Lowrider Hats

Lowriding grew out of Mexican American communities in the post-war Southwest, and the people who live it describe it as family, respect and community more than machinery. The creed is bajito y suavecito, low and slow: cruise as slowly and smoothly as possible. In 1959 mechanic Ron Aguirre used hydraulic pumps and valves to change a car's ride height at the flick of a switch, a way around California's ban on lowered bodies, and in 1975 War's Low Rider reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Alberto Pulido calls the make-do spirit behind it Chicano ingenuity, and the cars are rolling artwork, with candy paint, pinstriping and murals done by hand. These lowrider hats are worn the way the culture asks, as pride. The badges name the cars and the community. The sentence designs carry the creed, the three wheel motion, hydraulics over horsepower, a Sunday cruising the boulevard, a '64 Impala, and an abuelo who built lowriders first, because, as one participant in AP coverage puts it, the tradition gets passed on from generation to generation. Funny Car Guy, Dirt Track Racing and JDM & Import Tuner cover other car tribes; none of them is lowrider. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to the Sunday cruise, or give one to the grandfather who still has the car.