3Sixteen Heavyweight Crewneck Sweatshirt

Weight is the whole argument. An ordinary sweatshirt fleece sits somewhere around 300gsm, which is enough to be warm and not enough to be anything else. This one is 500, custom knitted for the house, and past a certain density a fleece stops behaving like a sweatshirt and starts behaving like a light piece of outerwear: it hangs from the shoulder rather than collapsing onto it, it holds a straight line down the body, and it takes years rather than seasons to give up its shape. The face is knitted tight and smooth and the reverse is brushed into a deep nap, which is what fleece means and what actually does the insulating, because the raised fibres hold air.

The pockets are the other thing, and they are the detail the house has carried since it first made this garment. They are set into the side seams and hidden, so there is somewhere to put your hands without a kangaroo pouch across the front. A crewneck is a clean shape and a patch pocket ruins it; this solves the problem by refusing to put anything on the front at all. Made in Canada, which is one of the few places left knitting fleece at this weight.

Why we selected it

We sell a lot of these and we wear them, which is most of the honest answer. The rest of it is that a heavy sweatshirt is the garment people replace most often and should replace least, and at 500gsm this one is built to be the last one somebody buys. It is also the piece from this house that needs the least explaining to anyone.

3Sixteen has made this crewneck since not long after it started, and the hidden gusset pockets have been on it from the beginning.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton in a custom-knitted 500gsm fleece, tight-faced and brushed on the reverse. Made in Canada. Hidden gusset pockets set into the side seams. Black.

Fit notes

A straightforward crewneck cut, not oversized, with ribbed collar, cuffs, and hem. A fleece at this weight does not cling and does not need to be sized up to hang properly, so take your usual size. It layers over a tee comfortably and will go under a work jacket, though not under a close-cut one, because 500gsm takes up room that nothing else will give back.

Styling

Over the black Pima tee with raw denim, which needs no help. Under the BDU Jacket or the Liner Jacket in real cold, where the weight is the point. With the Fatigue Pant in Midnight for the version that is not quite so plain.

Care

Machine wash cool, inside out, and hang to dry. Heat is what mats a brushed nap into a flat surface, and once that has happened there is no getting it back, so keep this one out of the dryer more carefully than you would a shirt. Black cotton fades from heat and friction rather than from washing. Our care guidance covers cotton.

Related pieces

The same neckline in alpaca is the Alpaca Crewneck Sweater in Oak. It goes over the Pima Cotton T-Shirt Pack in Black, under the Liner Jacket, and with the CS-100x. Everything we currently hold from 3Sixteen is listed together.