New Era made a deal with the KBO in 2008 to start producing caps for their players and at first it looked kind of grim (Koreans generally tend to gravitate toward bigger sporting goods suppliers such as Nike and generally haven't been too keen on the flat brims), but with a growing interest in "hip hop culture" in Korea and the popularity of groups like Big Bang and 2NE1, fitteds are starting to find a niche in Korean fashion.
At first the hats were kind of bland, but they seem to have stepped up marketing a bit and I hope that they'll start catching on soon.
Here are my favorite on-fields (The Kia Tigers are sadly absent from this list because although they are this year's KBO champs and have the most championships in the history of the league...their cap is woefully aesthetically displeasing and I am shallow):
Lotte Giants (Busan)
As I've explained before, baseball teams in Korea are generally much more affiliated with their sponsor companies (in this case Lotte) than with their cities (Busan for the Giants). What's interesting about Lotte is that it is originally a Japanese company founded by Zainichi Koreans. As of today, there are two companies (from what I understand): Lotte Japan and Lotte Korea, with the latter belonging to the son of the founder of the former. As a result, the Giants have a sort of sister team in Japan, the Chiba Lotte Marines, which is sponsored by Lotte Japan.
Samsung Lions (Daegu)
LG Twins (Seoul)
They've also started to come out with a couple of custom caps:
Lotte Giants Retro
Samsung Lions Custom
I think the potential for customs here is stupendous, considering that many of these franchises have gone through numerous name changes with former teams including the Pintos, the Dolphins, the Blue Dragons, and like I've mentioned before (and still cannot get over) the Hyundai Unicorns.
Pure Frickn' Gold
No comments:
Post a Comment