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Showing posts from September, 2019

Change Isn't Always a Good Thing

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The Ballcap Blog is back! I'd like to discuss the events that took place over the past year with New Era closing their plant in Derby, NY. In November of 2018 it was announced that New Era would be closing their manufacturing plant in Derby, NY, their last US manufacturing plant. The plan was to close the plant in March of this year, but some workers stayed to do some additional work until June. The last caps made in Derby were MLB player issue caps for special events (4th of July, etc). Many looked for answers. New Era's official statement was that they no longer wanted to manufacture their own product and wanted to be more of a "brand" than a manufacturer. The MLBPA spoke out and asked New Era to keep the plant open but it was to no avail. Some blamed politics as New Era's real reason for the closure. New York state's tax incentives for the plant were expiring. Others blamed Trump's tariffs, which hit the headwear industry hard and New Era spoke out