Better Than a Suit? 5 Advantages of Sport Coats

Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we'll discuss five ways in which a sport coat might be a better option for you than a full suit. When people first come into classic menswear, they usually think of dealing with suits. The advice to start building a tailored wardrobe is usually to begin by getting a navy suit, often followed by one in charcoal gray. On that note, for more advice about building a collection of suits and how many a man might actually need, you can find our video on that subject here. Meanwhile, sport coats, also called sport jackets, sports coats, or sports jackets, get somewhat less attention when first building that introductory level menswear wardrobe. Sport coats, of course, are odd jackets designed to be worn with non-matching trousers. And, even if you do have a decent number of sport coats in your own collection, the average lay person is probably going to compliment you on the street by saying, nice suit or I like your suit because they might not be aware of the differences. In today's video, though, we'll boost the profile of sport coats a bit and give them their proper due by discussing five advantages that a sport coat can have over a conventional suit in some situations. Of course, before we get to the five advantages, we should probably cover, briefly, the history of sport coats. Since they originated, they have been considered somewhat secondary to full suits, especially on the scale of formality, because they are inherently more casual. They originally appeared in the latter half of the 19th century to be worn for outdoor sporting events such as hunting, fishing, or horseback riding. So, definitely not for business wear. More specifically, they started with the Norfolk jacket, which was designed for shooting parties. The origins of this jacket style are a bit more muddied, but for more information, you can find our guide to the Norfolk jacket here. This style was later adapted into a slightly shorter jacket with fewer buttons and this was the beginning of the modern sport coat. For more information on this athletic wear of the past, you can take a and to clear up any remaining confusion you might have about the differences between suit jackets, sport coats, and blazers, you can find our video on that topic here. Without any further ado then, let's now get into five potential advantages that a sport coat can have over a suit. Advantage number one is that when you're wearing a sport coat, people won't automatically assume that you've just come from the office. The roots of the sport coat reveal this first advantage that it has over a suit because it wasn't originally designed to be business wear. Therefore, it can now be worn in a wider variety of situations and settings. Even though it is now considered appropriate for many business environments and can often be worn with a tie in the business casual dress code, the more casual connotations of the garment still remain. For off-duty wear then, it is simply less conservative and formal. If you're going somewhere dressed in a full suit, most people's automatic assumption is going to be that you're a businessman on his way to or from the office. Meanwhile, if you're wearing a sport coat with odd trousers, people may still think or compliment you on this suit but they're not going to associate it as immediately with business wear. With this said though, advantage number two and as we already mentioned is that a sport coat does still fit into the business casual dress code. Given that a sport coat is less formal than a suit, you can wear it in a largely business casual workplace and not feel overdressed or overly formal. Many workplaces these days are already quite casual as a default so if you show up to a casual office wearing a full suit all the time, you're going to be violating some of the unspoken norms of the office by so drastically overdressing your peers. However, if the typical dress code of your office features things like oxford cloth button-down shirts and chinos, throwing on a sport coat over the top of this isn't going to be seen as too formal. So, with a sport coat, you can indulge your interest in classic menswear in the office without sticking out like a sore thumb, especially if you go further into the casual mold by wearing the sport coat without a tie. And during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, which is going on at the time of this video's original filming, workplaces are probably going to become a bit more casual as a result. So, this is especially important to keep in mind. Plus, putting on a sport coat for a Zoom meeting at home is probably going to be seen as more natural than putting on a full suit for one and I can back this up with personal experience. On a related note, advantage number three here is that overall, a sport coat is easier to dress down. Sport coats generally have more casual features than suit jackets and even most blazers. For example, they often have soft shoulders without much padding, patch pockets, and they're not made from smooth worsted wool, instead being made from fibers like linen or cotton in warm weather and tweed in cold weather. Whether it's the rougher texture of a tweed jacket or the elegant wrinkling of linen, sport coats are typically just going to look more laid-back than a worsted wool suit jacket would. And as we already mentioned, with a sport coat, you can often choose to skip a tie and wear a shirt with a pattern like stripes or checks. Meanwhile, wearing a suit without a tie is going to look somewhat incomplete most of the time, especially if your shirt doesn't have a pattern. And as we already mentioned, a sport coat can be worn in a wide variety of settings. It is appropriate for some offices but it's also equally at home at the movies, out with friends for drinks, or on the weekends. It can even be worn in some circumstances with jeans. And for a video covering outfit ideas in this mold, you can go here. In a world where dressing casually is becoming the norm and fewer and fewer people pride themselves on looking sharp, you can put on a sport coat and a pair of odd trousers and still probably be the best-dressed person in the room even though you're not wearing a full three-piece suit, for instance. The fourth advantage that a sport coat has over a full suit is greater durability. As they were originally designed for outdoor activities, the fabrics used to make many sport coats are often thicker and more durable than that for suits. Meanwhile, the standard business suit is made of worsted wool and the super wools, in particular, something like super 130s or above, are going to be very fine and thin. While these smooth weaves will give you a refined and formal appearance, they're probably going to wear out faster. On the other hand, when you think of conventional sport coat fabrics, the first one to come to mind is probably going to be tweed which is much thicker. In fact, there is even a so-called thorn-proof tweed which was designed to stand up to potential rips and tears from thorns and brambles in the countryside. Other hard-wearing fabrics typical to sport coats are things like corduroy in the winter months and, to a lesser extent, seersucker and linen in the summer. The smooth worsted wool of a suit jacket will also probably show stains more easily. If you happen to spill coffee or barbecue sauce on your suit, you may need to bring it into the dry cleaner. Though, if you are of a more courageous sort, you could also try laundering your suits at home. Conversely, sport coats tend to be woven to create more texture like a bird's eye or a basket weave and they're more likely to contain a pattern like a houndstooth or a prince of whales check or a herringbone that might be too casual for some business suits. These textures and patterns can hide dirt, stains, and minor imperfections in the weave over time so you won't have to bring things to a dry cleaner or launder them yourself as often which will increase the overall longevity of the garment. And, of course, it will also likely be easier on your wallet. The pants of a suit will also wear out faster than the jacket will because of friction created from things like sitting or if you've got larger thighs, if they happen to rub together while you're walking. So, unless you thought ahead or bought a custom suit with an additional pair of trousers, you may ultimately end up with a jacket that you won't want to wear as orphaned suit jackets often are a bit too plain to be worn with much visual dynamism in outfits. Meanwhile, if a sport coat is wearing out, one of the areas where it's likely to show wear first is in the elbows. This isn't a problem, however, as you can simply get elbow patches for a more Ivy League look. Meanwhile, a suit coat with elbow patches is probably going to look a little bit discordant in terms of overall formality. Finally, today, the sport coat's fifth advantage is that it's likely going to open the door to a wider range of exciting style possibilities. Aside from the practical considerations we've already outlined, one of the other major advantages of a sport coat is that it's going to allow a gentleman to get into more different style scenarios. This isn't to say that suits are stylistically limiting, of course, but simply that sport coats open the door to an even wider array of options. For example, if you're fond of patterns, a sport coat will allow you to use them on a larger scale than just in your accessories. While a whole suit with a window pane pattern might be too bold or loud, on your upper half only, it can certainly work. In other words, pattern is expected when it comes to sport coats. Second, simply by adding a pair of odd trousers to be worn with the sport coat, you introduce more complexity and stylistic opportunities. Because a suit is uniform top and bottom, you don't have as many opportunities to mix and match unless you're deliberately going with the spezzato style. When it comes to odd trousers, though, you could experiment with things like corduroys in the winter months and, in the summer, go with chinos or maybe even a step further into go-to-hell pants. As an example here, you could wear a sport coat with a Prince of Wales check featuring an over plaid in a particular color. Then, if that color is replicated in your trousers or elsewhere in the outfit, it creates a dynamic look with visual interest that's still harmonious. In fact, given the wide variety of options that it allows, a sport coat can often be the preferred choice for experienced dressers. Speaking for myself, I do find that the combination of sport coat or blazer with odd trousers is more versatile and can be more creative than a full suit often would be. So, while a suit may be an easier option because you're simply pairing jacket, trousers, and optional waistcoat together all in the same fabric, the sport coat will allow for more creativity overall and it's more versatile when it comes to formality. With these five advantages then, sport coats are definitely appreciated by aficionados of classic men's style. In today's video, I'm wearing a somewhat casual outfit centered around a sport coat to show off some of the advantages that we discussed in the video. The sport coat itself is in a herringbone pattern and it has black, brown, gray, and even a bit of green in its weave. To pick up on some of these colors, I've gone with a micro check shirt in white and green, also without a tie for a more casual look, and a pair of plain brown trousers. My shoes are a slightly bolder element as they're wing-tipped oxfords that feature both tan leather and fabric inlays, again with a herringbone pattern to harmonize with the sport coat. The gray laces in the shoes are from Fort Belvedere, as are my socks, which are shadow striped models in medium brown and green to harmonize with both the trousers and the shirt. My other Fort Belvedere accessory today is my pocket square, which is in a wool silk blend and features a geometric medallion pattern in blue, red, and black on a moss green ground, also with a contrasting edge stitch in eggshell. You can find the shoelaces, socks, and pocket square that I'm wearing today in the Fort Belvedere shop, along with a wide array of other classic menswear accessories. 🎵The Gentleman's Gazette theme song plays🎵