Is the World Ready for a $2,000 Baseball Cap?

SAN DIEGO (TNA) – If you thought $20 was a lot to pay for a baseball cap, how does $2,000 strike you?

A San Diego company is offering what is believed to be the world’s most expensive baseball cap.

At $1999, the Zerino “Elita,” a black cotton-and-leather ball cap with a 22-karat-gold top button, is nearly 20 times as expensive as the high-end hats sold by competing cap makers.

At least you get a nice mahogany box with the hat for 2000 big ones.

For the price of the Elita, a baseball enthusiast could attend a whole lot of major league games – and in style, too. A Yankees fan, for example, could buy seasons tickets for two ($1,620), an MP3 player to listen to the play-by-play ($150), and a Yankees cap ($27), and still have $200 left over for hot dogs and beer.

The question is, why would someone pay two grand for a ball cap?

“For the same reason someone pays $300,000 for a Ferrari or Rolls Royce,” says Zerino President Rob Potochnik. “Quality and styling.”

Zerino International, an eight-year-old privately held headwear company, released the Elita in late 2004 with the aim of creating an ultra high-end ball-cap market. Other headwear manufacturers, however, have yet to follow suit.

Potochnik notes that Zerino stands alone in the segment, adding that the closest competitor is New Era, the company that supplies caps to Major League Baseball. New Era’s most expensive cap retails for approximately $120.

“Men wear caps more than any other kind of headwear in the world, yet until now, there was no high-quality segment,” Potochnik says.

The Elita is no ordinary ball cap. It boasts an all-silk interior, a serial-number plate by the rear tag, a removable 22-karat-gold top button, and a 22-karat-gold “Z” mark on the front panel.

It also arrives in a mahogany display case, allowing owners to show off their Elita the way someone might exhibit, say, cigars in a humidor.

“Now you can display something that 93 percent of all men wear,” Potochnik says.

Potochnik says the Elita is marketed toward those with “discriminating tastes and high discretionary income,” and is primarily suited for formal and semi-formal events.

Alas, those who don’t have $2,000 to spend on a ball cap may want to consider Zerino’s more affordable caps. For $189, one can purchase the “Silken,” an all-silk ball cap that comes in a black carry-pouch.

With premium price comes premium quality, and Potochnik says Zerino keeps a close eye on quality control. The company performs a seven-point inspection on each cap, including hand-washing each one twice before it reaches the customer.

The Zerino web site adds that “any cap that fails to meet our exacting standards is promptly destroyed.”

For more information, visit www.zerino.com.