New Era

New Era is pretty much the Mecca for baseball caps, and being a man with a diminutive hairline, I’ve worn them pretty much throughout my life. I’d been near the New Era store in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago but due to road works I couldn’t go in, so I was pleased to come across this one — albeit while it was in the middle of a relocation sale.
Now while I appreciate that NE target a specific market, I was surprised to find that I was pretty much the oldest person in the store in my mid thirties, which was a little off putting. But hey, I guess I’m just not the usual market. So despite the range, the reason why I didn’t give this a higher score is simply because it was so hard to browse through some of the sales racks.
Rather than having the hats grouped in any sort of order, some of the rows were simply a mess of hats so you had to flick through them like you were looking at LPs (ok, so I’m really showing my age here). But the stands were so fragile feeling that every time you did so, it felt like you were going to knock a stack of hats on the floor.

If you have relatives or friends who like a bit of Americana, this shop would be a great place to get a gift they’d appreciate
From my travels, i find Americans tend to quite tribal around sports teams and these sports teams have been quick to create strong brand profiles with team logos being instantly recognisable
New Era specialise in branded caps but they also sell a few other bits of apparel like t shirts. All the major league professional teams from the different sports are represented but I didn’t see any college teams on display. The caps aren’t cheap from £25 upwards but they’re good quality
The staff are very helpful and I got a good education in the types of caps and they’ll help to adjust any purchases. I guess that some people are serious about cap collecting because you can buy a cap transporter and cap storage unit
Go (Chicago) Bears! Grrrrrr!

This shop has many hats and sizes. The only let down is the area and atmosphere of the shop. The sign is very dark so its hard to see and also inside the shop its very low lighted.

It is hard to imagine this business begun back in 1920 with $ 1000 in Buffalo, USA. I was to quick too judge. As I walked past it hand in hand with my husband, we heard the music blasting out from a massive plasma screen in the centre of the shop playing very loud hip hop on BET TV; I decided it was a shop product of the hip hop trend.
Caps (as referred in America) displayed in the window with funky colours, furry winter flaps, heavy embroidered logos and eye catching textiles. New Era has developed from making only newspaper boy hats to baseball hats in ten different sizes. The latter, is were we found my brother in law’s christmas gift. It was perfect. Checked purple, green, and orange with purple furry flaps and an ‘A’ embroidered in perfect unison with the rest of the hat; which incidentally is his last name initial. Of course, you’ll find other initials ‘P’, ‘NY’, ‘C’, ‘B’ which actually represent the major sport leagues in the US. Anyhow, a hat will set you back between £25-£30 and they also have very quirky men’s fashion, enter marvel comics shirts and sweatshirts. The staff are extremely nice and helpful, they love hats and they love their job, one specifically who said ‘the hat you buy depends on who you are’…
New Era is more than a trend.