In the late 1920s New Era began to develop a new style of baseball cap based on the popular “Brooklyn Style” silhouette of the time. A Melton Wool 6 panel fitted baseball cap was the result and sold into the Cleveland Indians in 1934. The idea was that if its good enough for the major leagues, it's good enough for everyone else.

Harold Koch wanted a carefully crafted fitted cap made of high quality, 100% worsted wool that was uniform and could be mass produced, so the 59FIFTY® was born.

The 59FIFTY® silhouette was developed from the earlier “Brooklyn Style” pattern and made into a more uniform, higher-end product. 8 rows of stitching are applied to each visor of a New Era 59FIFTY®, ensuring a stronger visor and cutting down on slipping of the visor board. This is a leading feature for New Era as most companies used only 2 or 4.

Another more striking feature of this new style was the addition of a stiffening material to the back of the crown. When developing the new cap, Harold noticed that the earlier designs would contour to the heads of the wearer which resulted in the logo pointing straight up, making it hard to identify.

By adding this stiffener, the front of the cap would consistently be pushed forward, therefore always showing the logo in a forward position and making it easier to see. This major innovation is what we now call the high boy or mushroom front.

As the business and style selection grew, so did the need for a simple and quick way to communicate what exact cap was being ordered. A numbering system was put into place for all sales orders, and the term "5950" was coined. No one really knows why the number was chosen.

In 1961, New Era received its first invitation to the Minor League Winter Baseball Meetings in Florida, an opportunity to sell directly to the major and minor league team equipment managers and buyers. This was significant to the brand’s future success.

Most of the selling was done from motel rooms converted into simple showrooms. To help win over teams, incentives were offered such as cap cleaning and reconditioning. By 1965, New Era was supplying caps to about ten of the pro teams.

By now, 20 of the 24 pro baseball teams were wearing New Era caps. However, New Era’s legend was also stretching out far beyond the realms of the baseball diamond, with the company having supplied caps for various branches of the US Armed Forces, the FBI, The US Border Patrol and various NASA missions.

Up until now, New Era had only made baseball caps for MLB and MiLB players. Everyday fans or enthusiasts could not purchase the same caps a player would wear on-field.

In 1980, based on an increasing number of requests from consumers for the on-field caps, New Era pioneered the “FAN” sales business growth by placing a mail-order ad in the Sporting News. Thinking there would only be a handful of mail-orders a month, the ad was met with an overwhelming amount of requests. This alone opened the door to hit the road and sell into local sports supply retailers.

The 1990’s was a pivotal decade for New Era. Because of the success and quality built up since that first team order in 1934, New Era was able to secure the exclusive on-field rights to all teams in the MLB in 1993.

With those rights, MLB on-field caps began featuring the MLB Batterman logo on the back of every cap, giving them an authentication mark for all who could see it. Constantly looking to improve the player experience, New Era and the MLB teams began to experiment with gray fabric under the visors to help with the sun's glare, thus replacing the Kelly Green visor which was long thought to be the best color to relieve stress on the eyes.


In 1996 New Era realized the importance of developing the brand beyond the realm of sports. When filmmaker Spike Lee requested a custom Red New York Yankees cap to wear at a World Series game, the 59FIFTY welcomed a whole new chapter of cultural relevance. The cap quickly became an icon in street style with the newly recognized custom design look in different color options, while the Authentic Collection caps began appearing on-stage at concerts and in the new MTV video culture.

As the New Era name gained notoriety in both sport and culture, branding became an important initiative. In the late 90's, the New Era flag logo was added to the left-wear side of all non-MLB on-field caps, and the now famous visor sticker was implemented to help customers quickly and easily locate their specific size.


With these new brand marks and an understanding that marketing promotion is a major key to success, New Era started to take full advantage of product seeding, forming connections with celebrities and athletes by sending them products they might wear out in public. This grew into collaboration opportunities, creating limited edition caps with celebrities and brands such as Chance the Rapper, Travis Scott, Supreme, Fear Of God, and more.

The early 2000s brought about global growth that was led by the strength of the 59FIFTY®. The brand entered new markets in Canada, UK, Latin American and others simply by telling the “Authentic” story.

In 2007 New Era made the most dramatic update to the 59FIFTY® silhouette by placing the focus on performance. A change was made from the wool on-field caps to a more comfort driven polyester construction, and moisture wicking and UV protection technologies were introduced.

In 2012, New Era became the official sideline cap of the NFL, and in 2016 became the official on court cap of the NBA; making New Era the only brand in sports history to have exclusive on-field, sideline and on court headwear rights for all three major U.S. leagues at the same time. This, along with an estimated 500+ additional licenses, makes New Era the world leader in headwear.

2016 was also the year the first cap with a New Era flag on the left-wear side appeared on-field, worn by a player for the Toronto Blue Jays during the first post season game.

The 59FIFTY® style of today is still very much the same design and construction as it was when it was born in 1954. The only thing that has changed is improvements in manufacturing, materials, performance, and an understanding that there are no limitations on design ideas and inspiration.

2024 marks 70 years of the cap that changed the game. From the first stitch to the latest design, it's been a journey of relentless innovation, unparalleled quality, and undying dedication.