“Every athlete dreams of being a starting player.” That was the idea behind the Starter clothing line. David Beckerman was the founder of Starter back in the 70s. To me their biggest collaboration was when they landed the NFL deal in the 80s. Starter was rejected eight times before the NFL agreed to a partnership. Now the brand was everywhere including stores where fans of the game wanted to wear what their favorite athletes and teams were wearing on the sideline. A few teams made the Starter jackets iconic. In addition to athletes, pop culture was another factor that contributed to the Starter fashion craze in the late 80s and early 90s. Here are the top five Starter Jackets of all time.
Top 5 Starter Jackets Of All Time
Charlotte Hornets
The NBA welcomed the Hornets in 1998. This right around the time when the Starter jackets at the apex of popularity. When the Hornets colors of teal, dark purple, grey and white were added to the jackets along with the Hornets logo, this was the jacket that everyone wanted to have. The jacket stood out from a crowd. When people mention 90s fashion this jacket always is brought up in that conversation.
LA Raiders
Whether it was N.W.A. or other rap artists or Raiders fans themselves, the Raiders Starter jacket was one of the cleanest jackets out there. That Raiders Starter jacket was part of the culture and had a huge presence in the world of pop culture. Most of the time it was the black jacket with the logo, but there were times when it was a silver jacket that made heads turn if you were rocking that style. Either colorway you chose back in the day, your fashion game was on point.
San Francisco 49ers
Similar to the Raiders silver jacket version, the 49ers all gold Starter jacket made you stand out of the crowd. I had a 9ers Starter jacket, but it was the black one with the logo on the back of the jacket. The gold version was the one that most of the players wore on the sidelines. Plus back in the late 80s and 90s, there was not an online marketplace where people outside of San Fran could purchase that jacket.
Chicago Bulls
This time period was when we saw the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls become a team people even outside of Chicago root for. The Hornets jacket to me was the number one NBA Starter jacket, but a few teams including the Bulls made the popular jacket race in the NBA very close. As the Bulls started their first dynasty, their jackets started popping up everywhere.
Michigan Wolverines
There were a few colleges that I was thinking of putting on this list when it comes to popular Starter jackets. UNLV and the University of Miami made honorable mentions because of how popular those teams were during the late 80s and early 90s. Yet, you have to give the nod to the Fab Five from Michigan and the cultural impact they had not just in college basketball, but as well as pop culture. Not only were people changing their traditional white socks to the new hip black socks, people were going for Michigan Starter gear in that era.