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The Story of New Era: Over 100 Years of Cap Culture

New Era is the most influential headwear brand in the world.
What began in 1920 as a small hat factory in Buffalo, New York, has evolved over more than a century into the global standard for baseball caps and far beyond.
If someone anywhere in the world is wearing a fitted cap, the chances are good that it's a New Era.

The story begins with Ehrhardt Koch, a German immigrant and trained hat maker who started his own business with borrowed money from his aunt.
On the third floor of 1830 Genesee Street in Buffalo, the E.
Koch Cap Company started with 14 employees and produced 60,000 Gatsby-style caps in its first year.
Two years later, the company was renamed New Era Cap Company.

The 59FIFTY: Birth of an Icon

The decisive turning point came through Ehrhardt's son Harold.
In the 1930s, he recognized that demand for fashion caps was declining, while baseball was exploding in America.
In 1934, New Era supplied the first professional baseball caps to the Cleveland Indians.
By 1950, New Era was the only independent manufacturer supplying Major League teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, and Detroit Tigers.

In 1954, Harold Koch designed the 59FIFTY, which is still considered the epitome of the fitted cap.
With its 22-step manufacturing process, reinforced visor seam, and stiffer crown, the model became the standard on the field and beyond.
Since 1993, New Era has been the exclusive supplier of all on-field caps for Major League Baseball.
The 59FIFTY is now also the official sideline cap of the NFL and the on-court cap of the NBA.

Spike Lee and the Birth of Cap Culture

In 1996, director Spike Lee called New Era and asked for a red New York Yankees cap to wear to the World Series.
The problem: this cap didn't exist, as team colors had been strictly adhered to until then.
After consulting with the Yankees and MLB, New Era produced the first cap outside the official team colors.
This moment changed everything.
Suddenly, fans wanted to wear their favorite teams in colors that matched their personal style.
The cap evolved from a pure sports item to a cultural statement.

In the following decades, New Era became an integral part of hip-hop culture.
Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and countless other artists wore 59FIFTYs as part of their visual identity.
Photographers like Jonathan Mannion documented an entire era in which the cap became an expression of urban belonging.

New Era Today: Sports, Fashion, and Collaborations

Today, New Era operates as a global company with offices in Europe, Japan, and Australia, holding over 500 different licenses.
In addition to the classic fitted caps, the range includes the popular 9FORTY (strapback), the 9FIFTY (snapback), and the 9TWENTY (dad cap).
Collaborations with brands like Fear of God, KENZO, Our Legacy, and many others have firmly established New Era in the contemporary fashion world, without forgetting its sporting roots.

The 59FIFTY remains at the heart of it all: a model designed in 1954 and more relevant than ever over 70 years later.
From MLB players on the field to musicians on stage to collectors with thousands of caps in their collections: the 59FIFTY is equally sports equipment, fashion accessory, and cultural symbol.

New Era at Coziness

At Coziness, we carry New Era because no other headwear brand combines this depth of history, cultural relevance, and product quality.
A New Era cap is never just a cap.
It is a piece of American sports history that is understood all over the world.