The 2017 version of the official NFL Draft hats that draftees taken in the first round will wear Thursday night have some new design elements.
One of the most iconic moments in professional sports occurs when an NFL first-round draft selection gets his name called, then puts on a hat bearing the corresponding team’s logo as he makes his way to center stage for photos. New Era NFL Draft hats have been providing that moment for years, and the design for 2017 is a combination of fan-favorite elements with new twists.
One of the lead designers on this year’s NFL Draft hats for New Era, Mike Raychel, spoke about why this year’s hats are different from previous years.
“We started the process of designing these hats about 15 months ago, and it’s always a challenge to come up with something unique each year,” Raychel explained. “The crown color is the big change for this year. In previous years we have gone with the primary team color. We decided to go with white for all teams this year for something different and the product looks great.”
That isn’t the only thing about this year’s design that Raychel thinks makes this year’s hats stand out, however.
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“The visor itself has changed a lot. It’s a metallic faux leather in the primary team color,” Raychel added. “We then took the most dynamic part of the team’s logo and blew it up to wrap around the visor.”
Not everything in this year’s design is unique, however. For the third year in a row, the liquid chrome embossed logos are on the hats, and that feature has been a hit with customers over the past few years.
These hats aren’t just available to those few players whose names will be called on Thursday night, however. They are available to the general public in an array of styles as well, which turns the NFL Draft weekend festivities into a marketing event for New Era.
“The event is a big deal for us in and of itself,” Raychel stated. “We use images from it in our marketing. We are located in Buffalo, so our hometown team is the Bills. We are having an event on Saturday with the Bills’ first-round pick. He will help announce some of the picks on Saturday. We will do some custom designs with him. It will be picked up by the NFL Network with Steve Tasker on site.”
Although the line is produced to be released in time for the NFL Draft each year and originally marketed as such, New Era hopes that the product will be one that fans will purchase throughout the year. If the early returns are any indication, that hope is well-founded.
“We have gotten some really great feedback on this design,” Raychel commented. “People like that it’s different from what we have done in the past, and they like how the logo ties in with the eyelets and visor. It’s done very well and I believe it’s been our best-selling draft cap yet. We don’t date or call out draft anywhere on the hats so it gives them a longer life. There’s a whole collection in addition to the on-stage version to reach every kind of fan.”
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As the names are called on Thursday night, fans will have an opportunity to connect with the newest players on their favorite teams by purchasing the same hat that the players wore as they were selected. Even without that attraction, however, the look of these hats is good enough to sell them to NFL fans on its own.