Roots created its own first varsity jacket (which the brand calls the “award jacket”) in 1979. “I went to school at Michigan State and I did a lot there, but I never got a letter sweater.

The letterman's jacket is made of yellow leather and blue mohair, and features the embroidered name "Wally" on the chest, and the crest of a 1970s-era broomball club from Ingersoll, Ont.

It's a mystery Australian Joe Winkler set out to solve. After picking up a vintage varsity jacket that stood out to him at his local thrift store, known as an "op shop" down under, he wanted to know ...