One of the best team apparel cap designs I have ever seen was created by Reebok for the NFL in 2006. All team caps were unique in design because the side panels of the caps were actually the design of the team pant stripes that year. In Reebok’s tenure in manufacturing items for the NFL, this was their best design.

Today, Mitchell & Ness released a series of throwbacks for the Lakers (here, here, here), Sonics (here, here) and Grizzlies (here). Notice anything? They took the same concept of what Reebok did with their snapback. It’s a great looking cap, but it doesn’t feel original. Of course, there are limitations in designing such a cap. But it just feels like M&N took what Reebok did and re-purposed it for their design.

This could just be a coincidence but since the Reebok idea isn’t an innovative idea and it came out almost a decade ago, you never know. I’m surprised that there are only these three teams. I wonder if more is to come.