It all started humbly.

A $5,000 investment from Abe Yeddis and his father, Jacob, to rekindle a closing cap company in Kansas City’s downtown garment district. Coming amid the economic throes of the Great Depression, the founding of Pioneer Cap Company took guts. It was a risk – but one that’s paid off for generations.

These days, the company the Yeddis men founded is known as Sportsman Cap & Bag (asi/88877), a promotional products supplier that boasts 15 distributorship locations in North America and a product collection that features 24 brands and more than 3,000 SKUs. Going stronger than ever, the Lenexa, KS-headquartered firm is celebrating its 85^th anniversary.

Dan Saferstein and the late Abe Yeddis, Sportsman Cap & Bag

Still family owned and operated, the business is helmed by President Dan Saferstein, Abe Yeddis’ grandson.

“We work to bring trends to the industry, including sustainable styles, as part of our long-term strategy,” says Saferstein.

For sure, a focus on evolution has been key to Sportsman Cap & Bag’s longevity. Under Abe Yeddis’ leadership, the firm was quick to capitalize on growing demand for caps after World War II, expanding to include multiple factories around the Midwest.

In the late 1960s, Abe Yeddis turned his ample business talents to importing, ultimately becoming what company leaders say was one of the first to import caps to the United States. This shift eventually led to Abe evolving his business into Promotional Headwear International.

Around the year 2000, Saferstein joined the company with a desire to ink a new, innovative chapter in the firm’s multi-generational story.

“I wanted to push and grow our company by providing a variety of blank styles with increased distribution points while maintaining customer care,” said Saferstein, noting the firm would soon become known as Sportsman Cap Network.

In pursuit of that goal, Saferstein spearheaded the creation of the in-house Sportsman brand and added Flexfit styles to the company’s portfolio. In 2012, Saferstein led the company to bring bags into its collection and rebrand as Sportsman Cap & Bag. The firm has continued to add brands, such as popular headwear line Richardson and Italy-based sustainable headwear maker Atlantis.

The hard work contributed to Sportsman making Counselor’s annual list of the industry’s 40 largest suppliers by revenue  for the first time in 2021, ranking 13^th thanks to reported annual North American promo sales of $113 million.

“I want,” says Saferstein, “to make sure we continue to evolve at 100 years and beyond.”

Somewhere Abe Yeddis, who passed away in 2003, is smiling at that entrepreneurial ambition.