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.
