Andrew in Amherst

Monday, April 26, 2010

Stay hopeful my friends.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Growing Up

Growing up is...well...a part of life, and an important one at that. Cultures around the world have built festivals around "growing up". I guess in the States we also celebrate adulthood through things such as sweet 16's or going to 7/11 and buying your first Lotto ticket, but I've never really been a part of that culture. I usually spend my birthdays unannounced and occasionally on airplanes and I've never been big on the Lotto (gambling in general for that matter).

I graduate from college in less than 100 days. It's a terrifying idea and come to think of it, the title of this blog will soon become inapplicable. Graduating from college will mean a couple of things....like getting a job, moving out of my parent's house...getting a job...getting an apartment...getting a job....most of which deals with "growing up".

I still have a good chunk of the semester left though so i decided to do something today to signify that I was ready to "grow up". I took all of the stickers off of my caps.

Whether you're in the "they look stupid camp" or the "I can't believe you took them off camp" I thought a lot about this and I'm ok with what I've got left. The stickers are nice. Most people can't come up with an answer as to why they keep them (I've heard everything from "it's to signify that they're 'fresh' and like new" to "You're supposed to handle the hats with the sticker so your fingers don't make them dirty". The second one sounds ridiculous but it's actually proven useful.) I usually kept them on because...well...it's hard to say no to something that's gold and shiny.

It is what it is though, and keeping the sticker on the cap is in the end a fad. So I decided to take off the sticker for a number of reasons:

1. For the health of the hat. The sticker will eventually peel off, and when it does....I will be left with a giant unfaded spot glaring back at me (this has occurred before in the past).

2. Because I'm "growing up". Fads are for kids and let's be honest: I'm gonna look like a fool in a couple of years with a sticker on my hat. I will technically be a functioning adult post graduation and it just doesn't seem right.

I also realized this: The cap does not have the ability to make someone cool. Rather, it is the wearer of the hat that makes the hat look cool. This is true. Wearing a fitted cap with a sticker on it does not make anyone look cool. If you can't pull it off you end up looking like a tool. It's plain and simple. On the other hand, if you are confident in yourself, you can make anything, sticker or no sticker, look stylish.

Ok so long story short I took'em off no regrets.

Monday, January 4, 2010

KBO Fitteds Finally Getting Some Love

Korean Baseball Organization caps are finally getting some attention state side with strictlyfitteds.com's article. Although I have to say, the featured Doosan Bear's logo is not my favorite.

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.