New Era caps marketing to gang members

[CoryKS]

Yes, this is appalling, but not new. The Raiders have been doing this under the radar for years.

Judging by their fans, I thought the Raiders were a gang.

 

[jks9199]

I could be wrong, but if I'm remembering correctly, sports teams (college and pro) were chosen because their colors matched the gang colors, rather than for their locations.

Color was the main choice selection, from what I knew as well.

Sometimes it was the color, sometimes it was elements of the design, or interpretations created by the team name. For example, UNC was once popular with MS because of the shade of blue, but Bloods like Chicago Bulls apparel not only because of the red contained, but also because they have several interpretations of BULLS. People Nation gangs might wear Houston Astros items because of the 5 point star in the design...

It's also important to realize that simply wearing certain clothes doesn't automatically make a person a gang member. It takes several months, and multiple real life contacts for new gang investigators to start recognizing "the look" of a banger, and bangers do change their look when they realize that it's getting them too much attention. For example, I haven't seen an MS member wearing a #13 Tarheels jersey in quite a while... And, as a corollary to that, it's necessary to remember that the "rules" change in different areas, too. What goes for the DC area where I work isn't the same as what goes for Los Angeles, for example.

One more thing, regarding professional sports, as well as the entertainment industry...

There ARE bangers that are pro athletes. Their wealthier -- but they're still bangers.

 

[exile]

My guess: the Yankees management knew exactly what they were doing when they picked the color/design combinations reported in the story, and calculated, down to the nickel, the likely profit they would net from the first shockwave of sales and the followup, minus the spin costs and possible lawsuit actions from advocacy groups like the people mentioned in the story, and came up in the black. Not very charitable; but my personal hunch is that the Yankees management, or any sports mega-franchise, would also sell cocaine to fifth graders if they could possibly figure out a way to do it legally, or even cost-effectively. After all, the sincere relentlessness with which MLB has pursued the anabolic drug angle amongst some of its top-performing stars tells you volumes about how disturbed those chaps really are when a whole generation of batters starts beating .300 a season... and laying down a genuinely astonishing number of home runs/multiple base hits per at-bats.

There's currently a class action suit we just heard about against a mortgage company that got hold of people's personal info from credit agencies illegally and used that information in their marketing plan. I'm sure this suit is going to expand to take in lots of such agencies, and again, I'm willing to bet anything that these outfits figured out exactly how much they would make vs. how much they'd lose in worst-case outcomes, found they'd still be in the black, and cheerfully went ahead. Don't look for ethical behavior from any of these folks, my friends....