Vintage Athletic Polos
Under grandstand lights on a Saturday afternoon, a vintage athletic polo reads as team kit and not as something out of a golf club. Numbers across the chest, stripes, colour pulled back a shade, the look of a shirt handed out by a club that may or may not have existed. Superdry has been working that corner of American sportswear since 2003. The polo is where the idea lands most easily, because it is already half a sports shirt to begin with.
Vintage Athletic Polos
Applique and Striped Polo Shirts
A vintage athletic polo is bought for what it says across the chest. Applique letters and numbers belong to varsity and club sportswear, and the point is the reference rather than the badge itself. The colours follow the same instinct. Enamel green, a rich burgundy, a voltage blue that would look at home on an old scoreboard. Worn plain, a polo is quiet. Worn like this, it is closer to a declaration of loyalty to something that never existed.
Collegiate Polos in Stripe and Washed Colour
Colour here is pulled back, not pushed bright, and that matters more than it sounds, because a collegiate shirt that looks brand new looks like a costume. Softened greens and grey marle read as a shirt with a past. The same instinct runs through the wider varsity collection, where the graphics turn up on sweats and jackets, and all polos is the plainer road through. So the decision is whether you want the shirt to say something across the chest, or whether you would sooner it said nothing at all.