“If only we could see the endless chain of consequences that result from our smallest actions…” This phrase is one of the most accurate we have heard in a long time. If something is not born, not created or thought of, it will not generate movement or influence on anyone, right?
The origin of baseball caps, also called “trucker” in the 19th century, has caused that today we can offer our own designs.
Next, we tell you how the revolutionary phenomenon started that has generated that today we have a great mechanism of expression and communication with the world: The caps.
THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING
The history of baseball caps, like so many other revolutionary phenomena in the world, has its origin in the United States. Such is the influence that this accessory has had on the country that it could even be said that it is one of the national icons of American culture.
The structure that covers the head area is made of a soft and light material, and the visor of the current baseball cap is hard and its size can be modified and adjusted to the contour thanks to a plastic strap located at the back.
The models prior to baseball caps take influence from the typical hats of the last decades of the 19th century, which were illustrated in famous books like Sherlock Holmes. They were also inspired by riders' caps, military hats called pillbox, felt hats, and canotiers.
If we go back to the first manufacture of the first batch of baseball caps, we see that they were made of wool and had a leather patch on the front. Their design and production was exclusively aimed at the use of players of professional baseball teams in the last half of the 19th century.
Around the year 1800, the first baseball teams were born in the United States, and in 1876 the National League was created to regulate the sport. In the rules about the clothing that players should or should not wear on the playing field, there was no mention of the use of a standardized cap, so each team had full freedom to use the hat that best suited their needs and best protected them from the sun. In general, players usually opted for straw hats or pillbox style hats.
Many of them preferred straw hats in canotier style or similar. There is such a variety of hats, caps, and headwear that players began to use, that they were collected in The Official Spalding Baseball Guide of 1888.
As could be expected, elite athletes also had great influence at that time, so fans of this sport also wanted to equip themselves with this new accessory to feel they belonged a little more to the world of their idols. Once the 20th century began, this accessory began to be seen, besides on the playing field, in the wardrobes of “mundane” people.
As the years passed, trends changed, and the influence and interest in fashion in society increased, caps and their use also evolved and reached numerous sectors within the market. Today we wear the baseball cap as a symbol of support for a certain team, as a way to communicate a thought or message, as a stylistic resource, or even as a political statement; remember the red caps worn by truck drivers that had the phrase “Make America Great Again” inscribed on the front, which former U.S. President Donald Trump used as the slogan of one of his political campaigns.
The cap that today we call “baseball cap” began to take shape at the beginning of the 20th century. The iconic holes were added around the head area, logos and stitching on the visors began to become popular, and as the century progressed, patches became larger and more visible, the cap’s structure more rigid, and little by little, the cap we see everywhere today was standardized.
Since the 1950s, the structure of the baseball cap has not undergone many changes, but it has been used in countless scenarios and situations. Besides the use of caps as support from fans to their favorite baseball teams, agricultural companies that also saw this accessory as an opportunity for self-promotion began to equip their truck drivers with caps that had the company logo inscribed on the front. This is the reason why baseball caps are also called trucker caps.
On the other hand, the cap has also been used as an icon of equality between men and women, since it is an accessory without gender; we have seen female icons like Lady Di and male icons like Tom Cruise include a baseball cap in their outfit, which also helped consolidate the cap in the world of high-standard fashion.
Once fully established in everyday society, people began to play with the placement of the cap on the head. Depending on each person’s identification with a certain social group, the cap would be worn forward, backward, to one side…
Today, the baseball cap or trucker cap represents musicians, celebrities, the working class, and the political class. And, of course, from the humblest brands to the most well-known, they produce their own models and styles, continuing to extend the legacy that was created, by chance, almost two centuries ago.
BORN TO…
As we mentioned earlier, trucker caps, or baseball caps, are given an infinite variety of uses. At The Indian Face we have always been great enthusiasts of this accessory, and we believe it is an ideal vehicle to communicate with a world that still does not know us. The way we dress and how we present ourselves daily before the crowd is the only way others have to try to identify who we are, so fashion is an important and determining factor to which we must pay attention.
We wanted to create an accessory that would help those who share our values and our way of understanding life, so after a season of trial and error, we decided to launch our Born to (something) cap collection.
Let us tell you why some of them:
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Born to be free cap:
At The Indian Face we consider ourselves ambitious, restless, hardworking, and optimistic people. But, in addition, we like to escape, from time to time, from routine, obligations, and the density of the city. We need to feel free and it is there, where you have to look for the sound in an environment where silence reigns, the shade is found under the trees, and the music is heard in the birdsong, where we are fully ourselves, where our essence is freed, and where we find the real meaning of our existence.
The Born To Be Free caps are a hymn to life and to the days when we feel infinite. Traveling, doing sports, being with friends in a natural, pure environment where you can see the sky covered with stars at night are the vehicles that led us to create them.
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Born to Surf cap:
Surfing is one of the engines of our daily life. Waking up with the sun, grabbing our board, and going barefoot to the street looking for salty water like crazy is a routine we dream of when we are far from it, and that we live fully aware and grateful for every minute when we can do it.
Surfing is one of the activities that most coexists with nature. We work our body, our mind, and gratefully receive what the force of the wind, the tides, and the seasonal moment offer us.
If there is a sport that represents the spirit of The Indian Face, it is surfing.
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Born to Run cap:
Someone once said that running is for cowards. But what if you run towards fear? To overcome it, defeat it, to ally with it.
At The Indian Face we are very much into running. We run to celebrate a victory, to forget a defeat, we run when it rains, when there are no clouds in the sky, we run just because, because with every stride our problems weigh less, our mind frees itself and begins to flow with good energy and positive thoughts.
Our Born To Run caps are designed for all those who were born running and for those who have gradually joined this sport that, besides being enriching, is addictive.
We hope this article has been useful to you and that you have learned something new about baseball caps. Also, we encourage you to visit our website and take a look at our caps. And you, what were you born for?
