TC wearing "Merckx"

September is a great time of the year if you’re a sports fan. We have the U.S. Open in tennis and of course football is starting back up. Also September is the time for September baseball, which is when possible playoff teams get into the final stretch of their seasons and really duke it out for the last playoff spots. I have to explain this because baseball fans in the DC/Baltimore area haven’t had this problem for a long time. But apparently it is quite exciting.

However, September also means, at least here at Hugh & Crye, that we will be starting to release some of our new shirts.

The spread collar button-downs are a mini collection we’re calling “Not your average sport… shirts”. The idea is this: we like the traditional button-down collar sport shirts that have been around for ages, but find them to be a bit too boring and ubiquitous. Like baseball and football at this time of year, if you will.

So we added a second top button and gave it a spread collar, just slightly sprezzatura. These two details give the collar a pronounced stand unbuttoned, and just enough room to pack the perfect knot when buttoned with a tie. They also have convertible cuffs that can be buttoned or take cuff links, a friendly reminder that sport doesn’t have to mean rolled up sleeves.

We picked four offset check patterns, in four different and decidedly un-boring colorways. In honor of the shirts’ heritage, we’re naming them after four of our favorite enigmatic and sometimes forgotten sports figures: Bjorn Borg (tennis), Ayrton Senna (F1 racing), Walter Hagen (golf), Eddy Merckx (cycling) — which I’m wearing above.

We’re really excited about these shirts and if any of you came out to our open house you may have seen the sample model that we were previewing. We got a lot of great comments about it. Check them out and let us know what you think!