New Era Quality Control Issues

[griffelh]

I'm sorry, but that is just pathertic excuse making. Hats are not that expensive to make and it should not be that tough to get decent quality. Alternatively, have someone actually look at them before sending them out for sale and pull the substandard ones, as any decent company does. Then again, this is a company who you can directly order from their website and not get the item pictured, so I think they have more basic problems.

[SiddFinch]

  I'm sorry, but that is just pathertic excuse making. Hats are not that expensive to make and it should not be that tough to get decent quality.  Alternatively, have someone actually look at them before sending them out for sale and pull the substandard ones, as any decent company does..

First, please explain your knowledge of hat manufacturing, the associated costs, and related quality control issues. Second, please identify a "decent company" which you believe has good quality control.

I don't think New Era is any different than the vast majority of the manufacturers across all industries. There is no reason for them to improve their quality when 98% or more of their customers accept it happily. I don't endorse this, but it is a fact. I see players on the field wearing 5950's with the MLB logo on back sewn on crooked and the logos off-center. If MLB accepts it, what weight can one lone customer carry with them?

[Gothamite]

I'm sorry, but that's just nonsense.

Twins Enterprise manages to manufacture hundreds of thousands of caps with across-the-board quality that puts New Era to shame. And that quality doesn't boost the price out of reason.

No different than the vast number of manufacturers? Really?

Try on a series of Reebok NFL jerseys. I think you'll find that a Medium is a Medium is a Medium. You don't have one Medium that fits like an XL and one Medium that fits like a Small within the same product line.

Mileage between Camrys doesn't vary wildly based on the quality control of the manufacturing plant on a given day.

You are right about one thing - nobody is holding New Era accountable, so it might be understandable that they produce a shoddy product. If they can sell a poorly-made item for the same price as a well-made item, why should they cut into their profits to produce something of quality?

Doesn't make it right, though. And it certainly doesn't make New Era "(no) different than the vast majority of the manufacturers across all industries."

If Twins Enterprise can do it, New Era can do. They just can't be botherered. And that's a shame.

[SiddFinch]

Nothing I said is nonsense. Its easy to just say a product stinks and it should be better, and ignore the larger business dynamics at work. How many great companies like Roman Pro have come and gone, not because their products were bad, but because the business model didn't work? I am just trying to inject some manufacturing based perspective which no one else here is doing.

Don't mistake me - I think New Era sucks as much as the next guy. I have heard from a notable retailer that they simply do not have the capacity to make as many hats as the market demands, and that is why you get the variable quality. Twins Enterprises is really not a direct competitor to New Era because they make garment washed caps to fit a niche market. Plus they do not have nearly the name recognition as New Era (their logo is not plastered in every MLB dugout) so they have to make a better quality cap. Again, that doesn't make it right, but it is not nonsense.

[Blackjack76]

I am now somewhat alarmed having just dropped $35 on a Cardinals All-Star Game hat (like what Pujols wore on the field last week). I was in Pittsburgh, and all of the Cardinal fans bought the city out by the Saturday before the ASG.

So I ordered a 7 3/4 ("Head! Pants, now!"), just to be safe, and now I'm fearing that it will be a Bochy-melonized Size 8 and that the patch on the side will come off in Atlanta's 98% humidity.

Time to break out the rosary....