I have long desired a baseball cap that lets me show my hometown pride without necessarily being affiliated with a sports team.
I like the Edmonton Eskimos, and I wear my “EE” hat with pride. But I feel like I am wearing the team, rather than the city when I wear my Esks cap. And I’m not a big enough hockey fan to feel right wearing an Oilers cap, even if it didn’t come with the exact same problem as the Esks one.
In many cities, baseball teams have created a logo that transcends the sport and represents more than just the team. Baseball caps, as they relate to actual baseball teams, are often emblazoned with nothing more than a stylized letter or two.
Think of the gothic “D” for Detroit; for a lot of people, that symbol means Detroit first and the Detroit Tigers second (if at all). The New York Yankees logo has similar connotations for New York City (though, probably not if you actually live in New York, since they have two baseball teams).
The Edmonton Capitals could have done something similar for Edmonton. A stylized “E” would have been a great emblem for Edmontonians to wear, whether they are baseball fans or not.
Instead, they ended up with an ugly combination of the letters “E” and “C.”
I will not be wearing an Edmonton Capitals cap any time soon (especially not since they pulled the plug on their 2012 season).
I had given up hope of ever finding a hat that screams “Edmonton” without also screaming “Famous Sports Team,” until I walked into Foosh on Monday afternoon.
I rarely shop on Whyte Avenue these days, and it is even more rare that I venture into Foosh. But I walked into the store on Monday while waiting for Dadeo to open up for lunch and stumbled upon the etown foosh cap.
The cap simply says: etown. It represents the city without representing any sports teams. And it is awesome.
I didn’t buy one at the time, because I wasn’t sure if I could pull off the flat-brimmed hip hop look. I’m still not. But I will be buying one of the etown caps. It comes in red, black, red and black, or Oilers colours (blue and orange).
According to the website there are also blue and grey ones, but I didn’t see those when I was in the store.
If I can’t pull of the fresh, flat-brimmed look, then I’ll just curve the brim like I would with any other baseball cap. I know that these hats aren’t supposed to be worn with a curved brim, but I’m not going to walk around looking like a tool if I can’t pull off the “proper” way of wearing it.
I’ll give it a try, though. I know a 40-year-old dude with three kids who somehow pulls it off, and he is definitely not “street” or “gangsta.”
Besides, I was told that I looked like I belonged in Run DMC when I was trying on the hat. It wasn’t meant as a compliment, but I think I’ll take it as one.
And maybe I’ll buy a Run EDM t-shirt to go with my new cap.