NikeTalk New Era Fitted Cap Release Thread

[dathbgboy]

Glad the money is going to a great cause, too bad I missed out on the hats again even w/ the glimmer of hope, found out that the sticker on the hat was wrong and the hat actually wansn't my size. Feels bad man.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Glad the money is going to a great cause, too bad I missed out on the hats again even w/ the glimmer of hope, found out that the sticker on the hat was wrong and the hat actually wansn't my size. Feels bad man.

Happened to me too...I squeeze my head in that gat every time I wear it.

 

[6 Rings G.O.A.T.]

 

[wooly11]

Just sad

 

[fastcash]

they pulled a fast one

 

[mr jordan04]

I ordered custom hats from new era directly from one of their reps for our baseball team a few years ago and there was only a 24 hat minimum. They let you design it up and down, obviously at a charge for extra things you add.

Any reason as to why the minimum is 144?

 

[s dubl]

Might be more work, and more time consuming, but maybe we can figure out an efficient method of linking screen names to orders, to help avoid the fraudulent claims. Or at least be able to remove those members from the site.

It's definitely time for a new hat for me... Can't wait.

 

[Methodical Management]

 

Glad the money is going to a great cause, too bad I missed out on the hats again

even w/ the glimmer of hope, found out that the sticker on the hat was wrong and the hat actually wansn't my size. Feels bad man.

Happened to me too...I squeeze my head in that gat every time I wear it.

Initially, we wanted to develop fitted hats because that just seemed to be the most authentic and high quality offering, and the one that we felt best reflected our fellow members' requests.  

While many people do consider fitted caps to be a more premium offering than a snapback, the truth of the matter is that snapbacks address some significant issues.  Order fulfillment is kind of a nightmare for a release like this - especially as you scale up.  A "one size fits all" product requires less organization and effort to stock and ship, and customers don't have the same worry when it comes to sizing.  

That same versatility allows you to change hairstyles without changing hats - which is something we've heard more and more of this time around. 

With a limited release, we can't accept exchanges for different fitted cap sizes, and turnaround time is such that each release takes months to come together.  

We're not giving up on the NT fitted, but, in the short term, I think a snapback is a more realistic option.  

Don't ask me for the details yet, because there are far too many moving parts right now.  It's too early to discuss future releases other than to reassure everyone that, because it's important to so many of you, it's something that we feel is worth fighting for.  

can't believe people pulled the chargeback scam on a charitable cause.

@Methodical Management is their anyway to link the scammers to their NT account because whose to say they wouldn't scam users on here... or else where?

Great work and I'm happy we raised that much

Since the caps weren't sold on NikeTalk, there isn't much information to go on.  You didn't have to be a NikeTalk member to purchase the product.  

It's been so far since the release that I'm not sure how much data we'd have available - and I'd say their eager to move on.  

$3,000 is more than we raised with the initial release, but it was not - for a number of reasons - double the initial donation even though we made twice as many.  The caps themselves became more expensive, for example, as did the process of shipping them all out.  

Clearly Paypal was a vulnerability in this case.  Lots of people like to have that option for various reasons, but that convenience comes at a cost.  Obviously nobody expected nearly one in ten caps to be essentially stolen, but we'll learn from it and move on.  

I can honestly say we made our best effort to raise as much as we could for the EJI and to satisfy as many NikeTalk members as we could.  We made the most caps our partners would allow.  We added a very modest price increase to offset increased product costs, dampen resale value, and improve the yield to charity.  We held a giveaway contest.  We ran a sizing survey to tailor the release to those most interested.  We had far fewer people who wanted a cap come away empty handed this time than last.  

I ordered custom hats from new era directly from one of their reps for our baseball team a few years ago and there was only a 24 hat minimum. They let you design it up and down, obviously at a charge for extra things you add.

Any reason as to why the minimum is 144?

The problem is that we're not making these for the company softball team, we're making them for resale.  That's not something you can get from the arm of New Era that brings in blanks and does small batch embroidery.  We didn't buy blanks and get them custom embroidered.  These were made by New Era for Cap City, which is a different animal.  

In our case, the 144 minimum was something that was relevant to the first release - but not this one.  This time, we were concerned with how many we could reasonably order - not how few.  

As crazy as this release was with a total of 240 some caps in the online inventory system, imagine what it would've been like with 40 something caps in the online inventory system.  Then imagine if 10 or so of those 40 orders wound up being fraudulent.  At a certain point, it's not worth it to anybody.  It's a nightmare for the people selling it.  It's a nightmare for the people buying it.  It raises less money for charity than offering signature badges.  

Though we will not be able to sell caps through ecapcity.com next time around, we do still have some options available and some really great people have stepped up to offer their help.  I can't comment on any ongoing discussions, but I'm confident enough in what we've been able to do thus far that I can safely promise that - somehow, someway - we will succeed in making NT caps available at some point, and possibly by the end of this year.  

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Meth, you've been a solid dude holding this community together for the 12 years I've been here. Props to you.

With the traffic that you get on this site, it takes a person with a great heart to turn over so much money and ensure so much stress for charity.

Just wanted to thank you for that.

Also, a snapback does make tons more sense. I wouldn't be against that, and I think that after seeing this we all really have no choice but to accept that.

Plus I already got my fitted.

Will definitely cop a snapback, though.

 

[ciscokid]

Great to hear! Hopefully I won't strike out for a 3rd time

 

[mr jordan04]

Methodical Management I'm not trying to argue or prove you wrong, just trying to get some clarity. What's the difference between hats for a "company softball team" vs hats made for ecapcity?

It's been a few years but I remember the new era rep sending me a blank template and telling me what I wanted, color, brim, string, don't, logo etc and any of that could be whatever color I wanted. It was direct from new era "factory" per say

 

[Methodical Management]

That spoiler.

Props to everyone involved (ISS included

).
 

Trust me, I'm as familiar with ISS' baggage as anyone, but you guys have to understand that the ONLY thing the current incarnation of that site has with the previous one is the name.

ISS is no longer owned by the same person as Sole Collector.  It's not run by old ISS Steve.  

In 2015, ISS is owned and operated by a NT'er.  

Look at what that's meant:  a business that used to try and take advantage of NikeTalk is now a paid sponsor.  Not only are they a paid sponsor, they've gone beyond the terms of that sponsorship to offer a percentage of the site's earnings to our preferred charities.

We all want to see NT make a difference in the industry and in the world - this is a nice example of what can happen when NT members begin running their own businesses in ways that attempt to respect the community and honor our shared values.  It's been really cool to see.  

@Methodical Management I'm not trying to argue or prove you wrong, just trying to get some clarity. What's the difference between hats for a "company softball team" vs hats made for ecapcity?

It's been a few years but I remember the new era rep sending me a blank template and telling me what I wanted, color, brim, string, don't, logo etc and any of that could be whatever color I wanted. It was direct from new era "factory" per say

You don't resell the company softball team hats.  The website that handles those team hat releases doesn't sell to stores.  They aren't a bypass.  If you own a store or a website, you need a New Era account to sell New Era products.  You can't circumvent that by going through the custom team hat website, and it's a different production method, too.  It's not "select each color of each material and the factory will make it to your specs."  It's "pick a blank hat color for the base and we'll pull those in your sizes and embroider them."  

You can go to Lids and there's no minimum order, either.  It's the same basic concept.  

 

[GrizzlyAnimal]

can't believe people pulled the chargeback scam on a charitable cause.
 

What a shame 

 

[instyleshoes]

@Methodical Management, Congrats and Thank you. We're looking forward to the upcoming Snapback release as well.

 

[htg designs]

Can I trade in my reps for a cap?

 

[rustlenomics]

thats pretty scummy to do that chargeback nonsense, those are the same dudes selling the pair from last saturday to get the pair coming out this saturday.

too bad i have a size 7 hat thats too big but i dont trust anybody on here anymore.

 

[SC kid]

 i dont trust anybody on here anymore.

Lol

 

[Bert.]

Glad they might be coming back, hopefully a lot more
This time.

Sucks to hear about the scammers

How can they get their money back if you guys have proof they were delivered? SMH

 

[Methodical Management]

Can I trade in my reps for a cap?

 

[SC kid]

 

[evolution fight]

Can't seem to bring myself to wear my gorgeous nt fitted, and now knowing that the next release will be a snap back :x
I'll probably put it in a case or something

 

[rillo561]

Please no snapback :x

 

[Nawzlew]

Please no snapback :x

im ok with snapbacks if it means more people will get a hat.

 

[a blinkin]

Glad to have contributed and have gotten a chance to have a hat. I barely wear it because I want it to stay in great condition over the years. I plan on repping in 10+ years. It sucks that people out there scammed something that was meant for an act of charity. Messed up people out there.

Props on the contribution.

 

[jjs]

been wearing my hat alot lately