Craig Green's winning entry from 2010

Premier baseball cap purveyor New Era—brand of choice for the MLB and streetwear aficionados—is pleased to announce New Era Introducing, inviting designers to reimagine their flagship model 59FIFTY fitted cap, as they did for last year's XC contest.New Era Introducing is a global creative project showcasing unique talent from across the world. The project gives creative minds of tomorrow an opportunity to make their own statement using a blank New Era 59FIFTY as their canvas. Those judged to show the most unique display of self-expression will go on to form a touring gallery exhibition and be published in a limited edition New Era Introducing book.

New Era Introducing will initially be launched in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) where the winning creation for that region will be awarded a £10,000 bursary to launch their creative career.

To reiterate: the contest is currently only open to residents of UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, UAE and South Africa. Phase I calls for digital images by September 7, at which point 15 lucky entrants from each country will be given the opportunity to actually create their design on a blank cap. Ten of these Phase II entries will make it into a traveling exhibition and limited edition book.

Gallery of 2010 entries above; more after the jump...

See the full details here. Hopefully the contest will open up to mad hatters stateside shortly...