Prevailing memory of Mitchell & Ness focuses on the boom years. The throwback era. Begun when Andre 3000 and Big Boi started visiting Atlanta's Distant Replays, bringing the bold double knit polyester weave Houston Astros jerseys of the 1970s into hip-hop's collective consciousness. An era during which Fab became the jersey king, and clubs were filled with by-gone-era nods to former all-stars. And, an era ended when Jay-Z denounced the jersey (precipitating a more heinous trend in oversized dress shirts) and we briefly decided to cool it on direct field to street fashions.

"Throwbacks" were the result of a single man's passion. Peter Capolino, a man who grew up in the sportswear industry, first replicated historic uniforms to fill a personal desire to wear the shirts sported by his favorite athletes. Under his leadership, and through a quest for authentically reproduction, Mitchell & Ness became Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Company in September of 1988 - marked by the company's first official license deal with Major League Baseball.

This was heritage of a new sort. A nod to legacy and legend. And, inadvertently, a nod to good-old-fashioned American manufacture.

Capolino's coincidental goldmine - the throwback - didn't appear out of thin air. To understand his love of sport, and to really understand Mitchell & Ness, one needs to explore the brand's history.

Mitchell & Ness was founded in 1904, by an Englishman and a Scot, and operated strictly as a golf and tennis company until 1925. It was then, a shade over 20 years in the game, that M&N entered sportswear with a more varied approach. Tackling the local high school and college market, Mr. Mitchell & Mr. Ness provided uniforms for all major sports - baseball, basketball, and football primarily. Mitchell & Ness functioned as a contract company, selling uniforms and having them produced at local factories. They stepped into professional sports in 1933, supplying the Philadelphia Eagles uniforms for the next 30 years. Mitchell & Ness would also outfit the Philadelphia Athletics from 1939 to 1954.

Capolino grew up in the business. His father, affectionately known as Jimmy, emigrated to the United States as a teen. Mitchell and Ness welcomed the young Italian orphan (and changed his name from Sisto to James) in 1917 and he stayed with the firm from then on, eventually purchasing the company in 1952. James died in 1978, leaving Mitchell & Ness to Peter.

A legacy in sporting goods and close connections to professional teams fostered an affection for athletic apparel. The Mitchell & Ness we know today grew from Peter's desire to make a few shirts of his favorite players. The shift from wool to double knit polyester in baseball in the early 1970s - the Pittsburgh Pirates the first team to wear the fabric - had changed the look and feel of America's pastime. In 1984, Peter Capolino discovered a cache of unused uniform wool in a Philadelphia factory, the fabric allowed him to begin making accurate vintage flannel jerseys… the beginning stages of the Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Company.

Through diligent research, Capolino learned the intricacies of the baseball uniform. He also discovered unique twists in uniform history - like the time the Boston Red Sox used a reversible jacket to cut costs - and built an unrivaled knowledge base for sports gear.

His reverence for authenticity lives in the Mitchell & Ness jersey. You'll note the 5-buttons, employed by Capolino to differentiate his shirts from period examples. The shirts are instantly recognizable to the connoisseur, the new American standard.

To wear a Mitchell & Ness jersey isn't just about representing a favorite player or team. It's about representing the legacy of American athletics, the quality of distinctly American sportswear, and, especially with the baseball jersey and varsity jacket, wearing some of the most iconic American garments.

The brand has grown from supplying Philadelphia's golf and tennis players with equipment to outfitting locals schools and professional teams. It has blossomed as the premier label for sporting nostalgia. And, now, Mitchell & Ness symbolizes classic American style.