Cleaning Baseball Caps

Baseball caps are a popular accessory that many people collect and wear. Whether you are looking to clean a vintage cap for your personal collection or preparing a used cap for resale, proper cleaning is essential to maintain its value. In this blog post, we will provide expert tips on how to effectively clean baseball caps.

Step One - Sorting

Sort the caps separating by:

• No signs of wear
• Minor wear
• Dirty
• Wool
• New Era
• Caps with the thick roping along the bill
  
• Vintage trucker hats or other caps that might need careful cleaning by hand
  

Step Two - Cleaning Caps With Little to No Signs of Wear

Start by cleaning the caps with little signs of wear by putting some rubbing alcohol on a microfiber cloth and rubbing it along the sweatband. If there is light dirt or spots on other parts of the cap try hot water on a microfiber cloth, or a disinfecting wipe, or Tide To Go Pen. If those spots don't come out and they might stop someone from buying it or the sweatband stains are gross looking then toss it in the dirty caps pile.

Next sort those caps separating out the white caps, caps with leather strapbacks, caps with patches that are glued onto the caps, and spray the inside with disinfectant spray (you can get this cheapest at Dollar Tree) and those are done. For the other caps dust them off with the large Horsehair Laundry Brush (paid Amazon Affiliate link) and then steam them using this Automatic Cap Cleaner (paid Amazon Affiliate link):

I have been using this since 2023. I learned that white caps often get new stains when using it, that the heat often removes the glued on patches, caps with thick ropes along the bill will often get color bleed, and that leather strapbacks get hardened. You can wrap the leather with wet cloth to solve this problem. Note that after every 100 caps steamed, it will stop, beep a lot, and you will need to do a descaling procedure on it to get it going again. How to do this is in the instructions they provide. Also, always use distilled water and always wipe it down after every cap. It takes about 30 minutes per cap to steaming it.

Step Three - Cleaning The Dirty Caps

How to clean the dirty caps. Do not do this with New Era caps, caps with glued on patches, caps with leather straps, vintage trucker hats, caps with the thick roping along the bill, and any other cap you feel should be more carefully hand washed.

If you have a front load washing machine toss 20 caps in, add detergent, and wash as a large load, with warm water on delicate. 

If you have a top load washing machine put ten caps in each of these Honeycomb Mesh Laundry Bags (paid Amazon Affiliate link), add detergent, put the bags in the washing machine, and wash as a large load, with warm water (or hot if there are no fitted hats), and set to delicate. If you don't use the the mesh bags the bills and straps of the caps can get caught at the bottom of the agitator and get ruined.

Once done washing, take them outside, and one by one reshape the bills by hand, if need be, and then place them on these wire baskets to dry:

I bought these at the Dollar Tree. Buy about ten of each size for different size caps. As they are drying you can start putting the ones you are happy with, in your Automatic Cap Cleaner (paid Amazon Affiliate link). Once steamed, they are done. Ones that you are not satisfied with will need more hands on treatment.

Step Four - Hand Cleaning Caps

Start by spraying the stains with Dawn Platinum Powerwash Spray (paid Amazon Affiliate link) and lightly scrubbing the stains with the small Horsehair Laundry Brush (paid Amazon Affiliate link). Let sit for 30 minutes or more and then rinse under your sink with warm water for caps with wool and hot water for the others. I suggest wearing Rubber Gloves (paid Amazon Affiliate link).

Once the soap is out, reshape the bills, if need be, and put them outside on those wire baskets you got at Dollar Tree. New Era cap bills soak up water like a sponge so I put them in a Baseball Hat Washer Cage (paid Amazon Affiliate link) while they dry. While they are drying you can start using your Automatic Cap Cleaner (paid Amazon Affiliate link) for any but the white caps which often get new stains when using it, caps with glued on patches, caps with thick ropes along the bill, and leather strapbacks, unless you wrap the leather with wet cloth so it doesn't dry out in the steam.

Step Five - Cleaning The Stubborn Stains

If the cap has stubborn stains that are difficult to remove with the steps above then it's time to soak them in OxiClean (paid Amazon Affiliate link).

Do step three but with OxiClean (paid Amazon Affiliate link) but with the following changes.

• Don't add detergent. Instead dump in two full scoops of OxiClean (paid Amazon Affiliate link) and fill with water before adding the caps.
• Use hot water instead of warm.
• Add the caps, run the washing machine on delicate for five minutes, and then stop the machine.
• Let sit for four to six hours.
• Drain the water. For my machine, I turn the knob to "spin".
• Once you can hear no more water being drained, start the wash over again from the start but add detergent this time.
• Once the wash is over, start the drying and steaming process you did in other steps.
• If the cap is really bad, you can keep trying this process until it's clean or you give up.

Step Six - The Last Resort

If all that failed, and the cap is still unsellable as is, you can now try bleach. It goes against everything one might think about bleach but you can bleach colored items. Often it changes the color but not always. Sometimes the whole cap might change color or sometimes just the embroidery or sometimes nothing changes. But it is the strongest cleaner there is.

Do step three but with bleach and the following changes.

• Use hot water instead of warm.
• Add the detergent and two cups of bleach before adding the caps.
• Add the caps, run the washing machine on delicate for five minutes, and then stop the machine.
• Let sit for 15 minutes.
• Start the machine back up again. I always turn the knob back to the start.
• Once the wash is over, start the drying and steaming process you did in other steps.
• If the cap is really bad, you can keep trying this process until it's clean or you give up.

Here's one cap that was a big time success with the bleaching:

The lettering was black but the bleach turned it brown but the red didn't change. It's a mystery what will be affected and what won't.

Another last resort that I have been trying, is what I am calling a bleach spotted tie dye.

To do this add 1/2 bleach and 1/2 water to a spray bottle, lightly spray it, and then rinse it off. Less spray is more. You can always do it again. I then run them though step three or step four to be sure all the bleach is out.

One last secret trick that I figured out myself - if you have what looks like might be a rust stain (this happens frequently to top buttons) spray the stain with Iron-Out (paid Amazon Affiliate link). No amount of bleach or Oxiclean can get rust stains out but this works. Sometimes it magically disappears right before your eyes. Sometimes it takes multiple tries. Be sure to wash it out thoroughly.

By following these expert tips for cleaning caps for resale, you can ensure that your caps look their best and appeal to potential buyers. Remember, a well-maintained cap not only retains its value but also showcases your attention to detail and care for the product. Saving a cap is one less in the landfill. Buying from my links above gets me a commission from Amazon which helps pay for this website so I can continue to provide helpful content. Thank you.