Fashion

Philadelphia Has a Centuries-Long History of Ousting Bullies. 2020 is No Exception

Rocky did it in 1976, the Philadelphia Eagles did it at the 2018 Super Bowl (never forget!), and that OG Philly freedom fighter, Benjamin Franklin, did it in 1776….

For Philadelphia sports fans, the image of 76ers point guard Allen Iverson—a.k.a The Answer—stepping over Los Angeles guard Tyronn Lue in overtime as the Sixers handed the Lakers their first and only loss of the 2001 NBA playoffs is legend. By Friday afternoon, as the city’s mail-in ballots for the 2020 election pushed Joe Biden ahead in Pennsylvania, signaling that the state would more than likely go blue as thousands of the largely democratic electorate’s votes remained uncounted, it had been given the meme treatment, with Lue replaced by a tantrum-ing Donald Trump. And by late Saturday morning, as the city’s vote tally gave Biden a comfortable enough lead over Trump for multiple news outlets to call Pennsylvania for Biden, it appeared Philadelphia once again had the answer we’d all been waiting for.

It was a fitting location for the end of one of the most contentious races in United States history—specifically as Trump notoriously called out Philadelphia as a place where “bad things happen” during the first presidential debate, part of an extended attack on mail-in voting. (No credible evidence of election fraud has been reported in Pennsylvania, except for a registered Republican man in Luzerne County trying to vote for his departed mother, according to Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor, John Fetterman.) But it also happens to be the birthplace of American democracy—and my birthplace as well. Last night, as jubilant crowds and dancers in mailbox costumes gathered around the Philadelphia Convention Center, my father left his office to join the hordes gathered a stone’s throw from where this country’s forefathers drafted the Declaration of Independence; he sent some particularly poorly filmed video clips with the caption, “democracy at work.”

And that is exactly how you can describe the big-budget and grassroots organizations that helped boost voter turnout by an estimated 3%—up to about 62% from 59% in 2016— in the near-majority-Black city and its suburbs, with many going for Biden. But in this die-hard sports town (you might recognize Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers’ orange mascot-turned-Antifa star, from other memes currently dominating your timeline), taking down bullies is as intrinsic as a cheesesteak Whiz wit. Rocky did it in 1976, the Philadelphia Eagles did it at the 2018 Super Bowl (never forget!), and that OG Philly freedom fighter, Benjamin Franklin, did it in 1776, when he and the other members of the Continental Congress effectively ousted a different tyrant from overarching rule. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” Franklin and friends famously wrote. But this less quotable line also remains as true today as it was 244 years ago: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”—in Philadelphia and all across this great nation. Amen, and goodbye.

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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