The History of Custom Hoodies: Origins, Invention, and Evolution

🧵 Historical Origins of the Hooded Garment

Below is a detailed, well-documented overview of the history of hoodies and the evolution of custom-printed sweatshirts—from their origins and invention to the development of printing on garments.

🧥 1. The Hood: an ancient element

The concept of a garment with a hood is extremely ancient and dates back to pre-Christian times and the Middle Ages, when monks and various populations wore hooded tunics to protect themselves from cold and rain.
This is the etymological origin of the modern term hoodie, derived from the English word “hood,” meaning head covering.

🏭 The Sweatshirt as a Modern Garment

🧵 2. The sweatshirt in the 1920s

In the 1920s in the United States, Benjamin Russell Jr. (son of a textile manufacturer) revolutionized athletic clothing by creating a brushed cotton garment that was far more comfortable than traditional wool uniforms.
This innovation gave birth to the modern sweatshirt—literally, a “sweat shirt.”

🧥 3. The first hoodie: 1930s

The hoodie as we know it today was created in the 1930s in the United States, when the Knickerbocker Knitting Company, later known as Champion, sewed a hood onto a sweatshirt for the first time.
The goal was to protect warehouse workers and athletes from cold weather.

📌 Champion is widely recognized as the first company to design, produce, and commercialize the hoodie in its modern form.

📈 Spread and Cultural Significance of the Hoodie

🧠 4. 1950s–1960s: universities and logo printing

During the 1950s and 1960s, hoodies were adopted by athletes and university students.
They were often worn as sportswear featuring printed school logos, representing one of the earliest examples of customized hoodies.

🎬 5. 1970s: cultural breakthrough

In the 1970s, the hoodie achieved global recognition thanks to several cultural movements:

• New York hip-hop culture: rappers, graffiti artists, and breakdancers embraced the hoodie as a symbol of urban identity.

• The film Rocky (1976): the protagonist’s iconic gray hoodie during training scenes helped turn the garment into a worldwide symbol of resilience and street style.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the hoodie became a staple of skate culture, streetwear, and hip-hop fashion, increasingly featuring custom prints, graphics, and messages.

🎨 When Did Hoodies Become Customizable?

🖨️ 6. Printing on hoodies: origins

The customization of hoodies through printing began with:

• The 1960s–1970s, when students and sports teams printed names, slogans, and emblems on sweatshirts to express group identity and belonging.
  This marks the first true emergence of custom hoodies.

🖼️ 7. Evolution of printing techniques

With the advancement of textile technology during the 20th century:

• Screen printing: became the dominant method in the 1960s–1970s, allowing durable, high-quality prints on sweatshirts and t-shirts.

• Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing: developed in the mid-1990s, enabling digital, photographic-quality printing directly onto fabric.

These innovations transformed hoodies into a canvas for any image, text, or design, from fan merchandise to limited-edition fashion pieces.

🏭 Customization in the Modern Era

From the 2000s onward, the rise of e-commerce and print-on-demand services led to the creation of companies specializing in custom hoodies made to order, such as:

• Custom Ink (founded in 2000), initially focused on t-shirt printing and later expanding to hoodies and personalized apparel.

• Underground Printing (founded in 2001), offering customized hoodies and apparel for individuals, institutions, sports teams, and events.