The 2014 MLB All-Star Hat Collection
This year's MLB All-Star Game, set to take place Tuesday night in Minneapolis will have a slightly different look to it, one might even call it historical. MLB announced earlier this month that this year’s All-Star players and coaches would all be wearing caps featuring a design based on the 1979 Minnesota Twins’ batting helmets.
With bringing back the design, this marks the first All-Star game in which all players and coaches will be wearing the same template. It’s been quite some time since the Minnesota Twins hosted an All-Star Game, the last in 1985, which to MLB vice president Tim Brosnan, was the perfect opportunity for this year’s cap design.
"Returning to Minnesota [for the All-Star Game] for the first time in almost 30 years, we wanted to honor the Twins' history with new ideas and their distinctive batting helmet design from the 1970s made perfect sense,” Brosnan said in a news release.
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With MLB as the only sport not to have a set All-Star Game uniform, the hats will bring together players and coaches in at least a somewhat unified look.
“For the first All-Star Game, played in 1933, National League players wore "National League" jerseys and "NL" caps, but American League players wore their regular uniforms and caps. All players have worn their regular jerseys and game caps since,” Brosnan added.
While this year's cap template is nostalgic, with a clear triangular design from the late ’70’s Twins squad, the hats will also feature each team’s color and logo along with the All-Star Game logo on the left side and gold stars on the back.
Despite the old-school vibe, the technology is far from outdated. The caps are from New Era’s Diamond Era Collection, designed with NE Tech to keep players cool and comfortable on the field, and also feature Solarera technology that offer 50+ UV protection.
Christopher H. Koch, CEO of New Era, spoke about the hats showcasing history on such a grand stage.
"We wanted to highlight the game's illustrious past with a retro design concept, but with the modern twist of utilizing performance fabric,” Koch told MLB.com. "We're excited to bring the best cap to the best players, on baseball's biggest stage."
2014 MLB All-Star Caps
