The New Era fitted hat combines long tradition with modern style

New Era stands for quality

New Era was founded in 1920 by Ehrhardt Koch under the name E. Koch Cap Co. in Buffalo, New York and renamed New Era Cap Company two years later. The company soon expanded and was able to assign the production of a specific cap style to a specific location thus being more efficient and producing better quality caps. That was the case during the 1960’s and the advent of the plastic strap when adjustable caps seemed like they would take over the market hands down. New Era produced the “one size fits all” caps but continued production on the fitted anticipating that adjustable caps weren’t going to be the most popular headwear for long. And they were right. The high quality of the fitted and the countless innovations in headgear New Era was able to introduce over its 90 year history clearly position the company as the superior headwear manufacturer.

New Era and baseball

The 59FIFTY is America’s favorite fitted cap. But it had a long way to go. New Era designed its first version of the baseball cap in 1932. Two years later, the company started producing caps for the Cleveland Indians. Thirty years later, New Era was providing caps for ten Major League teams, a number that doubled until the early 80’s. It wasn’t until 1986 that New Era has co-exclusive licensing and provided caps for MLB teams and the general public. In 1993, the company was granted exclusive licensing for MLB caps. And since then, its reign over what we put on our heads is unbroken. A streetwear culture without the New Era fitted is unthinkable. Boutique stores selling exclusively fitted hats have opened all over the country and limited editions are sold at dazzling prices online. Really, who would have thought that a German immigrant would found a company at the beginning of the 20th century that would define the style of caps worn almost 100 years later?