New Era Cap Company

New Era's position in headwear rests on one exclusive relationship. The Buffalo company is the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of the official on-field cap worn by every Major League Baseball team and their minor league affiliates. The baseball cap is both equipment and uniform: the same fitted style worn by players is the style fans buy, so the company making the on-field cap also supplies the most authentic version of the product its customers want. Around that central licence, New Era maintains agreements with other licensed entities including the NHL, NBA and over 200 colleges and universities in the United States, extending the same fitted-cap model across professional and collegiate sport.

In March 2007, New Era changed the on-field cap itself. Instead of the 100 percent wool caps players were used to, the company introduced caps made of 100 percent performance polyester, the first major change to the classic baseball hat in over twenty years. The new hats also included a black under-brim, to help reduce glare, in place of the old grey under-brims, and a black sweatband instead of the old white one. Each change was functional: polyester handles sweat and weather differently from wool over a long season, a dark under-brim cuts reflected light for fielders looking up, and a dark sweatband shows less staining. Changing such an established garment at all was the notable act, and the company made the performance case for every detail.

The company was founded in 1920 by German immigrant Ehrhardt Koch, and its headquarters history stayed local. On November 21, 2006, New Era moved its headquarters from the Buffalo suburb of Derby to a new, renovated home in the former Federal Reserve Building in downtown Buffalo, keeping the business in the city where it is based while placing it in a landmark building.

Cap Styles, Stores and Distribution

New Era organises its range by named styles, most of them numbered. Along with the 59Fifty, the company produces the 49Forty, which is fitted, has a lower profile than the 59Fifty and has a more casual, collegiate look; the 39Thirty, a stretch fit cap used by MLB as the batting practice cap; and the 29Twenty, an adjustable, unstructured cap. The EK line consists of designed premium hats and caps, and Capture the Flag headwear is designed by celebrities, sold exclusively through boutiques in select cities around the world, and produced in runs of only 288 of each cap designed. The company also designs women's and kids' caps. Numbered styles give a headwear range a shared language: a customer who knows one number can compare fit and profile across the line without starting again.

Distribution runs from mass retail to flagship stores. New Era caps are sold at large retail chains, and the company also contracts with independent retailers who wish to carry its products. Its first flagship store opened in May 2006 in New York City's SoHo district, followed in November 2006 by a second flagship in its hometown of Buffalo. A third store opened in London in spring 2007, and in August 2007 stores opened in Toronto, on Queen Street West, and in Atlanta, on the corner of Cone and Luckie, with two more European flagship stores following, in Berlin and Birmingham. Flagships let a licensed-products company present its full range, including limited lines such as Capture the Flag, under its own name.

The record also includes two labour situations, in 2001 with the Communications Workers of America and in 2007 and 2008 with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and a voluntary recall in the summer of 2007, when New Era pulled three styles from shelves across the country because the designs were seen to be gang-related, stating that the company does not market to gangs and acting when notified by activist groups and public officials.