Welcome to our New Hood

2022 UPDATE: All hoodies come as the Standard variant from Gildan. Currently, the others are not available as options.

T-shirts are great and all, but when you're 5 hours into a frost-filled endurance race and sitting on the cold pit floor trying to pull your car's fourth transmission, a little bit of extra heat is what you need to keep apexing. Our existing Gildan hoodie has remained unchanged since inception, and there's always the opportunity to eke out a couple of milliseconds with some new options.

These additional options aren't replacing the normal hoodie for our regularly scheduled tee designs (yet), but as part of The Black Flag Friday sale, you'll be able to select a Delta brand French terry Premium Light Weight or Heavy Duty hoodie for our blipshift logo design thru 12/2. But how do these newcomers compare to the reigning champion? See how a size Large in each fare.

Starting with sizing and heft, it's no surprise that the Light Weight (blue) is both the lightest and the least bulky at 14oz. Slotting in the middle is our Standard (black) hoodie at 18.5oz, followed closely at 19oz with the Heavy Duty (grey), which does have slightly more loft. Weight will differ by size/amount of fabric compared to these larges.

Should you cut this corner? Depends on what type of line you're going for. When layering the Light Weight and Heavy Duty over the Standard, you'll notice the latter has the fullest sleeves, and the widest hips, whereas the new options are much straighter in cut, and with moderately longer sleeves. Note that where the shoulder seam falls is virtually identical with the Standard and Heavy Duty but squished in slightly for the Light Weight, which would be more ideal for a smaller chest.

Comparing the Heavy Duty and Light Weight directly, you can see the light option is near-identical in cut, but overall slimmer in proportions... like a track package! You'll also notice how the Standard hoodie is the widest option, and due to the svelte, looser material, the Light Weight falls in the middle.

Wouldn't be a hoodie comparison without some hoods up in here. Once again living up to its name, the Light Weight's single layer of terry makes it the chillest, whereas the Heavy Duty and Standard have two layers o' cotton/poly blend to the rescue. Eagle-eyed viewers will also spy how the middle seam for the Standard does not go the whole way but the Heavy Duty does, which could lead to a bulkier fit.

I spy with my little eye... eyelets! But only on the Light Weight option. The Standard hoodie does gain aglets (aka those plastic sleeve things you forgot had a name) and a more rope-like texture compared to the softer Heavy Duty.

This is all fine and well you say, but what about where to rest my hands when they're tired of shifting? Like the cut in general, you'll observe on the left that the Light Weight hoodie has a bit more of a tapered pocket than our Standard offering, and the Heavy Duty option takes this and simply enlarges it.

As our Mom says, it's what inside that counts. It's here you can see the largest difference between the felt-like Standard and the might-as-well-make-a-blanket-out-of-it Heavy Duty. The Light Weight is no slouch, but it will feel like a long sleeve t-shirt in comparison.

In summary, we'd think of the Heavy Duty sweater as OEM+. It's a little softer, and a little thicker than the Standard, and with a slightly straighter fit overall. The Light Weight will be your choice if you like hoodies to fit slim and are looking for a light and breathable layer. If that wasn't enough, check out the nitty-gritty specs below:

Standard Hoodie
Gildan 18500
50% Cotton / 50% Polyester

SIZE: S - M - L - XL - 2XL - 3XL
LENGTH: 27" - 28" - 29" - 30" - 31" - 32"
WIDTH: 20" - 22" - 24" - 26" - 28" - 30"

Heavy Duty Hoodie
Delta 99200
80% Cotton / 20% Polyester

SIZE: S - M - L - XL - 2XL - 3XL
LENGTH: 27" - 28" - 29" - 30" - 31" - 32"
WIDTH: 20" - 22" - 24" - 26" - 28" - 30"

Premium Light Weight Hoodie
Delta 97200
55% Cotton / 45% Polyester

SIZE: S - M - L - XL - 2XL - 3XL
LENGTH: 26.5" - 27.5" - 28.5" - 29.5" - 30.5" - 31.5"
WIDTH: 20.5" - 21.5" - 22.5" - 23.5" - 24.5" - 25.5"

25+ Tees Dropping Till 11/4

Spooky season means it's about time for your summer ride to don its ghost costume before retreating to its lair, and where the only thing scarier than a check engine haunting your dash is a soulless t-shirt drawer to fall into the changing season with. Who you gonna call? Well, us, because over 25 tee designs and a team of new accessories are busting onto the scene as part of The Automn Sale from Thursday, October 31 @ noon ET through Monday, November 4. Suck these up before they go back in the BS crypt!

If those high-octane sweets weren't enough to fill up on, The Automn Sale is also dropping new designs from our partners into your goodie bag, with new tees from Spike's Car Radio, The Smoking Tire, Hooniverse, The Drive, The Warzone, and Planet Miata!

Countdown to The Automn Sale

With fall comes a road coating of many colors, but those crunchy leaves billowing out the side of your vehicle aren't the only thing changing their pigment. We're cooking up a Thanksgiving cornucopia of 25 newly resto-modded design favorites, that will be strutting their new looks as part of The Automn Sale from Thursday, October 31 @ noon ET thru Monday, November 4. The covers will be lifted soon enough, but you may be able to peek some faves from the lineup below.

They say this season is the best time to get cozy with your partner, so it's a good thing the sale is also blowing in new tees from The Smoking Tire, Hooniverse, The Drive, and other partner stores. Plus, new relationships are also bringing in a batch of concours-ready sock designs to gear up your heels and toes!

To cap all that off, we're also dishing out a new mug, hot-off-the-press Wall Art, new Formula Onesies, and other updated accessories. Plus the first 400 orders will receive a to-be-announced early bird freebie on us as thanks.

The Automn Sale starts Thursday, October 31 @ noon (Eastern Time) and runs through Monday November 4.

Though his previous "hot" career in the world of die cast automobiles has since cooled off, the extreme automotive passion that Rob has carried since he was 1/64 scale never died. Now busy checking races off his bucket list, working on his Cougar project, or creating works of c-art for his freelance business, he still finds time to torso-ize some of these masterpieces with designs like "HPTE", "Leaf Spring Harvest", and "Salut".

Rob shifted into neutral to answer a few questions:

Anthony McClinton's DirtFish Adventure

Ever since I got my first Subaru, I’ve wanted to go to DirtFish Rally School. I’ve always wanted to learn how to drive a car like a rally driver, so when blipshift announced their design contest, I knew I had to enter. To my surprise, I got an email not too long after it ended saying I’d won. At first, I couldn’t believe it and I had to read the message two or three times just to be sure I read it correctly. I was beyond excited when I got the news. I was shouting and jumping up and down in my office at work and all my co-workers were really confused as to what was going on.

Along the DirtFish goal, I’ve also always wanted to do a big West Coast road trip to see and experience all the amazing things that the West has to offer. Even before I won the blipshift contest, I was putting pins on a map of areas that I thought would be cool to explore. DirtFish was one of those places, so naturally, when I found out I won, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to make this road trip happen. The timing just felt right and thus the #Roadtrip2RallySchool was born.

We'll Miss You Davey

In June 2019, The realm of car journalism lost a legend. Having been the outspoken voice of Autoweek, Jalopnik, Car & Driver, and more across his career, Davey G. Johnson brought his signature personality to huge swaths of the automotive landscape. Some say you can thank this man for the community's preference for brown diesel manual wagons, but even if you haven't read his work, it's impossible to escape the voices of others he so empowered.

 

In the spirit of giving opportunity to others, we're donating all proceeds of "The Man in the Golden Helmet" design, created by Davey's cousin Leigh Denham, to The Davey G. Johnson Memorial Scholarship for Non-SEO Writing at his alma matter, Saint Mary's College. With it, Davey can continue to inspire the next generation of writers. As he would say, RAD.

96 (Ish) Hours, 25 tees

The heat of summer has left many of us rockin' a crispy t-shirt tan and a Vitamin D surplus, but if you're looking for a way to get cool we've got your torso's back thanks to The 96 Hours of BS Sale! This weekend's tee wave is awash with 25 newly shined-up shirts, including three voted in by you the fans, plus many ace accessories. The floodgates are open Thursday, August 1 @ noon ET through Monday, August 5, so soak up the sun before it sets for good!

On top of our regularly scheduled programming, The 96 Hours of BS Sale is also beaming you the latest and greatest offerings from some of our great partners: Spike's Car Radio, The Smoking Tire, The Drive, The Warzone, Hooniverse, and Jonny Lieberman!