Original Redneck Bandana
Original Redneck Bandana
Union Printed! Made in USA! 100% Cotton!
We’re proud to release this brand new, hand-drawn + hand-printed red bandana!
This here is a special collaboration between our Creative Director, Shaun Slifer, and the unionized screenprinting shop Commonwealth Press! Shaun drew the design for this bandana by hand with pen, brush, and ink, based on photographs of an actual bandana carried into the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. The folks at Commonwealth went above and beyond with the printing process, printing both color layers by hand using water-based discharge ink. This means that the bandana will soften up quickly after a few washes, just like your favorite worn-in bandanas, rather than the scratchy plastic printing that most companies use.
Each bandana comes wrapped in a label with a short background on the history of the term “redneck”.
Care Instructions: best to wash in cold water with your other laundry, and hang it up to dry. Although Dan at Commonwealth says he’s not too fussy with his, after all it might be a work of art but it’s also made tough to carry in your pocket every day. It’ll soften up nicely after a few washes.
What We Mean By “Redneck”
The word “redneck” has many claimed origins in the United States, but it crystalized in the militant labor union movement in the central Appalachian coalfields over a century ago: rooted in the dress of the +10,000 multi-ethnic striking coal miners who joined the armed march that erupted into open conflict on Blair Mountain in August of 1921.
During that fight, the irregular army of coal miners tied commonly-available red bandanas around their necks, a critical battlefield signifier that showed who was on their side. These workers fought a guerrilla war in the mountains against a well-armed vigilante army led by a regional ruling class in the pocket of the coal industry. Those fighters wore white armbands, and they called the miners who had picked up rifles to fight for their basic human rights “rednecks” because of their red bandanas.
Always patterned with paisley, an ornament with a direct lineage to ancient Persian textiles, we use the red bandana as a symbol of identity reclamation for Appalachians, and as a powerful gesture of global solidarity with workers everywhere. This bandana was hand-drawn from an original bandana that was proudly carried in the 1921 battle.
