Everything You Need to Know About Greek Line Jackets, also known as Crossing Jackets
What are Greek Line Jackets?
Greek Line Jackets, also frequently called "crossing jackets", are a must-have for members of many fraternities and sororities. Though they are most commonly worn by members of the Divine 9, line jackets are becoming more and more popular among all Greek-letter organizations.
Line jackets may be purchased at stuff4GREEKS.
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The Elements of a Greek Line Jacket
What goes where? The traditional crossing jacket has a standard setup, but people often add to it or embellish it more. The typical setup is as follows:
Front
A set of 4-inch Greek letters, usually layered with a foreground color and a background color, goes down the front right panel (that means the right side of your torso when you are wearing the jacket).
For an extra touch, people will sometimes spell out the name of each Greek letter and have that word stitched across each letter.
Our really advanced customers will take it a step further and integrate an icon or symbol into the letters design, or even enhance their letters by giving them a 3-D effect.
The fraternity or sorority crest is typically embroidered on the left front, directly over the heart area.
People will often add monograms around the crest area, and on the pockets. This could include spelling out the name of the organization, your founding year, adding your real "government" name, or additional sorority nicknames/phrases.
Sleeves
Your crossing season - the season and year you were initiated into your organization - (i.e. Fall 2016) goes on one sleeve, and is usually abbreviated (i.e. FA 16).
Your chapter usually goes on the opposite sleeve. Some people will also add the name of their school or city under the chapter name.
So which one goes on which sleeve? There is not a universal standard for this. Check with other people in your chapter to see on which sleeve they got their chapter letters placed.
Also take a look through our line jacket photos to see what other people have done.
It is ultimately a matter of personal or chapter preference, but from our research, slightly more customers seem to get the chapter on the left sleeve and the crossing season on the right sleeve.
Optional: Some people also add extra icons and symbols to their sleeves.
Back
Collar - people often get a nickname, call sound, year, or some other meaningful slogan embroidered on the collar. This will give the collar a "popped up" look, or we can embroider it smaller so that the collar folds down.
Your individual line name is typically arched across the upper back of the jacket.
Your line number is typically large and in the back center of your jacket. HOWEVER... this is also the area where people really make their jacket shine by giving it a unique touch with custom artwork!
The image typically measures about 12"-14" tall, and serves as the attention-grabbing centerpiece of the jacket. We can incorporate your line number into the design.
There is a vast, ever-growing library of Greek line jacket designs to choose from and modify, or you can submit your own sketch or idea. You dream it, we design it.
Check out behind the scenes videos from stuff4GREEKS Spotlight Stories to see some of the most advanced digitizing and elaborate embroidery in the industry.
The name of the entire line - also known as the "ship name" - goes under the line number and/or image.
Bottom Back
Some people also get a row of icons at the bottom of their jacket. These icons represent your line brothers or line sisters, but your icon is highlighted.
For example, if there were 7 people on your line and you were number 2, you could get a row of 7 pyramids and the 2nd pyramid would be highlighted to represent you.
Here are the top 5 ways to get design inspiration for your line jacket design:
- Check out all of the jackets in our Photo Gallery (not just from your organization).
- Look through all of our previous Jacket of the Year contests. Here's the most recent one.
- Scroll through our Instagram page, and follow us for recent posts and stories. Be sure to find some hidden gems in our Instagram story highlights too.
- Browse through our Design Library. Note that you can change colors, numbers, and mix/match designs.
- Submit your sketch, image, idea, and/or description here for a quote to create your custom design (an extra setup fee applies).
How to Buy a Greek Line Jacket
We've made thousands and thousands of line jackets over the years, and not just for D9 Greeks.
Many of them have been for members of Masonic groups, band fraternities, business fraternities, service organizations, multicultural Greeks, and dance groups.
Greek line jackets are the flagship product of our stuff4GREEKS label and can be purchased here.
Watch the video below to learn how to create the line jacket of your dreams.
You can also buy your line jacket in-person at Zeus' Closet, or you can bring in (or send in) your own jacket to have personalization added to it.
One of our friendly, experienced graphic artists will help you design it, and we'll make sure it looks exactly how you want it before we begin the production process.
We always email you a proof for your approval first. Learn more about how the process works here.
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The History of Line Jackets
Line jackets were originally inspired by sports teams, so the letters and numbers are typically sewn on to the front, back, and sleeves of a nylon coaches jacket.
We took it a step further and pioneered adding a logo or custom artwork to the back of the jacket as a centerpiece.
When you wear a jacket from Zeus' Closet, you're not just wearing a jacket...you become a walking masterpiece.
People will stare in awe as you walk by and they will ask "where did you get that?"
Check out the thousands of photos in our gallery.
We designed our first line jacket in 1999, and have made thousands of them since. We have truly perfected the art, and can safely say that we make the best line jackets in the entire world.
If you want to see the best of the best Greek line jackets, then check out our Line Jacket Contest that we started way back in 2008. Take a look through the contest archives here:
Note: These are the hottest Greek line jackets ever, and will give you the ultimate creative inspiration! Click on all of the years above and look at all of the jackets.
Quality Guarantee
Unlike other companies that take cheap shortcuts, our Greek jackets are backed by our Lifetime Quality Guarantee. If an embroidery stitch that we did comes loose 8 years or 80 years from now, we will fix it free of charge.
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