Do you guys know what the New York Yankees are, or do you just think it’s a brand symbol?

37 comments

1. No, I just saw that it’s a baseball team. I always thought it was something to do with hip hop, the East Coast and all that. A similar situation with the Chicago Bulls.

2. I know what it is because my brother was a massive Limp Bizkit fan back in the day. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t.

3. I know what the NY Yankees are, but I feel I am an exception… I expect most people will know it is the symbol of a sports team based in New York, but many won’t be able to tell if they are a baseball, a basket-ball or an American football team. Baseball is not popular in Belgium, so it is just a cool logo to wear, people who wear them do not support the team or even follow baseball.

4. I don’t think people here associate it with the baseball team, if they even know it’s the logo of the Yankees. It’s just a clothing brand like anything else.

5. I feel like everyone knows that? 

   Idk I think if you bring it up most Dutch people will actually start to shower you with the “Jan & Kees -> Yankees” story.

   Edit: there is also a gross misunderstanding in your post, the word Yankee has a way broader cultural and historical understanding going far beyond the baseball team. If you think it’s just the NY Yankees you may be a bit out of the loop.

6. I knew it was probably a symbol for a sports team(though I didn’t know which sports as a kid) because of the predilection for different sports team branded merch in Finland in the 90s. I’m pretty sure one of my classmates had a Mighty Ducks-hoodie and he didn’t follow NHL, not really.

   That’s all cool though, I’ve still got an LA Raiders snapback with the official NFL-tag sewn into the headband, New Era marked as manufacturers from the early ’90s. I’ve never watched an NFL match in my life. Now in my late 30s, I haven’t used the hat either since I was like 11-12.

7. I feel like a lot of people have vaguely heard of the Yankees from mentions in movies etc, and might have picked up that they’re a sports team of sone description, but don’t necessarily connect that with the hats with NY on them.

   As others have said, almost no-one in the UK knows or cares anything about baseball beyond what’s necessary to understand the plot of A League Of Thrir Own or Field of Dreams

8. I think that most people who wear Yankees merchandise are at least aware that they are a big baseball team, even if they might not know much about baseball, don’t actually follow the Yankees, and probably never watch any games. To most, it’s probably just a brand that they associate with the US, New York City and generally a young urban lifestyle,

   I personally don’t know much about the New York Yankees either, other than that they are a very old, traditional and successful baseball team. I’ve also heard that they have some very traditionalist views, such as that the players are not allowed to have any haircut they want for example, and that they have to conform to the image of the brand. Which I guess goes against the usual strong individualism that most associate both the US and New York with.

   For my generation specifically, the Yankees are also closely associated with the tv show Seinfeld, where George Costanza worked for the Yankees, with his boss being the eccentric George Steinbrenner – who was apparently also the real life Yankee manager at the time? But that’s of course a reference that most young people today don’t have anymore.

9. Are the Yankees the Baseball or the Basketball Team. Football is the Jets and Football is the Redbulls right?

10. Without the information given, I would assume it’s a sports team from New York. I wouldn’t know which sport. I’ve looked up the symbol and if I saw it, I would assume it stands for some New York sports team, the person is probably a fan and I wouldn’t be interested in other details.

11. I know it is a baseball team, and know they had some utter legends like Babe Ruth, but to be honest not that many people care about baseball in Spain. Possibly my beloved grand-uncle was the only person in his city who liked baseball.

    For the vast majortiy of people I think it may be just a brand with a cool looking logo

12. When I was young, I was in New York and was at a shopping mall, trying to find a “New York hat”, like the ones I had seen on tv.

    Lots of shops didn’t understand what I was looking for, and it was only when I found one, then got it back to Belfast that I understood what it was.

13. They’re a baseball (or American football?) team.

    Anyway, baseball is not popular in Italy, so I guess it’s usually seen as a generic New York logo

    I remember when I was a kid I had a yankees cap when probably I didn’t even know what baseball is. For me it was just New York 

14. I’d guess some people have a vague idea that they’re a baseball team, but most probably think it’s just a brand.
    Outside the US and Japan nobody really gives a crap about the boring “spectacle” that is baseball.

15. Just played a quiz game (Smart 10) where they asked, what sport a team plays. I got New York Yankees right, ofcourse. Edit: Almost said “pesäpallo” which is a Finnish sport very similar to baseball.

16. Most people know it’s a baseball team. Some sports teams have good international branding.

    For example, you won’t have much trouble finding Barcelona merch here in the UK. And I’m pretty sure Manchester United make way more money selling jerseys abroad than they do in England.

17. Yes, I’m familiar. They’re the ones who marched south in the 1860s, determined to settle the debate over states’ rights and slavery with cannonballs and logistics.

18. I don’t think most people know that that particular “NY” logo stands for the NY Yankees. I am aware the NY Yankees exist and I would have guessed they are a baseball or basketball team, but I would not have connected that logo to the team. I thought it was just a NY tourist thing like the “I heart NY” t-shirts.

19. I couldn’t even have told you what sport it was, just that it’s a kind of American logo for a sports team. These logos are kind of cool

20. I know who the New York Yankees are, but outside of North America the Yankees basically operate as a clothing brand.

21. I’d guess about half the people wearing Yankees hats (or for that matter, Red Sox, Dodgers, or Mets hats, really any city initials logo one) might know it’s a sports team, but that’s probably about as far as the knowledge goes. And the vast majority (those who know and those who don’t) will almost certainly think of it as just a hat representing the city, not a specific team.

22. Yes of course, they are one of the most famous sports teams on the planet and their brand has international reach because of that. If you want to wear a baseball cap branded ones with their logo tends to be the most widely available and for the non sports types it also tends to be one which doesn’t look too sporty and neutral, i.e. won’t offend other teams supporters like some football ones could.

23. To us it is “an American hat/cap”. Like we have our own hats(or caps) but the ones you mean are what we call the American ones.

24. Their NY-logo can easily be mistaken to just mean “New york”. Ppl often just buy things with US-logos and brands because they are cheap. I know the New yourk yankees, the Mets and the Jets

25. I know it’s baseball and huge in US culture, because I’ve heard it referred to in movies / series / books etc. But I don’t know if they’re good / supposed to be good / what exactly their deal is. Also I don’t understand baseball and don’t care about baseball. Couldn’t draw the logo either but would probably recognize it if I saw it on a cap, just because that’s where I’d expect it to be.

26. We have a rich baseball history, though it’s mainly played in cities with a decent Antillian population. It’s not a countryside sport. As such, I don’t think many of the people with Yankees or Dodgers caps know what exactly those teams are. These brands are for sale in the general clothing stores. The other teams are not.

27. In Finland, the logo was popular among teens and preteens around the turn of the millennium.

    Many kids assumed it was just another hiphop clothing logo. I remember there was also Bronx Clothing, Micmac, Wu Tang.

28. I now know, but I didn’t know they were connected for the longest time. I knew the Yankees by name and I knew the logo separately.

29. i’m from the UK and had no idea that was a baseball logo, just thought it was a generic New York tourism logo. Also i’m from lincolnshire so when americans refer to “Boston” without saying “Boston USA” it’s super confusing because i automatically think of the original Boston.

30. Germany
    Nobody cares about baseball here, so most people wont know or simply wont care. That goes for most US sports for that matter (not because it’s from the US, just because they never caught on). they are really trying to push AF in the last years but it‘s simply not happening.
    Like in most other countries people only really care about football (soccer).
    We played baseball in school ones. The teacher didn‘t bring it up a second time.

31. In Norway it’s just the standard cap everyone got, it’s found both rural and urban. Been like that for decades. Later years a few have branched out to caps saying LA. I doubt most people care about what it actually is representing.

32. I went to one of their games as a teenager, didn’t like watching it but loved the symbol. Bought a hat with it and wore it for a while.

    At some point, I realized how many people run around Germany with clothes that have American universities, sports teams, parks, etc. printed on them (mostly in obscure ways, so that it’s not immediately obvious). It’s really weird to see people proudly wear a Harvard hoodie when you know they’ve never been there and would never wear a hoodie like that with a random German university/team. But I think lots of people don’t really read what’s on clothes, or don’t connect the words on their clothes with the real places/brands/teams they’re taken from.

33. People know what the New York Yankees are.

    New Era, the company making most of the baseball caps which also makes many of the sweatshirts you’re seeing, just heavily promotes the Yankees stuff overseas.

    Maybe they have a deal where they get a better cut with their stuff maybe it’s the way NYC appears so frequently on media that people request it more.

    You can find US basketball stuff as fashion statements lately Bulls, Celtics… most NBA teams have a deal with primark now. That’s similar to being available at Walmart for the US market. University jackets are still overpriced but half off in an end of season sale which primark does yearly for example.

34. I do know its a sports team, but thats about it. I don’t think people have much knowledge about the team, since American sports are not popular over here.

35. Can’t speak for every Dutch person, but I think every Dutch person wearing such caps knows it’s a Baseball team.

    In the Netherlands it’s a niche thing to wear imho, certain groups of society may wear them, but it’s certainly not a common thing.

36. I’m absolutely *loving* some of the replies here that basically amount to:

    “Only the US cares about baseball, how could you possibly think we might know something about it? The other places in the world where baseball is popular like Japan and the Caribbean don’t count because I don’t personally care about them.”

37. I’ve heard of the New York Yankees and that they’re a baseball club. I know there’s another baseball club in New York, New York Mets. I think the American Football Club are New York Giants. I know about the two Football Clubs as well – New York Red Bulls and New York City. I’m sure I’ve heard of a team called New York Jets I’m guessing now but by process of elimination would they be a Basketball Club?

    Aside from that, and knowing a bit about Red Bulls and NYCFC I don’t know much at all about New Yankees or any of the American sports teams. A lot of American sports teams I’ve heard of the names but I’m not necessarily sure what sport they play.