Russell Athletic Women's Fashion Brand

On March 3, 1902, Russell Athletic was founded by 26-year-old Benjamin Russell as the Russell Manufacturing Company in Alexander City, Alabama. The tiny factory had 10 sewing machines and 8 knitting machines - and Russell Manufacturing Company's first garment was a women's and children's knit shirt. That last fact earns this brand its place in the women's directory with unusual directness: before the uniforms and the sweatshirt, the company's very first product was a knit shirt for women and children. At the turn of the century in Alabama, cotton was king, but football was a close second - and for Benjamin Russell, growing up in Alabama, developing a sports clothing brand was a good move.

Founded in 1902, the company produced uniforms for a wide range of sports, such as American football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. Russell Athletic is an American athletics brand, the main brand of its namesake company and its manufacturer and marketer, Russell Brands, LLC. The women's range for today's shopper is consumer activewear: ladies' polos, socks, sweatshirts, hoodies, pants, fleece tops, sweatpants and much more, at the official Russell Athletic women's page linked in this page's References.

1926 to 1930: The Idea That Became the Sweatshirt

In 1926, founder Ben Russell's son Benny came to his father with a new idea: an all-cotton practice football jersey, replacing the itchy, chafing wool uniforms worn at that time. Knowing the comfort and durability of cotton, the iconic sweatshirt began production in the Russell Athletic mills in 1930. The legacy is stated outright: with legacies like the invention of the sweatshirt, Russell Athletic has played an integral role in developing apparel that performs since 1902. A women's shopper buying a Russell sweatshirt or hoodie is buying the garment this company is credited with inventing - from a cotton jersey idea in 1926 to mill production in 1930.

The cotton logic of that invention still reads as shopping guidance, in plain terms: cotton was chosen for comfort and durability against wool's itch and chafe, first for practice jerseys and then for the sweatshirt. The women's range follows the same material story - sweatshirts, hoodies, fleece tops and sweatpants are cotton-rich fleece garments, and polos and socks are everyday athletic basics. Checking fabric content, fleece weight and construction is therefore not generic advice for this brand; it is exactly the ground on which the company built its name.

Team Uniforms Until 2017, Activewear Today

The company supplied jersey uniforms and apparel for many professional sports teams of the major leagues in the United States, and also colleges, universities and minor league teams - until it shut down its team uniform division in 2017. Today, the company primarily focuses on activewear for the consumer market. That is the profile's one status record: a team-uniform business that ran from the company's early decades to 2017, and a present focus on consumer activewear - which is the women's clothing this page is about. Russell Athletic brand news, among this page's links, is the channel for following the brand.

For a researcher, Russell is this letter's long-history American maker set against its glamour and surf names: founded 1902 in Alexander City, Alabama, by a 26-year-old with 10 sewing machines and 8 knitting machines; first garment a women's and children's knit shirt; the sweatshirt in production by 1930; uniforms for professional, college and minor league teams until the division closed in 2017; and a women's consumer range of polos, socks, sweatshirts, hoodies, pants, fleece tops and sweatpants today.

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