Ehrhardt Koch (1886–1954) was a

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

businessman and founder of the

New Era Cap Company The New Era Cap Company is an American headwear company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1920. New Era has over 500 different licenses in its portfolio. Since 1993 they have been the exclusive baseball cap supplier for Major ...

. Koch was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and immigrated to the East side of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

with his parents in the late 19th century. Koch worked for the Miller Brother's Cap Company making caps in 1902. After 18 years with Miller, Koch borrowed money from his aunt and founded the New Era Cap Company in 1920 in

. Koch's only son, Harold, took over from his father as head of the firm and established the company's ties to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

beginning in the 1950s. Koch died in 1954 at age 68. His company is still family owned today.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Ehrhardt German emigrants to the United States 1886 births 1954 deaths Businesspeople from Buffalo, New York 20th-century American businesspeople