mem_day

If you were wondering if there were any more possible combinations of camouflage and MLB hats, there are. Above is the 2014 Stars and Stripes hat. The “first?” in the title is based on there being two Stars and Stripes hats in 2013, one with camouflage, one with, well, stars, though only one has been shown so far for this year. They’ve already made camo logos (2012), so that leaves normal “crown,” camo brim for next year. (New Era offers camouflaged brims on their “fashion cap” line, so this is both fully possible and fully plausible as they run out of places on a relatively small article of clothing on which they can support the troops.)

click to enlarge

Which is your favorite? Click to enlarge, and vote below.

Looking through the history of the product line (the picture omits the years that a flag was just placed above the ear), they certainly haven’t gotten better; looking through them, it’d make just as much sense if the Phillies used the 2009- or 2012-style hats each year as a “special occasion” that fans would recognize, but new product every year (or twice a year) is much more, well, American.

Me saying it’s ugly won’t really change, anything, but in the interest of pure design, it’s nice that they’re keeping the team colors (instead of red or blue) for non-red or -blue teams. This has never been an issue for the Phillies, but even with the more subdued designs (’08, ’09, ’12), there’s a lot of non-team color for teams like the Pirates. In the interest of marketing, it’s nice that the “P” is red fill with white stroke on the 2014 hat but white fill with red stroke on the 2013 so you can buy the 2014 hat without being concerned about people thinking you didn’t buy the new one.

#5 Brandon Lee Gowton vs. #12 Seth Joyner


Lead image via New Era.