Derby is Closing

[Whittness]

New Era is shutting down their NY plant and moving all US-based production to Miami

https://buffalonews.com/2018/11/13/new-era-plans-closure-of-derby-manufacturing-plant-in-march-2019/

[shanedcox]

This is horrible

[shanedcox]

Oh they're consolidating it with Miami? Can't help but feel like there will be a cut in production and loss of quality.

[baby dhibs]

Wow.

[Guy Gadbois]

Suspect my collecting hobby might be coming to an end. Wonder if the Miami facility will be making just enough for the teams?

Also horrible for the Derby employees of course.

[wallyhopp]

What happens to naming rights to new era field in Buffalo?

Sadness. This is why I have gravitated to all pre 2015 on fields. It started with Imported materials. Now, why even have a legit factory in the states.

[Fiddy Sicks]

Well, this is probably it for US made 59Fiftys, at least from a consumer standpoint. It’s kind of been in the cards for awhile now as the shift to imported hats has gone way up and the quality of the few remaining US made hats has basically plummeted. It’s a damn shame for people like us, but it’s not at all surprising.

I kinda wonder how this is going to affect their entire operation. It’s a pretty big blow and makes me wonder if they’re really at risk of losing the MLB on-field license. Isn’t that still hung up in contract negotiations?

[Royal Laegotti]

Well with 219 workers being laid off, who were supporting 332 people in the Buffalo headquarters it sounds like they’re waaay to top heavy. Kind of a microcosm of the new socialist America!

[CMPunk]

Terrible. I agree with others that consumer US mades are probably dead. Real nice for their hometown.

[jfi]

This is terrible. I always assumed New Era had its own factory overseas. The fact it contracts out the manufacturing explains the inconsistency we have seen these last few years in the hats made overseas.

[Insomniac186]

As long as MLB requires New Era to make caps domestically, then we will continue to have them. The difference in quality has yet to be seen. Who knows if MLB recently changed the stipulations. All we can do is wait and see.

Anyway, absolutely horrible news for that area of NY. New Era contributes to the economy there so much. I was there is past summer and saw it first-hand. End of an era, no pun intended.
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[baby dhibs]

Manfred had no problem allowing the NE logo in exchange for more money, I have no doubt that if NE will pay a little more he'd have no problem dropping the MUSA requirement.

[wallyhopp]

Like others have mentioned, maybe only team inventory hats for players will be MUSA. If so, were talking mere thousand for the league, with 95% of consumer products being made overseas. Maybe that’s the contract stipulation. We already see 95% of WS patch caps as being made in China. Lots of special edition caps aren’t made here either.

[longtimemlbcapcollector]

[wallyhopp]

Does this affect HC? Are they one of the only retailers who specifically requests MUSA? Where else were they getting their caps made? Is Miami viable? I know they had some smaller 20-100 cap runs constantly so they weren’t exactly keeping NE in business. But that’s a lot of production to move somewhere else. I’ve seen how derby caps are made. Are other factories less hands on and more machine/computer based? It seems like they will have robots making hats and the human touch be 95% out of the picture. Quality will surely take a bit.