Hoodies – essential streetwear items

In terms of fashion, hoodies and streetwear go hand in hand. From 1990s retro style, to basketball to hip-hop, hoodies are the fashion style that that knits all streetwear together. This is simply because the hoody is created for the streets. The hoody was originally created in New York in the 1930s by the company Champion. Originally for labourers that worked in freezing temperatures the hoody remained a fairly work-only piece of clothing for decades.

The evolution of hoodies

During the 70s there was a whole perfect storm of popularity coming from a massive range of backgrounds that added to the status to the hoody: The hoody first worked its way into mainstream fashion due to hip-hop but other factors such as the famous film poster of Sylvester Stallone in the 1976 film, Rocky certainly helped push hoodies into popularity. Graffiti artists began wearing them for the stealth element, break dancers for the comfort and warmth and unwelcome skateboarders so wore them to access shopping centres, private homes and streets without being recognised by the police.

University and colleges helped boost popularity by printing the name of their institution or city across the chest of hoodies. Sports teams took a similar approach to emblazoning their name on hoodies and despite the NBA’s 2005 ban, their popularity soared.

Nice to know: the history of hoodie and zip hoodie

Hoodies and zip hoodies are a regular feature in today's everyday wear. But since when and how did this piece of clothing develop? If you will, the forerunner of the hoodie could be from the middle ages, as in Christian monks. Their formal clothing, called gugel, had a sewed-on cap. Apart from this though, this piece of clothing only started its triumph in the 1930s, thanks to the Champion brand. The clothing manufacturer started producing hoodies - on the one hand to protect workers in cold storage warehouses from the cold, and on the other hand for general use and protection against wind and weather in the US state of New York. Soon after, hoodies become popular amongst athletes. In 1976 Sylvester Stallone in Rocky made a good impression in a mottled grey hoodie, so eventually this item of clothing made it to streetwear through the hip-hop culture. Thanks to the clever guy who had the great idea to put a zipper in, the zip hoodie was born. When you can't decide if you feel hot or cold, just unzip the hoodie and get best of both.