Letterman Jackets.

I wore mine in high school, because I earned the letter. While many places might sale replica type jackets, true letterman jackets are restricted, you can only buy them once you earn the right by playing varsity sports, cheerleading, or band.

Just to be redundant, Letterman in a letterman jacket.

In the 70s, Shaun Cassidy wore a satin letterman jacket shirtless in his best selling poster. I had to have one too during my junior high school years.

My senior year in marching band my high school cheaped out and we got these crap-ass, lined nylon jackets instead of the regular wool and leatherette-sleeved jackets. I kept the letter and threw away the jacket. (Of course, the jocks got the regulation jackets. Of course...)

[quote] you earn the right by playing varsity sports, cheerleading, or band.

Me thinks most Dataloungers earned them from band.

I had a two-tone satin one, silver and black in the 70s. You've reminded me of it, R3.

I had no idea about all this High School stuff surrounding them.

R4 At my school, sports got the leather sleeved ones and band got all wool, no leather. I had one of both, but I only wore the sports one.

A badge of masculinity

No I never wore one but I used to jerk off fantasizing about my big sister's boyfriend, who did wear one.

OP, they don't give out letters for varsity purse throwing, so DLers wouldn't have letter jackets.

I had one, although I didn't participate in sports. I was just looking online, and was surprised not to find any examples. By coincidence, though, a yearbook from the year I graduated was the first result when I checked eBay. Anyway,, for my school, the body of the jacket was dark brown wool, and the sleeves were cream-colored leather, which reflected that the Franciscan brothers who ran my school. We called them spirit jackets. Here's my yearbook!

I had one when I was 20-21. Very toned and military. Worked well in the military. Terrible choice in the States as I was inconveniently presumed to be a prostitution whore when I wore it at the piano bars. My dates were more amused than I was.

I had one in High School. I was the only freshman that made the Varsity softball team so I got mine in my Sophomore year. I also lettered in Band and just got the sports one and put the treble clef symbol on my letter.

The one Shawn Cassidy is wear is not a letterman jacket. It's a more of a rock band tour jacket.

I forgot that people could get them for band. In my school, they usually didn't. They were a status marker. Maybe that's part of why they've become rare.

I think if people like them, their own if it still fits, or others; they should continue to wear them. Too much fixation on "gone out of style" is why we suffer from all the clones.

Not since high school OP. I still have mine, but I would feel silly wearing it 18 years later.

18 years later he can tell you how he scored four touchdowns in a single game

^LOL. It was band, not football.

I almost bought one at the thrift shop a few weeks ago. I thought my rebel NYC teenage daughter would find it ironic and therefore cool.

I didn’t grow up in that sort of suburban high school culture. Went to boarding school and we had different status symbols.

18 years later he can tell you how he hit four major chords in a single rendition of Louie Louie

Omg r11 I laughed so hard at “varsity purse throwing” I had a coughing fit and hurt my side. Mainly because your post implies that there was also JV and inter mural purse throwing.

Op, letterman jackets are only cool if you’re from a small town in a red state and you are the school’s star running back.

In the Seventies, at least, letterman jackets / athlete jackets / jock jackets / whatever you care to call them would pretty much instantly identify a school's biggest bullies and other asswipes.

Didn't merit one, huh, R23?

I lettered in varsity cheerleading and bought my jacket for $300 in the 80's.

I was the only one that both lettered in a non-sports activity as well as got a letter jacket. "They" decided that since I didn't letter in a sport, that I didn't earn the jacket with the leather sleeves, so I was the only person that had an all wool jacket. I think the jock teachers thought they were pulling one over on me, but joke was on them. Half the football team repeatedly stole my jacket (but kindly returned it to me at the end of class) because they liked it better. Wish I would have kept the damned thing but my nephew kept it when I moved out of state and he started going to my old school.

I was the only one that both lettered in a non-sports activity as well as got a letter jacket. "They" decided that since I didn't letter in a sport, that I didn't earn the jacket with the leather sleeves, so I was the only person that had an all wool jacket. I think the jock teachers thought they were pulling one over on me, but joke was on them. Half the football team repeatedly stole my jacket (but kindly returned it to me at the end of class) because they liked it better. Wish I would have kept the damned thing but my nephew kept it when I moved out of state and he started going to my old school.

Damn double posting

I feel like Zara and H&M have made these recently. Actually wearing a real one sounds like some phony masc for masc bullshit.

An ex-bf of mine was a big jock at his boarding school (this was back in the 1960s), he was co-captain of the football team. He still has his old letter sweater. This isn't it but it kind of looks like the one he has:

R29 Girls get them, too. It is just a symbol that you are a member of a team or activity.

I hated sports but I got one in HS for cross country.

Eddie Murphy, cunts.

It was also a staple of the post-punk look in the late 80s.

Eddie Murphy, cunts.

It was also a staple of the post-punk look in the late 80s.

My parents tried to give me one when I was a teenager, but I refused it. I didn't play sports and wasn't in band, so if I wore it to school, I would have been slammed for being a fraud. My parents never understood that you can't just buy this jacket. It has to be earned.

In my case, it was so long ago that I was trying to remember why I had one, since I wasn't in the band, and didn't play sports. Then I remember my brother and I carpooled with some family friends, who were much hipper and more popular than we were. When the oldest brother graduated, he gave his jacket to me. I never thought of it as some kind of status symbol, since it seems most of the boys in my school had one. It was just a nice jacket, and the guy who gave it to me was so handsome and confident, that I felt sort of protected wearing it. I was a bespectacled little nerd, and the youngest boy in my class, so it was nice of him to look out for me.

Letters for band? Why??

OP we called them "letter jackets," Seattle suburbs, late 80s. I think "letterman" would have been too sexist.

R37 You must have never been in marching band. The band comes back two to three weeks before school starts, to spend hours in the hot sun practicing, just like the football team. Then they spend hours after school practicing, and attend every game. Marching band is not easy and is not for wimps. Do you think they ad lib those marching routines at halftime? The letter I earned for playing sports was easier than the one I earned for band.

We had letterman sweaters in high school, too (1960s, California.) IIRC, they had four stripes on the arm that were covered up; you could remove one for each year in which you "lettered" in a sport. And there were stars or some other symbol for each sport.

OP, they weren't "fashion" in the US, they were more a badge of honor. Guys wore them with pride. It was more a status symbol thing. You;'ll note in the comments above, the guys that got them are bragging about getting them and what they achieved to get them.

One would look foolish wearing a High School Letterman's Jacket as a grown man.

YSL still makes them. For like $2000.00.

I played the fucking sousaphone for four years in marching band. That thing is like a sail when the wind blows and will make you stagger backward. Back before global warming it was often fucking freezing in November (the end of football season) and my lips would stick to the massive mouthpiece on that thing (we used to keep the mouthpiece under our armpit to keep it warm). Plus, that sousaphone weighed a ton. We marched in sweltering heat, freezing rain, sleet and snow, across muddy fields (guess who had to keep the black uniforms and white shoes clean? we did) and down city streets for parades. Never mind learning the routines, which changed weekly, we had to learn to play an instrument as well. I totally earned that letter, much more so than some senior softball jock who got injured in the second game and sat on the bench for the rest of the season but got a letter anyway.

What about the flute players, R43?

My dad had a letterman sweater as well. I lettered in wrestling, but never bother to get a jacket for it. It just didn't mean that much to me.

r44 Well, this one time, at band camp ...