The History & Style of Baseball Caps: From Brooklyn to Modern Fashion
A baseball cap is a type of soft cap with a long, stiff brim that may either be curved or flat. The back of the cap may have a plastic, velcro, or elastic adjuster so that it can be quickly adjusted to fit different wearers.
While the baseball cap is specifically associated with those who play the game of Baseball, it is often worn as a fashion statement as well as semi-practical headgear, by youths in America and England. It is very popular in the Us, Brazil and Japan among golfers. Traditionally, the bill is worn forward, shielding the eyes from the sun, but it is also often worn backwards or at other angles. People with long hair in a ponytail may pull it through the gap in the cap above the adjustor.
In 1860, the Brooklyn Excelsiors wore the ancestor of the modern, rounded-top baseball cap, and by 1900, the "Brooklyn style" cap became popular. Based on an 8 Piece construction with a button top, the Brooklyn was different to the English Bakerboy style as it was narrower and slightly better fitting with a curved peak. Also known as the Newsboy Cap.
During the 1940s, latex rubber became the stiffening material inside the hat and the modern baseball cap was born. The "bill" or "brim" was designed to protect a player's eyes from the sun. Typically, the brim was much shorter in the earlier days of the baseball hat. Also, the hat has become more structured, versus the overall "floppy" cap of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The baseball cap was and still is an important means by which to identify a team. Often the logo, mascot, or team's initial was placed on the cap. Usually, the cap was also fashioned in the official colors of a particular team.
The basic shape, including curved bill, is similar to some styles of 19th century sun bonnet.
Fitted baseball caps, those without an adjuster, are normally sewn in six sections, and may be topped with a matching fabric-covered button on the crown. Metal grommets or fabric eyelets are often sewn or attached near the top of each of the six sections of fabric to provide ventilation. In some cases, the rear sections of the crown are made of net-like mesh material for extra ventilation. The bill is typically stiffened by a sewn-in piece of paperboard or curved with a plastic peak.
Baseball caps are made of many types of material and shaped in various styles for different purposes. Major and minor league baseball players wear classic-style caps made of wool(or, more recently,polyester) with their team's simple logo and colors; the logo is usually embroidered into the fabric.
Another version of the baseball cap is a plastic mesh cap with a foam front imprinted with a company logo. This style of baseball cap is sometimes called a Trucker Cap or a Gimme Cap because it is given away for free as an advertising pitch.
Beginning in the 1980s, the baseball cap came to be associated with film directors, especially Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg, replacing the Beret. Baseball caps can be a fashion statement when decorated with embroidery, felt applique, patches, metal eyelets, sequins and so on. JZ has become a fashion icon in Hip Hop and can start a craze just by wearing a new baseball cap
