Top Ten Ways To Tell If A New Era Cap Is Authentic

  • Post category:Blog / News

Last Updated June, 2018

We have been serving up New Era hats for over 20 years, going all the way back to the early 1990s. We have seen styles come and go and come back again. We know just about everything there is to know about the production and quality of New Era hats, as we have seen a million of these. Literally.

New Era has gone from a niche brand in the world of hats to THE BRAND. The innovators and originators of the 59FIFTY® fitted, New Era caps are now ubiquitous the world over.

With the rise of their popularity, counterfeiting New Era hats has also risen. If you’re scoping a particularly hard to get fitted, or trying someplace new online, we want to save you from accidentally buying a fake New Era hat by giving you our top ten list of characteristics that show your New Era hat is the real deal. Here ya’ go:

#10 Inside Lining Tape: All new era caps now come with an inner stitching called taping. This taping is one of the essential features of all New Era caps. Without this taping, it just ain’t New Era. The taping will say different things. Currently, most caps have the type of New Era cap logo and the New Era logo. For instance, you have the 59FIFTY® logo with the New Era® logo. Make sure that the logos appear crisp. If the writing on the taping is blurry or looks smudgy, this is a warning sign of a fake New Era cap.

New Era 59FIFTY Fitted Inside Taping

#9 New Era Tag: All new era caps come with stitched in tags on the inside of the cap. With 59FIFTYs, there are at least two tags, the New Era® logo tag with care instructions and the sizing tag (even 9FIFTY snapbacks will have a sizing tag. New Era snapbacks actually come in different sizes, but we only carry Medium-Large, as this is the most common size that fits over 90% of people who wear New Era snapbacks). If the cap is a team cap that is part of a league, like Major League Baseball or the National Football League, there will also be a league logo tag.  Sometimes the stitching is a little off, but as long as it’s there, then you can check this one off.

New Era Tags For A 59FIFTY NFL Hat
New Era Tags For A 59FIFTY NFL Hat
New Era Tags For A Non-Sports League 59FIFTY Fitted Hat
New Era Tags For A Non-Sports League 59FIFTY Fitted Hat

#8 New Era Sizing Sticker: All new era caps come with a sizing sticker. For all those who wear 59FIFTY fitteds, you know this as the circular metallic gold sticker. The sticker is usually on top of the visor, but sometimes they are placed on the under visor, usually done if the visor is made with a special material that is sensitive to the adhesives in the sticker. All fitted caps come with the iconic gold 59FIFTY size sticker. On other styles of New Era caps you will get a different sticker, but every New Era cap will come with a sticker.

New Era 9FIFTY Sizing Sticker
New Era 9FIFTY Sizing Sticker
New Era 59FIFTY Sizing Sticker
New Era 59FIFTY Sizing Sticker
New Era Adjustable Sizing Sticker
New Era Adjustable Sizing Sticker
New Era 39THIRTY Sizing Sticker
New Era 39THIRTY Sizing Sticker

#7 Silver Holographic Sticker: All team caps will come with a silver holographic sticker from their league. These stickers vary widely, so again the most important thing is to just make sure that there is one that matches the league your New Era team hat belongs to.

New Era NBA Hardwood Classics Holographic Sticker
New Era NBA Hardwood Classics Holographic Sticker
New Era NHL Holographic Sticker
New Era NHL Holographic Sticker
New Era NFL Holographic Sticker
New Era NFL Holographic Sticker

#6 MLB On Field Hats Only, Rectangular Holographic Sticker: Speaking of holographic stickers, all MLB on field caps will have a rectangular sticker that says “Authentic”. But it is only the on field caps. Custom color caps and limited edition prints that are not worn on field during official league games will have the circular baseball holographic sticker.

New Era MLB Authentic Collection On Field Holographic Sticker
New Era MLB Authentic Collection On Field Holographic Sticker
New Era MLB Custom Holographic Sticker
New Era MLB Custom Holographic Sticker

#5 MLB On Field Hats Only, NE® Logo Button Backing: One unique feature that New Era started putting in their MLB on field hats a few years ago are the NE® logo button backers. This is the pin that goes into the button on top of the hat. The pin is visible if you look inside at the center of the hat. These are featured only in the MLB On Field Authentic Collection hats.

NE Logo Button Backer
NE Logo Button Backer

#4 MLB and NFL On Field Hats, Big Black Sticker: More and more, New Era is using the big black sticker for its official on field hats. This is just for 59FIFTY on field hats and this sticker normally goes over the 59FIFTY gold sticker on top of the visor. New Era uses this sticker mainly for the NFL and MLB on field caps, but we have seen them use these big black stickers for other leagues, like the World Baseball Classic. If you have an NFL or MLB on field hat, you should have this sticker on your hat. If your hat is an on field hat but not an NFL or MLB hat, don’t sweat it too much. Chances are it doesn’t come with this sticker (New Era NBA and NHL for sure do not have these big black stickers right now).

2016 UPDATE: Beginning January 1, 2016, ALL On Field hats no longer come with a big black sticker.

2016 to Present: New Era went back to only having the sizing sticker. No more black sticker. Pictured is the Dodgers On Field Game Hat.
2016 to Present: New Era went back to only having the sizing sticker. No more black sticker. Pictured is the Chargers NFL On Field Hat for 2017 Season.
New Era MLB Authentic Collection On Field Black Sticker
New Era MLB Authentic Collection On Field Black Sticker On The Reds Alternate 2 Hat – 2015 and Earlier
New Era NFL On Field Black Sticker
New Era NFL On Field Black Sticker On The 49ers Black Hat – 2015 and Earlier
New Era World Baseball Classic Black Sticker
New Era World Baseball Classic Black Sticker On The Mexico Hat – 2015 and Earlier

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#3 League Logo On Back of Team Hats: Almost all on field caps will have the logo of the league embroidered on the back of the hat. But again, the key distinction here is whether your hat is an official on field hat. For any cap that is not an on field cap, New Era gives shops like us the power to be creative with our designs and not include this logo (although we almost always do, unless the design has a team hit on the back). So this is only a cause for concern if your NFL or MLB on field hat does not have the league logo embroidered on the back.

NFL League Logo

 

MLB League Logo

 

Hardwood Classics NBA League Logo

#2 NE® Logo On Left Side Of The Cap: The NE® logo should be embroidered on the left side of almost every New Era hat. The only times we have not seen this logo on a New Era hat is for the MLB Authentic Collection On Field hats or when there is already something embroidered there. In the latter situation, we’ve only seen this once with the on field World Baseball Classic hats. They have the country flag embroidered over where the NE® logo  should be. But in general, be cautious for any New Era hats that don’t have the NE® logo, except for the MLB On Field hats only, which should never have this logo.

2017 UPDATE: Beginning January 1, 2017, ALL MLB On Field hats will start carrying the NE® logo on the left side.

New Era NE Logo Position On Hat
New Era NE Logo

#1 When In Doubt, Check New Era’s Website: New Era is always changing the techniques they use to show the authenticity of their caps. So, the factors above could change over time. if you’re not addicted to hats like we are, or just don’t want to other trying to figure it out, you can always guarantee that you are buying an authentic New Era cap by purchasing it only from one of New Era’s official shops. You can use New Era’s Store Locator to find official New Era shops in your area. The Store Locator is on New Era’s home page, or access it by clicking here. If the shop you are buying from shows up on their list, then you are for sure buying an authentic New Era cap. And of course, you can always be sure that when you shop at Billion Creation or Billioncreation.com, you are getting the finest that New Era has to offer.

New Era Store Locator Page 1

New Era Store Locator Page 2

Screenshots of the search result for Billion Creation when you look up New Era shops in the 91911

Got any questions? Anything you want to add to what we wrote here? Got comments about this blog or New Era caps in general? Email us at [email protected]. We love knowing what you think so that we can do what we do better.

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