With a new campaign, ’47 is planting its flag as ‘The Father of All Dad Hats’
From Fenway Park to Fashion Week, baseball cap brand ’47 is set on building “dad hat” hype worldwide.
A year after being acquired by New Era Cap, ’47 is leaning more into brand messaging and awareness in North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. In July, it paired up with workwear brand Carhartt on a marketing campaign featuring Philadelphia Phillies player Bryce Harper. And, in October, it crowned one of its core models — the Clean Up — “The Father of All Dad Hats” in a marketing campaign. The Clean Up, which has a relaxed fit, debuted in the 1990s as an alternative to more structured caps on the market. ’47’s “Father of All Dad Hats” campaign will stretch into late 2026 and span numerous countries and sports communities. The brand is also planning marketing campaigns around the 2026 Super Bowl.
But ’47 isn’t just interested in playing a role in athletics — it wants to play a role in global lifestyle and culture, too. After all, Pope Leo wore a ’47 White Sox cap at the Vatican earlier this year. Kith x ’47 caps are going for a 400%+ premium on StockX. And “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White has been spotted wearing a ’47 Mets cap.
The brand has “evangelists worldwide,” and it’s increasingly seeing “a ton of traction for customer acquisition in the fashion space,” Patrick Cassidy, ’47’s vp of marketing, told Modern Retail. Going into 2026, ’47 will start to stress its place in history and style even more in its marketing, including via digital billboards and long-form YouTube videos.
’47 is an almost 80-year-old brand, having started in 1947 with a souvenir cart outside Fenway Park in Boston. Today, the brand sells officially-licensed products from across the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA and NASCAR. It also carries apparel, like jackets and T-shirts. ’47 products can be found on its website, as well as through wholesale partners like Lids, Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. In August 2024, ’47 was acquired by New Era Cap for an undisclosed amount. At the time, New Era Cap did more than $1 billion in annual revenue. The combined company, per a press release, is “expected to generate approximately $2 billion in annual revenue.”
These days, ’47 is focused on global growth and is increasingly looking to cater to multiple markets, including England, Japan and Mexico. “Those businesses are growing in the same way that we are growing in North America,” Cassidy said. In turn, those global segments are a key target of the new “Father Of All Dad Hats” campaign.
The two teams with hats featured in the first leg of the Clean Up campaign — the Dodgers and the Yankees — were chosen specifically for their global reach and popularity abroad. “Those teams and that style almost transcend sport and sport allegiances, because it sends a message of style and craft,” Cassidy said. “When you see someone else in [your hat], it doesn’t matter where you are around the world.”
Daniel-Yaw Miller, a sports and fashion journalist and writer of the “SportsVerse” Substack, told Modern Retail that he sees tremendous white space for ’47 abroad. “The headwear category is much more developed with North American sports,” he said. “But there’s a massive opportunity [for ’47] to build that same culture with European sports, which are a lot more jersey-focused. There’s scope to work with those teams, those athletes and those fans, and get them into the same buying patterns.” New Era Cap, for its part, has deals with European soccer clubs and auto racing teams.
In sports and lifestyle campaigns, one of the things ’47 hopes to stress more is its ubiquity. Another version of the “Father of All Dad Hats” campaign — expected to run in the spring — will have an even larger global focus, looking at “how all these people out in the world are choosing this brand and this product [the Clean Up],” Cassidy explained. For this, the brand will use social media like Instagram, out-of-home ads and long-form storytelling.
’47 wanted to zero in on the Clean Up because the brand has sold 150 million units of the style worldwide. “But we have never really talked about [the Clean Up] in a truly overt way,” Cassidy said, “and we’re also seeing a lot of competition around it.” He continued, “It’s never been easier to manufacture headwear and apparel. It doesn’t matter if you’re an existing brand or you’re someone standing up an Instagram shop overnight.”
Indeed, the headwear space has become much more saturated lately, with players including Nike, Fanatics, H&M, Favorite Daughter and Rowing Blazers jockeying for market share. And baseball caps, in particular, have become a type of “grab-and-go” fashion symbol. While many are fairly cheap, others have taken on a type of prestige. At New York Fashion Week last year, the baseball cap was the “it” accessory, sitting atop many an influencer’s head. Prada has its own version of a baseball cap for $1,050.
“For so long, headwear was kind of under-appreciated [by fashion companies],” Miller said. Now, “It’s a prime example of a category that’s being premiumized and stylized in so many different ways.”
The popularity of baseball caps also corresponds with a wider cultural shift around sports. The WNBA, the NFL and the MLB have all seen increased viewership and ratings. And, according to AdWeek, 30-second ad slots for the upcoming Super Bowl are going for a record $8 million. In this environment, Miller said, “Massive companies are realizing that sports merch is a category that can be invested in and improved on — and that the quality overall can be elevated and augmented.”
Similarly, ’47 is focused on what it thinks sets it apart: craftsmanship, quality and legacy, Cassidy said. And, as it gears up for the new year, it’s betting on a more fully-fledged marketing strategy to drive this message home for the Clean Up and other models.
“We’re looking to tell our story concisely,” Cassidy said. “Like, ‘Here’s everything that’s gone into this [product], so if you choose to buy another quote-unquote dad cap, you’re sort of settling for an invitation.'”