Earlier this month, MLB and New Era offered a look at the 2020 spring training caps, and almost all of them were bad. But the San Diego Padres’ cap was especially problematic for a different reason:
Fans thought the design resembled a swastika.
The brown and gold caps, which featured the “Swinging Friar” at the center and an “SD” over the body, were unofficially tabled as the team reported to spring training camp in Arizona this week. Pitchers and catchers went through workouts wearing the regular season “SD” caps, and the team plans to generally keep it that way.
Is this really the Spring Training hat or am I being punked? Please insert into the brand standards “DO NOT DO” section. K thx! pic.twitter.com/bSOonl7fnP
— Back The Brown (@backthebrownSD) February 6, 2020
But really, how didn’t anyone with MLB, New Era or the Padres catch that ahead of time? It’s something you can’t unsee once you spot it.
Still, the Padres framed the hat switch as them embracing their fans’ positive reaction to the traditional brown and gold “SD” caps rather than them inadvertently printing a swastika over the Swinging Friar.
Padres chief marketing officer Wayne Partello said to The San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday:
“Following our offseason uniform rebrand and the overwhelmingly positive response from Padres fans, we’ve decided to wear our regular season brown caps with the gold ‘SD’ for the majority of spring training.”
While the Padres are phasing out these controversial spring training caps, they haven’t pulled the hats off the shelves. The problematic design and a St. Paddy’s Day version are both available at the MLB.com team shop.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres will wear these caps at least once during spring training.
But in the meantime, they’ve been wearing these regular-season caps in Arizona:
Notice anything? pic.twitter.com/4kVuDObCiD
— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) February 11, 2020
It’s probably a good idea to just keep it that way.
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