How To Design An Official Steelers Cap

The folks from New Era reveal it’s more complicated than you think.

Photo Courtesy of New Era Cap

Todd Sokolowski, Sr. Director of On-Field Product, talks you through the traditional Steelers cap ahead of their Thanksgiving Day match up against the Ravens.

Technology

We look at developing headwear products that take teams and players through the entire season. For the Steelers, their training camp headwear is lightweight, breathable, and moisture wicking to ensure they perform correctly in the heat. When we go into December games, it’s all about cold weather knits and special fleeces.

Silhouette

We chose the 59/50 silhouette, a true fitted cap, sine it’s probably the most well known one in the industry. We explained to each club that we wanted to have an iconic cap with just the primary logo, something that the fans could identify with.

Colors

When we obtained the NFL license, we had to dye thread and fabrics to match the unique colors within the 32 clubs. All the different fabrics we use for the teams throughout the season are dyed and approved. For example, the Buccaneers have a unique orange in their logo; they’re the only team to have ever had that shade of orange and we had to develop it uniquely for them. With Pittsburgh we knew that the cap had to be a solid black, not a two-tone color like we use with some other teams.

Logo

When we’re dealing with on-field products we’ll work directly with the NFL, and they’ll provide style-guides to begin with – how certain logos should be used, their size, the colors, everything. With the Steelers, we needed to watch the specific placement of the hyper-cycloids, the three different colored stars. We were consistently reminded that the hyper-cycloids almost touch at the tips, forming two little footballs in the empty space.

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