MLB 2019 Changes

[FiddySicks]

1 hour ago, Dodgeryaqui8016 said:

I am actually getting to the point of reverting to snapbacks because of the quality decrease on fitteds for MLB & NFL.  Quality gets worse FOR fitteds and price increases.  At least the snapbacks you can still get at a good price and know what to expect from the Quality.  Also here in Arizona the 5950 fitteds create this heat box between my head and the hat during the summer.  I ended up selling every 5950 online that I owned except for my Dbacks and Blue Jays hats since those are two teams that I root for.  Its unbearable.  

 

Over the course of the past year or so, I've done something I thought I'd NEVER do. I've actually switched to FlexFits. 

 

While New Era has been decreasing their quality (while now employing child slave labor full time) and bumping up their prices, FlexFit has been doing the opposite, at least quality wise. There's a pretty substantial difference in recent FlexFit caps, and I find myself wearing them most days now when before I was strictly a 59Fifty guy. 

[MilSox]

Chalk me up as another who made the flexfit transition.  5950s have become way too cumbersome, uncomfortable, and obnoxious for me. 

[SFGiants58]

I'm a '47 Brand adjustable cap guy now. They look and feel much better on me.

[Gothamite]

Ah, you guys are just getting old.  Happens to the best of us.   

[FiddySicks]

14 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

Ah, you guys are just getting old.  Happens to the best of us.   

 

This is actually one of my strongest "How you know you're getting old" moments I've yet had 

 

That and my somewhat recent transition from wearing skate shoes every day to wearing work/cowboy boots about half of the time now. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

2 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

Over the course of the past year or so, I've done something I thought I'd NEVER do. I've actually switched to FlexFits. 

 

While New Era has been decreasing their quality (while now employing child slave labor full time) and bumping up their prices, FlexFit has been doing the opposite, at least quality wise. There's a pretty substantial difference in recent FlexFit caps, and I find myself wearing them most days now when before I was strictly a 59Fifty guy. 

 

1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said:

I'm a '47 Brand adjustable cap guy now. They look and feel much better on me.

 

I have '47 Brand hats, FlexFit hats, and 59Fifty and other high-crown hats.  I like them all.  But recently I found that there is still a heirarchy for me.

I bought a '47 Brands Philadelphia A's blue cap.  But then when I was in a cap store in North Jersey, I saw something I had never seen: a blue New Era Philadelphia A's cap.  It was magnificent, with no New Era flag and nothing on the back.  But at first I didn't buy it, because I already had the same cap in '47.  But I immediately regretted not buying it, so I made another trip to Teaneck just to pick it up.  So now I have a that blue hat, alongside an American Needle white-crowned Philadelphia A's cap, a nice high-crowned set.

What I realised from this experience is that, even though I like '47 Brands, I still consider the high-crowned hats such as 59Fifty to be more legit.  When I put my two blue A's caps next to each other, the '47 one looks kind of shoddy.

 

But FlexFit caps can look every bit as good as 59Fifty caps; and the lower crown doesn't really spoil the strong look of a nicely designed cap, the way that the floppy softness of a '47 Brands cap can sometimes do.

[FiddySicks]

Yeah, I can't pull off the unstructured look of a '47 brand cap. I'm not quite that old just yet  

[Whitesox572]

When you guys say "FlexFit", what are you speaking of?  The 3930s?  These are the New Era hats that come in S-M, M-L, or L-XL with curved bill and slightly smaller logo?

[FiddySicks]

No, those are New Era 39Thirty Caps, which fit awful (at least on my big ol noggin). I mean specifically the FlexFit brand caps. 

[MattMill]

New era has gotten quite brazen. 

 

The inner components of new eras used to be different from your made in USA caps to your made overseas caps . As we know, production for consumer products shifted overseas, and there is still a mlb contract for new era for players caps to be ‘made in usa’. I saw a recent twitter post that showed a 2019 players cap that was ‘made in USA with imported materials’, but obviously had all the inner workings of a true made in China cap. 

 

They're basically assembled in the USA with 100% foreign parts, and the assembled part may be a long shot too. I don't trust new era anymore. 

 

Made in USA didn't just used to mean, assembled. From the stitching to the brim size and density, it all used to be superior. 

 

Now your fashion and NFL caps, those have all pretty much been made overseas. The MLB authentics used to have an advantage for sure. Not anymore. And retail jumped up $5 in a very small time frame

 

No thanks guys. I'll continue looking for gems on eBay or such. New releases are a huge liability. 

[Dnice]

Cardinals in blue.

 

 

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

Damn the Reds look good today

 

 

[BC985]

I always preferred this look from that set: 

[Gothamite]

Better with the red sleeves, but still very far from good.  The black only muddies up an otherwise-good set.  Everything is harder to read when you add a white outline and black dropshadow. 

[Discrim]

 

On 9/20/2019 at 4:53 PM, Bucfan56 said:

Yeah, I can't pull off the unstructured look of a '47 brand cap. I'm not quite that old just yet  

47 brand doesn't agree with my big head.  Never tried one on that didn't feel like it was too tight, even if my hair was cut short.  A shame, they've done very good looking bear & bat Cubs caps.

[JTernup]

On 9/20/2019 at 4:09 PM, Gothamite said:

Ah, you guys are just getting old.  Happens to the best of us.   

This comment really just hit me. I've made the switch from wearing 59Fifty and fitted hats nearly 100% of the time to <25% of the time in favor for flex fit style hats. I certainly think the waning quality on 59Fifty has contributed but I think you're right, maybe I'm just getting old (25 )

 

With that said, a huge factor in my switch is wearing more college hats and less pro and falling in love with the Nike Classic 99 hats (my 2 alma maters and current school are all Nike). I highly recommend them if you haven't tried one out.

[Jungle Jim]

I haven't worn a 59Fifty in over twenty years.  I feel like I look like this when I put one on:

[Sport]

19 hours ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

Damn the Reds look good today

 

 

 

 

 

I took time out of yesterday to watch this game just to see these unis again. The 1999 Reds are my favorite Reds team ever and the uniforms they wore that season, which became exclusive pretty much to that season alone fit the renegade, out of nowhere profile of that team. It was a uniform that wasn't supposed to happen or planned (they started wearing black at home because they had been so good on the road and it stuck for the rest of the season) worn by a team that wasn't supposed to happen or planned. Funny that they wore these against the Mets who broke my 12 year old heart in the one game playoff. Friggin' Al Leiter. Would've been cool to see the Mets in some black 99 throwbacks as well. 

 

unfortunately they didn't spring for matching batting helmets, which was disappointing. They looked wrong when they were batting. 

 

 

 

[Sport]

and that concludes the Reds throwback-bonanza. It was really fun all season long to see the team in all the old uniforms, especially the really old uniforms and the two most recent uniforms from my childhood. I can only hope this inspires the front office to make some uniform changes to the current and stale full time set and adopt a more traditional approach befitting a franchise of this heritage (the 1969 uniforms, if I had my druthers). 

 

I shall now power rank them. 

 

1. 1969

2. 1939

3. 1990

4. 1961

5. 1967

6. 1999

7. 1976

8. 1956

9. 1995

10. 1919

11. 1902

12. 1911

13. 1912

14. 1935

15. 1936

 

 

[NDFreek]

On 9/20/2019 at 2:10 PM, Bucfan56 said:

While New Era has been decreasing their quality (while now employing child slave labor full time) and bumping up their prices, FlexFit has been doing the opposite, at least quality wise. There's a pretty substantial difference in recent FlexFit caps, and I find myself wearing them most days now when before I was strictly a 59Fifty guy. 

The quality New Era has been pumping out is inexcusable. Last Christmas my sister got me a Cubs 59Fifty because I needed a new one (had the same hat for around 5-6 years). She bought a discounted 2018 playoffs one, and I was shocked at how poorly it was made. I went from constantly wearing my Cubs hat around to never wearing it, until I bought an older 59Fifty off eBay.