What’s with the sardines? Cannery Row packed sardines from 1902 until the fish vanished around 1950, and Monterey was the Sardine Capital of the World. Before that it was California’s first capital, the adobe town where the state wrote its first constitution. Our retro Monterey, California logo carries both Montereys: the cannery tin and the deep blue bay.
This is our retro Monterey, California logo printed in weathered charcoal on a retro vintage washed cap, an unstructured cotton dad hat that looks broken in from the day it arrives. The charcoal carries a faint wavering tone and a light speckle, so the print reads like it has been in the sun as long as the cap has. It is the most worn-in of our Monterey hats, with no slogan and no cartoon otter, just the town, the Monterey California hat for a foggy walk along the bay or a summer a thousand miles from Point Lobos.
Monterey history runs older than the state. Sebastián Vizcaíno named the harbor for the Count of Monte Rey in 1602; Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra founded the Monterey presidio and its mission on June 3, 1770, on land the Rumsen Ohlone had lived on for thousands of years. Named capital of Alta California in 1777, the adobe town governed California for Spain and then Mexico until the American flag rose in 1846, and in 1849 delegates met at Colton Hall to write the state’s first constitution. The Royal Presidio Chapel of 1794, the 1827 Custom House (California Historical Landmark Number One) and the Larkin House still stand along the Path of History, which is why Monterey is called the adobe capital of California. Even Monterey Jack is local: the registry lists California’s first marketed cheese here in 1859, under the name of rancher David Jacks.
Then came the sardines. Monterey’s first cannery opened in 1902; by the 1930s the canneries ran day and night and the town called itself the Sardine Capital of the World. The street was Ocean View Avenue until 1958, when the city renamed it Cannery Row after the novel. By then the fish were gone, the run collapsed around 1950, and the canneries went dark. In 1984 the old Hovden cannery at the end of the Row reopened as a window on the bay, and Monterey Bay itself became the reason to come: sea otters in the kelp, sea lions at Breakwater Cove, whale watching out over the submarine canyon, the rec trail along the water, and Point Lobos a few miles south. California’s first capital turned out to have a second act. The full Monterey history is on our Monterey page.
The cap is 8.5 oz 100% cotton twill, enzyme washed and heavily brushed for a soft hand, with an unstructured six-panel crown, a mid-profile fit, a curved bill, a self-fabric strapback with a metal slider and a self-fabric sweatband. It is garment dyed with OEKO-TEX certified low-impact dyes, so every cap’s color varies slightly; washed here means faded color and a weathered print, not distressed or frayed. One size fits most (hat sizes 6¾ to 7⅝), so it is an easy Monterey souvenir to get right. Each cap is made to order; hand wash cold, air dry, and keep it out of the dryer. We are the Monterey gift shop that never closes: Monterey apparel and Monterey Bay souvenirs drawn in-house, not bought by the pallet. As with everything we make, profits support hunger relief.
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