The pattern of the MF® SNIPES is inspired by the earliest model of US Gov-issued uniform shirt in a full button-front design, a departure from earlier 1/2 button-front pullover styles.
Besides the full six-button front placket improvement, the characteristics of the early 8-26C shirt included a one-piece unstructured collar (no collar band), a singular style of elbow reinforcement patch, and two large functional chest pockets, each with a pen compartment. Remember pens?
The Mister Freedom® SNIPES retains all of that military design DNA, and we only decided to get creative with our choices of fabrics, a departure from the original US Army OD wool blend issue.
This is the third MF® iteration of the SNIPES, with the first 2020 release cut from Buzz Rickson’s Chambray. Followed an OD cotton poplin version in 2021, a visual reference to classic US Navy N-3 type shirts.
This season, the SNIPES gets a new fancy skin, a very slubby herringbone twill (HBT) milled in Japan, about 6 Oz., light indigo warp x white weft, which we are (with great liberty) calling “HBT denim” because of the denim-like yarn color combination.
Technically speaking, this textile is not of the denim family (usually right or left hand twill fabric with indigo warp x natural weft), definitely not chambray (a plain weave fabric), but kinda looks like the latter, from a distance. Besides fabric nerds, most will probably refer to it as “chambray”.
Blurring the lines between vintage US Navy work shirts and early US Army shirts, with the usual Mister Freedom® might-have-been design approach, we went for classic navy blue urea plastic buttons and white contrast stitching, old-school naval chambray shirt style.
The term “snipes” refers to USN enlisted personnel working in the engine room, the “sailors that sail below”, aka “Black Gang” for their grease-covered blues and salty dixie cup covers. See Machinist’s Mate Jake Holman’s dungarees for a Hollywood rendition.
The MF® SNIPES Shirt is designed in California by Mister Freedom® and manufactured in Japan by Sugar Cane Co.
Read the full blog post about the Snipes Shirt - Indigo HBT here