Detroit Tigers: How to find your perfect baseball cap

The Detroit Tigers cap. In pop culture, there are so many references to the classic home cap. From Ice Cube in “Boyz in the Hood” to Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I., the old English “D” is a well-traveled logo that looks good on any cap at least in my opinion.

Like music choices, fashion is subjective to personal choices. Today, New Era dropped the local market caps for all of the MLB teams.  The Detroit Tigers cap featured a cherry, the area code “313” and a few others symbols that are represented Detroit.

To me at least, New Era mailed it in with this design. There are others, like Hat Club (one of my favorite spots to get a cap) and Cap USA in Harlem, NY that make custom-fitted hats that take the Detroit Tigers cap in brand new directions and are much better than this New Era set.

New to collecting caps? Here is a mini-guide to collecting Detroit Tigers caps

First and foremost, it really depends on how much you want to spend and what type of style you want to go with. If you are a Detroit Tigers fan like myself, then perhaps you want to go with the various fitted, snapback, or adjustable with fitted caps being the most popular.  New Era is the major license for both MLB and MiLB so you are bound to find the official cap there. Ebbets Field is good for vintage wool caps, including a 1935 Detroit Cubs cap, a black semi-pro team that featured a few Detroit Stars players.

If you are into history, make sure you know the Detroit Tigers team history. The store at Comerica Park has various caps throughout history that started in 1896. Todd Radom did a great piece a few years back about the history of the “D” and most recently, the away “D” went back to the big “D” that was similar to the Tigers away caps that ran from 1972 until 1983, which thankfully did not last that long and went back to the old, smaller D a few years back.

The reason why it is important to know your history of the Detroit Tigers is that there are fakes out there.

Lids.com offers special deals if you become a member so you can save money that way.  Sites I mentioned earlier like Hat Club and Cap USA offer one-time makes so make sure if you are new to collecting, set your alerts on social media for when new caps are coming out because they sell out fast.

Another way to collect caps is through the minor leagues. The Tigers affiliates have some of the best caps in the minors with the West Michigan Whitecaps having a wide assortment to represent not only themselves been the “Beer City” of Michigan but thanks to Copa de la Diversión, the MilB’s season-long campaign to celebrate the Hispanic community, you can collect one of these.

The SeaWolves also got into the mix as they are known as the Pinatas.

Not everyone is a cap collector and people root for their teams via a shirt or foam finger. But the collectors out there ( I have 102) who may be looking for a Denver Bears cap (They were a Tigers minor league team in the early 1960s) or looking for an Evansville Triplets cap (Tigers Triple-A affiliate  1974-1984), I can relate to the thrill of the hunt.