Remembering the Starter Jacket Sweetness

I didn’t know that Nike dabbled in sporting brands that were cool 15-20 years ago, but it would appear that way with their acquisition of Umbro and sale of Starter this past weekend. One of my friends told me that Umbro was still a popular brand, but I haven’t seen anyone wearing a pair of Sambas in at least 12 years, so I’m a obviously a little skeptical.

Anyway, I think we can all agree that the Starter brand has been in the shit hole for a long, long time.I think an anti-Starter Getsapo-type group went out at night, collected all of the Starter jackets, and mercilessly destroyed them right around 1995 or 1996. Literally, jackets just disappeared overnight without one question being asked by a single person. Pretty typical of us lazy Americans who aren't willing to fight for the good things in life. I'm disgusted and a little hurt. It’s just too bad that weird guy from Unsolved Mysteries passed away . He could have shed some light on the Starter Jacket mystery or, at the very least, talked in that really creepy voice that made you sleep with the hallway light on.

The jackets were so cool in elementary and middle school. The team colors, the sleek design, and that little pouch in the front of the jacket that you could keep snacks and/or drugs in really made them memorable. Really, how could you beat it? In my neck of the woods, the most popular jackets were those of the Irish, the Chicago teams, and the Pacers (distant 3^rd).

However, sometimes you’d have the kids who’d try to one up everyone else on the playground with a team jacket nobody else had seen before. There were also the kids that wore the Cowboy or 49er jackets only because the teams were popular at the time. Oh, how about the toolish kid who wore the Florida Gators jacket only because he liked the team colors? He was always easiest to mock. Then there was the kid wearing a Blackhawks jacket who provided everyone with just enough proof that hockey did in fact still exist. Lastly, I can’t leave out the one tomboy who’d be wearing her older brother’s jacket and dominating the recess touch football game. She’d always end up injuring me somehow.

Basically, you weren’t cool unless you had a Starter jacket in grade school. They really added some "street cred". One of my worst nightmares was showing up to school after Christmas break with my new Bulls starter jacket only to see a kid a year older than me with the exact same one on. Boy, did I have to hold back the tears that day.

I’m going to be on e-bay all day looking for a new one. I think we can all agree that the red Bull’s jacket, without question, was the coolest one of all time. Don’t agree with me? I’ll meet you out in the parking lot during recess.

Matt Arrowhead