How do I remove the New Era logo?

My brother recently suggested I could upgrade my hat game. He was right: the crusty, adjustable-strap White Sox hat I’d worn for years was due for replacement. I liked the fit and look of the New Era 59Fifty wool ballcap he lent me. But I didn’t care to advertise for a team (a.k.a. company) I don’t care about, nor did I wish to invite small talk about sports.

My mission: replace the logo on an official New Era baseball cap with one of my own design. It was a fun mixed-media project, part art, part craft, and part hack.

I ordered a gently-used cap from eBay. If you don’t care about team logo, the choices are vast! I purchased a 1990s vintage black hat with a black Yankees logo for $13.

The original hat, ready for surgery

First I removed the existing logo. I used a seam ripper to slice threads and pliers to yank on loose ones. When removing logos from other garments, I rip stitches from the back, but that wasn’t possible here due to the white backing liner on the inside.

This part was slow going. All of the yanking with my dominant hand bent the cap slightly. I probably should have done more slicing and snipping and less brute force with the pliers.

Going… (this was messy)

The result wasn’t perfect. A few threads from the logo remained and I pulled out a little material from the hat itself. But it sufficed once I covered it up. I wonder if contrast would have helped. Would a white logo on black hat work better (because the white logo stitches would be easier to selectively remove) or worse (anything left over would stick out)?

Gone! The outline visible here can’t be seen under the new logo.

Next I made the new logo, using the community laser cutter at All Hands Active. I downloaded the Extinction Symbol and loaded it into Lightburn, which auto-traced the outlines. I was ready for the laser.

I cut the logo out of corrugated plastic sheeting, often called Coroplast. Most plastic is unsafe to cut on a CO2 laser, but Coroplast is okay. In Ann Arbor, unscrupulous companies print advertisements on this plastic and illegally place them in the public right-of-way near highway off-ramps and busy intersections.

I considered 3D-printing the symbol. That way I could have controlled its depth – the Coroplast stock is a tiny bit thicker than a New Era-style logo – and added touches like tiny holes through which to sew the logo to the hat. But that would have taken a while to design and print. And I liked the spirit of reusing roadside litter.

The laser burned nearly through and I finished it with an X-ACTO knife.

After the laser cutter Trimmed with the knife

Next, I wrapped the logo. I used a small bundle of embroidery floss, I believe a 8.7 yard bundle of 6-stranded DMC 25. That was exactly enough for this project.

Wrapping underway, trying to keep the knots on the back

A crafty friend at Workantile suggested I wrap the logo before attaching it to the hat. Brilliant!

Mostly wrapped Fully wrapped and ready to mount

I got it almost entirely wrapped, then tacked it onto the hat in a few places with the same thread. Finally, I completed a few tricky wrapping stitches that were easier once the logo was anchored to the hat.

The wrapping is imperfect and in one spot I pulled too hard and compressed the plastic. But from across the room it passes for a commercially-made hat!

The finished product

I’m pleased with how it turned out. I have a comfortable, well-made hat and instead of promoting a sports franchise, I’m starting conversations about living during the Sixth Mass Extinction. Seeing the logo reminds me to think timefully.

If I hack another hat, I’ll consider 3D-printing the symbol to try to precisely match the depth of the hat’s original logo. And I’d start with a hat that isn’t black-on-black so the New Era logo on the side pops: I enjoy the tension and confusion that comes from this being a mass-produced object with a hand-made logo.

After many requests from our readership, I’m proud to offer Uni Watch seam rippers — perfect for DIY uniform projects, or to remove annoying maker’s marks and ad patches from retail caps and jerseys. (You can also get a non-Uni Watch ripper, which is less expensive, here.)

Here’s some basic info:

• These are standard-issue seam rippers with the Uni Watch script applied via a clear decal. (I wanted to get custom-printed rippers — looked far and wide for a supplier — but it turns out that nobody offers that. Too bad.)
• The decals can be oriented for either a left-handed user or a right-handed user.
• The only color I currently have available is white (as shown in the photo at the top of this page). All other colors are sold out, sorry.
• The price is $3 per ripper. No matter how many you order, the shipping charge is $5 per order in the USA. (I realize that may seem like a lot for such a small, lightweight item, but I have to pack the rippers in bubble mailers, which means the Post Office classifies them as packages and charges the package rate.) If you’re outside of the USA, contact me so I can calculate the shipping charge for you.

Okay, ready to order? Tally up the total for your purchase and then send me the proper amount via Venmo (use @Paul-Lukas-2 as the payee), PayPal (newcollegeuni@gmail.com), or Zelle (plukas64@gmail.com). If you’d rather use Apple Pay or a paper check, contact me and I’ll give you the info you need.

Important: After sending payment, email me with the details of your order, including:

(a) how many rippers you want;

(b) which color(s) your ripper(s) should be;

(c) whether you want the script(s) on your ripper(s) to be orientated left-handed or right-handed; and

(d) your shipping address.

If you want to combine a seam ripper purchase with an order for a Uni Watch 25th-anniversary patch, a trading card, a magnet, some coasters, or some pins, please email me and I’ll give you a price that includes a combined shipping fee for the whole shebang. (Sorry, these are the only Uni Watch items I can combine into one shipment, because all our other items ship from separate locations.)

That’s it. Thanks!

———

Meanwhile, I realize some of you may have questions, so let’s shift into FAQ mode:

Why would anyone want to remove the manufacturer’s logo from their cap?

There’s a detailed discussion of the issue here.

Can you show me how to use the seam ripper to remove a logo from a cap?

There’s an excellent video tutorial here:

This is stupid. I can go to my local fabric store and get a plain seam ripper for like three bucks!

You sure can — and I encourage you to do so! But for some people who care strongly about a certain issue, using a “fan” item can make a project or activity feel more personally satisfying. If you’re into guns, for example, you might want to sign your gun license application with an NRA pen. Or if you’re a vegan, you might want to use a PETA apron in the kitchen. Similarly, someone making a DIY jersey or removing the New Era logo from a cap might get a little extra satisfaction from doing it with with a Uni Watch seam ripper. And I get a lot of conceptual satisfaction myself from offering such an item.

You’re such a hypocrite! You’re against logos on products but you’re putting your logo on a seam ripper!

Actually, I’ve never said I’m opposed to logos on products. I just think the only logo that belongs on a team uniform element is the team’s logo, because that’s the only brand the uniform should stand for. If a Uni Watch seam ripper can encourage people to improve the integrity of their uniforms by removing extraneous logos, I’m proud to be a part of that. It’s very much in keeping with what Uni Watch has always stood for.

Think of it this way: Sports teams put their logos on all sorts of things — Dodgers key rings, Steelers shower curtains, etc., none of which I have any problem with. The people buying those items have no idea who made the key ring or the shower curtain, and they don’t care. The Uni Watch seam ripper is in a similar category, but it’s even better, because key rings and shower curtains have nothing to do with sports, while seam rippers can be used for Uni Watch-related projects.

You’re such a hypocrite! The Uni Watch script is distracting from the maker’s mark on the seam ripper, just like you say the New Era mark distracts from the team logo.

Actually, these seam rippers don’t have any maker’s mark, and neither do any other seam rippers I’ve ever seen. They’re simple, utilitarian items, like a safety pin or nail clippers, most of which are also unbranded. I’m just adding the Uni Watch logo to them to turn them into a Uni Watch fan item.

You’re such a hypocrite! You’re opposed to capitalism, except when it suits you, like when you want to sell seam rippers.

Actually, I’ve never said I’m opposed to capitalism. Frankly, as a career freelancer, my life and work involve more entrepreneurial capitalist enterprise than most people’s (which I say not as a boast but as a simple statement of objective fact). But as I’ve explained many times, I view capitalism as a tool, not as a religion, and I think we should be on guard against its excesses. You probably think the same thing — for example, you probably approve of laws that ban child labor, restrict monopolies, and require truth in product labeling, all of which serve to constrain capitalist excess. Does this mean you’re “opposed to capitalism”? Of course not. Now, you and I may have some differences regarding how much and in what areas capitalism should be reined in, but that’s just a difference in degree, not in kind. All of which is a lengthy way of saying there’s nothing inconsistent about what I’m doing here.

Also, as capitalist ventures go, selling seam rippers for three bucks to a small cadre of obsessed DIYers is not exactly a huge profit-making enterprise. I’m doing it for the same reason I do most of our merch projects: because it’s creatively satisfying and fun. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say it’s an art project, but it’s probably closer to that than to a business project.

Thanks for your interest. Happy ripping!