Jacket Style Spotlight - FFA Jacket
- Eric Langlois
- Feb 28
- 4 min read
Last winter I went with some friends to the Retromania Bazaar, a vintage market event being held at a 50,000 square foot performance venue in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. I didn’t go in there with a goal – I thought maybe I’d find a nice vintage flannel shirt or a set of rocks glasses – but I wasn’t specifically looking for anything. After digging through some 1980s mall-brand leather jackets, a variety of jazz and funk LP’s, and some wildly patterned mid-century glassware, a glimpse of gold chain stitching got my attention.
I pulled out a blue corduroy jacket from a seller’s rack, and looked over a waist-length zippered jacket with two unfamiliar seals on it. I liked the look of it, but I wasn’t really aiming to buy another casual jacket so I put it back and walked on. The chain stitching though, with the eye catching placename “Shongaloo,” drew me back, and I asked the seller if I could try it on. It fit perfectly, and I could feel the noose tightening, so I hung it back up and told the seller I’d have to think about it. After taking a third lap around the selling floor, I realized I had to buy it (this is the same process that resulted in me getting inked for the first time when I accompanied my wife to a tattoo convention). I walked out with a new jacket, and it was then that I noticed the letters “FFA” in the insignia on the left breast.
Future Farmers of America was founded in 1928 as a youth leadership program to encourage the study of agriculture. To this day it provides career and leadership development opportunities for students, and notable alumni include Jimmy Carter, Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, and Carroll Shelby. In addition to agricultural and business education, the FFA also provides scholarships to members for vocational, and 2- and 4-year degrees.
In 1933, Gus Linter of Fredericktown, Ohio purchased blue corduroy jackets from his local hardware store for his chapter of FFA. Corduroy was a common material for work clothing at the time, and Linter figured that the cropped jacket design would be popular with the young members of the organization. Linter had the FFA seal, state, and town name embroidered on the back of each jacket, and his chapter wore them to the upcoming national convention. The Fredericktown chapter’s jackets so impressed the other delegates to the convention that they voted to make the blue corduroy jacket part of the national organization’s official uniform.
The original jackets were modified from a standard model sold by Universal Uniform Company, which made clothing for laborers and delivery workers. As the design changed, they still followed the general design of 20th century workwear jackets. The original models had a snap closure and gold trim around the slash pockets. Later on, the design was altered to a zip closure and the pocket trim was removed, but the general design has otherwise remained the same, maintaining a classic 20th century workwear style.
The FFA jacket is an extremely recognizable design. On the left breast is a small organization seal, with the owner’s name embroidered in gold on the right breast in cursive. In the center of the back is a large FFA seal, with the chapter location chain stitched below it and the state stitched above it. The brass zipper ends about six inches below the collar, giving the jacket’s front a characteristic notch which is a notable classic detail. Inside pockets are built in behind the slash pockets, and the waist can be adjusted with buckled side tabs. The full jacket is unlined and double needle stitched for durability. The jackets are made of US-grown cotton, and are assembled both in the US and overseas, while all finishing and lettering is done by Universal Lettering Company in Van Wert, Ohio.
There are a couple rare variations of the FFA Jacket, related to the limitations on membership in the past. The FFA was originally segregated by race, and the parallel New Farmers of America was created in 1935 for Black students. The NFA wore a nearly identical jacket in black corduroy, with a different crest. In 1965 the FFA was desegregated and the two organizations merged, with the NFA’s black jacket being phased out. Women were excluded from FFA until 1969, but were allowed to serve in an auxiliary role and wear a “sweetheart jacket” in white or sky blue. Following the extension of full membership (and blue jackets) to women, the sweetheart role became an elected position within each chapter and the white jacket was retained for that purpose.
Given its longevity, it is not surprising that the FFA jacket has garnered some attention as a classic piece of Americana. The classic, slightly boxy work jacket silhouette and attractive chain stitching give it an appropriately timeless look which has naturally had its imitators. There are green “Act Against Automatic” jackets floating around which were made in the same pattern to protest California firearms legislation in the 1960s, using the FFA’s recognizable design to get attention. More recently, brands like Studio D’Artisan, Samurai Jeans, and Aimé Leon Dore have adapted the corduroy shell and eye catching blue and gold color scheme with their own text and insignia. Studio D’Artisan’s version hews the closest to the details of the original jacket, but these designer alternatives are certain to be both rarer and more expensive than the many thousands of authentic FFA jackets which have entered the vintage market.
I stumbled across my jacket at a vintage sale without knowing its history, but when I did some brief research on it I discovered that the FFA jacket has been gaining popularity with fans of classic American clothing. A cursory eBay search shows about 500 results for active listings, with most prices below two hundred dollars. Depending on the size and condition, FFA jackets can still be bought at reasonable prices, and if you’re lucky you could even find one representing a town that you have a personal history with.
Eric Langlois is a writer, menswear professional, and history enthusiast based on the North Shore of Massachusetts.
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