New Era’s Latest MLB Caps Feature Funky Logo-Within-a-Logo Designs

Joseph Myers

As soon as football season concluded with Sunday’s thrilling Super Bowl LIV finish, many sports fans (no offense to hockey and basketball) probably thought, “Bring on baseball.” With only a few days remaining until pitchers and catchers report to their respective teams, New Era is gearing up to enhance their style and that of their teammates through batting practice/spring training caps, with the ingenuity coming in the way of combining main and alternative logos into one design.

We are almost three months removed from looking at the Elements Collection that New Era put out, so it was with great curiosity that we wanted to see how the company would treat Major League Baseball’s 30 clubs this time around. With each franchise having chosen to place a secondary symbol within the designated cap’s logo, New Era ended up with a mix of results, with Forbes stating that a few represented “a stroke of genius” and that “others look a bit muddled.”

Given that the athletes will be wearing these not only during their preparation sessions and contests in Arizona and Florida but also through their 162-game regular-season slates, fans are going to become quite accustomed to the designs. With that in mind, here are three hats that really stood out and three that left us scratching our heads.

1. Baltimore Orioles

One of the game’s proudest franchises dropped 223 games between 2018 and ’19, so we are hoping that they soon return to contender status in the American League East. As they look for another shot at glory, they will proudly display their aerial namesake through logos that lent themselves pretty nicely to a combo design.

2. St. Louis Cardinals

Another member of the game’s royalty, the Cardinals, who have seen fellow Missouri occupants claim the Stanley Cup and the Super Bowl since June, will seek prestige in the National League Central. To do so, they will be donning headwear that calls on their titular animal to remind the opposition it’s always red-y to win.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

The Los Angeles Dodgers dominate the headlines in the National League West, but the Diamondbacks are a pretty decent team. Like Indiana Jones, we have a strong aversion to snakes, but we’re abandoning that to compliment the club on this intimidating design that should let the Dodgers and other division foes know that the players will always have their fangs out.

4. Philadelphia Phillies

Promo Marketing’s hometown club just can’t seem to win any love from New Era. We were critical of the National League East team’s Elements Collection cap, and, well, we are going to rank on this one, too. While we love the inclusion of the Liberty Bell, we don’t like that the crack in it didn’t receive its own color, or that the “Phillies” wordmark is partially cut off.

5. Chicago White Sox

The American League Central’s version of the Orioles, the White Sox are probably headed for their eighth-straight losing season, and as they show Illinois residents their brand of ball, they will not even be able to rely on their headwear to give fans some solace.

6. Milwaukee Brewers

While we were so tempted to call for an exorcism over the San Diego Padres’ cap, we found the one from the Milwaukee Brewers to be worse. Just look at it, folks. If this were a Rorschach test, we’d say we see an elephant in the National League Central team’s hat, which should be the case only when looking at the actual design for the Oakland Athletics.

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