Rock Mens Vintage Sportwear For Track, Field And Street

The history of mens vintage sportwear is an American story –

perhaps because America was a society determined to break free of traditions and make its own path in the early 20th Century, (or maybe this is a generalisation), the Americans were very quick to take the innovations of determined sportswear inventors like Jean Rene Lacoste, the French tennis star who invented the modern Lacoste polo shirt, and Adi Dassler, the German who created Adidas trainers, and make them part of their own style.

Mens vintage sportwear

Americans have always championed sports stars, giving promising young football players scholarships to go to university, and the traditional “All American Man” is clean cut and decidedly muscular.

So where, at least according to films like “Chariots of Fire” it was consider not quite the thing for promising athletes to employ or sports coach, or wear anything other than a starched shirt and trousers to run in, on the other side of the Atlantic soft collared shirts with short sleeves, and light, spiked running shoes were not only taken up by athletes, but by fashion conscious teenagers and eventually everyman.

Because not only did sportswear have cachet, conferring the idea that although you’re just wearing sweatpants to go and get a packet of cigarettes, you might also be a hero of the sports field, it was also comfortable.

In the 1930s, gentleman’s magazines in England loudly decried the American trend for comfortable and convenient clothing, and begged a true Englishman not to give in to handy ideas like zippered flies instead of buttoned ones, or belts instead of braces, or brightly checkered shirts, or golfing pants. None of these were attire fit for Englishmen.

Sportwear for women

And mens vintage sportwear is not just for men. Probably started by high school athletes giving their baseball jackets, sweatshirts or numbered t shirts to their girlfriends to wear, mens vintage sportwear is just as popular with women.

You can look for many different kinds of mens vintage sportwear. Some people love the idea of looking for so-vintage-they’re-virtually-antique early sportswear from the 20s and 30s, when ideas about shape and material were being developed.

Hoodies were first developed around 1919, and the shape of them is different today’s. Polo shirts first come in around the same time, and the first ones were not stretchy and soft like todays.

1980s mens vintage sportwear

Or, you might want to look towards the heyday of mens vintage sportwear, the 1970s and 80s, with something like the California Skate Kid Style – very colourful, very cool. Or you can look at 80s shell suits and sweatbands.

A lot of people even collect mens vintage sportwear just from their favourite team, or sport – so you might favour baseball jerseys or American football t shirts.

And finally, people also like hoodies and tees which have their favourite logo or company or band name on.

There’s loads of choice whether you’re a serious collector who wants to put their cherished finds in temperature controlled glass cases, or wear then until they fall to pieces.

An early Adidas shoe

Avril Lavigne in sportswear

It would be great if we all looked like Daley Thompson.

A vintage Arsenal football shirt

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