Why Steve Jobs Wore Turtlenecks

Alex Heath (1:43 pm PDT, Oct 11 2011)

Why Steve Jobs Wore Turtlenecks

Steve Jobs was a man known for his signature style. During the last decade, the CEO and entrepreneur was hardly ever seen in public without his black turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers.

Many have stopped wondering why Jobs chose such unusual attire to wear while unveiling revolutionary products to the world, but it turns out that there’s actually an interesting story about why Jobs was never seen without his turtleneck and blue jeans.

An excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography about Jobs, courtesy of Gawker:

“On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.

Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”

In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”

Sticking with that “uniform” helped make Jobs one of the most recognizable CEOs in the world. Most CEOs of Jobs’ caliber would be seen in expensive suits, but what Jobs wore personified his spirit. He was a rebel. He thought different.

It’s curious to look back and think about the kind of brand affiliation Apple would have if Jobs would have dressed like every other CEO. It may seem like an insignificant detail at first, but everything Jobs did was intentional. He knew that creating a signature style would give Apple a unique relationship with its customers.

Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Steve Jobs goes on sale October 24 on Amazon and other retailers.

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36 comments »

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andy-Murdock/783770273 Andy Murdock

    Good thing he didn’t go with the parachute pants and baggy piano shirt design.

  • http://profiles.google.com/nataliesisson Natalie Sisson

    A rebel who wears a uniform each day…. hmm. I’m sure with all the stylishness and sexiness Apple products radiate Steve may have found a slightly cooler uniform but it certainly was a `style statement’. Either way he’s going to be missed as one of the sharpest minds and most creative entrepreneurs and visionaries ever.

    • Anonymous

      he wore it by choice. Not because someone demanded it. So yeah there is a bit of rebellion still going on. Especially when he is a billionaire and would be expected to be in sharp Armani suits etc and he’s running around in a black shirt (okay perhaps mildly expensive), $100 tops sneakers and jeans you can pick up at the local Walmart. 

      • Guest

        New Balance 991s are $140.

  • Anonymous

    Is this Cult of Mac or bloody ‘Hello’ magazine FFS!

    This story is also as near as dammit the same as the article on Mac Rumors. Are you copying someone else’s homework?

  • Anonymous

    yep, he nailed it.  It was an unmistakable look that spoke to so many of us; one of the guys.  He looked so out of place in the early days when he would wear a suit.

  • Jonathan Badger

    And here I was hoping there was a more interesting explanation — like he was an alien who needed to hide his gill slits from human sight.

  • me o mi

    i like steve but, turtlenecks are just stupid i hate them

  • Ihatefacebook

    Wow, news headlines must be scarce. I’m as sad as the next guy on steves passing but every story I read in everything that relates to apple runs a new and vey uninteresting and unrelated article about steve jobs. I look forward to the time when I can look at a tech site without some stupid headline. What next? What steve ate for his last supper, how many times did he shave a week? Who gives a shit?

    • Guest

      I believe it was apple juice with rice pudding.

    • Sixtynine69

      You couldn’t let us indulge even for a week without showing your rude,inconsiderate self…aww just shut the ….up dude.

  • Anonymous

    Why is St. Croix inferring he wore theirs.  Yet another opportunistic ploy to exploit the situation. 

    • Anonymous

      I believe the designer ended up working for St Croix at one point and the turtleneck became part of the collection he did for them

      • Anonymous

        Thanks for the clarification.

      • Elpaciko

        i dont think that the case… issey miyake already a big designer with his own label by the time steve jobs wore his cloth

      • Anonymous

        Many big designers do collections for companies. Why just in the last couple of years Stella McCartney did several collections for Gap Kids. I remember because I bought the band jacket (at a steep $150) for my nephew’s 7th birthday present

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TDWYP6GNFRD6V7FEIF776JH7UE STS

        That may be true, but then the collection would be called: St. Croix Issey Miyake line.  Issey Miyake is world famous so why would St. Croix not brand it as Miyake designed?  It’s like a hotel hiring Philippe Starck to design the lobby and not giving credit.  You go to any place designed by Starck and they sure as hell make it know that it was designed by Starck.

  • Prof. Peabody

    Just to be pedantic, what Steve has been wearing all these years … not technically a “turtleneck.” 

    I’ve seen pictures of him wearing a beige turtleneck in the 90′s, but the black thing he wears is just a long sleeved crew neck sweatshirt.  Not a turtleneck by any stretch of the imagination.   

    • Anonymous

      Nope not a crew neck. A crew neck to more scooped to the collar bone. 

      What Steve wore is what is known as a ‘mock’ turtleneck. It’s a very known style that is basically the rise of a turtleneck without the fold over and often not quite as tall (because then it would fall over naturally which is not wanted)

      • Prof. Peabody

        I bow to your superior knowledge of “crew necks” but there is still no way this is a “turtle neck.”  The whole point of a turtle neck is that it’s a tall neck like a band around the neck.  This doesn’t have that at all.  
        Perhaps in the USA they call these “mock turtlenecks” by convention, but it’s an abomination if true, and a bastardisation of the whole concept as well.  One might as well say that a cuff less pant has a “mock cuff.”  

      • Mattack

        Look on Wikipedia for mock turtleneck. It describes it all.

  • Cultmember

    Crew neck, mock turtle, whatever. He sure did look great in his 501s though. I’m going to miss him. 

  • http://twitter.com/kootenayredneck kootenayredneck

    “Sticking with that “uniform” helped make Jobs one of the most recognizable CEOs in the world. Most CEOs of Jobs’ caliber would be seen in expensive suits, but what Jobs wore personified his spirit. He was a rebel. He thought different.”
    Now if only the rest of corprate america and the republicans could think along those terms, they might get some place rather than sinking into a bottomless pit on debt.

    • Pioneers0334

      Cough(loser)

    • Thomas

      Ya because Republicans are the ones who are currently spending 1.5 TRILLION a year

  • Anonymous

    So everyone booed the vests but ended up stuck with identical t-shirts. And these days literally identical since they went down to one color and dropped the cute sayings. 

    I rather miss all the “I know people” “If I was a reindeer, I’d be Fixin” etc stuff. It was fun. 

  • http://twitter.com/Allancook Allan Cook

    I settled on a similar “uniform” years ago for the same reasons: Looks good, uncomplicated, convenient. I have a closet full of black short-sleeve polos (for summer) and black long-sleeve polos (for the cool months). Add chinos and decent  casual shoes and I’m ready for work most days.

  • http://www.fastfreeipad.com cheesy

    i guess he was above and beyond whta the materialistic lifestyle could give him he saw something else really

  • WozInventedJobsScammed

    Who f*()ing cares?… it’s all getting a little bit much. I heard he invented oxygen the other day.

    • Toto

      Que mama bicho eres!!!

      • chessy2

        hablaa vergaa

  • lucas

    I heard it was to hide the hickeys from all the fan-boys…

  • Anonymous

    Clothes do make a statement, and they can affect one’s outlook and behaviour.  And sometimes a good idea can transform into a bit of a conceit.

  • http://www.facebook.com/daniel.harris Daniel Harris

    Haha that’s a neat story.

  • Gerret Visconti

    Well… actually this is total nonsense, he was known to be eminently practical in the wardrobe department. The Man had things to do, to create and that was it, it was simply not a priority for him.
    I heard him speak once, it was a small group long time ago, it was not even really an event.
    It was more spontaneous than anything, someone asked about image, body image, wardrobe and simply said he felt it required more time than he was willing to devote to it.
    He said something to the effect that he could get everything he needed to get done in the clothes he had on and why waste time on something that didn’t have a lot of return for him.
    He also stated that he did have some very nice clothes all folded away but just did not use them.
    He did go through a very very brief phase of concern over attire but it lasted only a few months.
    All this talk about Steve Jobs is more about people trying to understand and reduce him and his life to a symbol.
    For the most part it is from people wanting to mimic his success.
    So many of his competitors want his secret and are trying to build the same tired nonsense as CEOs wearing suits, getting MBAs, hanging out with the right people, that sort of… Oh Yawn.
    Its all very simple, he wanted something that didn’t exist so he was unconsciously driven to create it that’s all.
    Even when he died he still had not even come close to the vision that existed in his head and this he communicated quite well to the organization he created.
    So many people thought he was creating products, he had a vision of what was needed to live the way he wanted to and he attempted to create that.
    Most people who hung with Steve Jobs were similar but not replicas to him.
    So Apple / Mac is not a Cult it is simply people who have a different set of needs and a different type of brain than the people who buy Dell, HP and other computers.
    Its all very simple, that’s all, it has nothing to do with Brand loyalty, people who buy Apple products generally do so because it allows them to use their skills to do what they want to do, need to do and make money from it.
    That is why I have bought Apple products since the Mac Classic, it works, it does what I need, it earns me money using my skill set in Graphic Design and it does so much more if I take the time
    to explore the available and growing software.
    He said it all in many of his addresses, events, or speaker events, he simply did what he loved to do and put all of him into it, a practical approach to life. In the years that he was alive he did more than most people will do in a 1,000 years.

    • Appleman

      Well… actually Gerret’s post is total nonsense,

About the author

Alex HeathAlex Heath is a news contributor at Cult of Mac. He also covers jailbreak news and reviews. He previously served as an editor for iDownloadBlog. You can find out more about him on his personal site and also follow him on Twitter.

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