‘Elements Collection’ MLB Hats From New Era Are a Cool Idea That Went Poorly for Philly Fans

Joseph Myers

We take our Philadelphia sports teams pretty seriously here at Promo Marketing. Therefore, when we heard about New Era’s Elements Collection MLB hats, we were excited to see what the company had in store for its Philadelphia Phillies cap. After finally seeing it, though, we were a little nauseated, since the blue star that takes up most of the hat’s front panel looks more than a little like the logo for the Dallas Cowboys, easily the Eagles’ chief rival. That’s a big no-no in Philly. And, apparently, we weren’t the only ones who noticed.

The idea behind the Elements Collection—highlighting lesser elements of MLB team logos by bringing them to the fore on each hat—is a good one. But in this case, by pure happenstance, it went wrong. MLB and New Era sought to highlight the blue stars that dot the i’s in the Phillies wordmark, but failed to take into account Philadelphia’s rivalry with Dallas. Still, New Era has received props from us before for its handling of MLB headwear, and we will issue some more for the work that it did for the game’s other franchises. To try to reduce our frustration with the Phillies’ representation, we inspected the other hats, and we found ourselves tipping our caps to a variety of the designs.

Baseball uniforms have become big business no matter the lingering perception among many observers that the game is boring. Take, for instance, the buzz that the Milwaukee Brewers have been generating for their recent decision to revive their classic logo. In other words, baseball teams are calling on more than the feats of their players to build their brands, and caps often serve as great resources to do so. New Era’s Elements Collection registers as a pretty neat product offering, placing the focus on uniforms as a playground for creativity.

On that note, while we scratch our heads over the company’s decision to use the star and not the Liberty Bell, we can give a nod to the chosen elements on the hats for the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Cincinnati Reds and the San Francisco Giants. Available in fitted and stretch-fit selections, they are sure to help with the hiatus that baseball will experience until February and will likely make for great holiday purchases.

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We wonder, though, how the Phillies cap will fare. Since capturing its fifth-straight division title in 2011, the team has not sniffed the playoffs, so that frustration, coupled with the fact that the Eagles sit a game behind the Cowboys in the NFC East standings, make us reluctant to think that New Era is going to hit a home run among locals. We also wonder how fans in other cities will react to their Elements Collection hats. Do you see any design elements that might make them question New Era’s sanity on the level that we’re doing so?

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