Figure 1.--

The notherly Canadian climate is of course perfect for sweaters and sweatshirts. A Canadian reader reports in 2001, "I wore swearshirts a lot to school and at home in elementry through to high school where I still wear them". Sweatshirts were called sloppy Joes.

A Canadian reader has provided his personal recollections. I had a variety of sweaters or "slopy joes" as some say. I mostly wore plain ones made by "Fruit of the Loom" and ones with sports teams names on them. Basically here in Canada the trend was almost identical to what was in the U.S. during the 1980's and 1990's. Many aspects influenced this, from magizines, TV and movies. Here in Canada we have more TV programming and other media from the US than anywhere else. If there is a new style in the U.S. then most likely it will be emmulated here in Canada not long afterrwards. Roots, Boca, and other such name brands were popular with styles for boys, girls and unisex. I especially remember Roots as being very big at the public schools I attended. Girls also had some with bands like "New Kid on the Bolck" or such as well as slogans or popular sayings, while boys had similar sweaters, but with differences in style, color and text

Text, logos or other things like images could be just about abnywhere, on the back of the neck there may also be visable a logo or brand name. I personally could never go for name brand cloths, and I still don't quite understand the mentality of someone to would pay an extra 50 percent or more just because it has a name brand logo or whatever attached to it, and the quality is no better than a non-name brand item. Thus I refused to wear any sweatshirt with a large name or logo on it. Again my personal tastes. I must say although practical, I wish I had of told my mother what I was really thinking at the time and maybe I would not have had to wear them. I like shirts, vests and other classic styles more. So for me wearing a sweatshirt was not "classy" or at least I was stuck up.

By far the round neck sweater was most common although some boys and girls had "v" neck ones. More Girls than Boys had the "v" neck style and typically there was a noticable pattern or weave, with no images, posibly only a shamm moniker or logo or name over the left brest or on the back or the neck.

Colors for boys varied tremendiously, but the ones I had were basic colors from Fruit of the Loom or a team color if there was a logo on it. They were and still are worn to schools and as everyday wear although the trend is now moving toward different fashions with an even wider variety of textiles, weaves, colors and patterns. Rolled-over long or turtle neck sweaters with ribbed weaves are now more common, especially in the high school levels.