On my last visit to the Adriatic, I don’t recall locals wearing them. I suspect they’d sooner parade around with neon sombreros. Tourists who did have them chose stark white caps, with no or tiny discrete logos, as part of their ‘I’m here working on my own luxury yacht’ look. No one - local or visitor - plays baseball.
A question - there is a version that has a higher front and the back is mesh. They appear to be worn a lot in MAGAmerica. To me those are truckie hats but are they also considered baseball caps?
“Seed caps” had mesh backs and got their name from their being promotional items given to farmers, replacing the traditional straw wide brim hat (and the incidence of skin cancer among farmers increased accordingly). They evolved into trucker caps, with synthetic foam front and mesh backs, and plastic snap adjustment band.
Concerning seed caps or trucker caps, I’d always heard them called “gimme” caps. As in “Gimme one of your [product name here] caps.” Usually free and cheaply made, only a topologist would consider them the same as a quality baseball cap.
I’ve had great success in using caps as the basis for building masks/head coverings for children’s dress up costumes. They are relatively cheap (obviously Chinese off-brand) and adjustable, as I do not necessarily have the child at hand for measurements. I’ll see if I can post examples in a kind of borderline hijack…
Some folks use hats like that as an alternative to sunglasses. They obscure the brightest highest part of the sky. Trucks have great big windows / windshields that let in a lot more sky than cars do.
Many jet drivers wear baseball caps for the same reason. It reduces the amount of sky glare getting to your eyes without darkening your view of the interior like sunglasses would. As between hats, sunglasses, both, or neither you’ll find adherents for each method.
But yeah, this was a quick and dirty project. Nothing as complex as other foam/t-shirt stuff i have done… an entire 1/4 scale elephant mounted on a tricycle, with room for two adults. I visit the Burning Man offshoot here in RSA, Afrika Burn.
But we digress a little. EXCEPT I used to work with this guy, Jack Parow - a South African punk rapper, who makes fun of the caps…
His rap is largely Afrikaans, so not great for the international market, but as you can probably tell, he doesn’t take his persona very seriously.
It’s increasingly common for football [soccer] fans here to wear replica team kit, or at least the shirt. Frequent changes of design, and the price charged for them, have been criticised.
The ‘baseball’ cap is more universal, despite baseball having a negligible following here.
Denmark here. I’m involved in two activities, sailing and kayaking, where some protection against sun or sea spray is a must. Baseballcap-like headgear is by far the most common.
I’ve often used a fullbrim boonie-hat instead for some years. Advantage: more shadow, and the strap so I don’t have to worry about a sudden gust landing the hat on “the blue shelf”.
Generally I’d say they are popular with outdoorsy types.
ETA: interest here in the game baseball is very low. Probably even cricket is played more.
This part is the truth. The manager is out there with a uniform, that has a number on it, cap, shirt, pants, stirrups and spikes. It’s hilarious when you think about it.
The fans, not so much. Honestly, a kid wearing a jersey at a soccer or basketball game is every bit as game ready as a baseball fan.
Oh, and you’ll have to pry the backwards baseball cap out of Kid Cheesesteak’s cold dead fingers.
They may not take a bath for 2 or 3 days and it’s for hiding you messy hair. I often wear a cap for this reason as well.
I’ve worn seed caps as well, as they were given out to field workers at the start of the season. I thought my DeKalb hat was pretty cool back in the day (I was 15) when we detasseled corn fields.
The big advantage seems to be not sun protection, where any full-brimmed hat would be better and more sensible, but just glare and direct sun protection for the eyes. And the lack of a full brim prevents it acting like a racing yacht sail and flying off into the sky when there is the slightest breeze.
I keep a baseball cap in the car, just in case I need to stand around outdoors without shade, but in the Australian summer am always paranoid that my ears and the back of my neck are exposed to so much UV. We have had a long-running skin cancer prevention campaign - ‘Slip, slop, slap’ [slip on a rashie or long-sleeves, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat]’ that baseball hats make you feel almost nude in the sun unless you have the full kit. As a trivia note, schools enforce a ‘no hat, no play’ rule, where kids are not allowed to run around in the playground at recess / lunch unless you have a broad-brimmed hat.
So, a cap must keep the sun off your eyes and neck simultaneously? It doesn’t make sense to adjust it for which way you’re looking or walking?
The ball cap has a lot of good points. Minimal size and weight. Neater than roll-up designs. Easy to make adjustable fit models. Easy to make ventilated designs. Exceptional brim length to keep sun out of your eyes. The brim is almost wind proof (but as pointed out, there’s no chin strap).
Sometimes I’ll wear one if I’m shooting an SLF camera. Keeps the sun off my head and out of my eyes, Takes up little room and is culturally acceptable indoors. And if I want to use an external flash on my camera — which is now just a couple times a year — the brim gets spun to the back of my head (which you can’t to with most other brimmed hats).
The US military uses baseball-like caps with some uniforms. And one simply never wears military hats indoors. So what to do with your hat, of whatever description, when it’s not on your head?
Baseball caps with their large bill tuck very neatly into your pants (or skirt) at the small of your back. They stay there securely and are easy to retrieve when you need it. And don’t interrupt the clean lines of your appearance from the front. That was standard wear, rather than clutching it or crumpling it or … when not wearing it.
It’s always surprised me that that technique doesn’t seem to have caught on in US civilian life. Then again, if your hat is for fashion rather than sun protection, why take it off indoors at all? Philistines.
Not that there’s any significance to this observation but I find it interesting that the closest thing to universal casual dress is composed of two sports derived elements on top (baseball cap) and bottom (athletic shoes) and two work derived elements in between (t-shirt and blue jeans). It’s a warped sort of fashion following function since people don’t specifically dress like this for exercise or work.
