The New Era Cap Company is an American headwear company headquartered in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. It was founded in 1920. New Era has over 500 different licenses in its portfolio. Since 1993 they have been the exclusive

baseball cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant c ...

supplier for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB).

History

In 1920, Ehrhardt Koch borrowed $1,000 from his sister, Rose, and $1,000 from his co-worker Joe and started his own cap company, the "E. Koch Cap Company." Production started on the third floor of 1830 Genesee Street in Buffalo, New York. The company started with 14 employees, including Ehrhardt’s sister Rose, Ehrhardt's son, Harold, and Rose's son Wally Domas. In 1920, the company produced 60,000 caps. In 1934, New Era began producing caps for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

, which would be their first

(MLB) contract. In 1954, the company’s fitted pro cap was modernized, redesigned and named the 59Fifty, aka the "Brooklyn Style" cap, by Harold Koch, who introduced many design improvements and innovations while head of New Era. By 1965, New Era was supplying caps to about half of the 20 MLB teams. In 1993, New Era was granted the first exclusive license with MLB to produce the on-field baseball caps for all of its (then 28, now 30) teams. In 2001, Chris Koch was named CEO. In the 2010s, while New Era had long been associated with baseball, the company focused on delving into football and other sports leagues. In 2012, it acquired full exclusive sideline rights for the National Football League (NFL). In 2013, New Era signed with Australian cricket's

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

as their official cap provider. New Era signed an additional deal in 2015 with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. In 2017, New Era signed exclusive rights for NBA on-court products. This made New Era the first headwear company to have exclusive rights for MLB, the NFL, and the NBA simultaneously. It was announced on August 13, 2016, that New Era and the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

reached an agreement for naming rights for Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Bills and New Era officially announced the stadium's new name of ''

New Era Field Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened in 1973 as Rich Stadium and is the home venue of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). It was kno ...

'' five days later, on August 18, 2016. After the Bills released CEO Russ Brandon in May 2018, New Era hired Brandon in an executive position. A day later, New Era denied the hiring had taken place. ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

'', which made the initial claim, continues to insist the hiring happened and that Brandon had been quietly fired after the story broke. The stadium sponsorship agreement was ended at New Era's request in 2020, and the stadium was renamed Bills Stadium. On September 12, 2018, it was announced that New Era would be the official outfitter for the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

starting in the 2019 season. The company has been a licensee of the CFL for headwear and apparel since January 2011 and it will be the first time that the company provides football uniforms and sideline apparel. On the 22nd April 2021 it was announced that New Era would become a Merchandise Partner of the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received £ ...

. New Era also makes a 9FIFTY “SnapBack” version of their popular hats. New Era makes hats with logos from all major sports teams, as well as special edition & custom made hats.

Cap recalls

In the summer of 2007, New Era voluntarily pulled three styles of

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

hats from shelves across the country because the designs on the caps were seen to be gang-related. There were three caps that stood out; two with a bandanna like pattern around the top and one with a gold crown. Brian Martinez, an NYPD detective involved with Peace on the Street said "Bandannas represent gang flags," "New Era is making it really convenient for gang members, because now your flag is part of your hat." The patterns on the hats were similar to the flags of the

Crips The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance ...

, the Bloods and the Latin Kings. Much of the New York public protested about the caps and in response to these allegations, a New Era spokesperson stated that the company does not market to gangs and when notified by activist groups and public officials, the company took immediate action.Sandomir, Richard
"Yankee Caps Pulled After Protesters See Gang Links in Symbols and Colors"
''The New York Times''. August 25, 2007

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.neweracap.com Sportswear brands Sporting goods manufacturers of the United States Clothing companies of the United States