Great baseball cap from Poten
Norsk versjon đź”—
This is my favourite cap (and headgear in general) of all time. And this is also a good example of something I love in general: Simple products, made extremely well.
These caps are made at the same factroy that does caps for the Japanese baseball league. Several brands have tried to get the factory to produce caps fro them, but without success. According to Self Edge, Hiro (the man behind Poten, who also has a huge baseball card collection) had to visit the factory several times, over three years, to show them that he cares enough about baseball to have them produce caps for him. Lucky for those of us who don't play in the NPB! But what's so good about these caps then?
1) Top notch materials and construction
You can get the caps in different materials. In addition to the more traditional cotton and nylon variants, they can be had in leather, denim, velvet, linen, cord, Ventile, tweed, etc. Common for all of them, is that their rock solid.
Mine's is in a Japanese canvas called Fujikinbai.
The two panels in the front and midle has an even thicker fabric inside of it. I think it's to give it more structural integrity.
The brim has 19(!) seams. I don't know if it has a function, or if it's just a subtle way of showing of.
A Leather strap with a metal clasp at the back. It's both good looking and functional.
It's usually a good sign if you can see how (and where) a product is made.
All-in-all, the construction is simple and solid. Other caps I've owned, had hidden parts made of foam that wore out after a while. However, this one is made of purely durable materials that can easily be sown again if anything would go wrong.
2) The leather band
The band, made of cow leather, is comfortable. But it also makes it stick to your head! The leather is treated with some stuff to make it sweat resistance, and it's sown in a way that replacing it should be trivial if ever needed. This is simply the best part about the whole product!
I can stand in a boat like this, and the wind doesnt make the caps fly off!
3) Classical look, with no branding
This is of course even more subjective than what I've already touched upon – but I just love the way it looks classical and almost “neutral”. It neither “too cool”, “too dad” or “too technical”, in my opinion. It works with everything!
Relaxed look.
I also think it's kinda cool that Poten (which by the way is the Japanese phrase for «bloop hit») doesn't feel the need to flash their branding. The only way of telling that it's a Poten cap is the absurd amount of stitches on the brim and that you can see where they've sown on the labels on the inside.
The label are sown in a way that you can tell where they are from the outside.
Potential for improvement?
This product is so simple and considered that it's hard to think of anything that could be better (except the price!). the only thing I can think of, is that the leather strap on the back could be a bit different. If you don't wear it on the widest setting, it can get a little bend at the end. And someone might find the clasp too easy to open. It could've been more like a belt, and/or it could've had a “garage” to stick the end in.
A tiny bend.
You can also get it without the adjustable sizing. Then you get the leather band around the entire thing - but you gotta find the right size.
«So, where can I buy one?»
I bought mine at Lokk in Oslo (for 1 200 NOK). But it looks like they might've stopped selling them! Maybe they can get ahold of them if you ask?
You can find a couple of places to buy them if you search online. I can vouch for Self Edge, and here's a link to the model I have. And this store looks to have a pretty good selection in the UK.
Happy with the cap! Good stuff. 👌🏻
-Erlend âš“
