The long, strange history of the baseball cap

Though the New York Knickerbockers were baseball’s first “official” team, forming in 1845, it would take them four more years before the team began to wear baseball hats. Presumably, at some point the team figured out they’d catch more fly balls if they didn’t lose them in the sun. But rather than resembling what you see on the field today, the Knickerbockers wore “chip” or straw hats….

It wouldn’t take long for the teams and sporting goods companies to realize that there was probably something that fit better on a baseball field than a barbershop-quartet-ready chip straw hat. So, a few years later, the first lid that resembled today’s ballcaps was worn: Teams like the New York Mutuals and Brooklyn Excelsiors switched to a merino cap topped with a star-like pattern made by New York sporting goods company Peck & Snyder. This cap featured “the two main characteristics of the modern-day baseball cap: a crown and a bill (or visor).” It was called the No. 1 and cost about $1.25 to $2 to purchase.

Though A.G. Spalding bought out the company in 1894, Aron and Joe Sharpe recently brought the Peck and Snyder brand back to life, diving through the archives for inspiration for the modern caps and shirts.