NPB apparel in the US

Not to my knowledge. Speaking from my own personal experience, most NPB teams have atrocious on-line stores.They are extremely hard to navigate, offer little to no customer service support, and don't ship overseas whatsoever. Not to mention the fact that they are all in Japanese. So, for someone that is not familiar with the language, the task can be quite daunting to say the least. This is yet another thing that NPB teams really need to work on in terms of business.

IMHO, your best bet would be to go through a middle man or better yet, if you know of someone that lives in Japan, ask them to give you a hand in acquiring what you need.

I'd agree with the first reply, going through someone who is living here in Japan. BTW, there are MLB-style 100% wool caps for sale in Japan. They're New Era caps and cheaper than the official NPB caps. What's your hat size?

Another place to check would be the English version of Rakuten Ichiba. Do a Google Search on that, and it's pretty good, if expensive.

7 5/8-7 3/4 is my hat size. I am an authenticity geek, so I would prefer an official npb hat if I ever get around to that.

that and any size apparel is probably in the xl-2xl range aka too big to find in a japanese store. I would have to go tall also, so hats are pretty much the only thing I can't rule out

If you are an authenticity geek you want a fitted, not an adjustable hat. It's not a problem to get one in your size - I am in the same range and can buy with ease.

Another possible way to buy is to pick one up off of Yahoo Auctions - there are many established middlemen services for Yahoo Auctions. This, of course, will not be cheap. An even better option is Amazon Japan, they will ship to the US. My quick search for "ロッテ キャップ" (Lotte cap) pulls up 13 different Chiba Lotte Marines caps.

the only problem with new era is that they don't seem to be the maker of the hats that the teams wear on the field. None of the hats I am seeing have the npb logo on the back. I've spent time previously navigating through team shops and finding official hats and they are hard to come by in 62 cm.

Seibu's hats to my knowledge are made by nike.

I know they get expensive when it gets to official wear

that site is pretty cool, only problem is there's very few adjustable hats. I might have to look more, but I'm not a fan of the velcro adjustable hats. I like the ones with the metal clamp in the back and the excess part goes into a slot in the back of the hat.

hey i can give you the details on the lions hats because I was just at their stadium two days ago.

i bought a Lions' new era fitted cap. twice as much as much as American new era caps (around $60) and yes no npb logo on the back. Back of my cap says Lions on it. Nice thing about the stadium is I could actually buy new era caps there. (The swallows stadium just told me to go online if i wanted a fitted cap).

The nike Lions' cap is around 4100 yen and it is adjustable (sorry not sure if has a metal back). the nike cap is a mesh cap. The velcro strap hat is around 3150 yen. they call it a junior cap and i mainly saw kids wearing it but i bet it would fit adults. it said one size on it.

There are also New Era adjustable caps with the plastic on the back. And there are new era velcro strap hats.

I have a Pro Model Chunichi Dragons cap but I don't recommend it. It was too expensive (but someone bought it for my birthday for me so I didn't pay). Price came to be about $100. Back says NPB. Pro models all say NPB but they can also take a long time to deliver. Mine took around 2 months to be delivered after the person told me they bought it for me online. No communication from the Dragons website until it finally appeared one day.

sorry this doesn't answer your question about u.s. shipping.

hey actually this site ships japanese new era caps overseas. i went to there store in tokyo and got my brother a tigers hat. they seem to know their stuff but i haven't used the site.

Cap Collector

the only thing I have is that I want to wear what the players wear aka the ones that go for around 100 dollars :/

my main issue would be how it fits and if the material shrinks a lot after wearing it for a while

Also, it could be a lions hat, but I'm probably gonna take the route of "whatever team's hat I get, they become my team to root for"

Im not a fan of plastic adjustable hats and velcro is a last resort.

also, is there a way to find out which teams sell the official hats in certain sizes? Im a 7 5/8 - 7 3/4 US hat measurement(so 62/63 cm)

for finding certain sizes for the pro model cap just try navigating the team's website. what you'll be looking for is the pro collection which are the one's worn by the players.

here is some japanese to help you.
オンラインショップ - online shop
ショッピング - shopping
ショップ - shop
グッズ - goods
プロコレクション - pro collection (once you get on the shop part look for this)
オーセンティック - authentic
キャップ - cap

from a quick search the giants have size 62cm hats and are only around 7200 yen so much cheaper than other teams

and the baystars have new era caps with npb on the back

would there be a service you recommend for getting goods to the US, like Kuboten?

Lotte official hats are New Era. They have the NPB logo on the back. The official fitted ones are (I believe) 5800 yen. I bought one of last year's models in a 7 5/8 size.

The Lotte online shop says they only have this year's in stock to 7 1/2 but I was in the stadium shop yesterday and they had up to 7 7/8 in stock.

So if you are interested in becoming a Lotte fan, there's a cheaper option!

might have to jump on that then! some of the middle man sites, like kuboten charge in upwards of 115 for a hat. I was looking at a rakuten golden eagles hat 62 cm and it was 9000 yen :/

crap, the official lotte hat is 100% wool. I might actually have to go with something adjustable after all

would someone over there be willing to get me an adjustable seibu lions hat? I have paypal and can cover shipping and handling. Being that it will be adjustable, I prefer the velcro adjustable strap. They have a black and silver one online, but they might have a free/adjustable hat with the navy and silver/white in the stadium store.

Steve

do you have that lotte official hat? I know wool hats shrink a lot. New era also has a newer material out. It's funny because my 7 5/8 hat isn't as tight as my 7 3/4 wool padres hat. I know the lotte site shows the wool hat, but do they also have the hats in the newer synthetic material? I still might bite on the wool lotte hat 7 3/4

I don't have the current official Lotte wool hat. I have the 2009 official mesh hat (the summer hat - it's not really mesh but a synthetic vented hat) and an official Lotte Orions retro hat, which is worn on old uniform night.

I stopped by the small Lotte shop near my office and they are out of the player standard fitted hat right now, but I am pretty sure the museum shop has them in stock right now. Next time I go to a game (on Friday) I'll stop in and see what's available. There will surely be more available for all teams later in the year when they make another manufacturing run.

either reply on this or my email which is my username @gmail.com

Any luck with finding any hats in 7 3/4?

It was a rain out on Friday. I went to the game yesterday and stopped by the museum shop - for the official hats the largest they currently have in stock is a 7 3/8, and they only had one of those. They do make them in up to a size 8, though. Perhaps later in the season?