Spalding Padded Lace Up Foot Ball Jacket c. 1907

 

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.

                                         1907 University of Toronto Foot Ball Team