Vintage Thrifted Letterman Jacket made NEW!
If you have a high school student athlete, you may be suffering sticker shock of the cost of a high school Letterman jacket. Our son, an avid thrift shopper, came up with an amazing idea to thrift his Letterman jacket. We are so pleased with taking a second hand jacket that has history at his high school and making it new again! Check out the before and after of his thrifted vintage Letterman Jacket. I hope this encourages others to save money by using a Thrifted or gifted Letterman Jacket for their high school years! If you are trying to participate in the under-consumption movement, you don’t have to go without, but reusing something that was no longer being used might be a wonderful option.
My son lettered in both Track and Field, and in Band his Junior Year. While we do not buy into all the silly things that High school merchandise catalogues try to sell us, our son did really want a Letterman Jacket. My husband and I looked through the online catalogue with the merchandise partner from our son’s school and found out quickly that High School Letterman Jackets start at about $300! Not only would the jacket for him start at $300, this was before tax, a hefty shipping fee, and no customization at all. We would still need to bring his jacket to a tailor to add his letters as well as anything he might want embroidered. Before even adding customization it would cost almost $400! We didn’t say anything about how it would be too expensive to our son, we knew we would just have to make it happen. On his own, he had an amazing idea.
I told him we would get him a Letterman Jacket but he better take really good care of it and if he lost it, we would not be getting another one. Then he said something amazing. “It would be kind of sick to thrift a Letterman Jacket and use that instead, have you ever seen a Letterman Jacket at a thrift store?” This was an awesome idea! I had seen Letterman Jackets over the years at thrift stores, and they certainly were not $300 plus tax and more than $50 to ship! I tried to remain calm. I asked “Do you just want to get it thrifted to save money or do you like the idea of it being vintage? We can afford to get it, like it is a lot, but I don’t want you to think we have to thrift it. This is special, you earned your letters, it is a one time purchase…” “Nah, it would be cool, not just cheaper, but also cool.” “Alright, let’s look for a Letterman jacket at a thrift store then!”
We are no strangers to upcycling something we thrifted. Our whole house is full of thrifted and second hand items. Our daughter upcycled a designer dress from a thrift store and wore it on a Marvel red carpet movie premiere! We have created Disney costumes with Thrift store pieces. That said, we had never thought of something like this before. Senior year is so expensive and honestly, who really wears their Letterman jacket after high school? I quickly googled to see if anyone else had done this and came up empty! I had to share this idea! So many people love to upcycle and so many people have unused Letterman Jackets just collecting moth holes and dust in a closet. What if you and your dad went to the same high school? I just think as we move towards people wanting to consume less and reuse more, we should also be thinking of special items like Letterman Jackets!
Finding a Letterman Jacket at a thrift store proved to be a difficult task. We had seen these beautiful red and white jackets many times when we did not need one, we were sure now that we were looking it would be a very easy task. While I know I had seen Letterman Jackets at second hand shops in the past, we could not find one! Harry, myself, and our son were looking at multiple thrift stores for months and we came up dry. Every online auction seemed to be the wrong size or in poor condition. We began to lose hope that we would ever find one.
Thrifted Letterman Jacket Upcycle
My last idea was to ask for a Vintage Letterman Jacket in our local Buy Nothing Group. We live in a city where many people have grown up here. Surely there was someone who might have Grandpa’s jacket in their back closet and might want to pass it along. I still have my Letterman Jacket, but have not worn it in more than 20 years, so I thought there might be a chance someone would be willing to gift one. Sure enough, a day after I asked, a local woman said her husband had generously offered up his jacket to my son. She lovingly removed his football and his letter to put in a memory shadow box and pass it on to our son. We were so excited!
There are so many reasons to using a pre-owned Letterman Jacket for our son worked for us. Under-consumption core is a trend we are loving. Using something that already exists lowers our carbon footprint. We have always loved to thrift items that make sense. With a possible recession looming, we are watching money carefully. Our daughter just started college and our son is hoping to go to college in a year. We want our kids to have memorable school years, but we also have college costs spinning in our heads.
We customized the Jacket with one of his earned Varsity letters, numbers for his graduation year, and he wanted our last name embroidered on the back. All in all, this cost just over $100. We tried to have the jacket professionally cleaned and because it was wool and leather this was not an option. Despite being over forty years old, the jacket was in really great shape without any stains or smells. I stitched up a couple tiny moth holes in the collar. It looks amazing and he loves it!
If you are not interested in a Vintage Letterman Jacket, but just want to buy one a little less expensive than the one the school promotes, Amazon has a very nice Letterman Jacket with a wool blend for under $100! This is our favorite lower priced Letterman Jacket that rivals the jacket our son’s high school was selling.
Image credit Amazon – affiliate link included
Customize your Letterman Jacket with Letters and Numbers! While we had our son’s last name embroidered on the back, a less expensive option is to buy letters from Amazon for about $30 shipped and use the letters you need and sew on yourself. You might be able to sell or simply gift the left over letters to someone else doing the same for their Letterman Jacket. Letterman Jacket embellishments are less expensive on Amazon than if you purchase at a Tailor or specialty shop. You can also purchase numbers to put your child’s class year or team number. Customization can be very pricey, but we found that using items from a different online retailer saved us a ton of money!
Photo Source Amazon – affiliate
Keep this in mind as you approach senior year! We hope your high school student has a great time in these magical years! If you thrift and upcycle a Letterman Jacket, we hope you will share with us here!
