The track suit was born in the 1960’s. It is a sweat suit, usually with a long-sleeved jacket and long pants, worn by athletes, especially runners, before and after actual competition or during workouts. It wasn’t considered cool to wear these jackets outside of the gym until 1970. 

A descendant of the track suit, the Shell suit,  hit the market in the 1980’s. The shell suit is a lightweight nylon track suit consisting of a matching zip-front jacket and matching elasticized trousers.

The track jacket was modernized in the 1980’s, when Adidas bought us their hip-hop inspired shell suit with Run DMC as the face of the new trend.

The suit is usually composed of a front zipped jacket with ribbed collar, cuffs, and waistband.

The model pictured above is wearing a track jacket by clothier, The Rebirth of Style, where the ribbed look of the collar, cuffs, and waistband has been replaced with a lycra shiny swimwear fabric to create a versatile look that can be dressed up or dressed down.