The sweatshirt is staple in our lives. We all have a few hoodies and crewnecks in constant rotation. From sports, to streetwear, to high fashion the sweatshirt has become a staple in fashion across the board. It wasn’t always this way.

When you look back through history at what people wore, its actually hard to believe. Wool was the most common fabric. Itchy, heavy, hot wool. It was used for pants, shirts, athletic wear and even swim wear. Most innovations in fashion start with innovations in function. Clothing was always designed for a purpose. Just like Levis jeans were created to hold up to harsh conditions for miners digging for gold, the sweatshirt was invented to solve the problem of cooler, more comfortable athletic wear.

In 1926, Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Benjamin Russell had enough with itchy wool football jerseys. He enlisted the help of his father, Benjamin Russell, and as the story goes, created the first ever cotton sweatshirt. Little did they know they were creating a garment that would change fashion forever.

Eventually Russell turned his whole clothing manufacturing plant to producing the newly created sweatshirts. They were made from heavy breathable cotton and styled with a gusset V in the front (you have probably seen sweatshirts labeled as single V and double V). The crewneck sweatshirt was born and needless to say, became very popular for sports, trades and military very quick. Russell Athletic co. is still around and producing high quality sweatshirts to this day.

Why were they called Sweatshirts?

It’s true that sweatshirts are great at keeping wearers warm, but as they were typically cotton practice jerseys back in the day, the ‘sweat’ part of the word comes from their origins on the field. So, what is a sweatshirt used for today? Sweatshirts are still used for their original purpose as comfortable athletic wear, but they are also worn for staying warm in cooler temps, repping a collegiate team, or layering to form a fashionable outfit.

What about the Hoodie?

Sometimes in the 1930s, although the true origin is a bit unknown, the hoodie was invented. For anyone living in the northeast, winter was frigid.  The story goes that Champion brand was the first to ever create the hooded sweatshirt or after-hood as we now call the first iterations of the classic. The fist hoodies were made by sewing a hood over top of an existing crewneck sweat. It creates a very different look to the ones we see today. Some of the early hoodies also have very interesting pocket configurations like the boxing glove hand warmers, d pockets or split kangaroo pocket.

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Sweatshirts went on to become a staple in everyone’s closet, no matter what their style, age, build. The sweatshirt might be the most widely used garment beside the t-shirt and jeans. The classic sweatshirt and hooded sweatshirt were the real first intersection of sportswear as fashion. Only becoming more famous down the line as movies like Rocky made the classic gray hoodie a style icon.

These early original sweatshirts are some of the most sought-after vintage garments and very hard to find. As you can imagine they were typically worn into the ground. As true vintage continues to gain popularity you can bet that the prices of these rare gems with keep on rocketing.