Interesting article….
Chris
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/8472331.htm?1c
It’s a phenomenon quietly spreading across the United States, from Los
Angeles to New York, Miami to Detroit, and taken some by surprise: Garb
associated with NASCAR, historically the gritty darling of white men and
women from the South, is now a must-have for many urban African-American
youths.
<snip>
Orlando, a DJ on WLLD-FM 98.7 (Wild 98.7) in the Tampa Bay area, began
noticing the NASCAR jackets on African-American kids about a year ago. He
recently raised the issue on his hip-hop music and talk show, remarking that
it wasn’t a sport with much affinity for blacks.
“I was saying I had never been [to NASCAR] and if I went, would I be one of
the only black people there? Callers were saying there are not many [black
spectators].”
But that doesn’t figure into the buying habits of certain youths, Orlando
said.
”I think it’s just hip-hop is very product-driven. If you put a big M&M
emblem on the jacket, it doesn’t even matter if it’s NASCAR. The hip-hop
kids don’t care where you get it from, as long as it’s something that’s
different,” Orlando said.
<snip>
”Our marketing efforts at present are really quite gender and race
neutral,” said Andrew Giangola, NASCAR’s director of business
communications. “We’re not marketing per se to the African-American
community.”
Ironically, that’s why the jackets are still red-hot, said NPD’s Cohen.
”Chances are, most of the commercial things they could do would destroy the
trend,” Cohen said. “Urban brands have felt the wrath of trying to go
after the urban consumer; Tommy Hilfiger fell at lightning speed.”