It’s been a bad day for New Era, to say the least.
The company revealed the official 2019 NFL Draft hats for each team Tuesday, and the reception has been almost universally negative. The question, of course, is are the hats really that bad? Do they really look like the cheap, knock-off team hats you find at gas stations?
(You can click here to view all the hats.)
Yeah, they’re that bad.
Most of the lids suffer from being way too busy (Carolina Panthers). The New England Patriots cap, on the other hand, is an example of one that’s boring, generic and just all-around uninteresting.
.@Patriots 2019 NFL Draft Cap is here. Get yours at https://t.co/cGrEMcMgXq pic.twitter.com/O4sI1K1AMw
— New Era Cap (@NewEraCap) April 2, 2019
So, what went into the creation of these underwhelming chapeaus?
Here’s an explanation from Sports Illustrated:
When designing the 2019 NFL draft day hats, @NewEraCap kept with a local theme, featuring elements of the city or state flag that best represents each team https://t.co/vbh7w94N3n
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 2, 2019
For whatever reason, clothing companies seem obsessed with the idea of incorporating local themes/history into the designs of team gear. Sometimes the results are decent, but more often than not the final product is a total eyesore.
Perhaps everyone should go back to just making something that people would like to wear.
