New Era Hats

Behind The Scenes Mike Berringer

New Era HistoryIn the year of 1920, a man named Ehrhardt Koch had founded the New Era cap

company with a total of 14 employees, on Genesee street, in Buffalo, New York, making “Newsboy” caps. Ten years later, New Era had started making professional caps for the MLB (Major League Baseball), they signed with the Cleveland Indians, and they were sold at a price of $3.98 per dozen. 30 million caps were sold per year between the 1930’s-40’s.

In 1954 New Era created its most popular brand of caps, the 59Fifty, and there were 40 countries that were selling them. There were also an average of 3,000 machines running per day to create caps in a New Era plant. In 1993, new era was signed with every team in the MLB for providing field caps. Then when 1997 came, they revealed their new and current logo. In 2003, New Era’s globalization has massively increased from 1998, being produced in Canada, Europe, the UK, Japan, China, Australia, and of course the U.S.

Recently, New Era has brought out the 39thirty field cap, and has brought back the 9Fifty snapbacks.

Sweatshops?The only possible information that I have saw about the New Era cap company

having sweatshops, was an article from November 27th, 2007, about a New Era facility in Mobile, Alabama, being accused of having sweatshop conditions.

Supposedly, African-American employees were giving reports of having discriminatory wages and hiring practices. Along with well experienced African-American workers getting promotions passed over to a fairly new white workers. Although New Era denies this argument, saying they are a group of fair labor association, with a strict code of conduct.

Also, way back in March of 2002, New Era’s contract was dropped by two universities, because of their poor working conditions overseas, and in the U.S. New Era had been cited for having sweatshop operations in China, Bangladesh, Korea, the Dominican Republic and possibly other overseas locations, according to the National Labor Committee. Since then, and besides the possible sweatshop condition article in 2007, there hasn’t been anything about New Era having sweatshops.

Recycled?Yes, not all New Era hats are recycled, but they do offer recycled 59Fifty hats, and toques. They make these recycled hats out of “Eco2Cotton”, which is environmentally safe recycled fibres and yarns made from the scraps of new t-shirt manufacturers. These hats make a great solution for the world by cutting down on landfill use by reprocessing textile waste.

RecommendationAfter the research I have done about the New Era Hat company, and found out that they havent had any rumours about sweatshops, nothing at all about child labour, and how they recycle new fabrics from t-shirt companies to make hats, I would say that if you care about what you purchase, and how they make their products, whether they are friendly to the environment or not, then I suggest getting a New Era Hat. If you wear hats, spread the word.