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Credit, fake images
The iconic black polo shirt with double yellow bands on the neck and sleeves has since 2016 become something of a casual uniform for the far-right group.
If the devil wears Prada, as the film says, the radicals and white supremacists of the Proud Boys group, the center of the main controversy in the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, in the US, wear Fred Perry. Or they did.
Last Friday, four days before the meeting between the two presidential candidates, the traditional English brand announced that it decided to remove the best-known piece from its catalog after selling it for more than 50 years.
The iconic black polo shirt with double yellow stripes on the collar and sleeves has since 2016 become something of a casual uniform for the far-right group.
Classified by the FBI in 2018 as an “extremist group” and defined as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a traditional organization that maps intolerance in the United States, the Proud Boys have become one of the subjects most discussed in the networks since last Tuesday (9/29), when the US president refused to criticize them.
When asked by moderator Chris Wallace during the debate if he would condemn the group, Donald Trump simply asked them to “step back and wait.” The members of the group celebrated and replied that they “are ready.”
Fred Perry does not endorse and is in no way affiliated with the Proud Boys. Read our statement here.
Fred Perry @fredperry September 25, 2020
Final Twitter Post, 1
Cornered and targeted for boycotts after repeated failed attempts to distance itself from the Proud Boys, the brand known for its logo embroidered with two branches of bay leaves chose to discontinue the best-selling piece in its collection.
“It is incredibly frustrating that this group has appropriated our black and yellow shirt and subverted our laurel wreath for their own purposes,” the company said in a press release.
The brand was founded in 1952 by the former tennis player of the same name: Fred Perry was the son of a socialist politician from the British Labor Party. “Fred Perry does not support and is in no way affiliated with the Proud Boys,” the brand said in a tweet that he liked and shared with 25,000 people.
But the history of the brand, which in 2010 featured a collection signed by singer Amy Winehouse, has been mixed with violent episodes and political disputes since the 1960s.
The group was founded in 2016 by Canadian-British far-right militant Gavin McInnes (who wears Fred Perry’s t-shirt in the photo)
Father of the brand, Fred Perry distinguished himself from his fellow tennis players by his modest past: he was the son of a cotton guarantor, while most of his opponents came from wealthy and important families in England.
Self-taught, he won the biggest tournaments of the time, including three top trophies at Wimbledon, where a statue was unveiled in his honor in 1984.
In 1952, in a kind of response to the expensive brands that tennis players wear, Perry launched his brand with a focus on the working class. Initially white, the polo took on new colors (the Proud Boys’ favorite arrived in the early 1970s) and fell into English taste.
The main asset of the brand was offering “cool” and popular versions of the pieces worn by the elite. While tennis players and wealthy yuppies wore Lacoste, a new generation of Englishmen opted for Fred Perry.
The various color combinations made the jerseys frequent in the football stands, and it was then that the first associations between the brand and violent episodes appeared, in this case by the work of hooligans.
Still, “in the mid-1960s, young working-class Londoners viewed Fred Perry as a brand that combined great aesthetics and affordable prices,” reads an article published by The Independent.
But, as a 2013 report in The Guardian notes, the brand’s troubles took shape in 1966, “when a small group known as Hard Mods appeared on the streets of London.”
Credit, fake images
Fred Perry won the most important tennis tournaments, including three major trophies at Wimbledon, where a statue was unveiled in his honor in 1984.
“Shaved heads”
“These mods (short for modernists) were cool, non-violent and apolitical. They cut their hair very short and over the next three years the look took on more casual elements, combining Fred Perry’s shirt with suspenders and jeans. In September 1969 , an article in the (newspaper) Daily Mirror called these young skinheads, ”says the report.
In literal translation, skinhead means “skin of the head” or “shaved head”.
Originally from the working class and initially made up of young English people and the so-called “windrush” generation (generation of Britons of Caribbean descent, children of natives of former colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica, recruited to work in the country after World War II) , the skinhead movement grew and diversified.
Until, in the 1970s, part of its members joined the far-right youth of the defunct British National Front. Since then, skinheads have divided between white supremacists and anti-fascists.
Credit, fake images
Young skinhead photographed with the brand in 1980s London
If the brand already had the sympathy of the members in the early days of the movement, it was officially adopted by the Proud Boys, to the point that their leaders suggested, according to the American press, that the members wear the black and yellow polo shirt even in Tinder images to be Recognized.
“The Fred Perry T-shirt is a piece of the British counterculture uniform, adopted by various groups of people who recognize its values in what it stands for. We are proud of its origin and of what the laurel wreath has represented for more than 65 years. : Inclusion, Diversity and Independence The black and yellow jersey has been an important part of this uniform since its introduction in the late 1970s, and has been adopted generation after generation by various subcultures, without prejudice, “says the brand.
“Despite its origins, we saw that the jersey is taking on a new and very different meaning in North America as a result of its association with the Proud Boys,” continues the brand. “We need to do our best to end this association.”
Debate
Credit, Reuters
Proud boy with an “antifa hunting license” sticker on his helmet
Founded in 2016 by far-right Canadian-British militant Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys is an all-male, far-right, anti-immigrant group with a history of street violence against left-wing opponents.
Despite the confusion facing the brand, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were questioned about their alleged associations with extremists.
After refusing to condemn white supremacists, Trump reversed the question, saying the violence in the US protests would come from far-left activists: “Someone has to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a problem. right.. “
Democrat Joe Biden amended: “Antifa is an idea, not an organization. That’s what the director of the FBI said.”
Credit, Reuters
Donald Trump and Joe Biden were asked about their alleged associations with extremists
The name Proud Boys is a reference to a quote that appears in the Disney musical Aladdin. In addition to the Fred Perry polo shirts, members wear red caps emblazoned with “Make America Great Again” (or “Make America Great Again,” Donald Trump’s campaign slogan).
The Proud Boys platform includes proposals such as closing borders, giving arms to everyone, ending social welfare policies and defending traditional gender roles (such as “worshiping the housewife”). Most of the theses are defended by President Trump.
They are not exclusively white, but have nevertheless gained fame for violent political clashes, many of them against black activists.
The Proud Boys and their affiliates have faced antifa in several violent protests in the past two years, mainly in Oregon, Washington and New York.
Two members were arrested last year for assault.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube banned the group from their platforms. Therefore, members migrated to less popular social networks.
McInnes publicly disassociated himself from the group in 2018 and said he followed the advice of his legal team. But in a video in reaction to Tuesday’s debate, he said (ironically): “I control the Proud Boys, Donald. Don’t give up, don’t back down.”
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