When Did L Become M??

Say goodbye to more readers with another unpopular opinion.

I’m 6ft, 175 lbs. When I’m on a running kick I can hit 170 and when I slack I balloon to 180. I don’t let myself slip out of this range because it’s where I feel healthy. I also don’t have a scale so I’m completely guessing, but I wouldn’t wildly lie to the blog audience. My physique hasn’t altered that much over the past 2 decades.

I was around 18 in the picture below. The dumb and dumber haircut was popular. JC is the best looking dude in this picture. Jeff surely isn’t a fan of this one. My shirt was most likely was an XL.

For some unknown reason in the early 00’s, I wore XL. I have button downs from that era that are huge on me now. Why I thought they were cool when they are loose fitting can only be answered by the reason JNCO jeans were cool. Loose was in. I moved exclusively to large clothing after college. When I point out the following trend, it’s based off of my own personal experience of purchasing clothes for the same body type of the the past 2 decades.

American Clothing MFG’s Swapped Large With Medium To Make People Feel Less Fat

I haven’t noticed this as much with standard T-shirts because I think they shrink in the wash, but I recently bought 2 large polo shirts from a “golf” manufacturer and they fit me like a dress. I want form fitting shirts. The preferred look is no longer loose and clothing manufacturers know they should be making clothes that fit the majority of their audience. My guess is that my body type is no longer their majority.

So the older golf shirts that I have are mostly L and they fit like I want. These may be brands like Polo, Calvin Klein, and Hugo Boss. Recently I tried Tommy John and learned I was a medium (great shirts btw). Then I bought a shirt from Peter Millar and had to return the large because it was huge. If the size was even close to fitting, I wouldn’t make a stink, but it’s clear that the manufacturer has decided that they don’t want their target audience to feel they are XL. When you consider the average height of an American is around 5’9″, I should 100% be a large in this country. By swapping what used to be large to the medium size, I’m making the presumption that Americans are getting fatter.

I see it everywhere and I’m sure I’m out of line because we don’t body shame in 2020. My purpose isn’t body shaming as much as it’s making the observation that we are clearly trending toward a wider body shape and it’s unhealthy. Your health should be a #1 priority because once you can’t move around the way you optimally can, you have lost a key aspect to life. This is why I point out this trend because clothing manufactures are adjusting to the mind set that bigger is the new norm by feeding into the cognizant awareness that no body wants to feel that they are a bigger size. They don’t want you to be an XXXL. You’ll now be an L. They know the average hacker doesn’t look like this.