Jersey is a crown dependency island of the
UK where the people have been knitting great wool sweaters for
centuries. These tight knit warm sweaters were initially used as an
inner layer by rural seamen before evolving into common outerwear.
Jersey sweaters spread about the UK and northern Europe as the
country’s trading industry rose in prominence during the late 17th
and early 18th centuries. Their popularity gained so much, the name
“jersey” became synonymous with “sweater” in countries as far away
as the United States during the 1850s. When American football
developed, players needed strong, insular uniforms, and thick wool
jerseys did the job..
Athletic jerseys bore increasingly little resemblance to their bulky
ancestral tops. Just as the name had become a synonym for sweater,
it soon became a synonym for athletic uniform. Lightweight baseball
shirts were often called “jerseys” despite being generally made of
flannel and incorporating short sleeves, buttons, and collars.
Canadian hockey sweaters began being called jerseys. Americans used
jerseys when they were playing football, then baseball, then hockey.