Jersey (clothing)

In sport, a **jersey** is a shirt worn by a member of a team, often with the wearer's name and team number as well. Many Cycling jerseys of specific colour or pattern represent certain statuses in cycling, such as the _maillot jaune_ (yellow jersey) of the leader of the Tour de France, or the rainbow jersey.  The World Cycling Union also says a champion must wear the champions jersey in a race, not the team jersey.  Cycling jerseys are usually made of special synthetic material to help sweat away from the skin.  The main garment of an ice hockey uniform, which was traditionally called a sweater, is increasingly known as a hockey jersey. This garment, along with basketball jerseys which are usually sleeveless and baseball jerseys which are usually button up, have become fashion accessories.

In some sports, such as baseball, basketball, and American football, a player's jersey may be "retired".  When a jersey is retired that player's jersey is placed usually where the team plays in honour of that player's accomplishment.  The retiring of a jersey at one time included the retiring of the number on the player's jersey leaving it unavailable for future players, to further honour that player.  However, as jerseys are usually double digit (00-99), that leaves only 100 possible numbers—if the rules of the sport allow it. For example, in U.S. college basketball, only 36 distinct numbers are possible, as rules prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5. As such the practice of retiring the number has dwindled, and in most cases only the specific jersey is retired and put on display.

## Other

It is common for Australian and South African year 12 students and year 13 students in New Zealand to receive personalised jerseys during their last year at school. These are commonly referred to as a year 12 or leavers' jumpers. They are based on the design of a sport jersey (usually Australian Rules Football or Association Football), feature school colours, the year the students graduate, and a personalised nickname. They are usually worn over the normal school uniform. It is common for students to get personalised names on the back of their jerseys.

In Australia there has been a recent trend with many students now preferring to get year 12 hoodies, jackets or baseball varsity style jackets instead of the traditional jerseys.

## History

Jersey, in the Channel Islands, was famous for its knitting trade in medieval times, and because of that original fame, the name jersey is still applied to many forms of knitted fabric, round or flat. The traditional jersey, and traditional guernsey, are dyed a navy blue colour, using a dye that does not require stripping the wool of its natural oil, rendering these sweaters surprisingly water resistant. The wool used in guernseys is often passed through oil in order to render it doubly water-resistant.

## In sports

In sport a jersey is a shirt worn by a member of a team, often with the wearer's name and team number as well. Many Cycling jerseys of specific colour or pattern represent certain statuses in cycling, such as the _maillot jaune_ (yellow jersey) of the leader of the Tour de France, or the rainbow jersey.  The World Cycling Union also says a champion must wear the champions jersey in a race, not the team jersey.  Cycling jerseys are usually made of special synthetic material to help sweat away from the skin.  The main garment of an ice hockey uniform, which was traditionally called a sweater, is increasingly known as a hockey jersey. This garment, along with basketball jerseys which are usually sleeveless and baseball jerseys which are usually button up, have become fashion accessories.

In some sports, such as baseball, basketball, and American football, a player's jersey may be "retired".  When a jersey is retired that player's jersey is placed usually where the team plays in honour of that player's accomplishment.  The retiring of a jersey at one time included the retiring of the number on the player's jersey leaving it unavailable for future players, to further honour that player.  However, as jerseys are usually double digit (00-99), that leaves only 100 possible numbers—if the rules of the sport allow it. For example, in U.S. college basketball, only 36 distinct numbers are possible, as rules prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5. As such the practice of retiring the number has dwindled, and in most cases only the specific jersey is retired and put on display.

## Other

It was common for Australian and South African year 12 students and year 13 students in New Zealand to receive personalised jerseys during their last year at school. These are commonly referred to as a year or leavers' jumpers. They are based on the design of a sport jersey (usually Australian Rules Football or Association Football), feature school colours, the year the students graduate, and a personalised nickname. They are usually worn over the normal school uniform.

In Australia there has been a recent trend with many students now preferring to get year 12 hoodies, jackets or baseball varsity style jackets instead of the traditional jerseys.