Our Story
Why Dear Varsity Exists
The varsity jacket has been around for over a century. The problem was never the jacket. The problem was what happened to it somewhere along the way — mass production, synthetic shortcuts, inflated brand markups, and a market flooded with jackets that looked premium in photos and fell apart within a season.
We saw it happen repeatedly. Someone would spend real money on a varsity jacket, wear it for six months, and watch the faux leather crack, the rib knit stretch out, and the hardware chip. The jacket looked like nothing by the time it should have been hitting its stride.
That is why DearVarsity exists.
What We Decided to Build
We built DearVarsity around one core belief: premium materials, original designs, and honest pricing.
Not custom builds. Not school programs. Not licensed team merchandise. Just a curated collection of original DearVarsity designs, each one developed in-house, built on materials that justify the price, and quality checked before it ships.
Every jacket in our collection starts with 24oz melton wool — the upper end of the weight range for a reason. Dense enough to hold structure through years of real wear. Dense enough to carry color the way lighter blends cannot. We pair it with full-grain leather sleeves that develop a natural patina over time rather than cracking at the elbow after two seasons. 1×1 acrylic rib knit that snaps back after repeated wear rather than flaring and stretching loose. Quilted satin linings finished to the same standard as the exterior.
These are not marketing terms. They are specifications — and they are why a DearVarsity jacket looks better at year three than it did on day one.
Our Design Philosophy
Every jacket in the DearVarsity collection is an original. Our design team develops each colorway, embroidery placement, hardware choice, and material combination internally. Nothing is outsourced. Nothing is adapted from a template.
We do not offer customization because customization compromises consistency. When every jacket in a run is built to the same fixed specification, quality control is clean and the standard holds. What you receive is exactly what we designed it to be — not an approximation of a request, not a production compromise, not a jacket adjusted three times before it got to you.
Original design. Consistent execution. Every unit.
Our Pricing Philosophy
24oz melton wool costs more than a synthetic blend. Full-grain leather costs more than faux. Skilled construction costs more than assembly-line production. Quality control before every shipment costs more than shipping and hoping.
We do not hide any of that.
What we decided not to do is inflate margins because the market allows it. DearVarsity is priced at what premium materials and consistent construction actually cost — not at what a brand name or a licensing deal might add on top. We plan to be here long-term. That means pricing honestly from the start.
Where We Are Going
We are expanding the collection thoughtfully — refining fits, developing new original designs, exploring sustainable material sourcing, and continuing to build jackets that are meant to be worn for a decade rather than replaced after one.
The varsity jacket is one of the few pieces of outerwear with genuine staying power — culturally, aesthetically, and structurally when it is built correctly. That is what DearVarsity is here to prove, one jacket at a time.
Quality without shortcuts. Pricing without inflation. Design without compromise.
That is the DearVarsity standard.