Before Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst made the red New York Yankees cap famous, Spike Lee pretty much invented the hat.
During the height of Limp Bizkit’s fame in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Durst’s wore a backwards red Yankees hat as his signature look, but if it weren’t for a conversation that Lee had with late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, the cap may never have existed.
In a new interview with Variety, the Do the Right Thing director recalled, “During the 1996 World Series, the Yankees lost the first two games to the Braves. I’d bought this New Era Yankees jacket and it had a red stripe, so I wanted a red Yankee hat. I called up New Era and they said, ‘We don’t do that.’ So, I got Steinbrenner on the phone. I told him what I wanted, he called New Era, and they made me a red Yankee hat.”
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Pressed as to whether he invented the red Yankees hat, Lee responded, “It’s not only red. Before that, teams only had hats in their team colors. The red Yankee hat started everything!”
When the interviewer suggested that Limp Bizkit would never have existed had Lee not invented the red Yankees hat, Lee replied, “Limp Bizkit!?! That’s some… He didn’t have it before me! New Era made it for me! I don’t even remember how I got Steinbrenner on the phone, but he got New Era to make the red Yankee hat, and we won the World Series.”
Limp Bizkit will support Metallica on a 2027 North American tour. Pick up tickets here.
