The baseball cap is so ubiquitous in American culture that it could be called America’s national hat. It consists of a soft cap and a stiff peak and is usually adjustable at the back of the head with a plastic, Velcro or rubber band. The baseball cap evolved from earlier brimmed caps that were popular in the late 19th century, such as the These include the deerstalkers popularized by Sherlock Holmes illustrations, jockey hats, military pillbox hats, fedoras and boat hats. The first baseball caps were made of wool with a leather bill and were worn exclusively by baseball players in the mid to late 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, headgear shifted from the field to everyday wardrobe. Today, the baseball cap is worn to show support for a team, as a fashion statement, or to convey a message, such as the red “Make America Great Again” trucker hats (a type of baseball cap) worn by Donald Trump and to be worn by his followers.
The first baseball teams – the sport was invented in America around 1800 and the National League founded in 1876 – did not wear standardized caps. Players were free to wear any type of brimmed hat to keep the sun out of their eyes. Many preferred the boater style straw hat or the pillbox style. Spalding’s Official Baseball Guide of 1888 shows a wide variety of hats worn by baseball players, including soft and hard hats. The cap as we know it today took shape around the turn of the century: air holes were added in the 1890s; A logo first appeared in 1901 when the Detroit Tigers featured the image of a running orange tiger on the front of the cap; In 1903 the visor was pasted; in the 1920s and 1930s longer peaks were introduced and the visor became more rigid; in the 1940’s the crown became more vertical, turning the front of the cap into a sort of billboard and making the cap the style we know today. In 2007, the Major Baseball League changed the standard cap from wool to polyester to increase player comfort.
While the look of the baseball cap hasn’t changed much since the 1950s, attitudes towards it have. Jim Lilliefors, author of Ball Cap Nation: A Journey Through the World of America’s National Hat, cites several reasons for the baseball cap’s rise in popularity and acceptance off the field. As televised baseball made the sport more popular, fans wanted to show their support for their teams through their hats as well. In the 1960s, farming companies began to see the hat’s potential for advertising, and in the 1970s and 1980s, promotional hats – now known as trucker hats – grew in popularity. At the same time, baseball caps were touted as sun protection for both men and women. Vogue’s summer fashions of the period reinforced this notion and helped the hat become gender-neutral. The wearing of baseball caps by television and film stars such as Tom Selleck in the role of Thomas Magnum in Magnum, PI, the character of MacGyver in the series of the same name, and Tom Cruise in Top Gun eventually solidified the cap’s transition from field to fashion.
As the hat became mainstream, men and women began to play with the style by turning the hat backwards or sideways as a symbol of personal expression. The hat has been adopted by musicians, from rappers, punk rockers and grunge singers in the 1990s to pop stars and the MTV generation in the 2000s. Celebrities used the hat to protect their faces from the paparazzi. As the hat’s popularity increased, so did the boundaries. Young middle class British townsfolk adopted the baseball cap as part of their standard uniform in the early 2000s.
Today, the baseball cap or trucker hat is sometimes worn ironically or as a sign of belonging to the working class. However, fashion brands such as APC, Burberry, Brunello Cucinelli, Gucci, and Kenzo have produced premium versions of the cap that are pushing them into the luxury fashion realm. You can also find out about www.cap-selbst-gestalten.de meanwhile also design his own cap. While expensive versions signal status, the baseball cap’s affordability, as well as its longevity as a fashion statement, has helped it become a staple of the modern style lexicon.
