Everything You Need to Know About The Men’s Sweatshirt And Hoodies

Let’s have a moment of silence please!

To appreciate the one all-encompassing best friend, who always comforts us in times of sadness and laziness, who always keeps us warm and cosy in the cold, and who always holds the key to all our deep secrets!

Wondering who I’m talking about?

Well, it is none other than, our go-to binge eating and binge Netflix companion – the hoodie sweatshirt!

Don’t we all agree on that?

I mean I am pretty sure a great majority of us don’t even have a real human friend who does all these things for us, do we?

Jokes apart, the men’s sweatshirt and hoodies are always a preferred category of clothing for men, whether it is in the winter or fall or sometimes even the summer and spring seasons. They are one of the most important style aspects of the hip-hop and grunge communities and for the same reason most followers wear them all year round as well. And I can vouch for the fact that the most desirable factor in sweatshirts is of course the comfort!

So as you can see, we all rely on our fair share of sweatshirts and hoodies for one reason or the other. Because of the high level of comfort that sweatshirts give us, we sometimes don’t even want to get out of them, right?

As we spend our lazy days in sweatshirts from dawn till dusk and then dusk till dawn, we seldom think about the founder or the inventor of this easy breezy piece of heaven in clothing.

That is why I think it is time we paid a little tribute to the mens sweatshirt and hoodies

So let’s take a brief look in to their history before we get into their styling.

History of the hoodie

Now a hoodie is basically a sweatshirt with a hood, and it includes a muff over the lower front which can be usually adjusted with a drawstring.

This kind of a style was basically pioneered by people during the medieval times in Europe where the monks always had a certain hood attached to their robes or tunics. Back then they were called "cowls".

During those times it was also common for people to have a chaperon or a hooded cape when they were heading outdoors.

Later on, the first ever hooded sweatshirt was produced in the United States by Champion in around the 1930s. It was marketed to workers working under extreme cold conditions and freezing temperatures in upstate New York.

By about 1990, the term "hoodie" made its way in to popular usage as well.

Now the period from around the 1970s to the 1990s in New York was literally a hot bed for a lot of emerging sub cultures including hip-hop, grunge and the like. As a matter of fact, many graffiti artists who identified with the hip-hop culture took to using hoodies for concealing their identities when they "bombed" building and street walls.

For the same reason, the outfit was often linked to illegal or anti-social activities and even the sub-culture was seen as a defiant one.

In the year 1976 though, the classic Sylvester Stallone starrer Rocky made headlines everywhere, in a number of aspects including the outfits worn by the protagonist. The movie actually added a whole new layer of symbolism to the hoodie. It became associated with the rough character, his hard knocks and hard work ethics which took the outfit back to its roots being in the working scene.

Somewhere during the 1990s the hoodie sweatshirt was established as both a trend as well as a staple and was adopted by a number of designers in high fashion as well. Both men and women started wearing the garment and in time, inspired designers everywhere started coming up with new innovations in hoodies too.

Styling and hoodie must-haves

Now that we have established the fact that hoodies are in for the long haul and are street style staples in a man’s wardrobe, let’s go through some basic styling tips and must-haves:

One of the most basic and popular ways of wearing a hoodie is with a pair of distressed jeans. Now it can be just the hoodie or it can be layered on top of a T shirt or shirt peeking through from underneath the hoodie.

For a sportier look, hoodies can be worn with equally casual looking jogger pants and a pair of sneakers.

If you want to try something different from the normal layering styles, you can layer up over the hoodie with a denim jacket. Do make sure to ensure that the colors of the hoodie and the jacket go well together.

For a safer and conventional style, you can always wear a leather jacket over your hoodie and stick with the crowd.

For the most contemporary layered look you can go for a bomber jacket over your hoodie and distressed jeans for the bottom

That said, there are a few styles in hoodies that literally work for all these looks. Since it is your go-to outfit, here are some must-have hoodies that you can throw on any day:

A grey hoodie – a grey hoodie is the most versatile color among hoodies and sweatshirts as a whole. It can be worn with any kind of bottom wear and it can be layered over or under any color of top wear too.

A pull over hoodie – This is the no-fuss version of hoodies. It is loose fitting and simple in design with a drawstring to adjust the hood. This is as easy as it gets.

A zipper hoodie – This is also necessary because of its sporty quality. You can use a black and a grey one in this style for those high-energy days.

The best brands

We obviously have some leaders in the street style sweatshirt game. If you are looking to buy a hoodie, here are some of the best brands where you can get the perfect hoodie in any style you want:

Supreme

Adidas

Nike

Hollister

Puma

There are also a number of upcoming and popular brands that sell the most amazing hoodies of the highest quality like Vicemode.com. Rest assured you can enjoy the same quality and reliability with Vicemode as you would get with any other brand like Adidas and Supreme.

So now that you know all about hoodies and sweatshirts, all you need to do is decide on your favorite style.