Who Made Baseball Caps Become A Real Fashion Symbol Outside The Stadium?

The New York Yankees may not have imagined that they have so many fans in China.

In Taobao search "MLB", "MLB hat" or "MLB baseball cap", the price from 100 yuan to more than 4000 yuan have, mostly concentrated in 150-300 yuan, and most of the businessmen used to show photos is the New York Yankee style.

For baseball fans, wear them.

Perhaps because of the love of the team, but in many areas where MLB culture is not popular, baseball cap is now a symbol of popular culture and fashion.

Although the modern baseball game, which is well documented, was born in 1830s, baseball caps did not really get out of the stadium until 1970s, and it was gradually accepted by the public.

New Era is from New York.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, in 1930s, the fashion hat company found that people's interest in baseball was improving, and they perceived business opportunities and began to touch baseball teams.

In 1934, New Era made professional baseball caps for Cleveland Indians. During the next twenty years, the Broolyn Dodgers, the Cincinnati red men and the Detroit tigers in the MLB alliance wore New Era baseball caps one after another.

By 1954, New Era had renewed the baseball cap.

It has formed the fashionable 59FIFTY nowadays.

Although the design is very fashionable, people's attention has not been brought to the stadium.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, baseball historians believe that Hollywood actor Tom Selick (Tom Selleck) played a role in promoting the popularity of baseball caps. He often wore a hat of the Detroit tigers in the TV drama "Hawaii detective", leaving a deep impression on the audience.

When New Era advertised in sports news magazine in 1978, the feedback received showed that baseball caps had begun to invade quickly.

Bound.

Tom Selick in the Hawaii detective.

"A large number of mail orders come in and we have to stop working. Buyers are mostly people who do not participate in the competition."

Karl Koch, a witness to the development history of New Era, is published in the book "Ball Cap Nation" published in 2009.

If Sally did help baseball caps open a new door, who made baseball caps become a real fashion symbol outside the stadium? One argument is that the rise of hip-hop and its influence on pop culture are very important.

For example, the late well-known rapper A$AP Yams is the champion of the Atlanta warriors. He and team A$AP Mob never conceal the love of baseball caps; Eminem's tutor Dr. Dre's support for home team Losangeles Dodge is also carved in the bones. Recently, because of the establishment of the Big3 basketball league with Alan Everson, she has painted a screen Ice Cube in the sports circle. In the 1991 hip-hop movie, "she is wearing a Detroit tiger hat," the purpose is not for Selick.

But when it comes to the most popular star, it's still the baseball cap of the New York Yankees.

It's Jay-Z, and he even shows his love for baseball caps in the lyrics. In the 2009 song "Empire State of Mind", there is a word that writes: Shit, I made the Yankee hat more.

Not only that, but in his "Young On" song "Put On", this kind of expression is more intense: I put on for my city, So So, "Jeezy".

The influence of baseball caps is not limited to this.

In June 1990, the late South African President Nelson Mandela wore a Yankee jacket and a Yankees baseball cap in a political rally at the Yankee Stadium in New York. He said to the people present, "I am a Yankee.".

New Era's hat output in 1920 was 60 thousand, which reached 50 million in 2015. It is now sold in over 80 countries worldwide.

According to the world clothing and footwear net, the best seller in Europe and Asia is the New York Yankees hat.

The New York Yankees baseball cap is popular among the public.

In 1993, New Era became the sole supplier of baseball caps in the history of MLB alliance.

New Era also needs to thank a person, that is the famous director Spike Spike (Lee).

In 1996, Spike Li Qianglie longed to wear his red Yankees hat instead of traditional blue to wear his Yankees jacket.

New Era agreed with his invitation.

When Spike Li appeared on the stand of the 1996 MLB World Championships dressed like this, it seemed to open a new chapter in the licensing of sports brand products. Baseball caps not only changed from fans' hearts to street fashions, but could even reflect certain identities and appeals.

After Spike Lee's red Yankees, there are a series of personalized designs that break through traditional conservative colouring, such as Bobbi powder expressing anti sex discrimination, anti sexual discrimination Rainbow Stripes and so on.

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Beyond sports, fashion elements began to play an important role in the development of New Era baseball caps.

Through cooperation with well-known designer brands, such as Yamamoto Teruji, Kenzo and Jeremy Scott, the company has brought more different styles to the brand and consolidated its position in sneaker and hip-hop culture.

This is very important. It may be hard for Americans to understand that in many places, people really don't care which baseball team their head belongs to.

According to reports, New Era in a considerable number of areas, such as France and Italy, consumers in the purchase of hat is more important is the style design, New Era chief executive officer Jim Grundtisch said, "in Europe, it is indeed driven by fashion."

The report pointed out that after expanding its business overseas in early twenty-first Century, New Era not only successfully established itself in Europe, but also opened up Asian markets in one fell swoop, not only in Korea and Japan, but also in the Middle East countries such as the United Arab Emirates.

At the beginning, overseas business accounted for only 2% of New Era, which has climbed to nearly 30% at that time.

Only 5 of New Era's stores are located in the United States, far inferior to 40 in Korea. The main reason is that chain sporting goods stores have a broad base in the United States.

The annual income of New Era is close to $1 billion, most of which increase from outside the United States.

New Era is located in a store in Japan.

According to the data released by statisticbrain in September 2016, baseball helmets sell 43 million 750 thousand in the US every year, the total annual income of the industry is 2 billion 153 million yuan, and New Era occupies 66% of the market share.

New Era CEO Chris Koch thought at that time that the Chinese market would be the next challenge.

The company used to be reluctant to expand to China because it was afraid that it would face some risks like other American companies.

But Koch believes that China's market potential is huge. If New Era wants to achieve sales of US $2 billion, they must go out.

In fact, New Era is not growing fast enough in the Chinese market.

Through open channel search, until August this year, only New Era opened its first store in Shanghai.

In addition, last November, New Era cooperated with giant network to customize the development of a limited edition hat of "big ball game".

In terms of electricity supplier channels, music sports became the official strategic partner of MLB in January 2016. It has introduced the baseball cap of New Era's MLB series to the sales of the music mall, the price is basically 369 yuan, but now the commodity has been off the shelves.

In addition, there are New Era brand merchandise sold in the current trend of electricity supplier, and the price of the hat is between 100-400 yuan.

When there are not many channels for sale, where are the young people wearing MLB baseball caps on the streets?

If the baseball cap of New Era is the most common way through overseas purchasing, in fact, many people are not wearing New Era, but "MLB", a brand operated by Shanghai AI Dong Industrial Co., Ltd.

According to the introductory information released on the Internet, the major league baseball in 2006 authorized the Hongkong Eversports Marketing Company Limited (Hongkong beauty bar sporting goods Co., Ltd.) as the general agent of the MLB franchised store in China (which can produce garments, hats, shoes, accessories, etc.).

AI mobile is a company in China of Hongkong beauty bar sporting goods Co., Ltd., which mainly manages the MLB in the Greater China region.

Through the enquiry by the Hongkong company registry, Hongkong Morgan sporting goods Co., Ltd. was founded in September 2006 and has been abolished in March 2015.

According to the industrial and commercial data of AI industry, its largest shareholder is Shanghai AI Ying Le Industrial Co., Ltd. (shares accounted for 75%). The company was founded in 2001, mainly engaged in baby trolley, dining chairs, rocking chairs, children's bed and other supplies.

MLB's official website introduces an article on its development in China. It points out that MLB and Eversports Marketing cooperate to promote MLB brand to China. By March 2008, there were 48 stores in China.

It is understood that AI Industrial (Hongkong beauty bar) is directly from the MLB headquarters has obtained MLB brand franchise, at present there are about 300 stores in the country.

However, AI Mobile has not set up an official electricity supplier for sale.

Ai Ai industry operates MLB brand line next store.

The reporter went to a MLB brand store in a shopping mall in Beijing. The merchandise sold in the store included MLB baseball caps, T-Shirts, jackets, sports pants and so on.

The price of baseball caps is between more than 300 and 500 yuan, and the price of baseball jackets is 600-1500 yuan.

These goods are printed with MLB authorized team logo, the trademark is printed "MLB", the Chinese name is "Baseball League."

This is similar to that of NBA, another professional alliance. For example, NBA's current Jersey is sponsored by Adidas, but NBA Store will sell many "NBA" brand series of cultural shirts and accessories.

In terms of MLB, its field Jersey was provided by Majestic Athletic from 2005. The players' sports underwear was supplied by Nike from 2009, while Andemar (UA) was responsible for making gloves, arm guards, splint and equipment for the players in MLB players.

Last December, Andrew announced the signing of a ten year sponsorship contract with MLB. From 2020, MLB players will wear a jersey with Andrea logo to play.

The sports business Fanatics will get the exclusive right to manufacture and sell other MLB garments.

The latest agreement between Andemar and Fanatics and MLB will end many years of cooperation between MLB and Nike and Majestic Athletic.

In China, in addition to the MLB brand of Shanghai AI industrial, Tmall and Jingdong can also see a "flagship watch shop flagship shop", which only sells MLB brand watches, and the operator is Shanghai Home Business Co., Ltd., founded in June 2014.

In addition, the public information of a fashion dress (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. mentioned that the company has been distributing the home furnishing clothes, underwear, socks and so on for the MLB Major League underwear family in China and Hong Kong and Macao since 2010.

However, fashion dress officials told reporters that the company's cooperation with MLB ended in 2016.

If domestic consumers want to keep up with the trend of baseball caps, there will be a number of commodities to choose.

If the sneaker culture led by basketball shoes has been touted by the public, can baseball caps go further on the present basis? Perhaps the recent upsurge of hip-hop culture will help some, but it is still a little difficult to say that the promotion of baseball culture in China.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.