The "fad" of Orthodox Jewish children wearing "wild and
weird" yarmulkes, which often are "adorned" with sports team
and corporate logos, is examined by Sarah Kershaw of the
N.Y. TIMES. The trend has "created potential legal problems
for retailers," as companies like Nike are "trying to stamp
out counterfeit logos" and have "taken issue with some of
the newest skullcaps," whose logos are sometimes sewn on by
parents or "produced as unlicensed products by designers who
supply the Judaica shops." Nike Dir of Global Issues
Management Vada Manager said that the company recently
"confiscated a few" yarmulkes "adorned with swooshes, as
part of a routine sweep" of N.Y. vendors. But Nike has "no
plans yet to focus on skullcaps because there are still
relatively few available." Manager: "The yarmulke, as
venerable and noble an article of clothing it is, is not
something we sell among our performance athletic line. But
it's not something we plan to specifically enforce. That
would be like trying to prosecute a kid who had a swoosh cut
into his hair at the barber shop" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/19).
