Spalding was very late to the game marketing the pictured
quilted and padded football jacket. It appears that Spalding manufactured the
padded jacket starting in the fall/winter of 1907 to compete with other
Canadian or English manufacturers that had already been producing these jackets
since the very late 1890s, primarily for Canadian University football teams
where they were a common part of the football uniform. These jackets were worn
from roughly 1899 to 1910.
To our knowledge, Spalding never tried to actively market these
jackets in the US, although we have seen a fair number of examples of padded jackets being worn by players on teams in the US at the turn of the century, mainly in northern states, from New York to California. Such jackets, particularly in the early years would
seem to have made sense and would have been the perfect compliment to padded
football pants, providing similar protection.
The evolution away from these jackets and towards sweaters, sew
on pads and padded jerseys was already well underway by the time this jacket
was manufactured. In fact Spalding was strongly marketing and pushing these
other items in their advertising. Spalding could make considerably more money
selling jerseys, sew on pads, sweaters, etc., than it would from football
jackets that were as a rule surprisingly inexpensive. As an example of this, in 1906 we see pads
were priced at .50 to 1.00 a pair, shoulder pads 1.00 to 2.50, and sleeveless
football jackets selling for between .40 and 1.25, depending on quality. Such factors account for the lack of existing
examples of these jackets. Padded jackets continued to be available for a few more years (despite lack of demand) and
were worn by a few Canadian University teams (more than others), likely due to
the reuse/recycling of older equipment. One such University that continued to
use these padded jackets was the University of Toronto. The photo of the 1907
team illustrates the variety of padded jackets that had existed up to and at
the time.
This Spalding football jacket is in mint original condition.
As with all lace up Jackets/vests that we in the hobby see so infrequently, this too is a scarce example, being the only Spalding example known to the
hobby or having been seen by major Spalding collectors. It really is a
wonderful piece to handle.
