A hoodie, which is a hooded sweatshirt, is a variation of the crew neck
sweatshirt with a hood added to it. Usually made of heavyweight cotton, it may (sometimes) be blended with
spandex for stretch or (more often) polyester for durability. The exterior face of a hoodie is typically a
tightly woven interlock knit, with the interior
back threads being either looped (French terry) or broken by shearing or brushing (fleece). There are two
types of hoodies: zippered with two front pockets or pullovers with a large single "kangaroo" pocket in front. The
earliest history of a hooded garment is thought to be from medieval Europe in the 13th century where hooded
robes or capes were worn by monks as part of their monastic attire to provide head covering and to prevent
distraction.
The Russell Manufacturing Company (formed 1902), led by founder Ben Russell originally
produced women's and children's knit shirts out of a small wooden building in Alabama using 12 steam powered
sewing machines. Ben Russell’s son, a student at the University of Alabama in the 1920’s, came up with the
idea of producing a more comfortable alternative to the itchy wool athletic wear worn at the time by his
fellow students. They used thick cotton to create a loose, collarless pullover with a drop shoulder design
that allowed players to wear them over their shoulder pads. Over the next decade profits grew steadily and
in 1932 despite the depression, Russell acquired the full finishing operations of the Southern Manufacturing
Company. This made Russell one of the few fully vertical “fiber to fabric” factories in the world. Using the
newly acquired Southern Manufacturing Company and led by his son, Russell formed a new division dedicated
exclusively to the production of team athletic wear, including sweatshirts..
In 1930s America,
clothing was not considered protectable intellectual property. (Later legal decisions would decide that
clothing was a necessity and therefore deemed as serving a utilitarian purpose.) The fashion industry still
tried to protect itself through a self-imposed system led by The Fashion Originators Guild of America
(FOGA). Based out of New York City, FOGA prohibited copying among its 12,000 members and urged retailers to
sign agreements not to sell copied designs, enforcing the rules through heavy fines. While the system worked
to some extent, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1941 that it violated antitrust laws and constituted an
unfair method of competition. Although Alabama and New York City are a long distance apart, FOGA had such a
strong influence on the industry that it likely might have discouraged Russell from seeking untested legal
protections on their sweatshirt products. Time and actions that might have allowed Russell to build a
fundamentally stronger position within the market category at that time.
During the early 1930s, The
Knickerbocker Knitting Company in Rochester, NY, which is now known as the brand "Champion", took the
concept of a heavy cotton sweatshirt and made several key innovations to advance and popularize the product.
One of their innovations was the development of a heavy duty cotton fleece called “Reverse Weave”, which
minimized vertical shrinkage by being cut on the cross grain, thus addressing the problem of shrinkage
caused by newly introduced laundry machines. At this time sweatshirts were standalone items lacking a hood.
Some smaller independent manufacturers took the existing Knickerbocker crew neck sweatshirts and modified
them by sewing a double layer hood around the neckline. (creating what collectors now refer to as an ‘after
hood’) Some also added a large center pocket to the front that acted as a hand warmer. These were widely
adopted by warehouse and lumber workers in the cold climate of upstate New York. Knickerbocker absorbed and
consolidated these various independently produced “homemade” details and begins to manufacture on a large
scale something that very much starts to resemble our modern day hoodie. Up until around that time college
athlete uniforms were informal and unregulated - mostly it consisted of everyone dressing in the same color,
but that was beginning to change. Teams were beginning to identify themselves uniformly. Knickerbocker
recognized these changes and the potential marketplace for school uniforms and they modified their materials
to allow for printing school letters on the front. In 1934, the University of Michigan noticed the
durability and functionality of Knickerbocker's garments and invited the company to create the first hooded
sweatshirt for their sports teams. These hooded sweatshirts (In Athletics) become colloquially referred to
as “side-line sweatshirts”.
The early '70s were a low point in the history of New York city. A
financial crisis very nearly pushed it into bankruptcy. The police department was severely underfunded and
large parts of the city were ignored, crime ridden and in decay. Graffiti exploded onto walls and subway
cars across all five boroughs. This usually took place at night and because they wanted to conceal their
identity + often times it would be cold; they were usually wearing a hoodie. As the 70s progressed, graffiti evolved from being isolated urban vandalism into
more of a legitimate standalone anti-establishment art form. With time, an evolving culture arose
surrounding it that also intertwined hip-hop, surfers & skateboarders that quickly spread to the West
Coast of the United States.
The hoodie ongoingly continued to represent subcultural rebellion, but
also began to find its way into broader mainstream consumer acceptance because of Hollywood movie
characters
like Rocky Balboa. Rocky overcoming insurmountable obstacles and breaking out of obscurity symbolically
portrayed in such scenes as when he ascends the steps of The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rocky’s
unwavering
loyalty to friends and inspirational acts of sacrifice, help to connect the hoodie with ideas such as
self-reliance and success achieved on one's own terms. Also in the mid-1970s, universities began to
print
their logo on hoodies and sell them in their university bookstores, exposing the garment to a much wider
audience and popularizing it.
Polyester, (invented in the 1930s) experienced fluctuating popularity over the next four decades
largely due to its association with low economic status and bad taste. A couple of things occurred that
propelled polyester into the mainstream. The primary one being that in the late ‘70s there was a huge
surge in the number of people running, hiking and working out in gyms. However, polyester was
uncomfortable and did not regulate heat from the body very effectively. (Up until then, people had
largely wore cotton or wool during physical activities.) In response to this demand for better
activewear fabrics, manufacturers developed new weaving and production techniques that combined
different materials, offering the durability of polyester with the softness, comfort and breathability
of cottons and elastics. These new advanced microfibers began to be accepted by mainstream consumers,
and polyester shed its reputation as a cheap and uncomfortable fabric.
Throughout their history so far, sweatshirts and hoodies were almost always 100% cotton. But in the '90s, it
became increasingly common for manufacturers to add a small percentage of polyester to hoodies and sweatshirts,
this strengthened the product, prevented pilling, reduced costs (since cotton is 2-3 times more expensive than
polyester) and minimized shrinkage. Additionally, to reduce costs further, brands began to offshore the assembly
of their products and added shoulder seams - Adding shoulder seams allowed the body to be made from two smaller
pieces (front & back) instead of one large piece, which reduced overall fabric usage. As the perception of the
garment slowly transitioned it into the mainstream and it became increasingly adopted as day to day wear - Where
it was sold, its price, and how it was marketed, all began to change with it. As a result, manufacturers moved
towards producing a hoodie with a cleaned up and more polished modern aesthetic by replacing what had been crude
and obvious zigzag stitching at the seams with less visually obtrusive, single and double needle clean finish
seams.
During the late '80s, a cottage industry for screen printing words and designs onto blank hoodies and tee shirts
had started to grow large enough that proving wholesale blanks for these smaller businesses became quite
attractive to the bigger name brand manufacturers. Due to marketing, material quality, ease of use or some
organic combination of it all, Russell was the preferred supplier by these independently owned aftermarket
screen printers. Through the 90s, Russell held the top market share in providing fleece “blanks” at 30 percent.
What began as practical workwear in East Coast factories, military training garment and on sporting fields
during the 1930s, eventually made its way to international runways in the 1990s as fashion designers began to
embrace and incorporate streetwear influences. This was also the period when the term “hoodie” became more
widely used, helping to bring this previously niche product further into the mainstream. One of the most iconic
sweatshirts and hoodies of the 90s was Gap’s classic arch logo, featuring three bold letters in an arch across
the chest, and available in a rainbow of saturated colors. These could be seen everywhere during the 90s as the
trend for branded casual and comfortable clothing took hold. Mark Zuckerberg was among the first of a new
culture of Silicone valley tech nerds to break existing norms of respectable dress attire by donning hoodies. In
recent years, high status individuals have become increasingly comfortable with signaling their status by
flaunting the rules and wearing whatever they want.
Few pieces of clothing have garnered as much symbolism and cultural
significance as the hoodie, for both positive and negative reasons. Despite originating from humble practical origins, the hoodie has gotten
domesticated and undergone a transformation as society has become increasingly trend-centric and casual. As
a result, the hoodie has become a ubiquitous piece of attire, making it difficult to distinguish who the
important customers are according to Madison Avenue retailers. It has become a stylized billboard for both
personal expression and luxury branding, occupying a unique space between mainstream leisurewear and
rebellious subculture privacy element. Today, even Kermit the Frog has been spotted wearing a hoodie.
The Happiness Guarantee
We work very hard to make the best quality garments, but also understand that sometimes things don't turn out as you expect. If for any reason upon receiving your order, it is not what you expected and/or you do not consider it money well spent, simply return the product(s) in their original condition / timely manner for a full exchange/discount.