the.com/sweats
clothing that quietly admits you've given up, then becomes your whole personality
means Loose, soft, casual garments — typically a sweatshirt and matching pants — made for exercise or lounging, often worn far from any actual workout.
from A clipping of "sweatpants" and "sweatshirt," themselves named for their original job: athletic gear meant to make you sweat, or to soak it up. "Sweat" itself is ancient, tracing back through Old English "swǣtan" to a Proto-Indo-European root "sweid-," a cousin of the Latin "sudor" (the source of "sudorific"). The garments became 20th-century gym staples before quietly migrating into everyday wear.
- origin
- invented in 1920s France for athletes by Émile Camuset
- luxury flip
- designer versions now sell for over $1000
- pandemic boom
- sweatpant sales surged as offices emptied in 2020
- material
- originally gray for cheap, undyed cotton fleece
- the cuff
- elastic ankles trap heat, the whole sweaty point
russell athletic — american sportswear brand founded in 1902, iconic maker of champion sweatshirts worn globally
champion reverse weave — heavyweight sweatshirt line created in 1928, considered gold standard of sweatwear construction
fruit of the loom — american manufacturer founded in 1851, produces plain sweatshirts sold in bulk to schools and prisons