Object of Culture
This week we offer you a focus on the origins of a cult object, the famous TRUCKER cap! An inseparable object from contemporary fashion culture and a product that Kulte has been highlighting year after year for more than 20 years in each of our collections. Here is a cultural pastille to get back to basics.
ORIGINS
The Trucker cap in its original version, took root in the 1960s in the rural US, called at the time by those who wore it the "gimme cap", for good reason, the TRUCKER cap is nothing else originally just a promotional product! Something difficult to imagine given its significant use by current fashion brands.
This “gimme cap”, which could be translated into good old French as “give me cap”, was often distributed free of charge on motorway rest areas or shopping centers by large companies, generally specialized in the agri-food industry, agricultural mechanics and other activities targeting a rather popular and very often rural clientele, what we would call today: deep America! A clientele mainly made up of workers, farmers and of course TRUCKERS (truck drivers but that's more American style).
Among these American brands we could find John DEERE (tractor manufacturer), Budweiser (beer producer), Mountain Dew (an American soft drink), Shell Oil (multinational company specializing in fuels and gas) as well as Dekalb (agri-food group specialized in GMOs, it makes you hungry).
DESIGN
The Trucker in its original design is very close to a classic baseball cap, which is as popular in the US as the sport with which it is associated, if not more.
However, what differentiates it is obviously the plastic net allowing ventilation of the lower area of the scalp (apparently there was no air conditioning in the camtar), but above all a more subtle detail which are the triangular angles of the front part of the headgear, making it a completely original model at the time. Without forgetting the embroidered button above it.
With the passing seasons and its appropriation by the fashion world, the model has been adapted according to the brands and trends of the moment, sometimes embellished with embroidery, an embroidered patch or a simple print.
As for its composition, it is often a question of a cotton fabric, plastic for the net, and it is not uncommon to find a layer of foam in the visor giving a relief effect to the piece. .
And of course, the adjustable tab, essential when it comes to distributing products on a chain.
In retrospect, we can say that the marketers of the time did well when we know what became of the "gimme cap" of the 60's, not to mention the period models selling for more than €100 on ebay, some of them.
THE 2000S
If there was a decade that brought the TRUCKER into pop culture, it was the first of the 21st century. This is when it really became trendy with brands like Von Dutch which were on the rise at this time, and greatly contributed to its popularization and entry into the mainstream.
It was therefore adopted rather unanimously by different cultural currents which formed the youth of the time, more or less underground, ranging from American country fans, pop fans, metalheads, punks, Hip-Hop fans, sportsmen and women. , up to skateboarders and other board sports enthusiasts.
More recently, the living icon of the moment, member of the Hip-Hop collective ASAP MOB, and muse of the house of Dior, ASAP ROCKY created his own creative agency AWGE, with the merch that goes with it, for the moment in very limited quantities , and guess what model of cap he chose…
We might as well tell you that the Trucker still has many good years ahead of it!
Hoping that you will have enjoyed this moment of pure Kulture, as far as we are concerned you can find our collection of original Trucker caps and revisited Trucker caps on the e-shop!
