Diamondbacks Custom from HatClub & My Fitteds

This Arizona Diamondbacks custom cap is the cap that I went to HatClub in Phoenix specifically to pick up, that is before I discovered another pair that I couldn't live without. This cap is a strange case though, being that since New Era has started putting “authentic” patches on the inside of certain customs as a workaround to also not having the New Era flag on the side. The strange part about this cap and the process of choices that awarded it the Authentic On-Field patch lack of the New Era flagis that this was NEVER a cap worn by the Diamondbacks On-Field.

Several months back I got an automated e-mail from MyFitteds advertizing caps in their “90's” style, which basically meant that the cap is 100% wool, includes a flat embroidered batterman logo, and the basic overall style of caps before they changed to 100% polyester in the 2007 season. When looking through the caps I was attempting to find myself another copy of the purple Diamondbacks Home cap from 1998-2006 but they were not available, the only Arizona caps for sale were the 1998 white crown alternate and this custom cap we see here. Since I was originally distraught about the inaccuracy of calling this a “throwback” or any kind of Authentic at all I decided not to buy it, but by the time I decided to pick it up MyFitteds were all sold out in my size. When I heard word that HatClub picked them up for distribution I decided that I definitely needed to get the cap, and picked one up a week later as I made a trip down to Phoenix, Arizona.

This Diamondbacks cap consists of a black crown with a concord brim and button on top, as stated above the cap also includes a grey underbrim which was used to mimic the style used up until the 2007 season. The cap is also 100% wool and also made in China, but the quality of the cap is extremely good and the only part that may be lacking is the overly raised portion of the logo's embroidery. This cap might be advertized as an On-Field fitted, but I think that this cap would have looked great if worn On-Field by the actual retro Diamondbacks, and based upon everyone’s apparent hatred of the all-purple caps this might have sold better.

The logo on the cap is a basic copy of the original Diamondbacks logo with the choice of colours, but purple and black threading for the outline of the “A” were inverted in order to contrast with the base black of the crown of the cap. The main thread colour used is turquoise which makes up the base of the “A” logo, this is inaccurate from the original version but this problem can not be avoided due to New Era discontinuing the thread that was originally used in this situation, so this thread was the nearest alternative to make the cap as accurate as possible. What really stood out to me with this cap was the fact that the logo is the correct size, being that so many custom Diamondbacks caps use the original oversized logo that was used in pre-production starting in 1995 prior to the team ever taking the field.

This Arizona Diamondbacks cap features a flat embroidered Batterman logo on the rear, this cap more or less lucked out in getting the flat embroidery due to its miss-categorization as an On-Field fitted. The stitching on the flat embroidery looks fantastic and shows up much better than many of the raised batterman logo caps, the flat stitching is able to avoid foam poking through completely. The colours used here are relatively familiar in regards to the Arizona Diamondbacks colour scheme, the black and purple batterman does not feature colours used on traditional Home caps for the original Arizona logo, but mimics the Away caps more accurately.

This cap is awesome, plain and simple, but I can also see why many people wouldn't like it and it would most likely cater to fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks before many other New Era or Baseball fans. The overall quality of the cap is really good, especially for a Chinese cap, but there are a few issues that I do have with it. The raised embroidery on the logo of the cap is definitely too tall and slightly too thick, but the thickness has been an issue with these Custom New Era caps using the Diamondbacks logo, so I guess this can be unavoidable at this point. The other issue I have with the cap is the position of the logo itself, it is about a centimeter too high but the position of the logo can vary between the caps so I might have just gotten one with poor placement.


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Diamondbacks Alternate Logo Custom from HatClub

On a recent trip to Phoenix, AZ to visit the annual Diamondbacks FanFest I made sure to hit up the few HatClub locations in town in order to check out the customs that they had available. I went into the store initially to pick up just one specific cap but I ended up walking out of there with three brand new New Era caps in my bag, which was unexpected because the two extras I walked out with were not available or listed on Hat Club's website.

This New Era cap here is an Arizona Diamondbacks custom cap, it is a base graphite cap with a grey underbrim, and the embroidered logo on the front is the team's secondary logo that is often seen around the stadium and on the left arm of the jersey. This logo features the letters “d” and “b” which are stylized and arranged in a manner to which they appear to create the look and shape of a snake's head.

The embroidery on this cap is extremely neat and it is one of the reasons that I fell in love with this logo. This is the third cap of mine that features the Diamondbacks secondary “db” snake-head logo, and this one has definitely become my favourite overnight. The embroidery on this cap is fresh in the manner in which they embroider, the main “db” snake is stitched in a raised embroidery fashion whereas the lower layers that introduce the snake's eyes or forked tongue are flat embroidery. The manner in which they raise the script above the snake details and outlines of the logo to create depth to really introduce the fact that the “db” and snake-head are two concepts in one.

The batterman logo on the cap is also a really neat feature that only customs can really make true alterations to, and this is seen in the outline and colour of the batterman's main features. The logo itself is nothing too impressive when comparing the stitching to any On-Field cap, other than there is no foam peeking through which gives it an edge up in current On-Field fitteds that have been rushed through production (USA and Chinese Made). The colour choices on the back make an extremely powerful image on an all ready dark hat without using bright colours to direct attention, the main frame and batterman are embroidered in a black thread which is complimented by accenting Sedona Red and Senora Sand respectively.

The embroidery on the flag is especially unique in regards to custom caps produced by New Era, and this is because multiple colours and layers are used rather than one simple colour for stitching the flag. With most caps produced by New Era, they evidently place their flag logo on the left temple of the cap, and they can vary in colour in order to contrast it with the base of the cap or even to hide the logo when someone tries to create a mock Cooperstown. By using two different colours on the New Era flag it brings extra attention to the side of the cap that seemingly can only be done when a side patch is applied. The Senoran Sand stitching is what makes up the base of the flag but the unique aspect of the second thread choice is the Sedona Red inside of the flag, this contrasts the cap well and compliments the rear batterman and the front logo all in one.

The overall quality and look of this cap is fantastic, the only downpart about it is that it is Chinese made and 100% Polyester, but it is not nearly as stiff as regular polyester Chinese made caps are, so it will definitely be getting more use out of it than some of the minor league baseball On-Field Fitteds that I have which are Chinese made. If you would like to get your hands on this cap I'd recommend hitting up your nearest Phoenix HatClub being that they are no longer available on the website.

Cleveland Indians Road/Alternate

The Cleveland Indians have had a long history involving their logo of Chief Wahoo which is a caricature of a Native American which originated as a shoulder patch in 1928 but was not worn on the cap until 1954-1957 before it was used primarily starting with the 1986 season. Chief Wahoo has been a deep part of the Cleveland Indians' team history, but its presence has not been perceived well by a portion of the Native American population which has lead to several protests which started on opening day of the infamous 1994 season.

Prior to the use of Chief Wahoo in any incarnation, the Cleveland Indians wore simple blue caps with a block style white “C” located on the front panels, and starting with the 2008 season the Cleveland Indians began to wear a cap similar to the original, but reported by the Indians' president the decision was not to combat the possible racism expressed by the logo, but was to help the team's image by not wearing the logo primarily on the road and to give the fans a cap option if they were not comfortable wearing the Chief Wahoo logo.

Whereas Chief Wahoo is worn primarily at home this new New Era cap was designed and worn starting in the 2008 season as a Home Alternate, but starting with the 2011 season this cap was retired for Home Alternate use and was then used primarily as the Away cap and Chief Wahoo was then the alternate. This cap is a base Navy Blue which is surprisingly darker than the traditional Heather Grey in which they wear as a home with a scarlet brim or the away alternate which is solid Heather Grey.

The reason that the caps use two different colour blues is a mystery to me, but the choices may have had something to do with the focus of the main logo through the background choice, and this can be noted in some of the original Chief Wahoo caps using an almost-black material that made the logo really pop out with its flat embroidery, but the lighter colour allows it to blend in slightly better. The darker Navy used on this Away/Alternate cap most likely utilized the darker colour to compliment the raised embroidery to give the stylized “C” the powerful look it required without any kind of outline, much like the correlation between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees cap script.

This Cleveland Indians New Era cap is designed with a stylized block “C” logo that is embroidered in scarlet stitching. This raised embroidery is thick and powerful which allows itself to become the dominant element of the cap through the process of putting the focus on the central script while using modest colour choices which compliment the team's dominant scheme which have been used somewhat exclusively since the team was named the Indians in 1915. By looking back to the teams roots of the very early years, the team has effectively made a throwback cap while at the same time modernizing it much like the Toronto Blue Jays recently did, but through using script rather than a pictorial logo.

The rear batterman logo falls into the category of “navy blue and red” which allows the logo to be a direct copy of the traditional MLB logo rather than the team's designers having the opportunity to be relatively creative by using colours that do not necessarily reflect the primary colours of the team. The logo on the back of this cap does fit in very well with the design of the cap by using a subtle design in a powerful way.

When the Cleveland Indians began to wear this cap as an alternate Home cap in 2008, it was a little frustrating to me due to the fact that being a baseball fan I am extremely against any real kind of change to teams or a change that would remove any historical aspect, and I assumed this logo was made to slowly phase out the Chief Wahoo logo. The basic fact about the Chief Wahoo logo is that it wasn't up until fairly recently in baseball history that they began to use it exclusively on their caps, but looking back at older baseball cards of mine I began to recall the stylized “C” logo which looked like Native American text in itself, and after a little more research I was able to discover that the “C” logos have dominated the team's cap throughout its history.

Whether the new “C” Logos replace the old Chief Wahoo logo is fine with me at the time being, but that being said I would prefer to see the Chief Wahoo logo stay within the team's uniform through the Home Cap, and Alternate cap, or the use of a shoulder patch as it was originally intended. When it comes down to it the logo in itself can easily be seen as being racist when looking at it without the filter we all might have, the caricature look does exaggerate some elements of the Native American but does not do it in a malicious manner. The best way to really make a good correlation would be the Atlanta Braves who no longer use their Native American caricatures but still heavily use Native American elements.

Looking at the Indians' Chief Wahoo logo while comparing it to dozens of other caps worn in the minor leagues, it is hard to see why the logo would be considered racist due to the level of caricatures used throughout the design process. Polls state that 91% of Native Americans approve or don't mind the Chief Wahoo or Washington Redskins team names or logos, but does that make it right? Or should lumberjacks nationwide all be offended by the Williamsport Crosscutters' logo?

St. Louis Cardinals Alternate

The St. Louis Cardinals are baseballs most recent Champions by defeating the Texas Rangers in a compelling 7-Game series that will be remembered as one of the best played series in recent memory. The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the most storied franchises in the National League which were created in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings, but switched their name to the Cardinals a decade later in 1892. The Cardinals have been the most successful National League team when involved in the World Series, attending 18 times and winning 11 of them, two out of three in the past decade to cap that.

The St. Louis Cardinals have always been known for their front jersey logo which consists of a baseball bat with two Cardinal birds perched on both ends, which gives them their nickname “redbirds” or “birds on a bat.” The logo which the cardinals are most known for have been it consistently since 1922 which replaced the interlocking “STL” logo on their jersey front. The generic New Era cap for the Cardinals has consisted of the interlocking “STL” logo, but up until the 2000 season the Cardinals introduced a new New Era cap to go along with their traditional red and blue Home and Away caps, and this new alternate utilizes the famous “Bird on a Bat” logo which the team has been famous for since the early 20's.

This Alternate St. Louis Cardinals New Era cap consists of a Navy Blue crown with a Scarlet Red brim, the choices of colours blend the Cardinals traditional Home and Away caps, but utilize the traditional Alternate Bird on a Bat logo. The cap is worn sparingly throughout the season but is worn as a Home Alternate and does not have a specific jersey to go along with it as most Alternate caps do. Going through the years of alternates through major league baseball, many of them are just as forgettable as this cap, and the reason that it may be is because Major League Teams often rely on script for their caps rather than pictorial representations, so this cap is often ignored or even unknown to many fans outside of the St. Louis Cardinals fandom.

The front logo on the cap consists of the St. Louis Cardinals bird which is perched on the center of a baseball bat pointing to the left. This bird on a bat logo is outlined with quite embroidery which helps it to pop out on the cap slightly more than it might without the embroidery, but the detail of the cap is done quite well especially with the use of layered feather-like raised embroidery with the bird. The raised embroidery is not necessarily raised like a Washington Nationals logo, but uses multiple layers of stitching to create the layers instead of stitching over the compressed foam as most caps do. This cap's lineage through the use of embroidery is most likely stemmed from the famous Orioles bird which was introduced in 1989 but was not perfected until 1998.

The rear batterman logo might be thought of as boring to some, but the batterman logo consists of the Red and Navy blue which both compliment the St. Louis Cardinals colours but at the same time compliment the true colours of the batterman logo. The use of the batterman logo as the original and pure MLB batterman logo makes caps look much better but at the same time it can limit their ability to be unique in their own respects, and this conflict has been most noted in the recent incarnations of the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals On-Field Fitteds.

When I was in Fanzz looking at new New Era caps, I had never even thought of purchasing this hat until I looked at it and thought “wow, I want this.” I've been looking at these caps daily for over a decade now, and I don't know what kept me from viewing this cap and allowing it to have the affect on me as it did two months ago. This New Era cap is definitely one of the coolest caps worn in the Major Leagues, but it unfortunately isn't worn that often On-Field due to the fact that it is an Alternate that may be worn once a homestand. The thing that I love most about the cap is the logo itself on the front, I think that embroidery on the logo looks great and the slightly cartoonish bird looks much sharper than the Baltimore Orioles cap which I have criticized over looking way too realistic, almost as if it was clipped out of the Encyclopedia.