At some point this year, the MLB and its apparel partners may unveil some creative new gear that fans are excited about. Today is not that day.
Earlier this year, New Era unveiled, and quickly pulled the plug on, a set of “Local Market” caps. They featured a pretty lazy utilization of area codes and emoji-style clip art that was supposed to represent the cities and areas for each MLB team. It was a decent concept, but the execution was brutal.
Just weeks ago, ahead of the MLB All-Star Game in Denver, the league rolled out its jerseys for the event. The Nike-made threads are similarly rough, and received a similar response. Even so, they’re here to stay.
Now, New Era is taking another swing at a unique cap, and it looks like we’re heading to an 0-2 count for the famed hatmaker. These new “Mixed Fonts” caps feature a bunch of different fonts to make up the team’s name across the front, in front of the team logos (which, it should be noted, often use letters and team abbreviations). It’s just as busy and jumble as the Local Market caps and the All-Star jerseys.
Seems like New Era is just making MLB hats that they think people will talk about for better or worse at this point pic.twitter.com/ErNYlAEHHv
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 6, 2021
As you could probably guess, those around the baseball world are not happy. This whole “one font over another font/logo” trend just doesn’t work however you cut it.
I’d pay New Era to simply offer normal MLB hats without their stupid logo on the side.
Instead, we get these fine “offerings.” pic.twitter.com/l3mgnsStoC
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) July 6, 2021
Dear New Era,
These are the WORST hats ever. Oh wait, I forgot about the clipart hats that were launched a month ago 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/4cCIupFjZo
— All Sports Culture (@ASCSportsMedia) July 6, 2021
I respect new era hat designers so much. it’s so rare we see someone, criticized for their work, double down and make something so much worse pic.twitter.com/XaqPZ4R95R
— liz 🌹 (@lizhebert) July 6, 2021
New Era’s thing is 100% about getting attention with stupid-ass hats now. It’s the Keebler “Whoopsy!” fudge stripe cookies of fashion.
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) July 6, 2021
These New Era caps are like having your fourth grade brother do your ninth grade art homework.
— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) July 6, 2021
At least the company has ushered in a great wave of photoshops making fun of their aesthetic choices. It’s probably not what they were going for, though…
This New Era Red Sox hat is so dope🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/fZTzXJskVl
— yolo swaggins (@YooooloSwaggins) July 6, 2021
Hi everyone, some personal news. I wanted to announce that I have been moonlighting for New Era hats to create exciting new merchandise. We really love using Windings font as well as clipart. I hope you enjoy! pic.twitter.com/ayDa4UEfpO
— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) July 6, 2021
I think I figured out who approved these New Era hats pic.twitter.com/hAbLgACPYs
— Joseph Garino (@joegarino) July 6, 2021
Let’s hope third time’s a charm for New Era and the MLB, because these last two have been really poor.
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