All-American Hoodie Battle: HOMAGE v. American Giant

Almost a month ago, this tweet:

Word-of-mouth! An $89 hood­ie with a four-month wait­list! http://t.co/yEqskvR4X4

— Eric Minor (@EricMinorWVU) June 3, 2014

led to a bit of a chal­lenge between two Made-in-Amer­i­ca brands — HOMAGE & Amer­i­can Giant — that I vol­un­teered to judge.

@American_Giant @EricMinorWVU @HOMAGE @cutiepie9569 I’m plan­ning on order­ing an Amer­i­can Giant hood­ie lat­er today. I’ll do a com­par­i­son. ???? — Adam Har­vey (@AdamInCLE) June 3, 2014

I’d pur­chased a cou­ple of Ohio-based HOMAGE hood­ies around Christ­mas when they had their fleece sale. Amer­i­can Giant was run­ning a Father’s Day pro­mo­tion which enabled me to pick up a hood­ie and a t‑shirt at a dis­count. Here are the items I’m com­par­ing:

• Clas­sic HOMAGE Zip Hood­ie — $65
• Amer­i­can Giant Mens Mid­weight Full Zip Hood­ed Sweat­shirt — $79

I’m pret­ty picky when it comes to the qual­i­ties I look for in a hood­ie, name­ly: it’s fit, com­fort, style, and, most impor­tant­ly, hood fit. Here’s a com­par­i­son of the hood­ie con­struc­tion as cribbed from their web­sites.

Fit

The ques­tions I ask myself in regard to fit are: Are the arms long enough? (The clos­er to 36″ the bet­ter.) Does it bag out around my mid­sec­tion? Does it hold its shape? Does it get in the way?

HOMAGE

The arms are plen­ty long enough for me on the large, which is great for win­ter in-home wear, the only issue I’ve expe­ri­enced with the sleeve length is that they’re just a bit too long, and my hands have stretched out the cuffs. The sleeves are slim for my stick arms, which I’m a big fan of. In terms of hold­ing its shape, I don’t get the sense that it is sup­posed to, it drapes on you. It does­n’t get in the way, but it also does­n’t wear well as a mid­dle lay­er, as it kind of sticks out in odd spots if I try to throw a coat on over it.

American Giant

The sleeves hit right on my wrists, and while it isn’t quite as slim-fit­ting as the HOMAGE hood­ie, it also isn’t notice­ably bag­gy. The cut and con­struc­tion of this ensures that it will hold its shape, which is good for long-life, but makes me think it won’t real­ly mold to my shape after awhile.

Win­ner: Amer­i­can Giant. The Amer­i­can Giant hood­ie just fits bet­ter the first time.

Comfort

HOMAGE

This hood­ie is soft, light, fluffy, like wear­ing a blan­ket.

American Giant

Because the fit is so pre­cise, you don’t real­ly notice you’re wear­ing this at all.

Win­ner: Tie. If your idea of com­fort is being under a blan­ket, you’ll go with HOMAGE. If your idea of com­fort is feel­ing like you’re not wear­ing clothes, you’ll go with Amer­i­can Giant.

Style

HOMAGE

I absolute­ly love the heathered cloth & col­ors avail­able in this hood­ie. The pock­ets are a bit small, and I wish the hem & cuffs had a bit more of the “recov­ery” that the Amer­i­can Giant hood­ie has. The qual­i­ty of the cloth & it’s thick­ness are def­i­nite­ly less­er than Amer­i­can Giant, but that’s fleece for you.

American Giant

There are a lot of col­ors to choose from, but they are all sol­id, which is a bit too plain for my taste. The larg­er pock­ets. I love the rein­forced fore­arm, and the stur­di­ness of the cuffs and hem. While the 100% cot­ton cloth is of high­er qual­i­ty, it also makes the hood­ie appear much more plain.

Win­ner: Tie. Once again, this depends on what you’re going for. If you’re look­ing for casu­al com­fort with a bit of flair, you’ll go for HOMAGE. If you want unas­sum­ing but pre­ci­sion detail, you’ll go with Amer­i­can Giant.

Hood Fit

HOMAGE Hood­ie

Amer­i­can Giant Hood­ie

J.Crew Hood­ie

HOMAGE

This hood­ie has a nice curve too it, and does­n’t obstruct my vision. I’m not a fan of the vis­i­ble fleec­ing, and it looks pret­ty weird when it is not up, but com­pared to the Amer­i­can Giant hood, it’s a clear win­ner.

American Giant

This is a good dense hood, but it sits with a weird flat­ness on my head, and real­ly catch­es the wind when I have it up.

Win­ner: HOMAGE.  Still, it’s noth­ing like my GOAT J.Crew hood­ie’s hood. Snug around my head, but not obstruc­tive, it affords per­fect cov­er­age and pro­tec­tion with­out the excess fab­ric that might make me look like a half-assed Jedi.

Scorecard

This real­ly depends on what you want in a hood­ie. These are two sep­a­rate species, each with their own niche. HOMAGE is com­fort­able, super-casu­al, col­lege-wear, Amer­i­can Giant is focused, pre­cise, for some­one who has demand­ing stan­dards for what they expect from their cloth­ing. I think the Amer­i­can Giant hood­ie is the best val­ue of the two, but they’re both good brands pro­vid­ing Amer­i­can made goods in a mar­ket filled with cheap crap. I’d rather buy either of these hood­ies than drop $50 on one made by 5 year olds in Thai­land from some fan­cy depart­ment store.

UPDATE: After read­ing this post, HOMAGE con­tact­ed me and gave me some store cred­it! They’ve always had amaz­ing cus­tomer ser­vice.