A sportcoat, sports coat or sports jacket, is a tailored jacket for men. Though it is of a similar cut and length to a suit jacket there are many differences. First, it is less formal. Also it is designed to be worn on its own and does not come as part of a suit. Styles, fabrics, colours and patterns are also more varied; sturdier and thicker fabrics are most often used, such as tweed, and in particular Harris Tweed from the north-west of Scotland.
Originally, sports coats were worn as casual attire for hunting and other outdoor sports (hence the name). With time, they have come to be seen as more formal, sometimes being used in school uniforms as at Summer Fields School in England.[1]
A shooting jacket is a type of sports coat worn, as the name suggests, originally in the sports of shooting or hunting. It usually comes with a leather patch on the front shoulder to prevent wear from the butt of a shotgun or rifle, frequently with matching leather patches on the elbow.
A hacking jacket is a wool sports coat for casual horseback riding, often of tweed and traditionally with a single vent.
A blazer is similar to a sports coat but more closely resembles a suit jacket, and is tailored from solid color or striped fabrics. Blazers are often made with metal buttons reflecting its origins in the sport of boating, though this is not necessarily a defining feature.[2]
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