CASQUETTE CULTURE

Let’s say it plainly, the casquette, or cycling cap, is an icon of cycling. As visually synonymous with the sport as a yellow jersey or razor sharp tan lines and its cultural significance has reached, some would say controversially, well beyond those who put the hard graft into the pedals.

At one time, this uniquely quirky piece of headgear was exclusively owned by the cycling community, a dead-cert signal that the wearer rides two wheels and for many decades this remained the status quo. However, it was only a question of time before the nerdy cloth cap was absorbed by the zeitgeist and permeated popular culture.

BIRTH OF AN ICON

As is the case with many icons, its beginnings were humble. Riders entering cycling races in the late 19th century, long before cycling attire was a thing, made good with a flat cap to protect their scalps from the prevailing weather. It turned out that tweed isn’t ideal in the sun or the snow or for wicking away sweat, which set the wheels in motion for a purpose built alternative.

Enter the plain white cotton skull cap (sans peak), which was lighter, more breathable and capably dealt with the dirt, rain, blood, sweat and tears. Paired with a wet cabbage leaf underneath, for its advanced cooling properties, cyclists were entering a new era of technical functionality. That said, style points were close to zero and smelling like soup rarely encourages a heroes welcome at the finish line.

By the 1950’s the design had evolved into something closer to the shape we recognise today, a peak was added to give shade from the sun and shield against the rain, and became the unmistakable signature look of the professional cyclist. Inevitably, all of that white space perched atop the cyclists head in full view of the crowds, screamed for advertising space and by the ‘60s sponsors were taking full advantage by branding them with logos on all sides and adding attention grabbing patterns in primary colours to help spread their company names throughout the watching world.

They also became the perfect entry point for aspiring cyclists, who may not have been able to make the leap to a Campagnolo spec bike, but could certainly afford the team cap. And so, the humble cap had taken its first step towards becoming a coveted fashion item, albeit still solely owned by the cycling world.

NEAR DEATH

Then came the ‘70s and with it the introduction of helmets, which some years later became a mandatory safety requirement for amateur and professional racing, and naturally competed for headspace. This could have been the death of the casquette while still in its relative infancy, but the cultural bonds formed over the previous three decades ran deep and had already begun transitioning beyond exclusive cycling use into wider fashion culture.

Fortunately, the lightweight, form fitting geometry of the cap allowed it to tesselate neatly under most helmets and share a functional symbiosis, offering an additional layer of warmth in the winter and, when turned backwards with peak down, extra neck protection from the sun during the summer months. That said, the practical benefits had been marginalised and function alone would not ensure its survival in the decades to come. Its longevity lay in the universal appeal of its nerdy-ness, a fashion axiom; it really shouldn’t work - but yet it really does.

BREAKING AWAY x CAMPAGNOLO

In 1979 the journey towards mass appeal took a stride forward when a classic Campagnolo design appeared on the big screen in “Breaking Away”. Writer Steve Tesich, a bike enthusiast, paid close attention to detail styling a bright yellow cap in distinct contrast to the lead characters red Italian Masi Gran Criterium road bike (fitted with a Campagnolo Nuovo Record groupset) the embodiment of Italian racing style at the time.

Although set in Bloomington Indiana, the film is a comedic celebration of Italian culture and so the visiting Cinzano race team were equipped with custom Colnago bikes and aggressive racing tactics. Expectations at the box office weren’t high, but the film became a surprise hit of the year winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture and five Oscar nominations, propelling the casquette, styled back to front with peak flipped up (otherwise known as the rear spoiler formation) into the international conscious.

BROOKLYN CYCLING TEAM

During the same era, in the early seventies, the Dreher backed Italian cycling team were enjoying a successful run in European professional racing. In 1973 when the team sponsor changed to the Brooklyn Chewing Gum company, a famous Italian confectioner, the team kit was redesigned to a distinctive red, white and blue strip which included what would become the iconic Brooklyn logo cap.

The team went on to dominate the world’s road racing scene, winning forty stage victories in the Giro d’Italia and giants of the sport including four times Paris-Roubaix winner Roger De Vlaemnick were pictured sporting the cap through every gruelling kilometre, cementing the image in cycling folk lore.

MARS BLACKMON

A decade on, Spike Lee, a young New York film director chanced upon a Brooklyn team cycling cap in a local store and as a Brooklyn borough native, he immediately appreciated its goofy aesthetic as it spoke to his personal love of cycling. He paired it with equally odd-ball Run DMC era Cazal 616 glasses to dress “Mars Blackmon” one of the main characters in his 1986 movie “She’s Gotta Have It”, played by Lee himself.

The movie tracks Blackmon’s eccentric and steadfast fascination with the New York Knicks, Jordan basket ball sneakers (which he wears to bed) and his cycling cap, while rolling around the borough on his Fuji drop bar race bike.

AIR JORDAN

In 1989, the movie inspired Nike to create a series of commercials in collaboration with Lee to promote the Jordan brands latest releases. “Is It the Shoes?” for Jordan 4’s and “Around the World” for Jordan 5’s featured Mars Blackmon alongside Michael Jordan wearing the Brooklyn cycling cap throughout.

The humble casquette had once again been unexpectedly thrust into the lime light and this time with a much larger audience, striking a cord with the sneaker community and beginning its successful crossover into street culture.

WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP x COLNAGO

Rolling into the 90’s, Wesley Snipes raised the stakes, playing a hustler on Venice Beach in the cult classic basketball movie “White Men Can’t Jump”, released in 1992. Arguably inspired by the Jordan ads, Snipes character Sidney Deane is rarely seen without his white Le Defi Time cap and most prominently, a multi-coloured Colnago club stripe cap styled peak to the front with an upward flip. Sidney is so attached to the look that even his baby boy sports a Levi’s multi-coloured cap in the opening scenes and later in the movie flex’s another brightly coloured piece from his presumably extensive collection. Like father, like son.

This marks a key turning point, when the casquette is first worn entirely disassociated from cycling, standing alone as a fashion item in the unlikely context of a tough inner-city ball sport. Watching the movie today is like digging up a time capsule of early '90s style, a fusion of basket ball inspired athletic gear, cycling shorts, tank tops, Jordan’s and, of course, cycling caps. Once again the fashion axiom weaves seemingly disparate elements seamlessly together to create a vivid moment in movie history.

FIXED GEAR

Another crucial source of inspiration for these movies were ’80s and ’90s messenger bikes, couriering parcels around cities who, much like train cars tagged by graffiti artists, carried brand logos far and wide. A great deal of ‘80s style emerged from the golden era of bike messengers. Hip Hop legend has it that Public Enemy hypeman Flava Flav’s supersized clock, worn on a medallion chain, was inspired by bike messengers who wore analog stopwatches around their necks to time their runs.

With the turn of the Millennium, the trend continued into the noughties, as the urbanisation of the cap accelerated and naturally transitioned into fixed gear cycling which was rapidly gaining popularity with hipsters. Much to the distaste of the hardcore cycling community, these newcomers, who invested very few kilometres in the saddle, were steadily devouring the classic heritage elements of cycling history and adopting the style as their own.

Inner city cycling popularity was growing fast and soon gave birth to urban road races, an accessible alternative to the major tours, most notorious of which was the Red Hook Crit. A cycle event held in Red Hook, Brooklyn founded by David Trimble as an unofficial alley cat race to celebrate his birthday in 2008. The series went on to become a hugely successful series with events spanning the European cities of Milan, Barcelona and London, bringing the adrenaline fuelled drama of brakeless cycling and a deep well of cycling culture to the metropolitan masses.

STRANGER THINGS x CERAMICHE ARIOSTEA

Another decade down the road, with ’80s nostalgia hitting a feverish peak not seen since Michael Douglas preyed on Wall St, the third season of Netflix’ sci-fi-horror drama “Stranger Things" hit screens in 2019. We’re reminded, among a vast array of memorabilia, what an indelible mark the cycling cap made on the era holding rank among VHS tapes, the Beach Boys and BMX bikes.

Lucas, played by Caleb McLaughlin, appears wearing a cap from the Italian Ceramiche Ariostea racing team, a sponsor from Castellarano in the north of Italy who produced marble and stone tiles. They sponsored the team from 1984 to 1993 winning major victories including two stage wins at the 1986 Giro d’Italia and placing 11th in the general classification. During the ‘90s, Rolf Sørensen one of their most successful riders won Paris-Tours in 1990 and the Tirreno-Adriatico in 1992.

THE STORY CONTINUES

So where do you stand on the popularisation of the cycling cap? Proud of the casquettes contribution to wider pop culture or are you a purest, angered by the heresy of it all?

Frank Strack, the founder of the cycling-culture website Velominati, fights verdantly for the latter, arguing that caps should only ever be worn on the bike “We’re militantly protective of our aesthetic, to see an article of our clothing adopted by the hipster crowd who know little of the hard work and suffering is highly disrespectful.”

On the flip-side, any truly inspirational, culture-contributing icon will inevitably spread it’s wings and find new lives in new places. What’s most crucial, is the original association with cycling is never lost which for the foreseeable future is very unlikely to happen. The more recent trend for baseball caps being worn on podiums of major professional competitions, which have no cultural relevance to the sport and serves solely to increase sponsor ad-space is much more detrimental to cycling. It might be the corporate advertisers we need to keep a closer eye on, rather than the hipsters that pay homage.

Wherever you stand on this most critical debate, pull on your casquette, flip up the peak and start pounding those pedals. Enjoy the ride.

See the chasing HIGHS cycling cap here…