The Ballcap Blog

I recently received yet another oddball cap. Everyone knows that from 1977 to 1982, the San Francisco Giants wore caps with orange visors. I already owned two versions of this cap: The regular on-field version made by New Era, and a version made by Roman. This cap is made by New Era but is slightly different than the one that I already owned. The front logo is slightly different, the visor is the "older" style, and the underside visor fabric is green. The Giants had switched to gray in the early 1970s. Below is a four-way comparison between Giants caps. From left to right, we have a KM Pro cap circa late 1960s/early 1970s, a Roman Pro cap circa 1977 to 1982, the "oddball cap" made by New Era, then the regular 1977 to 1982 version made by New Era. When it comes to the orange-visor caps, the true on-field version is the one on the far right. Here is Vida Blue to demonstrate. I figure this cap could be one of two things. Either it's a prototype, or it was just an u...

I recently purchased a Phillies cap made by Wilson, the first Wilson cap in my collection. All Wilson caps were made under private label. Usually, the caps were made by New Era with the embroidery provided by Roman. I have also seen Phillies caps that were obviously made by KM Pro that have Wilson tags. The particular cap that I purchased seems to be a KM (or Roman)/New Era hybrid. The shape of the cap is classic KM. However, the embroidery isn't Roman's, which was more slanted. It looks more like New Era's. The sweatband is also identical to New Era's, but there is no foam inside the band. The backing is quite different from anything I've ever seen. I believe 1987 was the last year they made Wilson caps, and the Phillies were their last customer. Does anyone know for sure?