40s sweatshirts

Originally sweatshirts were sports clothes. The sweatshirt was developed in 1920 by Russell Manufacturing Company (now called Russell Athletic). Tired of itchy wool jerseys, the son of the company founder Benjamin Russell came up with the idea to swap the material to cooler and more comfortable cotton. Russell began making cotton sweatshirts in 1930.

The original sweatshirt is most similar to what we call a crewneck sweatshirt today, with a small v-shaped piece of fabric around the collar. The triangular piece of cotton helped collect sweat and control the stretching of the collar after years of wear.