So on my ongoing quest to try and rectify the tragedy that is the sub-par, Chinese-made NewEra bacon cap and my now dissatisfaction with NewEra as a company, I’d been doing some research on what my options were. The bottom line is that I still want a bacon cap, but I wanted a bacon cap that fit me well, regardless of if it were made in China or the United States.
Given the fact that all of the NewEra caps that I own that were US-manufactured fit well, and don’t bulge out like Elmer Fudd’s hat, I would prefer a US-made bacon cap, but honestly when the day is over, I don’t care where it’s made as long as it sits well and looks satisfactory to me.
While perusing through ballcap forums and boards, I came across one interesting tidbit of information that sounded appealing: all caps purchased directly from MLBshop.com, were typically all US-manufactured NewEra caps. I had purchased my cap directly from the Lehigh Valley IronPigs shop website, which can easily lead to the reason why I ended up getting a Chinese-made bacon cap.
Given the information I learned that the vast majority of minor league ballcaps were Chinese-made, it made me wonder if there was any shot at all that US-manufactured bacon caps even existed?
Regardless, I immediately went onto MLBshop.com, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the bacon caps were being sold there as well. I can’t imagine a large variety of minor league caps would be available on MLBshop, since it kind of has to take away from the minor league clubs themselves in some capacity, but whatever, if MLBshop was the place to get US-manufactured caps, then that was where I was going to want to shop from.
So, I ordered another bacon cap. This time, from MLBshop.com, where it says in clear-as-day English that it’s “Made in the USA.” Not “hecho en,” not “China,” but the United States. The question now is, how truthful is the website going to be? Obviously, due to the overwhelming demand of the bacon caps, they’re still backordered, and I can expect to not get my cap until possibly fucking May, but if it turns out to be the perfect fit and look, it’ll be worth it.
But what country is the label of the cap going to say? What happens if it’s US-made and still looks/fits like shit? What happens if it’s Chinese-made, but is perfect in all desired aspects?
Who really knows. At this point, there’s nothing I can do but wait. I can tell you though, if it’s Chinese made, and it’s essentially the same hat I already have, then you better believe there will be some war waged.
All I want is an adequate bacon cap, that’s all.
