MLB Releases SF Giants Cap With Monumental Error. Will It Become a Collector’s Item?
Written by Ethan KasselPublished Apr. 03, 2023 • 4:00pm
Baseball
Barry Bonds hits his record-breaking 756th home-run in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park on Tuesday, August 8, 2007. | Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The SF Chronicle via Getty Images
For the 2023 season, the San Francisco Giants chose “Nothing Like It” as the slogan for their advertising campaign.
Coincidentally, there’s nothing like wearing an officially licensed hat that misspells the team’s home city.
The “Pro Standard Black 2012 World Series Old English Snapback Hat” can be found on the official MLB Shop. Above the typical interlocking “SF” logo, the words “San Fransico”—a misspelling of San Francisco—are spelled out in an old English font.
Though MLB’s merchandise is mostly run through apparel manufacturer Fanatics, the hat comes from Pro Standard, a luxury sportswear brand that describes itself as offering “authentic apparel collections and premium licensed headwear with 100% hand-made goods, authentic leathers, suedes, & exotic fabrics for the NBA, NFL and MLB.”
Pro Standard’s “About Us” page also says that the company is, “Disrupting the industry with new standards sought out by Athletes, Sports Fanatics & Hype Beasts who live for the game & style on the lame.”
The site offers other officially licensed MLB hats, including a series of snapbacks with various patches and icons alongside the team’s normal logo. Their other Old English snapbacks appear to spell team location names correctly.
While the hat likely won’t be available on MLB or Pro Standard’s sites for long, it’s also available through Nordstrom at the moment.
Misspelled merchandise can turn into valuable collector’s items. The Colorado Rockies infamously handed out misspelled Troy Tulowitzki jerseys to fans in 2014, and they became hot items on the resale market.
Jersey typos also occasionally make their way onto the field. Even the likes of David Beckham and Wayne Gretzky have been given jerseys with their names botched, and in April 2010, Giants infielder Eugenio Velez was spotted with a “San Francicso” jersey. The jersey is reportedly in the team’s archive.
The “San Fransico” hat isn’t the first Giants merchandise item to make headlines within the past year. A shirt reading “San Fran” was on sale during the 2022 season, and fans were up in arms last September when Los Angeles Dodgers merchandise was available for purchase inside Oracle Park.
The Giants, MLB and Pro Apparel were contacted for comment.
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