Time to stop buying New Era caps?

Normally, with this blog, I stay away from politics or social issues. Unless it is baseball related like the MiLB salary dispute. In the case of this blog post, it is baseball related (in)directly. As a baseball cap nut, it is time for me to write an accusal against New Era cap co.

For decades New Era caps were produced in Derby, N.Y. At least the ones the MLB players are wearing. The merchandise fitted caps were produced in upstate New York, in Buffalo. But the company announced in November that it would close the plant as part of a corporate shift away from manufacturing, transferring most of its work to overseas contractors and production for MLB to a nonunion facility in Florida.

Some time ago New Era started to move the production of “on-field” merchandise caps to China and other Asian countries. Likely because employees are not protected like many US workers are. In Asia/China, they turn a blind eye when employees have to work with toxic paint or unsafe sewing machines. In fact, that should have sounded the alarm bells for me. But back then it didn’t. Shame on me.

As a result of this move to Asia, the New Era caps you buy in the (non-US) stores aren’t the same quality anymore. Many times when you buy a size 7 3/8 (for example), it fits like a 7 1/4 or 7 1/2. This is pretty annoying.

But okay, this all wasn’t a reason for me to stop buying New Era caps.

Since the contract between MLB and New Era says that the caps, worn by MLB players, should be made in the USA, the company cannot move the production to low wage countries. So as a result, they move to a nonunion facility in Florida, so they don’t have to pay the wage they did in New York and they don’t have to deal with workers that are protected by unions. All this to maximize profits. In an article in the Washington Post, New Era stated that only a handful of people (who don’t enjoy the same labor protections and safeguards that union workers do) will work at the Florida facility since not much work is to be done as only the caps for MLB are made there.

Not that union membership is the sole guarantor of job security and a living wage, but nonunion factory workers do not enjoy the same protections as union workers. They’re subject to exploitation, underpayment and lower standards of workplace safety, which is also often the case for manufacturing workers in low wage countries.

MLB has an exclusive deal with New Era to make our on-field hats in the US. But now New Era is planning to close its factory in NY next month and eliminate 200 union jobs in favor of non-union (cheaper) labor. #NewEraHatsOff pic.twitter.com/V0G4vCLaud

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) February 18, 2019

The aforementioned article in the Washington Post was written by relief pitcher Sean Doolittle, who is concerned about the fate of those New Era employees. Luckily at least one player stands up for what is right.

Thanks to this issue I started mulling to stop buying New Era caps. Perhaps this is a good moment for us all to do the right thing and stop buying New Era caps. Why should we buy a cap that doesn’t have the same quality as it once had? Why should we reward a company that doesn’t care about its workers and only looks to maximize profits? Of course, it is your own decision. Of course, this depends on whether you are socially engaged but I am seriously leaning towards stop buying NE caps. And that is a tough decision for me since I am an avid baseball cap collector.