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News January 24, 2022

Cleveland Guardians Debut Official On-Field Logoed Cap

The team formerly known as the Cleveland Indians has released its official on-field branded cap for sale.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Major League Baseball’s (MLB) most newly re-branded team just released a key component of its new branded merchandise collection.

The Cleveland Guardians, renamed so last year after being the Cleveland Indians since 1915, debuted their official on-field fitted caps on Monday, January 24.

The hats feature a diamond-figured “C,” with the letter standing for Cleveland obviously, in traditional team colors. They were for sale at the Guardians’ Progressive Field Team Store.

To build anticipation, the Guardians teased the cap release on Sunday, January 23 on Twitter.

The Guardians began rolling out official merch with the new team name in November, both online and at the club’s brick-and-mortar team store. While headwear was among the offerings, no official fitted on-field cap was released then.

The Guardians changed that this week, and could be adding another on-field cap to the collection. A fan on Twitter said they would buy the on-field hat if it featured the “fastball G” – a reference to the Guardians logo that showcases a “G” with wings and a baseball. The team replied, “Hope to have those before Opening Day.”

Fan reaction on social media was a bit mixed. Some liked the new caps. “See now these I like. This looks like the early 1980s hat which I have loved,” commented one fan on Twitter. Another said: “I dig the new C, the old one was so boring. Definitely warming up to Guardians.”

Others were less than thrilled. Some felt the cap design could have been more creative, as they believed it looks similar to a previous team cap. “Gee, the new cap is quite innovative compared to the previous one,” one fan commented sarcastically.

The Guardians had to officially finish the 2021 season as the Indians and clear a legal hurdle (which has happened) before they could begin selling official Guardians branded merchandise, though there was already unofficial merch galore when the team name was announced in July 2021.

The Guardians get their new name from the Guardians of Traffic – historic, locally iconic pylons on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, also called the Hope Memorial Bridge, which connects downtown Cleveland to Ohio City. The statues have long been used in local marketing and art.

Over the summer, the Indians announced the name change on Twitter in a video narrated by Tom Hanks. The name change came about, as ESPN explained, following “months of internal discussions triggered by a national reckoning by institutions and teams to permanently drop logos and names considered racist.” Team executives felt the name “Indians” fell into that derogatory category.