Originally designed for American football quarterbacks in the late 1920s, the humble sweatshirt is a bonafide design classic that must never be taken for granted. They’re warm, they’re comfortable and unlike their woolly cousins, they’re a bit more forgiving during sporting activity.
Seeing as we’re currently languishing in that weird, not-winter-but-also-not-really-summer bit known to some as ‘spring’, here’s some decent sweatshirts that might come in handy over a t-shirt…
The Patagonia P-6 Label Midweight Crew Sweatshirt
First up, we’ve got this beauty from the rowdy funhogs at Patagonia. This thing is a touch lighter than your more traditional, chunky sweatshirt, making it ideal for warmer days and people who live in countries with good weather.
Nice little mountain-range logo too.
The hoodie is a formidable sub-species of sweatshirt perfect for those with cold heads. This one from A.P.C. is pretty much exactly how you’d want to be… classic grey hue, subtle logo action and a slight Rocky-running-up-some-stairs flavour.
On a similar, hooded tip, Champion and Norse Projects might also be worth a look.
Another gem from A.P.C., this one is a bit more ‘sleepy French seaside town’ than ‘Philadelphia boxing gym’. Whilst not a full blown Breton sweater, those stripes still give this a really classy, maritime flavour.
Bonus fact: The classic nautical stripes were apparently first utilised as an easy way to spot drowning sailors amongst the waves.
The Universal Works Zip Neck Sweatshirt
Not all sweatshirts have a crew-neck — as you can probably see, this one here from Universal Works has a fancy zip-neck arrangement. This means you can either wear it up to keep your jugular nice and snug, or open for a bit of lo-fidelity air conditioning.
That Best Company-esque blue hue is worth a few sentences too. Grey may be the traditional colour for a sweatshirt, but recently relaxed conventions mean that brighter, pastel hues may be worn without scorn. The Paninaro would be proud.
These Battenwear 1/4 zips are pretty tasty too.
The Norse Projects Vorm Summer Interlock Sweat
And last but unleast, here’s something from Norse Projects. This one has what’s known in the garment-world as raglan sleeves, which means the sleeves sit into the collar, rather than spouting out of the shoulders. These took their name from a man known as Field Marshal FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, who had special sleeves made on his jacket after losing an arm in the Battle of Waterloo.
Anyway, raglan sleeves aren’t just an interesting talking point when conversation is running thin; they also give a slightly smoother, relaxed shape. Very nice.
That rounds off our guide to some sweatshirts we like. We obviously like a lot more than just the ones mentioned here, but we don’t want to bore you too much. See some more by hitting that handy link below…
