Remezcla Meets is a video and editorial series that takes audiences inside the studios of groundbreaking creators, documenting their craft and exploring how their upbringing and Latine heritage shape their work. Through intimate conversations and immersive visuals, this series highlights the voices pushing the boundaries of film, art, culture, and identity.
Four years ago, Dominican designer Randy Polanco was chasing a dream. He was down $120 chasing singer El Alfa by foot for a chance to share his custom caps with someone he admired.
He paid $50 to park his car in downtown NYC for a friend’s video shoot when he got a text to meet El Alfa and his team in Times Square. “I bought a $10 Bacon-egg’n cheese, went upstairs, and I didn’t even take a bite because they sent me the address and I said f**k it, I gotta go.”
Polanco drove to Times Square, fed the parking meter $60 and swore to himself “this car is staying right here, I ain’t moving this car.” Polanco’s only direction was a text from his first customer, Dowba Montana, a hip-hop artist that was with El Alfa and offered Polanco an opportunity to connect with him. “I text Dowba and nothing. I look at one of Dowba’s friends’ Instagram story and see that behind him, there’s a bar. I Google the bar, the bar was five blocks away and I sprint there full speed and I got a box of hats with me.”
But as soon as Polanco arrives, the Bugatti zips past him, leaving him in the midtown street dust. With a deep sigh (and a couple of tears), he looks towards the sky and asks himself, “Yo bro, why me? What am I doing right now?
Apparently, the message found its way to the getaway car, and one of Dowba’s friends saw Polanco on the street and called for him to get into the car. The group goes on a high speed ride through NYC, until he’s finally face to face with El Alfa. After a brief introduction, Polanco pulls out 30 custom bedazzled hats from the box he was carrying. El Alfa looks through the hats and picks out 15. In a moment of entrepreneurial risk, Polanco refuses payment and gifts the hats to El Alfa.
This changed everything for Randy Polanco.
Originally from Harlem, New York, Polanco is your average New Yorker. He drives through the city in a 2004 car, works out of his living room, and grew up surrounded by street style and NYC fashion. “I can tell you more about sneakers than I can tell you about math or science,” he says earnestly when he sat down with Remezcla for an exclusive interview at The Hype Room in the Palisades Mall.
Cap culture was an organic development in his childhood, as Polanco recalled watching his father’s World Series baseball hat collection grow, “He never let me touch them,” says Polanco as he reflects on his childhood. “My dad is a die-hard Yankees fan, that’s probably where my love of hats came from.”
At the age of 14 years old, Polanco began working at Fitted Caps. And it was during this time that he began to experiment with DIY cap designs. Using found material such as belt studs and flooring glue, Polanco would try new things out, attach patches, and line up the studs on the back of the cap.
The designer credits the reusable material to a Latine cultural norm many of us are familiar with: upcycling. “[Upcycling is] so big in our culture,” says Polanco. adding that as the youngest in his family, he would get his brother’s hand-me-downs, but he wanted to wear it his way. That humble upbringing combined with his creativity gave him the finesse to develop his style and express his individuality. “You come to find your own style, your own flow, and us Latinos, we’re gonna get it done no matter what.”
As his creativity flourished, so did his business aspirations. Polanco got into clothing design, and even started a clothing brand with two friends in college. But his love of hats took always lingered at the back of his mind.
“Everybody had the same navy Yankees royal blue hat, same black Yankees.” And his aha moment with his hats came one day while casually roaming the aisles of a Michael’s Craft store. He saw patches of roses, crosses and other motifs that stood out to him. Without thinking twice, Polanco went to work and placed the patches on his hat, before turning to Instagram to share his work with his followers. Based on the reaction of “Everyone hitting me up, yo you bought that, bro?” he knew he had something special and Polancaps was born.
Within two months of the brand launch, Rick Ross was wearing a custom hat that Polanco mailed to him around Christmas. Slowly over the next few years, Polancaps’ roster of celebrity clientele began to rise, with clients including El Alfa, Ketel Marte, Ozuna, Yailin la Más Viral, and more.
For Polanco, the reach that he gains through his work is more than just getting a celebrity to wear his custom caps. It has to make sense on a personal level to who he is. “I don’t get any influence just because they’re an influencer. It has to make sense (with) what they’re doing. If I don’t feel the vibe, I won’t go through with it.” He seeks out athletes, influencers, and artists whose music and vibe he stands by, even as far as seeking out artists that his mom likes. “I love getting artists my mom likes. If I meet an artist that my mom likes, the first thing Imma do when I give them a hat and everything I’ll be like “Puedo llamar a mi mama?”
Bringing his family along to his successes is a natural instinct for Polanco, who often references his family as he reflects on his growing career. Within a year of launching Polancaps, Polanco launched a “Breast Cancer Awareness” collection that helped raise money for the American Cancer Society. A cause that’s personal to Polanco, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor.
Today, Polanco still hangs out in the living room with his parents, where he makes hats for his growing business and watches music videos with his mom. “This hat is going to be in the next music video, watch,” he confidently says out loud. “[My family] seeing my logros as their own. That pushes me every single day.” And it’s going to push him to the next big thing, the next big collab.
Because for Randy Polanco from Polancaps, he’s just getting started.
