The famous boiled wool blouse with a minted left breast and leather sleeves wouldn’t appear until the 1930s. At the time of its creation, its colors and features were strictly regimented. The body’s color designated the primary color of the student’s university, while the sleeves were reserved for the secondary color. The telltale letter that spawned the names “letterman” or “varsity jacket” is obviously an important piece of the puzzle as well. It belongs to the story of its possessor, from the initials of their alma mater to their own name, as well as their field, distinction, or the year of issue. Indeed, the teddy was originally a reward for deserving students, given for top results in physical pursuits as well as foreign languages or other subjects. It wasn’t totally attached to sports until the 60s.
Let’s paint a picture of the typical student who would wear this famed jacket. Without a doubt he would sport it with a pair of chinos, a white shirt, a club tie, and round-toed shoes. This is a far cry from the popular image of a jock dressed in a pair of jeans and a teddy. It’s reputation has it attached to the good students, the whiz kids. A scene from the fourth Indiana Jones movie perfectly illustrates this during a brawl started by Shia LaBoeuf between the bad boys in black jackets and the good boys in teddies. In those days, the teddy was for the good boys.
It wasn’t until much later that the teddy would live up to its current reputation for dressing up the broad shoulders of high school jocks, a mark of distinction for a precise group of cool kids. Today, ready-to-wear brands are releasing it in a variety of colors and fabrics. Its democratization started after it started getting picked up on the streets and by icons like Michael Jackson in his “Thriller” video, or Kanye West lighting up the school of Kamiakin at the border of Idaho.
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