BEN CLIFTON
As temperatures drop, the need for warm clothes is suddenly apparent. So here are some reasons why you should say no to coats and embrace the hoodie.
Number one, they look good. Let me ask you this: when was the last time you saw someone in a coat that said “long live King George” with a picture of Curious George on it? Probably not recently.
The fact of the matter is coat makers have not focused on the fashion part of the process and just skipped to the false fact of needing a full coat to keep warm. The people who make hoodies, however, have played to the fact that fashion can be fun, like with the Curious George example. Coats also just look out of place everywhere but outside, unlike hoodies, which you can wear indoors.
Reason number two, hoodies are able to be worn inside without making you hot. A comfortable person is a productive person, so if you are wearing a coat indoors all day, you’re going to get hot, and you might not be able to focus. With a hoodie, this problem doesn’t exist. You can go seamlessly from the bitter winds of Iowa winters to the nice, heated Kirkwood classrooms.
Now you might be saying to yourself, “But I can just take off my coat when I get to class.” Granted, this does solve the heat problem; however, it creates a new one: where do you put the coat?
You really only have a couple of options. One, you can try and stuff it into your bag. This almost never works; there just isn’t enough space in most backpacks to fit a winter coat. Or two, you can try and find a place to put it. However, nine times out of ten, there isn’t a place to put an item that big along with your backpack without encroaching on someone else’s space.
In conclusion, the hoodie beats the coat on all fronts: fashion, comfort, and practicality. The only argument coats have is that they tend to be warmer. In my personal experience, they are not always that much warmer than a thick hoodie, but let’s be honest with ourselves, do you really need a full winter coat for a three-minute walk to class from your car?
JOSH HEILSKOV
With fall becoming cooler and winter soon on its way, a question arises: is wearing only a sweatshirt going to be enough, or would it be better to wear a coat? In my opinion, I believe just throwing on a sweatshirt for late fall and winter is not going to be enough, and here are some reasons why I think so.
One is the material itself. Some of the materials that a sweatshirt is typically made of are cotton, fleece, wool, polyester, and other cheap lightweight materials. These by themselves won’t offer the best protection against high winds and colder temperatures.
While sweatshirts do offer more flexibility and easier use with everyday tasks, it won’t keep you nearly as warm outside. Coats by design are better for traversing the cold and are widely considered to be essential for the winter.
Material types can vary depending on the type of coat, but most of them are typically layered on top of one another, and they can be easily worn on top of sweatshirts and sweaters, which is something I find myself doing a lot when it gets colder. If I find myself getting a bit too hot with the coat inside, the easy solution is to take it off, slump it over your classroom chair, or put it on top of your backpack. That way you would be more comfortable inside without having to worry about getting cold and uncomfortable when it’s time to move to another location, like crossing Kirkwood’s halls or going to your car.
Lastly, if you’re more into the fashion side of outerwear, I believe coats offer way more diverse options compared to a simple sweatshirt. Coats can come in many variates like puffer jackets, parkas, leather coats, fur coats and trench coats. Meanwhile, sweatshirts usually only have print or different color tones to offer.
In conclusion, with winter rapidly approaching, I don’t think you should only rely on a sweatshirt to keep you warm whenever you do have to brave the cold. It’s just as easy to throw on a simple coat as it is to throw on a sweatshirt, and the benefits of doing so are in my opinion very noticeable compared to even a thick hoodie.
Categories: Editorials, Opinion
