The people who organise the buying of leavers hoodies for schools sometimes ask our experts questions like:
- What are the most popular colours for hoodies at the moment?
- Is there a difference between the hoodie colours boys and girls are buying?
- What are the favourite print colours for leavers designs on the back of hoodies?
Why ask about favourite hoodie colours?
The questions make sense, in so far as they could be answered following an analysis of recent orders. But, we often wonder what anyone does, or even can do, with the answers we provide?
We assume that the questions are just for general interest rather than having a specific purpose in mind. Our reasoning behind this assumption is below.
Types of leavers hoodie orders
For leavers hoodies, there are really only two types of orders we handle.
First, Limited Colour Choices: Orders where the hoodie colour choice is dictated by the school or organiser. In these cases, the majority of orders are just for a single colour of the hoodie, although occasionally the order allows the wearer to select from 2 or 3 colour options.
Second, Unlimited Colour Choices: These orders allow the student (or their parent) to choose any of the colours available in the particular style of hoodies offered. The College Hoodie currently has a choice of 72 different colours.
Limited Colour Choices
In the first instance, knowing what the most popular colours are is irrelevant as the colour is chosen by the school to fit in with their logo or some other, predefined, colour scheme. In these cases, the only challenge is finding the best possible colour match to the school’s colour scheme. The individual has no colour choice to make.
Unlimited Colour Choices
In the second case, the most popular colour of the day, week, month, year or decade is equally irrelevant to the organiser as the choice of colour is made by the pupils (or possibly, in a few cases, their parents). The prospective wearers simply don’t care what the popular colours are—they pick something they like without being inhibited by anything beyond personal choice. The only time this doesn’t hold true is when the purse holder (Mum or Dad) vetoes a colour choice for some, usually not very good, reason!
Back in the day…
Years ago, the suggestion that boys might wear pink hoodies would have been laughed out of the playground. Girls choosing to wear dark blue, or black hoodies was also pretty uncommon.
Now, the colour of the hoodies chosen is not a good predictor of the gender of the name/nickname being printed or embroidered onto it. It is true that the analysis of this data has also become seriously confused by the myriad of names/nicknames which are gender-neutral.
Hoodie Colour selection today…
Today, you only have to wander around a town centre anywhere in the UK to see young men wearing hoodies in colours their fathers, or grandfathers would never have considered wearing in public. Young women are just as happy to wear colours that might, historically, have been considered not feminine.
Social norms have changed. Choice of colour today is based on personal preference, not societal pressures. Older people might view a particular colour as being more masculine or feminine. But, the young people buying leavers hoodies today, have almost completely dropped ‘old associations’ between clothing colour and gender or sexual orientation.
Of course, personal preference has always played a significant role in choosing the hoodie colour for each student. Today, as it should be, the choice of hoodie colour appears to be without any associations or stereotyping involved. The biggest difference is probably that someone else’s choice will no longer be mocked or criticised as once it might have been. The danger of being laughed at for choosing your favourite colour is no longer an issue so everyone is free to choose, uninhibited.
The answers to questions of hoodie colour
In case you thought we had forgotten! We started this with some questions we have been asked more than once. Based on an analysis of orders since the summer, the answers to the questions we started with, for what they are worth, are:
Question. What are the most popular colours for hoodies at the moment?
Answer. Blue (of various shades and hues)
Answer. Blacks, Reds and Greens
Question. Is there a difference between the hoodie colours boys and girls are buying?
Answer. Not that we can discern
Question. What are the favourite print colours for leavers designs on the back of hoodies?
Answer. The print colours used are generally those recommended by our experts to ensure good contrast between the colours of the garments and the images or wording. In most cases, we recommend White print on dark colours and Black print on lighter colours. Blue and Red come in as the most commonly requested alternatives.
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