The reasons behind not selling the iconic jacket

When the upper school microeconomics class announced their sale would be beginning, the products were showcased as usual. It was mostly normal stuff: a t-shirt, sweatpants but also included something unusual to the University Prep community: a letterman jacket.

While the letterman jacket is a staple of the American high school experience, it’s been absent from UPrep since its founding. This is why many students were open to the opportunity to own this sentimental product.

“I was really excited because I [play] volleyball and I [have] a letter,” sophomore Jade Buchanan said. Many students shared this excitement, but at the same time a large number of students were opposed to it.

“I was very unhappy to see that the only option for any sort of coat or sweater or jacket was a $99 letterman jacket. I was looking forward to buying a fleece for the winter,” junior Zubin Abraham-Ahmed said. Abraham-Ahmed went on to say that he wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money on one jacket that he’ll grow out of in a year or so.

Whether or not the jackets were appealing, it was announced after a few days that they would not be sold. While it might be assumed that this push for taking it off the shelves came from students, it actually came from school policy.

“We try not to offer anything at the school that’s not economically available to everyone,” Director of Upper School Ken Jaffe said. “The letterman jacket was $100, [and] that’s outside of a lot of people’s ability [to pay],” Jaffe said. While there was a problem with the price, Jaffe never said the jacket couldn’t be sold, just that it needed to be re-worked. The final decision came from the microeconomics class.

“Ninety-nine dollars is way too much, so we can’t do that… If we do that we have to find ways to get around [the price] so everyone can afford it,” senior and microeconomics student Sam Liu said. Liu explained that the school’s policy made it necessary to keep the price around $30, and it was eventually decided to take the jacket off the shelves completely.

“There’s a wide range in the cost of letterman jackets,” microeconomics teacher Pat Grant said. Grant explained that while a letterman jacket can be bought for less than $99, the lower price would result in a cheaply made product.

It’s no secret that going to UPrep is an experience that comes with a large price tag and many people don’t enjoy the idea of paying even more to be a part of the UPrep experience, which alligns with the school’s policies. Even though it would’ve raised a good bit of money for charity, it was too much to ask students to pay.

By Micho Matuszewski