NOAH has provided a closer look at its distinctive corduroy headwear, which were previously teased in its Fall/Winter 2022 collection lookbook. Stormy Kromer, a tiny family-owned firm that has been creating winter caps since the early 1900s, collaborated on the throwback caps.
The collaboration’s cap design was inspired by semi-pro baseball player and railroad engineer George “Stormy” Kromer, who kept losing his hat on the train. To keep his favorite baseball cap snug and his ears toasty, he requested his wife, Ida, to put an ear band on it.
“Because of the way it is built you will find the Kromer Blizzard Cap comfortable whether it’s forty below or sixty above,” writes a retro KROMER CAP advertisement.
Ear bands, which have a breezy, lightweight style, can be pulled down with one hand to cover the cheeks, forehead, and eyes. The caps for NOAH’s Fall/Winter 22 collection are made of 100 percent English Corduroy from Brisbane Moss.
Almost all production takes place in the United States, mostly in Ironwood, Michigan, with more specialized jobs delegated to knitting mills in New Jersey and North Carolina, screen printers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and WRAP-certified manufacturers in Honduras.
The Stormy Kromer team collaborates closely with the St. Luke’s N.E.W. Life Center in Flint, Michigan, a non-profit organization that provides life skills, education, and workplace training, with a substantial number of its popular items created by workers in their sewing centers.
The Noah x Stormy Kromer Corduroy caps are now available for $75 USD on NOAH’s website in “Brown,” “Cinnamon,” and “Dark Purple.”
