NEW ERA STOPS MAKING CAPS THAT HAVE GANG TIE-IN

You could call it top side naiveté, or just a fabric faux pas, but New Era was told that 100 of their caps were associated with local Ohio gangs. “Da Valley,” “10-5” and “HVD” were pulled after they were found to have roots that run deep on the wrong side of the street.

“Community activists said the caps featured the names of neighborhoods as well as local gangs such as “Da Valley” for the Garden Valley housing project; “10-5,” which is short for the 105th Street gang called Waste-5; and “HVD,” which refers to the street gang on Harvard Avenue,” said a spokesperson.

New Era Cap Co. was not aware that the neighborhood names on the caps were tied to gangs and started removing the hats once alerted, spokeswoman Dana Marciniak said. She estimated about 100 hats were made.

“We make a lot of hats for different colleges, neighborhoods and groups,” Marciniak said. “We get designs from different areas. We assumed some of the Cleveland groups were a reflection of the neighborhood.”

New Era plans to conduct more research on future logo designs and wants to work with city and neighborhood officials in Cleveland, Marciniak said. The company also agreed to destroy the logo patterns of the gang-related caps that were pulled from store shelves.

Khalid Samad, a gang intervention specialist, said the hats, like gang colors, would increase tensions on the streets.

“It is only the beginning of summer and a lot of neighborhood conflicts that boiled throughout the school year will spill out on the streets. Anything we can do to stop the tension from escalating is good,” Samad said.