I’m a sucker for a red hoodie, especially when it’s been washed a thousand times and the bright red gets knocked down to this perfectly muted color. I found this at a flea market, which is great. Finding something in the wild just makes it sweeter. And it’s been lived in. There’s distressing around the collar, the cuffs are a little threadbare, the pocket has been torn from having hands in and out of it a million times.
It’s Champion Reverse Weave, 1970s era, and that classic Champion fit is a little wonky—very full across the chest and shoulders and then it tapers down. The fullness up top gives it this vintage jock feeling that’s appealing to me for God knows what reason. It reminds me of something that the asshole in a John Hughes movie would have worn.
And then there’s the print. I have zero connection to Clarke University, and I would never wear a sweatshirt that says, “Harvard” or “Yale.” But Clarke felt a little more ambiguous. I don’t want to offend anybody who went there, but it felt like I could wear it and no one would ask me what year I graduated. And the crackling of that plastisol print is just . . . chef’s kiss. You can’t replicate that on something new, no matter how hard you try. That’s years of authentic wear and tear, wash and repeat, and you arrive at this perfectly worn-in thing that, to me, is ideal.
I wear it all the time. Sometimes I think I’m wearing it too much. I’ve kind of reverted back to an elevated version of my 16-year-old self; I don’t know why. But now it’s very intentional and deliberate. I’m obsessing over details and fits and washes and eras. So it’s reminiscent of things that were comfortable for me in the past but with that same attention to detail of someone who’s been in this business for, my God, almost 15 years. I don’t think I’ve thrown in the towel. I’m not wearing the Under Armour yet. It’s different.
Above: Davis wearing his vintage Champion Reverse Weave sweatshirt. To learn more and shop from Wooden Sleepers, click here.
This story appears in the March 2025 issue of Esquire magazine
Subscribe
Read the full article here
