Chouinard Rainbow Jersey Cycling Cap, early 80s, vintage climbing

Description

Cyclists will recognize the center stripe as that worn on the Rainbow Jersey of the reigning world champion; a tradition dating back to 1927. Climbers will recognize the Chouinard name and the "Equipment for Alpinists" slogan.
This very rare 8-panel cycling cap has the flip-up visor with Chouinard on both sides. It was made in Vescovato, Italy by Apis -- the company that has supplied hats to all the leading cycling teams for sixty years.
Chouinard ordered a limited production run in the early 80's with this color-way. The next year they placed a much larger order of yellow caps with the three stripes of the Belgium flag; hence those are much less valuable to collectors.
In the past few years, I've only seen one of the blue world champion hats come up for sale. It was beat to hell and still got a serious price. The yellow ones are still fairly uncommon and seem to average around 0+ depending on condition.
Condition is near new. Non-smoking household.