G-1 The letterman jacket Background and history The varsity letters were first customized by Harvard University in 1865 and originally designed to reward baseball players on their teams as a token for exceptional performance. The term "letterman" comes from the letter, which is the initial or signature icon, that is placed on the front or back of these sweaters and jackets. These "letterman" (also known as "varsity") sweaters or jackets were worn to represent the social identities of athletes and reflect a strong sense of team spirit, pride of belonging to a particular school, and values of collectivism. The letters on the jackets represented the school and were therefore placed with the intention of acknowledging scholastic achievement of the wearer. As the trend of letterman jackets spread among colleges and teenagers after WWII, the concept was expanded to award the performance of students in aspects other than sports. With the increasing number of university students due to the popularization of high school education in the US, these jackets are no longer specialized for athletic players but represent a student's identity through their school/college's initials. Similar to the flight jacket, letterman jackets have a loose-fitted silhouette that is genderless in style, although they may include a banded collar for men or a top-buttoned hood that unbuttons into an expanded collar for women. Materials and techniques The body of the jacket is usually made of boiled wool which provides warmth and the sleeves are generally made of leather with banded wrists and waistbands. The letter of the belonging school is mostly constructed in chenille and felt materials and made in the school's signature color. The "moss stitch" creates the chenille look of the letter with a chain stitch to provide an outline to the letter. Nowadays, Bomber Jackets are made from a variety of materials. These include leather, wool, silk, satin and suede. Colors Since the letterman jackets represent the student's identity according to which school they come from, they are usually designed according to the school's signature color. Mostly, the school's primary signature color is applied on the body of the jacket while the sleeves are the school's secondary signature color. For example, the Harvard letterman jackets are usually crimson, blue or green on the body color and white or gold on the sleeves. Influences Besides serving as an identity of university/college students, the letterman jacket was modified and became a