A Hoodie For The Ages: 80 Years of Champion’s Reverse Weave Technology
Preppies, skaters, athletes, punks, hip hop fans, sports nuts have all at some point worn a Champion hoodie and made it their own. The ultimate “blank canvas,” Champion has been wheeling and dealing in quality athletic wear for over 100 years.
"You didn't even have to put it on racks back then," Global Ambassador Manny Martinez says of Champion products throughout history, “stores would crack open a box and just put the box out and the people would buy it out of the box."
In the 1910s, Champion signed a deal with the Michigan Wolverines which would change the face of licensing and branding forever. Champion was one of the first brands to become the official manufacturers of a sport team’s uniform. They did it again in the 1970s when they became the first manufacturers to put their logo on a NCAA jersey. The now iconic Champion “C” was added to Notre Dame basketball jerseys and in the 1980s, added to NFL jerseys. In his book “It Takes A Little More,” Alex Goulet charts the complete history of Champion through a visual treasure trove of garments through the ages. “In the late 1960s,” he says, “Champion adopted the tagline ‘It Takes a Little More To Make a Champion.’... It speaks directly [to] the quality of their products while also referencing the quest of athletes in competition.”
Significantly, Champion pioneered the design and invention of the humble hoodie. Originally named “sideline sweatshirts” these were intended to keep athletes warm while they trained and competed, with elasticised cuffs and hems to trap warmth inside, and hoods with drawstrings to provide a secure fit.
But Champion didn’t emerge into the athletic world instantaneously. Prior to that they developed their - now famous - reverse weave technology as an answer to college athletes who lamented the vertical shrinkage and horizontal expansion of their cotton jerseys (which had become the standard fabrication after wool). To Champion, the solution was a simple 90-degree rotation; cut the fabric on the cross grain. This not only solved shrinkage, but created a fit that was closer to the body, eliminating the issue of loose fabric in a high contact sport. In 1952 the company renewed their patent with the addition of elasticised gusseting to stretch in the opposite direction of the body of the garment, providing a counterbalance and improving the fit once again.
Today, everyone is trying to recreate the collegiate look that was once exclusive to Ivy League schools. Champion had a lot to do with the version of academic chic that came to popularity in the 30s. College bookstores weren’t just purveying textbooks and assigned readings to students, but also selling Champion garments to academics who couldn’t get enough of the comfortability and durability they boasted.
It’s now been more than a century since the Feinbloom brothers first bought the factory that would go from the Knickerbocker Knitting Mills to Champion Knitting Mills. Since then, every person who has pulled on a Champion hoodie has added their own flair and made it new again. As archival styles continue to rise in popularity, the King of Sweatshirts has only to look back in order to forge forwards.
