Are you a Mustang guy? Putting the top down and letting the wind blow through your hair as you cruise the Pacific Coast Highway from Seattle to San Diego. Or a Shelby GT-500, an Eleanor of your own, trying to reach top speed with nothing but freedom in the pedal. Maybe you are a Thunderbird guy, cruising through town in your ’55 with the white walls and listening to the Four Seasons with your girl on your arm. Or maybe you are an F-150 guy. No nonsense, hardworking, gets stuff done before going home for an iced tea on the back porch watching the sunset. Either way, there is nothing more American than a Ford. And their new collaboration with Pacsun takes us back to 1970s America. The Pacsun x Ford collection consists of jackets, tees, hats, and shorts that have a distinctly Motor City feel. But there is one piece that feels more symbolic than the rest.
The return of the ringer tee feels symbolic
The ringer tee showed up right around the time of that ’55 Thunderbird we talked about earlier. A staple of the working world, it became a cultural phenomenon during the turbulent 1970s. When the Vietnam War and rising racial tension divided America, the rise of the rebel saw the adoption of the ringer tee. Then it came back in the early 2000s, when the War on Terror and the post-9/11 world made it necessary to return. Today, with the upheaval and uncertainty that is our world, it isn’t coincidental that the ringer tee is making a comeback. Maybe, just maybe, this is the garment that got us through, and it has returned for duty once more.
