For a decade and a half, New Era Cap Co. has been misleading the public by selling Major League Baseball "Authentic Collection" caps made overseas (China, Bangladesh, Haiti, Laos, Vietnam) to the public. This is misleading, as the public believes they are buying the caps that MLB players wear on the field of play. However, MLB requires that the actual standard in-game caps worn on the player's heads be "assembled" in the United States.

New Era once operated three US factories that made "Authentic Collection" caps for player use and the general public. In the late 00s, they began to outsource production overseas and only one US plant remained, which was in Derby, NY. The Derby plant continued to make a small amount of Authentic Collection caps for retail until New Era made the decision to close the plant in 2019 which devastated the local community. Caps made for MLB player use only are now "assembled" near Miami, FL by contractors.

Since the closure of the Derby plant, New Era no longer offers domestically-produced Authentic Collection caps to the general public. The caps being produced overseas are different in construction, shape, and quality of materials. The differences can easily be seen if both a retail and player issued cap are compared in-hand.

New Era Cap, stop calling retail caps the "Authentic Collection" and start calling them what they are; replicas. Those that want the real deal now have to pay extra for team issued caps from each team's game used department with very limited availability in certain cases. Real fans want the genuine article available at all times.

The petition photo shows San Diego Padres caps made in Bangladesh (left) and USA (right). Notice the differences in shape, fabric texture, and embroidery.