New Era is for baseball caps what Levi’s is for jeans. This American company is (basically) the inventor of its specialized product, nobody has ever gotten close to being as famous a capmaker, and over a decade in the game has only strengthened New Era’s position at the forefront of its niche. 

Like its jeans -making compatriot, New Era is where you go for an affordable yet well-made wardrobe staple as opposed to an extravagant luxury product. But also, like Levi’s, that doesn’t stop the American hatmaker from going all high-fashion with it, especially as of late. 

The normally $20-ish New Era dad cap has evolved into a true statement piece, its latest mutation being a $100-ish cotton baseball cap with a Hender Scheme vegetable-tanned leather sticker atop the curved brim in place of New Era’s typical shiny silver adornment. As with all things Hender Scheme, the leather is top-notch. 

This is the debut New Era x Hender Scheme link-up, which is surprising both because Hender Scheme’s a collaboration machine and because New Era is fashion’s go-to baseball cap maker. You’d have expected their paths to cross by now. 

But in fairness, New Era has been otherwise occupied.

When recently browsing the Saint Laurent website, we found a $275 cotton canvas New Era cap that was part of a longstanding but unannounced partnership. Likewise, Ralph Lauren continued its longstanding New Era partnership with corduroy Yankees caps and Joshua Ellis, a 250-year-old English textile mill supplying everyone from Chanel to Burberry, wrapped its finest cashmere around New Era’s quotidian caps. 

While these are all undeniably luxurious, last month’s New Era x Sashiko Gals collection dwarfs their price tags. That headwear, individually handstitched by Japanese grannies, can run you up to around $700. For context, a monogrammed Gucci cap is $540. 

But it’s not just the fact that such a wide breadth of fashion houses are making New Era headwear, it’s that all the aforementioned hats only cover a six-month period of New Era collaborations. Dig back further, and you find Kiko Kostadinov caps and Kvadrat’s famously fancy cloth.

Then again, the world’s leading denim brand (AKA Levi’s) has established itself as a collaboration powerhouse by linking up with everyone from Bode to sacai to Barbour. So why shouldn’t the world’s most famous capmaker also have the world’s widest range of high-end cap collabs?

The Levi's of dad caps is starting to feel like... Levi's.

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