New Era Caps

late 1970s New Era label

The exclusive manufacturer of major league caps since 1993 — and owned in part by the MLB, NFL and NBA, New Era Caps has dominated the cap market since the mid-1970s, when the company ended a private label deal that had them making caps for Wilson. New Era was founded by Ehrhardt Koch in Buffalo, NY, in 1920 as the E. Koch Cap Company. According to New Era, it made its first cap for a major league team, the Indians, in 1934. There is also an example of a WWII era Cubs cap with a New Era label. According to its website, New Era "was the only independent cap maker supplying caps to big league baseball teams" in 1950, indicating that it was making caps for other labels. In the early 1950s, Koch's son, Harold, is credited with designing the popular 59FIFTY cap, which introduced a peaked crown and stiff bill. The oldest one displayed on this site is a 1954-55 Reds cap. In the 1960s, the company opened its

mid 1980s New Era label

factory in Derby, New York. By the mid-1960s, New Era caps become more common, and many of those from the late '60s have a distinct cross-stiching pattern on their leather bands. With the demise of KM Pro in the mid-1970s, New Era began to dominate the market. The company used some variety of the tag displayed at the left until the mid-1980s, when another with extra text was used briefly before the label changed completely.