Laniakea Crew Neck Sweat Hambledon Grey

Boxy fit

Made in Japan

Feel of the 50's

450g Japanese Fleece

Laniakea Crew Neck Sweat Hambledon Grey from Sunray Sportswear. Sunray sweaters have a traditional fit inspired by the feel of the 50's. Relaxed, boxier and slightly shorter than a modern fit. The collar, rib-design and fabrics are also traditional. Made in Japan from a 450g Japanese brushed fleece. This updated 2021 version has a tighter collar which was the only request/input we had from the 2020 version.

The story of the sweater is that the original American sweats were designed as under garments for American football players. All the design features are in fact technical specs; the long hem and cuff rib was to hold the garment in place, the off the shoulder seam was to allow freedom of movement and the neck v insert is a sweat catcher. In the Laniakea Sunray Sportswear incorporated all those details to ensure that it is as true to the original concept as possible and improved it with Japanese production.

All Sunray items are made in Japan. Japanese clothing production is probably the best in the world. They are made on an antique circular knitting machine. These machines were used before production became much more mechanized, where production volume took precedence over quality. These antique machines can only produce 1 meter per hour (a t-shirt needs about 1.2 meters). The machine puts the cotton into a tube at just 24 rpm and makes it possible to produce a T-shirt that has no side seam. The slow revolution rate means the cotton is laid down softly and without any form of tension. No tension and no side seam results in a garment that can almost never lose its shape. The slow knitting and meticulous process of producing a T-shirt result in each Sunray T-shirt taking over 1.5 hours to manufacture.

The manufacturer that makes the Sunray products has been around since 1926 and has been in the same family for 3 generations. They once made uniforms for the Japanese Imperial Palace.

s = 40, m = 42, l = 44, xl = 46