Vintage Starter Notre Dame Fightin Irish Hooded Windbreaker 90s

David Beckerman started Starter in 1971 with a borrowed fifty thousand dollars and a simple premise: sell the public the same jackets the players wore. By 1991 that premise was worth two hundred million a year, by 1992 more than three hundred and fifty million, and in 1993 the company went public. For a stretch there the Starter logo worked as a second team crest.

Then it came apart. The 1994 baseball strike took away the televised games the whole model depended on, an NHL lockout followed, and a brand built on selling authenticity lost the thing that made it authentic. Chapter 11 came in 1999, with more than a hundred and twenty million owed.

This one comes out of the good years. Notre Dame and Fightin’ Irish embroidered across the chest, the Starter logo set on the hood, where it was meant to be read from behind in a stadium.

The company folded. The logo never did.