Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey is one of New Era's "latest brand ambassadors," and he and his father, former NFLer Ed McCaffrey, were brought in for the "rollout of the company's Official NFL Sideline Collection," according to A.J. Perez of USA TODAY. In the collection, which launched yesterday, each of the 32 NFL teams will "have unique home hats this season that reflect the decade" in which each team was founded as the NFL celebrates its 100th season. The hats for the Cardinals, Bears, Packers and Giants -- whose NFL lineage "traces to the 1910s-1920s -- are made of a wool fabric to simulate hats worn in the day." Teams founded in the '70s, like the Falcons, Bengals and Saints, have "trucker-style caps with a foam front and mesh backing." New Era Dir of Football & Soccer Ryan DiNunzio said, "We wanted to celebrate it in an authentic way, so we started to think about how we could separate the teams into decades." DiNunzio added that there were some "initial discussions to use Zubaz" for the '90s hats, before a "block color approach was used for the most recent NFL entries" like the Panthers, Jaguars and Texans (USA TODAY, 7/30).
