Awful Bells

After New Era's "production issues" with the Padres taco bell cap remakes in 2011, two have surfaced in retail in the past month.


The first is a 1978-style Padres, featuring an all-star game patch on the side. It's being sold on myfitteds.com. Notice the drastic improvement in the shape of the bell! It's the closest that they've ever gotten to the original since...well... the original. However, there are many flaws. Look at the logo. The "D" is overlapping the "S" instead of being interlocked. Not to mention the underside is gray, and there is a New Era flag and MLB batterman on the back. I hope that they come out with one of these with the problems corrected.

With the shape of the bell being so near-perfect, my hopes were high when I found out that HatClub.com would be receiving early 80s taco bell caps. However, when they arrived, I wondered what the hell went wrong!

What happened to the shape!?!?! This is worse than the American Needle "9 Deep" versions! My question is: Who is dropping the ball here? Or is something getting lost in translation at the Chinese factory?

The Padres will be wearing 1978-style uniforms on May 18th. I wonder how those caps will end up.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 15, 2012 at 1:33 PM

    I saw that fashion 70s Padres cap a month ago on ebay. $40! And the swatchee is supposed to be Athletic Gold, too. If all that logo creep didn't bother me, the 3-D embroidery & brown stitching on the gold front panel does. What a shame. So close, yet so far. One of MLB's all-time underrated caps. If I had that cap, I'd brownout the ASG patch, rip off the swatchee & replace it, and whiteout the brown stitching & recolor it very carefully to gold.

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