New Era Caps Yanked From Store Shelves

New Era Caps Yanked From Store Shelves

Some caps from the Buffalo-based New Era Cap Company have been pulled from store shelves after some gang members took a liking to a particular design.

In generations past, caps were known for one thing; America's favorite pastime and its heroes. Now, hip hop stars and celebrities love the lids. Caps with bling, city skylines and even a founding father are popular trendsetters. But the changing styles have caused some concern.

"There's a gang in Cleveland that goes with the name of the 10-5 gang," said Gerry Matos, New Era Marketing Vice President. "Inadvertently, New Era made caps for a store in Cleveland that said 10-5. They didn't say gang on it, just 10-5."

2 On Your Side's Josh Boose asked Matos, "What does 10-5 mean." "I believe it's 105th street in Cleveland," Matos responded.

The 10-5 hats in Cleveland are part of the GPS, global positioning system, caps by New Era.
Simply put; the caps highlight neighborhoods in cities across the country.

"That could be different neighborhoods around Yankee Stadium or neighborhoods on college campuses," Matos said. "Here in Buffalo, we do things for the fruit belt, for black rock, whatever the case may be."

We found caps that show Buffalo's different neighborhoods. It's a map really. One cap shows Elmwood, another showed Genesee.

"People just like showing where they're from," said Matos. "That's really where it stems from and then it turned into this other situation."

New Era says it's not in the business of making hats for gangs and because of what happened in Cleveland, it's making some changes.

"It did make it clear to us that we need a heightened level of review," said Matos. "One thing we'll be doing is actually reaching out to local police stations. There are gang suppression units that list gangs, their names and so on. We want to check that list so we don't fall into the same situation in the future."

New Era says only 100 of the caps in question were made. The ones that weren't sold are being shipped back to Buffalo and will be destroyed.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?

There are more serious issues going on in the world to be worried about this... shit is ridiculous........