New Era Cap Company – A Buffalo Success Story

It was a German immigrant who started the company in 1920 right here in Buffalo in a factory at the corner of Genesee Street and Bailey Avenue. Today it generates half a billion dollars in revenue each year and it’s still headquartered in Buffalo. It operates out of the former Federal Reserve Bank Buffalo branch on Delaware Avenue and earlier this month it became an official provider of headgear for the National Football League – New Era Cap Company.

I saw commercials for the company during the NFL draft and I’m so happy that a Buffalo company that was born here and stayed here has had so much success.

In addition to the NFL, New Era is the official cap provider for all of the major league baseball teams, all of
their minor league affiliates as well as pro baseball teams in Japan, Korea and Australia. New Era also has licensing agreements with the NHL, NBA, National Rugby League and more than 200 colleges and universities.

Ehrhardt Koch was the man who started the company more than 90 years ago focusing mainly on uniform and
casual caps with a motto: “quality first, quantity will follow.” It wasn’t until 1934 that New Era started making the first pro baseball caps providing the home and away caps of the Cleveland Indians. By the 1940’s New Era
had a long list of teams they provided caps for and even obliged a special request by Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He asked them to make a special cap to fit his unusually large head and they did.

SOURCE: neweracap.com

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