Marcel Winatschek

Pikachu Level 100, Always

My Pokémon team was untouchable. Charizard, Mewtwo, Articuno, Mew, Dragonite, Zapdos—all level 100, all correctly movesetted, the product of hours grinding through locations whose names I can still recall without effort. I beat every kid on the playground with that team. I am not exaggerating when I say I was probably the best Pokémon player in my immediate school, and possibly in the surrounding neighborhood, and possibly in a radius I prefer not to specify.

The point is: Pokémon never really went anywhere. BEAMS and New Era just released a Pikachu fitted cap collection—embroidered, clean, the kind of thing that works both as childhood nostalgia and as a genuinely wearable hat. Available through the BEAMS online shop for around forty euros, which is reasonable for a cap that also functions as proof you know when to use Thunderbolt and when Dream Eater is a trap.

The best thing about Pokémon surviving into adulthood is that it operates as a filter. Anyone who can argue Psychic versus Mega Drain, who understands the difference between a coverage move and a sweep finisher, who spent real hours on a Game Boy doing things that had no practical application—that person and I share a vocabulary that costs nothing to deploy. A hat helps establish this quickly.

The BEAMS shop interface is in Japanese and requires some confident clicking. Worth it. Pikachu, I choose you, etc.