You may or may not know this (I sure didn’t), but Champion, the athletic Hanes Clothing brand, has been around for over 100 years. The company is also credited as the original inventor of the hoodie for use on the sidelines of major sports over 80 years ago. Born in 1919 by three members of the Feinbloom family, Champion originally started as Knickerbocker Knitting Mills in Rochester, New York. Eventually, it grew to become the go-to apparel for athletic wear after a partnership was established with Wentworth Military Academy in the 1920s. Around that time, in January 1924, the company was renamed Champion Knitwear Mills and incorporated.
Since then, the company has continued to invest in cutting-edge technologies and designs to push forward the innovation of modern fabrics. A great example is the reverse weave athletic shirt design, constructed and patented in 1938. It prevented the apparel from shrinking while being washed, especially in batches. Or, more recently, the brand’s weighted hoodies. Mesh jerseys, female athleticwear, the original sports bra, iconic team outfits, and cutting-edge collaborations have since formed the cornerstone of the brand. But today, it’s focused on a new adventure, or a new opportunity if you will, inspiring everyone to Be Your Own Champion. By and large, Champion’s newest campaign, What Moves You, is an extension of that original mission.
Here to talk about this with us today, and about his role in the brand’s newest emerging fashion campaign, is Jay Escobara, Global Vice President of Design at Champion.
Exploring Esobara’s rise to the Global Vice President of Design
After a bit of small banter, Gaul gets down to brass tacks and asks Escobara about his current position at Champion and his career trajectory, particularly what it took to get there. Escobara says, “Long story short, I think talent is one part, the second part is luck, and the third part is perseverance and diligence.”
“I think this is something that’s just been a part of my life forever. Since being a kid and skateboarding and saying, ‘Aw man, these clothes suck.’ I just wanted to have the best quality and not pay a whole lot because, you know, skaters don’t like paying for things. We don’t like spending money if we don’t have to,” he says.
“When I think about skateboarding I wore Champion hoodies because they didn’t break when I fell. I can rough it around, I can wipe blood off it, and it was fine. It was the perfect garment to have up top because […] I couldn’t afford a leather jacket, so I needed something that was tough.”
So, even though this may be a recent development professionally, the Champion brand has been in Escobara’s blood since a young age.
“It was like one of those things where I was like, ‘Well, you know, it would be great to get into fashion,’ and my idea around fashion was just quality. I fell in love with some great American brands from a young age, whether they were Polo Ralph Lauren [or] Nautica. I felt like American designers, especially in New York, were doing really cool, creative stuff,” Escobara explains. “Donna Karan was doing cool European-esque American luxury that only Giorgio Armani had done. I think that just made me want this even more. And the fact that there weren’t like real kids, like me, or like folks that were just a little not polished, right? I was not a polished person. Still, to this day, I’m not, I’m quite candid, and I don’t live by being on script.”
What does it mean to be off-script?
That’s an interesting phrase he uses about being “on script.” Escobara explains it eloquently as being “real and organic.”
“A lot of things are built through an intuitive process and through an intuitive mindset. And when I think about where I’m at with Champion, it kind of opened the door for that process to thrive,” he says.
“I think this is something that’s just been a part of my life forever.”
“It was cool a couple of years ago, reaching out and having a conversation with the President [of Global Activewear] Vanessa [LeFebvre] and just her asking me real questions like what would you do with this, what’s your goal, and how do you see your goals working at Champion, if at all? Just seeing how they naturally were connected,” he says. “When you have a brand like Champion that’s heritage — and not just heritage by just being in Rochester, New York, made in the U.S.A. for decades, and supplying over 1,800 colleges and institutions with gear on-campus, off-campus, fan gear, etc. — it’s also a heritage because everyone’s had a piece of it [since they were young].”
That is a large part of what attracted Escobara to the brand, too. From a young age, he recognized its value to everyone, especially because of its durability and reliability.
“When I think about skateboarding, I wore Champion hoodies because they didn’t break when I fell. I can rough it around, I can wipe blood off it, and it was fine. It was the perfect garment to have up top because […] I couldn’t afford a leather jacket, so I needed something that was tough. Those reverse-weave sweatshirts will get you through it. That with like an underlayer of a t-shirt, [and] you’re golden,” he says.
Circling back to his trajectory and signing on with Champion, Escobara reflects that it made sense.
“I think it was a very timely approach toward myself and Champion, and just wanting to connect what it is to be a real creative and a creator, actually depicting that not as something that’s scripted or polished. It’s not something that feels corporate but feels real, organic, and the “a” word, authentic. That’s something that is quite profound, and we’re able to get down. It’s been two years of getting down and cranking out some hits and making this brand cool and establishing a new cool about it,” he says.
What is “What Moves You” all about?
Escobara explains the campaign’s true goal, which is to highlight personalization. While it has always been a major part of the brand, it’s being done in new and interesting ways here.
“When we’re thinking about the genesis of Champion, we’re for campus and we’re for lifestyle,” he says. “To be that, there is a way you personalize these things. It’s a blank canvas, so many people will mark their sweatshirts. Many people will mend their sweatshirts. When I look at the Champion archive, we’ve got over 3,500 pieces dating back to the 30s. And when you see those pieces, they’re decorated, they’re mended, that sort of personalization has happened way, way before Champion’s What Moves You [campaign].”
In May, 2024, Champion’s “No Permission” Collection was a creative exhibit meant to embrace and honor the no-permission culture. In other words, the brand’s spirit, and the spirit of true American streetwear, is rooted in authenticity and creativity, allowing true artists to participate without asking for permission to do so. The result is some truly unique and inspiring personalized designs, again, many of which are formative for the brand.
“The No Permission slide [is] us looking and telling the story, not just from a creative angle, but from the genesis point of Champion,” Escobara says. “When you think about how that’s happened, where other creators have used Champion as their garment of choice to express themselves from Nike to BAPE (A Bathing Ape). You know Nigo is a huge supporter of Champion. Even up to Jun Takahashi, who we now do a partnership with, through Undercover. Earlier things with him and Nigo, they were using Champion pieces and sweatshirts, and they were making their earlier pieces. That goes to show you we’ve been there.
“The list goes down from corporate to creator where we’ve been that vehicle of choice for expression. With No Permission, you kind of see [that],” he says.
Personalization and expression are certainly two positive and inspiring elements to focus on, and it also goes to show just how much Champion and its team understand the true identity of the brand and how it evolved over the years, not just from the business side but also with how customers are using and perceive the brand themselves. It’s a fascinating interview, and both Gaul and Escobara dive further into these subjects, so I highly recommend watching the rest of it — if you haven’t already.
