On Thursday, August 29, the New York Mets and Siegelman Stable unveiled an exclusive hat collection in partnership with New Era. It marks Siegelman Stable’s first-ever MLB collaboration and harkens back to a formative first for Siegelman Stable founder Max Siegelman.
“As a kid from Long Island whose first internship ever was for the New York Mets, it feels like a full-circle moment,” Siegelman said in a statement.
In the summer of 2011, Siegelman was a distribution intern in the Mets’ sales department. Siegelman had grown up twenty minutes away from Shea Stadium, home to the Mets until Citi Field opened in April 2009, so working for the Mets wasn’t lost on him. But the experience taught him what he didn’t want to do with the rest of his life. He hated cold calls, public speaking, and selling people on why they should believe in something.
Come June 2020, Siegelman knew precisely what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He founded Siegelman Stable, a luxury fashion-meets-streetwear brand carrying forward the legacy of his father’s Robert Siegelman Racing Stable founded in 1982. One of Siegelman’s earliest produced hats was adjacent to the Mets’ blue-and-orange colorway, which caught the eye of Josh Cohen, son of Mets owner Steven Cohen.
Cohen inherently knew he believed in Siegelman Stable — no cold calls necessary.
The Siegelman Stable x New Era x New York Mets collection features Mets caps in three colorways. As per press release, “Each piece is designed to appeal to Mets enthusiasts and fashion-forward individuals alike, offering a fresh take on fan gear.” Two of the three colorways will be available at Citi Field on Monday, September 2, while the Mets host the Boston Red Sox. They will also be available at the New York City MLB store and on New Era’s official website. The third colorway will enjoy a separate drop exclusively on Siegelman Stable’s official website at 10 a.m. ET on September 2.
Below, Max Siegelman offered more insight into the unique collaboration.
How did this collaboration come to be?
It has to go through New Era, and that has been quite the process for us. The owner’s son, Josh Cohen, came across our brand and started wearing our hats. He also works for the Mets, and we did a Mets-inspired colorway [three years ago]. He couldn’t get his hands on it, reached out to me and wanted it. We just started talking, and it’s been like 18 months of talking to get it to this point.
I know that you do not commit to collaborations unless you find an obvious authentic tie to Siegelman Stable’s origin story. So, what made the Mets a no-brainer for you?
Yeah, this one was pretty easy. There were multiple lines of storytelling. The Mets being my first internship ever, growing up so close to the stadium, and our alignment on doing a lot for veterans through equine therapy. The Mets and Cohens do so much for veterans off the field. The alignment there couldn’t have been any more perfect. When I first met Alex Cohen, she started talking about all the philanthropic things that they do with veterans, it just got me excited to want to do something with them. I think that that was probably the biggest thread. All of the other ones obviously just fill in that space of making a complete story.
Harrison Bader has rocked Siegelman Stable for a while, so I assume making him the face of this campaign was an organic development.
He became brand-friendly when Aaron Judge started wearing the hat — when he was on the Yankees with Aaron [in 2022-23]. I was very happy that he was brought back to New York, even if it was in a different color. He always just continued to be a good friend and supporter. I knew when he got picked up by the Mets [in January] that we were doing this project. I might’ve texted him immediately when I saw that news. I was like, “One congrats. Two, you’re our model.” Literally, the day he signed that one-year contract.
This Mets collaboration only further cements Siegelman Stable as the unofficial logo of New York City. Aaron Judge and Jalen Brunson consistently incorporate it into their wardrobe. You did exclusive collections with the Knicks and Rangers last year. It always feels good to see anyone wear Siegelman Stable, I imagine, but as a born-and-bred New Yorker, does it mean a little more to see the New York-based stars embrace your brand?
Yeah, I mean, it’s home territory. It’s the biggest names in sports in New York wanting to wear your brand, whether they know the actual story of Siegelman Stable or they just like the pieces that we’re making. This week, actually, Jalen had his [Jalen Brunson Charity Golf Classic] at Westchester Country Club. Without him even knowing, his mom reached out to us to see if we’d be open to making custom hats for his charity golf outing, which we ended up doing. So, it’s kind of crazy. It’s amazing.
We want to replicate what we’ve done here with New York athletes and teams in different cities. But that’s what they say. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. So, now, we just need to make it anywhere.
