They made that cool.”Īlbum cover for Eazy-E’s 1988 debut studio LP “Eazy-Duz-It”īy ‘92, the sports headwear industry alone was worth $1.5 billion, and Sports Specialties owned a good portion of that. Then, NWA changed that and brought sports apparel to the world to show where you’re from. “Hip-hop before that was very brand-centric,” recalls Tilton, a New Hampshire native who moved to Los Angeles in 2009 and later founded vintage venture For All to Envy. Ultimately, this sparked a shift in global fashion while redefining cultural trends from within. Spanning far further than the city of LA, the whole world was taking on the Raiders’ gear as spearheaded by NWA. Less about rushing marks and more about bum-rushing the show, the whole world was enthralled with fan gear through hip-hop.Įveryone from members of the Detroit Pistons to members of Public Enemy could be seen in the Black and Silver script Raiders hat. They made it cool to rock sports gear head to toe and claim your team.” “The ’90s in a nutshell was sports gear,” For All to Envy founder and vintage curator Kirk Tilton told Boardroom. Dre and company were repping the same script Raiders snapback that Sports Specialties probably designed with the team’s former frontman, John Madden, in mind.Īll this impacted not just teams in LA, but the entire industry of athletic apparel for an entire decade. While weapons and faces weren’t blurred out, the text adorning their caps was notably fuzzed.ĭressed darkly with dripping Jheri curls, it soon became evident that Dr. The explicit title track and its brash visual were littered with cutting curse words, gunshot sound effects, and poignant threats. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella broke rules and the Richter scale with the release of their breakthrough album, Straight Outta Compton. Louder than a bomb, the West Coast crew composed of Dr.
Kirkland, Eazy-E, and Too $hort backstage at the Straight Outta Compton tour in Indianapolis, 1989. In the late ’80s, NWA and the losing Los Angeles Raiders changed everything. Just the same, it was hip-hop’s regional roots that put all the eyeballs on the East Coast.
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Soon, big brands like Adidas were leaning into rebellion by striking deals with rap group Run-DMC, while unofficial endorsement of the Nike Air Safari by the one and only Biz Markie made it official amongst the youth than any time trial could.Īll this time, team gear sales corresponded with winning records. No longer were sneakers sold as safe, with MJ’s banned Black/Red Air Jordans making more noise than Stan Smith’s country club kicks. In the 1980s, the individual marketing of Michael Jordan and the eventual embrace of hip-hop culture by mainstream media outlets like MTV completely catapulted the sportswear industry into uncharted territory.
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It was in the early 1980s that Sports Specialties introduced their most transcendent product: the Pro Line Script snapback. However, when it comes to licensed apparel, the foundation was set a century ago.Īs explained by Agora Clothing, Sports Specialties - the brand behind the iconic script snapback hat - started in Chicago back in the 1920s before being bought by Nike in 1992.Įarly on, Sports Specialties started the sportswear licensing business in America as we know it by striking a deal with the local Cubs, eventually signing on as the first official licensee of the NFL by the 1960s. The team gear vertical may be profitable enough in 2022 to make Fanatics a multi-billion-dollar brand. While much of their brash branding comes on account of their tough team tones and rabid fans, it all hit a high point in the late ’80s - due not to players putting out hits in helmets, but rather rappers putting out hits in hats. Moving from The Bay to the Land of the Las, the storied franchise has changed coaches and locations over the course of their 61-year history yet has always maintained an image of the bad boys in black. And one article of licensed apparel still reigns as America’s most wanted.Īfter a regular season of scrutiny and distractions ended with a down-to-the-wire win, the Las Vegas Raiders are back in the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 2016. For decades, fan gear emblazoned with the Raiders’ Silver and Black has symbolized swagger and attitude on both coasts.
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