Saw this @celtics hat at a LIDS the other day. I was massively confused. Dallas Cowboys colors on a Celtics hat. @UniWatch?? pic.twitter.com/nwqif54NPq
— Jason Romano (@JasonRomano) July 6, 2023
I don’t usually write about retail slop, but the cap in the tweet shown above is too funny to ignore. What really gets me about it is how the shades of navy and silver feel so unmistakably Cowboys-y — even though the Cowboys don’t often wear navy! It really speaks to how powerful a certain color combo can be, even if it’s not the one that a team usually wears.
How does something like this get made? Like, did someone mix up their team names that start with “C” and push the wrong button or check the wrong box on the work order? If anyone in the industry would like to enlighten us, please do!
I hate maker’s mark/corporate logos on everything, but you have to wonder if New Era would have been okay with it if their mark was slapped on the side of the cap.
You can buy MLB caps in every color under the sun. I don’t get the surprise here.
I was at a Nats game and saw a hat in the team store in Marlins colors.
I once came across a “Philadelphia Penguins” hat. It was clearly a bootleg knock-off.
Well I have a Broncos Hat in almost Chiefs colors. They do mixed color ways all the time. And this is a Mitchell & Ness hat, so the first comment was right, I doubt New Era would be ok with their logo being slapped on the side…
Which begs the question: Which team’s uniforms would look better, the Celtics in Cowboys colors or the Cowboys in Celtics colors?
Both teams would look surprisingly okay is my guess.
Champion sportswear was founded and based in Rochester for years, and they had an outlet store nearby. Mistakes like these were not uncommon and those rejects would end up in the bargain bin. I remember a University of Michigan sweatshirt in white and green!
I personally own a red Louisiana Tech sweatshirt with the lettering silkscreened in purple and gold… Yes someone screenprinted “Louisiana Tech” in Louisiana State’s colors. It’s so ugly it’s beautiful. Four bucks!
This is not a mistake.
You can get caps in every color scheme under the sun. I have a cool Expos hat in black, teal, and magenta that apparently matched some custom Nike sneakers c. 2010. But you can get Yankees in Mets colors, White Sox in A’s colors, etc.–whatever you want, you can probably find! When I was big into fitteds, my favorite was a navy cap with a white White Sox 1919 logo, and red bill from Ecapcity. I would love someone to make that one again! Totally lost it or gave it away drunk one night (don’t remember exactly!) That scheme would make a great alternate uniform IMHO; mashing up 1919 and 1983
The hat would have been to match the Griffey Swingman’s that came out around that time. I had a pair of the cleats in 2004/5, but the sneakers get re-released every few years. Here’s a link: link
The latter…theoretically, it makes the Cowboys a 2-color team again.
No more blue and silver mismatches!
They seem to come in these colors for every team:
link
Is it weird that my first thought wasn’t Cowboys but Georgetown?
Nope, I thought the same.
Maybe, it was supposed to be a Patriots’ colorway for the Celtics. But because of the similarity of colors, it is was mistakenly sorted and shipped to Dallas.
I would love to day that’s a mistake, but it probably isn’t. Lids has been doing that for a while now. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I wanted to vomit when I walked into a Lids store and saw a Los Angeles Dodgers cap in orange and black next to a Giants cap in blue and white.
New Era regularly promotes that Spike Lee requesting a red Yankees cap from them in ’96 opened their eyes to audience demand for colorways outside of teams’ official colors… and sparked what became the fashion/streetwear/collector side of their biz.
It is fashion indeed, aimed at people who do not give a lot about strict team colors. I have some fashion hats myself that I wear in the streets, If I would go to a game I would wear official team colors only.