When HELLA TIGHT first approached us with the Whities fitted baseball cap we took a few steps back. Our first impression was the conceptual design is equal parts historical as well as satirical and comes with a lot of baggage. This article came about after several conversations with HELLA TIGHT’s Josh Sperber about stereotypes, symbols, politics and race. Few would consider a baseball cap to be a conversation piece, or even a catalyst for change. Welcome to the Bay, welcome to HELLA TIGHT and the curious case of The Whities.

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When entrepreneurs Josh Sperber and Lev Mandel, both of Berkeley California, founded cap company HELLA TIGHT, they set out to create a brand that would represent the Bay Area’s diverse culture and its values. Josh and Lev met Miguel Angel Ayala Perez, now the Head Designer of Hella Tight, when they were all students at Berkeley public schools.

Berkeley has long been a hot bed of political activism. It was in Berkeley in 1964 that the free speech movement started. A group of students insisted that the university administration lift a ban on on-campus political activities put in place while students were protesting businesses, including the Oakland Tribune, practicing discrimination. These students, who had fought against racism in the south and blatant disregard for civil liberties, were not going to let the administration tell them they couldn’t voice their opinions about local businesses and their practices. The students fought for social change and succeeded. Even today, when it is illegal for businesses to discriminate based on race, many people don’t look at a Cleveland Indians baseball cap and think that the Chief Wahoo logo is an insulting portrayal of Native Americans. Nor does the misrepresentation of Native Americans in sports end with the Indians logo. Other professional sports teams including the Atlanta Braves, and the Washington Redskins reinforce similar negative stereotypes.

Miguel, who is Mexican and Filipino and grew up around a low-rider culture that uses expressive art to celebrate their culture and heritage, saw a problem with Native Americans being caricatured on a baseball hat. For years as a kid Miguel was uncomfortable with the Indians logo. Given the opportunity to say something about Chief Wahoo, Miguel applied his thoughts to his senior art project at The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York. Thus, the parody team WHITIES was born.

Before Hella Tight was even a brand, Miguel made a statement that represented the forgotten side of sports as a microcosm of society. He wanted to create something that sparked discussion about what we accept as a greater society. When Josh and Lev recruited Miguel to become Head Designer for Hella Tight they were both behind the WHITIES concept but had different ideas about how it related to the brand. The two, who are both Jewish, grew up with a sensitivity to discrimination. Josh recalled hearing childhood stories of ancestors who were victims of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Regime. With this background they both were raised to accept and be mindful of the persecution certain peoples go through because of their religion, skin color, or culture.

Both were Lev and Josh were divided on the approach. Issues of its impact on the brand were a concern. Would all of the work done by Hella Tight be overshadowed by the WHITIES? Would people understand what the WHITIES really meant? Would they understand that the WHTIES was not an attack on white people but in fact a representation of a larger societal problem that needed attention? After lengthy discussion the two decided to get behind the WHTIES with all their energy. The final piece of the puzzle was asking Miguel if he felt comfortable with Hella Tight adopting the WHITIES. Miguel, a man of few words, spoke up and said that he would be honored if Hella Tight used the WHITIES to shed light into the double standards of our society.

Here’s a little history: In 1887, ironically enough while Grover Cleveland was President, Congress passed the Dawes Act, that practically made it illegal to be Native American. Laws were drafted making it illegal to speak Native languages and perform cultural dances. Native American children were forcefully taken from their families and shipped off to boarding schools. Captain R.H. Pratt, who founded and ran the most famous of these schools championed “kill the Indian, and save the man.” This lasted until 1934, when under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt; the Indian Reorganization Act was passed which repealed the Dawes Act. The new reorganization’s main provisions were to restore to Native Americans management of their assets (mostly land); to build a sound economic foundation for the people of the reservations; and to return to the Native Americans local self-government on a tribal basis.

In spite of its altruistic, it is important to note that the goal of the reorganization plan was explicitly to make Indians adopt the ways of White Americans. The act is still in effect today. Chief Wahoo was born 15 years after the Indian Reorganization Act, first appearing on the sleeve of the teams uniform in 1947.

The image of Chief Wahoo has been met with opposition. In 1994 the National Coalition against Racism in Sports and the Media teamed with the Ohio Native American community to organize protests of Jacobs Field in order to get the team to stop using the offensive logo. The protestors were arrested. Chief Wahoo continues to be protested by American Indian tribes and the NAACP and is opposed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
So what exactly does the WHITIES hat have to do with a bi-racial Mexican Filipino and two Jewish kids from Berkeley? Born and raised in Berkeley California all three benefited from growing up around a culture that celebrated cultural diversity as well as the diversity of perspective.

Through their personal experience with Native American students they knew that the portrayal was wrong and inaccurate. The Native American kids they knew didn’t look anything like the Indians logo. Incorporating the WHITIES concept into their Hella Tight collection of ifftted baseball caps, created a platform to say this logo is wrong and is against what Hella Tight, as a company, stands for. The WHITIES were created to shed light one the fact that as a society we become desensitized to many long festering socal ills, like racism. The goal of the WHITIES product line is provoke people to question what acceptable. The Chief is the revered leader of a tribe. Would it be ok to have a smiling Rabbi depicted with a hooked nose as a team’s mascot?

There is no doubt confronting race makes people feel uncomfortable. The WHITIES hat brings awareness to how people feel when their race or people are caricatured. The WHITIES hat may be offensive to some because it is a cartoon character that purports to represent a group of people. But, before you attack Hella Tight for using the WHITIES you may be interested to know that the United States Patent and Trademark office approved their ownership of the WHTIES mark. It is now a federally registered and protected trademark just like Chief Wahoo.

Many others don’t understand the concept of WHITIES. Some have mistaken it for a piece of White supremicist propaganda. Some think it is just an Indians hat. But, those that understand the socio-political significance behind the WHITIES concept feel an immediate connection to it. The hat makes a statement. Its job is not only to look great, but a universal challenge against the status quo. Hella Tight isn’t stopping with hats. They are currently working on creating a viral video campaign which will bring more of a visual component to what the WHITIES are truly supposed to represent.

www.hellatight.com