Showcased here is a mid 20th century school mascot graphic tee from our local hometown, Crown Point, Indiana. It's weaved with a fine cotton material, deep orange colored graphic, raised collar, and single stitch sleeves. While Crown Point is known for their classic red and white school colors, it's interesting nonetheless to see this printed with an orange ink. Maybe we have time to blame for the color fading, but the richness says otherwise. This special t-shirt will now be apart of our shop's archive for a long time for appreciation, remembrance, and preservation.

Sharples is an unincorporated mining community in the southern hills of Logan County, West Virginia. With an estimated population of only 235 current residents, the place was rooted in tight personal relationships and built with a strong sense of community. It also has a historical significance in American history— playing a role in the infamous Battle of Blair Mountain of 1921. The Battle of Blair Mountain is considered the largest labor uprising in United States history where over 10,000 armed miners marched towards Mingo County, West Virginia in efforts to free all illegally held miners and establish a union in their southern region. The end resulted in a lot of grieving families, no unionization, and over 1,200 federal indictments.

This zip-up sweatshirt comes from a very small class who attended Sharples High School. It was luckily kept in pristine condition for its age of almost 75 plus years, preserving the overall softness of the cotton fibers. It features a Crown branded spring-lock zipper closure, striped knit cuffs and collar, slanted hand pockets, and a water based graphic print of the school’s mascot. Now we are grateful to have this as part of our archive and personal vintage collection at the shop.

This special button front bomber jacket is made by Gerry Cosby & Company Inc., athletic outfitters of New York. Gerry Cosby was most notable for his skills as an American ice hockey goalie. Ironically in 1928 with no actual previous experience playing hockey, he was asked by the manager of the Boston Tigers to substitute for an injured goaltender and the rest was history. Cosby would eventually be posthumously inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall Of Fame for his goalkeeping, and as a backup netminder for the New York Rangers and various other professional teams around the world.

His passion for sports was lifelong. By 1938, Cosby opened up an athletic sporting goods shop with his brother John. At the time, Cosby was responsible for the shipment of a new batch of sticks by the order of his then coach and GM of the New York Rovers, Tom Lockhart. After seeing the satisfaction of his teammates, Cosby was tasked with ordering all new equipment. The rest was said to be history too.

Headquartered at the iconic Madison Square Garden and located at 125th 8th Ave, NYC– the proximity to the surrounding city and local amatuer and professional hockey teams proved uber successful. The company supplied hockey equipment, sports jerseys, and more athletic goods such as this jacket seen here. It features a white cotton twill material with red and blue striped woven wool sleeve cuffs, waistband, and collar. The chest patch is hand stitched on and made of a flock/felt like print of the Chicago White Sox baseball team logo. The original label tag by Cosby & Co is still strongly sewn to the collar, while the size tag is sewn inside the pocket near the button front. A beautiful, and well-preserved piece of Chicago sportswear history now kept just outside the city with us.

Local school spirit, this 1940s boat-neck collar letterman sweater is blended of heavy 100% wool fibers and features a large centered chenille 'H' patch for Hobart Indiana High School Brickies Football Team. Matching yellow stripes and the number '44' are sewn into the left sleeve, with a natural sun fade and distressing produced by over half a century of life drape over the garments whole. Labeled and manufactured by Wilson Sporting Goods of Chicago, Illinois, just over forty miles northwest of Hobart, Indiana.

The brand Nani was founded in 1949 by a woman named Betty Roberson. Nani, which means beautiful, made a wide range of printed Hawaiian sportswear including men’s and women’s apparel. By 1951 with booming success, Jantzen would go on to absorb Nani as their own– still maintaining Betty as their lead designer for all things under her brand. While the 1950s saw the most in sales, by 1964 the brand would liquidate and no longer sell their iconic prints. Nonetheless, this shirt is still around today to admire with the original 'Nani of Hawaii' label tag still perfectly attached at the collar.

This particular shirt features an all over outrigger canoe and sailboat pattern printed on a silky smooth burnt orange colored rayon material, bamboo wood button front, single squared chest pocket, Hawaiian/Polynesian style geometric border print around the collar, back shoulders, and button front. This may be an earlier made shirt by the Nani brand– as the woven label tag and absence of any other symbols besides the location of Honolulu. In perfect condition, this beautiful vintage Hawaiian shirt will be staying out for a while in our shop.

This beautiful ‘Weather Perfect’ lightweight gabardine jacket made by Bantamac features a light purplish grey base color, unique v-neck style collar with a yellow geometric houndstooth patterned undertone, silky rayon lining, and cropped, formal style waist fit. The zipper is branded by Crown and has a spring-pull zipper head and locking flay-lay mechanism. See the embroidered logo label tag sewn inside the neckline– showing a rooster in bold red and orange threads, jacket functional 'weather perfect' stamp, and the measured size of 40.

Bantamac was a Canadian men's outerwear brand famously known for their weather-resistant and lightweight jackets. Formed in the early 20th century by a Dutch born native by the name of Benjamin Breier, the original company name was known as Marcus Breier & Sons. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Breier would move headquarters to Amsterdam, New York and trademark the name 'Bantamac' for his newly pioneered weather-resistant, stylish outerwear– especially the brand's sportswear type jackets. Also during wartime, Bantamac fulfilled government contracts to supply the United States Navy and Army with their outerwear.

This absolutely stunning work shirt dates back to the 1930s, and features a range of amazing details including a grey salt and pepper colored chambray cotton fabric, chin strap tab collar, catseye metal buttons, and gorgeous repairs. While the origins of salt and pepper fabric are a bit of a mystery, it has historical contexts dating all the way back to the Middle Ages— being used for intricate tapestries and seen as a symbol of sophistication amongst society's elites.

The subtle blend of dark threads against light creates such a color that matches almost any outfit and can be worn interchangeably among all different colors of trousers. The intense amount of hand repairs and reconstruction all throughout this shirt makes for a truly remarkable and wearable piece of American workwear history that is almost a century old. Unfortunately there is no branding or label tags present, so identifying a source has been near impossible.

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Chanute Air Force Base was established by the U.S. government in the early summer of 1917. Leasing roughly 650 acres of land in agricultural Illinois to begin training operations for young WWI pilots. During the 1940s, Chanute Air Force Base would become one of our country’s leading state-of-the-art military facilities, strengthening thousands of ground troops and boosting air defense training techniques for the second world war.

Eventually, Chanute Air Force Base would see its final days in 1993 when it’s glory would be ultimately striped— and the site be deemed a health and safety hazard to the surrounding environment from decades of experimental testing and equipment waste.

Originating as the Navy's M-422A model in the 1930s and later revised into the G-1 model, this jacket is as iconic of militaria as you can get. The G-1 flight jacket features an all brown goatskin or cowhide leather shell, satin nylon liner, and a mouton sheep or synthetic fiber collar. It also featured notable details such as underarm gussets for ensured movement in the cockpit, a cropped waist fitting design with knitted cuffs, and heavy brass zipper closure. With numerous button-through pockets, the wearer was guaranteed adequate storage for belongings.

While all contracted versions of the G-1 Flight Jacket has perforated 'USN' or 'USCG' inside the wind flap, this particular jacket does not feature it, nor any sort of contract inscriptions or labels. This leads to believe this was a civilian model, made from the same manufacturers of the contracted models during the wartime. Special nonetheless.