shirtless Jason Kelce on a ‘47 brand sweatshirt. This merger and likely IPO driven by ACON will not be good for New Era, ‘47 Brand, or consumers.
Another thing to mention is how much control New Era/'47 has on the baseball cap market. Other brands make licensed caps, like Nike and Fanatics, but walk into any store and there's a high likelihood that an overwhelming majority of caps are made from New Era and '47. My thoughts on the post-merger New Era handling their products are that all structured caps will be under NE branding, and unstructured will be '47. The illusion of choice...
And it should stay that way imo, as long as new era axes the 940 and the 920 and as long as 47 axes the captain. The companies should both play to their strengths!!
Low profile look so much better..the regular ones make my head looks huge..i feel silly wearing it.. something i do find a gem on the regular ones thats not as huge..but its a long hint to find one
Do they stretch as you where them over a long time period? My head size has it where one size is either too snug for my liking and the next size it too loose. So i dont know how to do about picking the looser one or the tighter one
If I didn't say so anywhere in the video it's because there is really no practical separation between the two models - I don't really have a preference. The construction and materials are near identical and I would choose either model depending on the design and colorway.
I that it seems to have more to do with is what factory it is made at. It seems like the ones made in Bangladesh have the style more like the Seattle Mariners cap.
That's a good point that I did not mention in this video, but have studied more in other videos on the standard 59Fifty. I made one about manufacturing site differences, and another about the caps made in Bangladesh specifically - I am generally not a fan of them. I do not own enough LP caps to have a good data set, but can take a look when I do. ICYI the other vids can be found on my channel videos page, thanks.
I don't know why hat makers put buckram in ball caps. If the right material is used and the panels are cut and sewn right, without that added they can come out to form with just a hint from the hair or head while they may need the occasional ironing like pants for those kinds of creases to the material itself. And some different kinds of caps or hats are somehow made seemingly with nothing added but yet gently pop back into shape without creases or wrinkles even after being stored tightly or sat on. I had a tam and it had a form fit like a military beret which stayed, it was rabbit fur, I couldn't reform it to make a new shape less a military style. I have a felt cap with a wide brim, it does the same on the dome while the brim holds its slight flexed shape, it's cowboy style. The strands of that buckram in ball caps also separate in such a way that they become no longer a uniform pattern in design, that breaks the integrity of their intended hold. It looks wavey and disorganized inside, that won't go back to straight lines with air or steam heat and a skills ball or towel. These plastic strands also tend to come out at the seams, and they poke the fingers and head, they also snag delicate materials, say if coming in contact with a knit sweater. It's rather nasty getting jabbed by these and sometimes there's one pointy tip just touching the head causing an itch which won't go away with scratching, the hat has to come off for final relief, find it and carefully clip it down with nail clippers or scissors, huh, do that in your meeting or at the stadium. I have separated that junk from the fabric where I can find a weak or detached spot, cut a hole into it, separate it just to the stitches with a nicely edged plastic stick and then pulled each strand out. That's hard to separate, cut without getting the material or stitching and get them all out, especially in the middle seam between the 2 panels and out through embroidered patches. But I either get a relaxed form of what the cap was or a more relaxed shape fitting closer to the head shape depending on the material and how I reform the panels. It has happened where the creases stayed because they were trained into it too long by that buckram or the material needed some sort of better support to stay under it. Sometimes there are tiny white dots left inside, likely traces of layer-bonding glue. That's okay though, looks like an intentional dotted pattern and people don't look in my caps anyhow. I am so sure many people throw out caps which get creases and wrinkles permanently as it seems, what a landfill disaster that is. And the money spent on them, that's a whole disappointment. People who collect caps, there's going to be tight display spaces and even times things get tighter during moving or renovating, I'm sure a lot of damaged ball caps result from that even if never worn or scrunched into a suitcase. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the damage added character, but the way this stuff goes, it just looks like it was piled in some dingy corner, then washed, not like a leather or canvas cap which went to work and camping vacations and got weathered with a few battle scars. Risking Shiney spots. I am curious why pants are more durable with iron heat than many ball caps. They're made of nylon or other materials which melt. Sometimes things are made to pay lots and toss far and repeat. Hat makers have to catch up with the small numbers of manufacturing companies and industries which have or are finally making thing to last so we save the money and the environment while having something of value to pass along to family and friends. You first creased your caps with a Sharpy and a pressing to demonstrate the fix and you couldn't get them back to what they were, better but not original. Nope, that's not good. There's also a foam layer in some caps. After they age a bit, that crumbles, put that on your head and then go shampoo, then clean up where that cap shead some of that over a while and launder the cap in hopes all that washes out and it appears as a nicer cap. That's probably not even healthy, off-gassing and particles getting into places which are difficult to clean out. I say: we need to boycott hat makers and promo merchandise suppliers / sellers where these useless caps are made and sold. You might buy your next cap for the long-term once they catch on. Yeah, spread the word, let these people figure it out from our side. I found your video from an Internet search because I am trying to save a ball cap with its (buckram) form and it is hard to pull this all out. I thought oh, maybe someone has experience I can use. Well, it's not going as good as you did, not even close. Oh yeah, the peaks with cardboard in them. These are real pieces of junk too. I recall a box of ball caps embroidered with the company logo came to my workplace. The boss hoped we'd wear them. I claimed one and a peer grabbed it and "put that nice crease into it" a jagged ridge appeared in the middle under the material. I said 'Thanks, I'll get a different one now, keep your hands off my things.' and I made sure not to put a sharp bend in it dry or wet. But eventually it broke down into little fractures or blisters from rain. And weak hat bands sometimes with exposed materials which fray and hang out and crooked stitching, ball caps are the worst for poor quality in the garment industry. The embarrassing disheveled look is not as bad with the messy hair as with the junky ball cap.
Certainly an epic comment, thanks for taking the time to explain your views on several topics. On the very first point I would say that I like the buckram because it gives structure to the crown and therefore a more 'tailored' and crisp silhouette. And manufacturers do NOT put buckram in every cap model - the '47 Brand Clean Up and Franchise Models and the New Era 9Twenty have none. The New Era Golfer and '47 Hitch do not have it either, just a curved nylon stiffener panel under the pinch-crown front - the stiffener can be easily cut out if you prefer. And New Era periodically offers the 59Fifty in a "Retro Crown" model with Cooperstown logos - and the buckram used is classic linen, which is almost like having no structure at all. Other retro cap makers (e.g. Ebbets Field Flannels) have honored historic 6-panel and 8-panel ballcap designs with the same kind of soft buckram - no nylon thread for stiffening at all.
@@dreinthe616 I like that crisp look too, if it will stay or at least be easily regained to its former self once crunched or bent, and without the prickly ends sneaking out the seams. I think one reason for those strands is they leave it breathable, so air and sweat can move. A pair of panels with something solid would be like having part of a rubber ball sewn into your ball cap, a wet mess. However, with today's technology and new materials, even older materials with form fits without backing, I'd think buckram should be the old and outdated fail. I hope there's a better way, something with holes built-in or punched in, takes heat if needed including the accidental parked car interior heat and generally just pops into shape with touching inside and just putting it on. And with no sharp ends, that means everything to me even if the crown shape comes out with a nicer character - warn-everywhere look. I do think it's time to call buckram stiffened caps the cheap and useless, disposable caps, call it what it makes any cap which won't be hung or sat in a dry, dustless spacious display area - like a paper or cardboard craft keepsake for its lifetime. And, I am curious how that hat block may stretch the band when that is placed in to make the crown shape again. When I have any hat or ball cap which fits snuggly and stays good enough in the wind, the last thing I want to do is brace it to maintain it. I did that once just with tightly packed-in towels in attempt to reform the crown and that was enough to loosen it, came off in any light breeze with no fix to that. This stretching worked in my favour with too-tight hats though, they fit and stayed to the new size stretched in. Thank you for your reply, you got a thumbs up on it for keeping the conversation going.
What I found works best is if you deflate a ball and insert it into the hat and inflate it until it pushes out the dent or crease, then put a towel over it and iron it with a steam iron
Thank you! And the cap that's a little off-kilter on the shelf is actually a Sacramento Kings cap... it's been swapped out for a different one in my upcoming video!
Bought a hat on MLBshop… it’s too small. Very sad. 9.99 to return. Womp Womp. Never really expected a fitted hat to not be the right size lol. Isn’t that the whole point of a fitted sized hat? 😂
Yes, one would think so... there's a couple of steps that allow for variation, and unfortunately it's hard to use the word 'craftsmanship' when describing the process and pace of the cap assembly.
Hey i got kind of a stupid question, but im getting into hats and bought a 59FIFTY. The circumference of it fits quite well the but the problem is that it touches/goes over my ears (its a bit too tall). will going down a size change the tallness of it or should I try a low profile?
Serious but stupid question. When you have a hat that you love but wear it and gets dirty. Are you cleaning it before storing? What about hats you wear for a day or two you just put it back in the storage box?
Yes, usually clean before storing again, just so you're not sharing with the other caps... I always let it dry out, and if I happened to sweat a lot I'll give at least the sweatband a wipe down. But I rotate collections between shelves and a plastic bin - the shelves are where I keep my frequent wear caps for the season, and the box is for storing months at a time.
Fair point, but I was trying to evaluate the construction details and cap feel - when I put them on I can't see what color they are, so I just tried to dial in on the experience of wearing each one.
I know you say it’s not good, but the first thing I do when I get a new fitted is soak it in boiling water. I do it so it can fit my head better and shape the bill to my liking.
I've got tons of videos on the channel that help you shape and edit caps with steam - that's my preferred method. With the composite visors in NE caps these days, the water submersion is not as much of a risk as it used to be, but steam is a much quicker way to shape and has been used by hatmakers for centuries now.
Doug, will you be doing future critiques on college/university hats on any of the divisions. I think you'd like my university's hats. I live in New Jersey, and I attend Rowan University, and our school colors are brown and gold. We have a large hat collection from 47 Brand and Legacy, which is the main manufacturer for college hats. I find that Legacy's hats are shallow but comfortable. 47 Brand is definitely the better of the two manufacturers in terms of comfort.
Not something I planned to explore, but I do have some collegiate hats by Zephyr and Top of the World... I actually like the Zephyr stretch fitted and might make a quick rundown on that one. Thanks for the question.
I bought the 9Thirty on our recent trip to japan. I believe this model is exclusive only to japan. Its a mix of the 9 twenty( nothing stiff) and the 9forty( you can really pull it down up to your ears. However i still prefer the '47 clean up for comfort and style.
Whoa, that is interesting find, and I've never seen one of those. I was in Hong Kong and Dongguan last year and visited New Era shops in both cities, but do not remember seeing that either. Thanks for posting!
@dreinthe616 the 9 thirty line is managed by a famous Japanese designer GORO NAKATSUGAWA in collaboration with New Era. 9Thirty caps have his signature yellow stitching on the sweat band inside.
Yes, I actually use some different filler materials inside the sweatband - either felt weatherstrip for windows, or Dr. Scholl's "molefoam". I've done videos for both when you need more shrinking than can be delivered with the water/heat combo here, thanks.
Love your channel but 150 caps? 😂 i bet you have about ten regulars you wear. I cant talk tho i just started collecting recently and have already run out of wall space. How do you store your collection?
Actually I rotate sets of caps - a fall/winter set and a spring summer collection - between shelving in a coat closet and a large Rubbermaid plastic bin in the basement. My cap buying has slowed to a crawl, because I do like to wear a lot of them, and I'd say I've probably got more like 25-30 "regulars" in each of those two seasonal sets. Even if I wear them only 3-5 times during six months!
I'm searching for help to change sweatband on a NewEra new heritage cap. Sweatband is polyester but I can only wear 100% cotton. Does anybody know who can help? I asked a normal tailor for help but they can't do it as it requires a stronger sewing machine. Thanks
I think you mean the '47 MVP? That is the low profile structured cap model made by '47 brand. It should be available wherever you find other major adjustable hats. Also - I've visited Hungary before, spent a few days in Budapest - greetings from the USA and koszonom szepen!
I just wanted to say thank you man. I have generally just used the steam function on our iron, but I haven't been getting the results I wanted, and since I've got lots of 59fifties now so I decided to follow this tutorial as closely as I could (we haven't got a tea pot but I got a coffee steaming jug and put it on the hot plate to give me a constant source of steam), and my Cubs City Connect hat is looking beautiful... Almost as good as my favourite shape, 39thirty, which are basically not available here in Australia. Thank you, from a cap enthusiast down under!
That is great to hear, thanks for sharing the detail. That was exactly the reason I started making videos in the first place - to help share some of the things I learned!
Not that I've encountered so far - all are able to get the basic job done, and the wood blocks on most models can be sanded/shaped to custom needs. The one thing that could be nicer is the build quality of the turnbuckles I see - if it was a bit larger diameter and had nicer surface finish it would be a major refinement for me. Thanks for asking.
Yeah, the low profile 9FIFTY is pretty much a new model. I first saw it this past October during the postseason for MLB. The official hats for the teams who won the NLDS and the ALDS were low profile 9FIFTY's. This is something that intrigues me as an adjustable hat and snapback lover because I do not like the high profile crown for the traditional 59FIFTY and 9FIFTY. I currently do not own a 9FIFTY, but if I ever do make that purchase one day, I will get a low profile 9FIFTY. Are you gonna upload a video where you purchase and critique it, Doug?
@dreinthe616 yeah, same here! I'm not as big on hat collecting anymore unless I do see one that I like a lot. Plus, I don't want to spend too much money on hats as much.
I personally prefer the snug fit of the Low-Profile hats, I hate that empty space on my forehead. New Era does have issues with their sizing, I'm going back and forth between two sizes.
