History of the New Era brand
What is the history of the popular New Era caps? As with many brands, the history begins in America. The company is founded by German immigrant Ehrhardt Koch at the age of 37, a skilled craftsman who sees an opportunity to change the production process and quality of "fashionable" headgear. In 1920, he borrows money from his sister and founds the New Era Cap Co. It produces 60,000 Gatsby-style caps in its first year.
In 1932, his son Harold joins him. Harold notices that the demand for fashionable headgear is fading while professional baseball has grown in popularity. So it launches a new item – a baseball cap. The first New Era professional baseball cap was produced in 1934 for the Cleveland Indians sports team. During World War II, they experienced a difficult period, cloth was scarce, but they remained resourceful and processed scraps of ordinary cloth. During this time, they dyed the fabrics at home in a washing machine to match the colors of the teams.
By 1950, New Era was the only independent cap manufacturer supplying major league baseball teams. The client list included 16 teams of the time such as the Brooklyn Dodgers®, Cincinnati Reds®, Cleveland Indians® and Detroit Tigers®. In 1954, Harold designed the New Era 59FIFTY style cap with a more modern look. Due to high demand in the 1960s, they open a manufacturing plant in Derby, New York. The site became the exclusive manufacturer of the iconic 59FIFTY® cap.
New Era was invited to MLB to sell caps to all teams. This was a major milestone for this brand. In 1972, Harold's son David was named president - 14 years after he started working for the company. A few years later, Chris Koch, David's son, continued the tradition and began working at the Derby manufacturing plant for his grandfather and father.
The 1980s, led by David Koch, became a decade of sustained growth. The company produced caps for college sports teams and international baseball leagues, and began selling caps to sports fans as well. New Era was named the exclusive cap supplier to Major League Baseball in 1993 and experienced its first custom with Spike Lee in 1996. Fashionable headwear, shaping the future of creativity and collaboration.
Around the 20th century, the company expands and branches are opened in Europe, Japan and Australia. New Era is becoming the world's number one headwear brand that spans the worlds of sports, fashion, music and entertainment. After decades of being the official cap of the MLB, New Era has decided to supplement its exclusivity with the biggest sports leagues. In 2012, New Era became the official cap supplier for the NFL and in 2016, the NBA. New Era thus became the only brand in sports history to have exclusive headwear rights for all three major American leagues at the same time. New Era has been making headwear for over 100 years! Today, it also produces winter hats, clothing and accessories inspired by street culture combined with athletic tradition.
