Detroit Red Wings fans know the drill all too well: the Wings win the Stanley Cup and then a maddened frenzy begins in pursuit of the coveted locker room hats which are usually gone within hours or a few days.
Why does this happen? The main reason is because the hats are 95% built and decorated overseas and then customized (depending on which team wins the championship) after the final second ticks off the clock of the deciding game. The hats are then sent by air to Detroit from a state like Texas or New York. The league licensee (this year New Era Cap Co.) usually errs on the side of caution and produces only enough hats to accommodate the smallest market — so when a popular team like the Red Wings win, there are only enough hats to accommodate a smaller market city like Pittsburgh or Denver.
Here’s the good news if you missed out on a locker room hat: New Era is beginning a fill-in run that should arrive in retail stores around August 1. There are usually plenty of hats in the second run to supply the remaining demand. You may not feel the fever quite as strongly by mid-summer, but you also won’t have to pay $50 for one on eBay.