There are but a select few shirts in my wardrobe that sport them, but the ones that do are quickly becoming favorites. For I am here today, in the year 2004, to salute the single most groundbreaking development in garment history — the breast pocket.
My first shirt with a BP (people “in the know” will call it this) came at a young age, I’m sure. Perhaps the necessity of dressing up for a wedding called for a special shirt with a tiny, extra piece of the fabric sewn on three sides (sewing present on four sides is referred to as a “patch”).
Over the years the BP was always there, overlooked, its potential never fully realized. It was just forgotten decoration. Heck, most of the time there was a BP on the sport jacket itself. In which I’d also place nothing. It would never dawn on me to use this narrow, shallow receptacle for anything. Until recently.
The convenience of the BP is staggering. Take this scenario for instance: I needed to carry a beer, a bowl of popcorn and the TV remote to the couch. A quick examination of the items proved that the TV remote was the best candidate. I slid it in the BP, and made the journey in one trip. Brilliant. And just last week, after filling my car’s gas tank, I took the receipt from the pump and got back in car. Rather than the awkward motion of grabbing my wallet from my back pocket (a pain in the arse), I instead just slipped it into the BP and off I went. Now imagine plane tickets, toll-booth receipts, credit cards, business cards, Pop Tarts (?), hotel card keys and more.
After having realized the brillance of having a shirt with a BP, I now realize that I need more of them. During the warmer months, short-sleeved, collared shirts will work–albeit, they project a sometimes unwanted “dressy” appearance. I now need to invest in some “pocket tees”. A simple t-shirt, with a BP added.
For reasons I won’t go into, the BP has less of a popularity on women’s clothing.
So perhaps you too, may have overlooked the value of the breast pocket. If so, the next time you need to carry something small, flat, light and approximately 2 1/2 inches wide by no more than say, 6 inches tall–look no further than your own shirt. I have started to, and it’s paying off. Bigtime.
Next week’s fashion commentary: Does Anyone Really Use That Tiny Pocket Watch Pocket on a Pair of Five-Pocket Jeans?
Ode to the Breast Pocket
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99 Comments
I do. USB flash drive. :)
Oh, and I’ve known women that make use of the BP, on a slightly different form. Carrying emergency money or other flat items in it. Except theirs is called a bra.
I wear shirts with BPs quite often, though I am not at all attracted to the t-shirts with BPs, just “dress” shirts.
When I was carrying a smaller phone I would always put it in the small pocket of my jeans, but now that I’m carrying a Treo 600, I need to use the BP.
Don’t ask me why I don’t have a belt-clip.
I personally use the small pocket in jeans for coins. It’s a simple way to differentiate between keys and coins when jamming your hand into a pocket of small metal objects.
Ohh, love my BPs. Thankfully I am a small breasted woman so I can use them ;-). Bank receipts, usb drive, sunglasses, bank card, anytime a need arises for a quick place to stuff something.
The most valued use of the BP is what I call the “quick slide”. After receiving a woman’s phone number on a sheet of paper, make the quick slide of it into the BP. She’ll be impressed.
The BP is indeed an undervalued piece of one’s clothing. It is a perfect place for a 4G iPod (I do need more clothes with BPs!) and keeping some change there is about as smart. But I still can’t wear pants without pockets. iPod, phone and wallet (in order of importance) just don’t fit nicely together in just one breastpocket.
We’ll get you a pocket protector for your birthday, Dan.
Dan: Let me be first to tell you that you’re nuts for actually posting about a shirt pocket. ;)
Anyway. I love the BP! At work, I always use it for my 5×3″ notebook. Then it gets used for things like receipts and such.
I love my fifth jean pocket also. I began using it for two reasons. (1) Stop losing coins. (2) Stop annoying jingling noise from coins while walking.
But beware of putting leaky pens there. If you really feel the need to do this think about getting a pocket protector.
I really perfer the cargo pocket. About as convienent, with a much hipper image. In the first example with the popcorn, beer, and tv, assuming the beer is in an unopened can or a bottle (doesn’t matter if a longneck is opened, unless you’re running), you can walk comfortably with just one thing in your hand. I’m a little wary of the BP because it’s insecure. I have enough problems with my change falling out of my regular pockets when I’m in a car. I would never feel secure enough to put my iPod in a pocket that it’s almost guaranteed to fall out if I have to bend over to grab something.
My biggest complaint in using the BP is the fact that items contained therein are not always as secure as I’d like them to be. Bending over to pick something up often results in your BP emptying its contents — sometimes without one’s noticing. It’s not as much of a problem with lightweight items — receipts, phone numbers, etcetera — but it seems to befall the heavier items — pens, loose change, TV remotes — quite often.
My favorite BPs come equipped with a button or some securing mechanism, preventing items from becoming un-stowed.
This is one of the funniest posts I have ever read, I was belly laughing.
I too enjoy the BP, but alas only one of my t-shirts currently enjoy this feature.
Christmas ain’t far away, maybe I will get some more BP shirts then. One can only hope that Santa will be so kind too me.
A quick grab into my BP and I discover the Dilbert comic I meant to post on my door to mock management. Thanks for the reminder.
More pockets here
Now look what you’ve gone and done. This will haunt me the next time I head out to buy myself some new garments!
Shirts with a BP, and Polo Shirts (which have a BP by default) are the realm of geeks and nerds.
I’ve some some very sexy geeks in BP shirts. Yes indeed.
But I’ve never seen anyone “cool” in one. This could be an Australian thing, but I doubt it.
This summer, I put a PopTart in my BP every morning when I left the house. That is the only way to get breakfast from the house and in to work. Any other pocket and it would get crushed. Not in a pocket and it would get left on the passenger seat.
Sure the guys make fun of me, but at least I don’t miss the most important meal of the day.
Note: For the longest time, I was using the Not Labeled For Resale packs (shiny silver package) from the grocery store and was naively ignorant of their nutritional value. Recently we bought a box from Costco in which the individual units were labeled with nutritional info. I am trying out some alternatives right now (Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast bars and Clif Bars) which also fit perfectly in a BP!
That tiny pocket in your jeans is ideal for keys. If I’m having a night out, I’ll remove my house key from the main group (the house key is attached via a simple clip so this is easily accomplished) and stick it in that pocket.
After a few drinks, while dipping my hand into my pockets and digging around for money I know that I won’t accidently pull out my house key and lose it. Losing your key is an absolute pain, something I have done in the past and truely want to avoid for as long as possible.
I love the BP and I have for many many years. It’s great for a notepad, business card and esp. a pen.
It is only recently that I have discovered the usefulness of the breast pocket. Being something of an overweight guy, I’d always found that the pocket was in the wrong place – until I moved to the US, where they make clothes properly. Now it gets regular use.
I always thought the tiny jeans pocket was for condoms?
I actually put my watch in that little pocket every now and then. It’s also quite handy for loose change (for the pants I have that are loose enough) and keys.
And I wish I could share your enthusiasm for BPs. I don’t have many shirts that sport one. And being still in school, it’s a challenge to have BP and still look cool. :-P
Ooooops, how could I forget: The BP is also great for eyewear, reading glasses, sunglasses. Yes, but the downside is gravity. When you bend over to pet the dog or pick up something or tie your shoes, sometimes, the stuff falls out.
Oh Dave, I think you’ve found your calling! But as an “outsider” I need some clarification.
Dave, do you know if there are clothing items that contain more than one BP? Say maybe two, that would double storage capacity? Would this be a DBP?
What about shirts with one really large cyclopitcal BP to contain larger items, is this feasible?
What kind of security can a BP provide? Should the value of the items stay under a certain amount?
I would like to see a shirt with a BP that could hold a standard beverage (say a can maybe), and maybe some sort of temperature retardant material.
Are there any inherent safety warnings accompany the use of the BP?
Somewhere, my father—a 59-year-old industrial engineer whose workday has a healthy sprinkling of BP-outfitted polos—is smiling.
WARNING: the use of the BP extensivelly will cry “I’m a geek” in a social scenario.
I wear T-Shirts myself.
I guess if i had one i would put my mini iPod in it as the headphones only just reach from my jean pocket.
* nice to see you put arse and not ass… very British
I love BPs. I have a couple on order with logos on the BPs for when I go to meetings with clients, stuff like that. They look smart.
I don’t have any use for the pockects as of yet, this is partly due to the reason that they simply have not arrived yet.
Oh, but the importance of a button on your BP in terms of security device mustn’t be underestimated. I only keep my iPod in the BP if it has a button or something very much alike. It’s a better place for it, because keeping it in your pants (damn the pun) causes scratches and other evil.
‘I would like to see a shirt with a BP that could hold a standard beverage (say a can maybe), and maybe some sort of temperature retardant material.’
Interesting. But it would be of the highest importance that one still gets to wear a comfortably light and easy to wear shirt.
Oh, and Chris: the 4G fits in it too :p
i love the bp. i was just thinking aboot it the other day. i just got an ipod and it’s perfect for work. easy to get at to skip to a new track, etc. and quick return.
for those with the fall-out problems, you can get bps with buttons in the middle, which is perfect for me. keeps the ipod in, etc. plus, there’s room enough to squeeze goodies in too.
dan, i hope you’ll be wearing a bp to to-evolt this year! i’ll be wearing one for sure.
wait, this isn’t an early ploy before you release new simplebits tees w bp, is it? :)
-mathew
Beavis’ voice: “He said breast! Ha ha ha”…
But seriously, I’m too fat to find that pocket of any use. Anything I store there will just look like a bulge on my chest… very unsexy!
Congratulations! You are now officially: An Old Man. :)
But the BP is pretty handy. Hence, the saying down here in the South that something is “handier than a pocket on a shirt.”
Yeah, I frequently use my BPs for storing my sunglasses and loose paper items. At the moment, I’m empty. Maybe I’ll put my mouse in there. Nice.
However, for storing coin or paper money, I only do that when I’m wearing a BP with a flap (button or Velcro?). Then again, I usually direct all currency to its proper place—my wallet.
Hehehe… nice piece, Dan!
I’d love to see you write more stuff like this. Your “serious”, professional articles are great, of course, but it’s nice to see that you’re human as well. :)
I am amazed by your ability to get so many people to use the word “BP”.
BPs are great. I’ve been using mine for years. Mostly with button-up and Hawaiian (back when those were popular here in CA) shirts.
The primary use for me is for a place to hold my sunglasses. When I’m photographing, the BP is a great spot for lens filters, the lens cap, extra CF cards or sometimes even my small light meter.
My uncle is an architectural engineer and always uses his to hold at least four different types of pens. Even when on vacation.
I enjoyed carrying my mobile in BPs till I leaned over and dropped it into our pond. It survived (Nokia) and I’m only putting a notepad and my paper money in it since (the phone is in the left pocket of my jeans).
I find that cargo pants are excellent for similar situations. You wouldn’t believe how many cans you can fit into one sturdy pair of cargo pants.
BP? How 19th Century! ;)
Does anybody remember the Tech Shirts from the wonderful and revolutionary Zoza.com (it was a new company that some folks from Banana Republic or Benneton created and most of the clothes were really unique and functional in their design and aesthetic)? They had slits in the SIDES of the shirt, under the arms (but far enough away from the armpit… hehe), that were PDA and Cell-phone sized. And you could zip them. I have two of these shirts. NO I will not sell them. NOBODY I know is making shirts like these anymore. Someone really should.
I forgot to say that my dad did about the same as I, only it was no pond his phone fell in but a fire. The phone did not survive (also Nokia).
Amen, Dan. BP’s are a godsend to carry my cell phone and not getting it lost somewhere – I hate clipping it on my belt (though I don’t mind doing so with my iPod). My pants pockets are never big enough to store my phone in, and when I try to do so it looks like I’m growing a cancerous bulge on my thighs. So long live the BP!
[Office Space Boss' voiceover]
Yeahhhhh…..so…..Dan.
Since you have so much time to write about BP’s, were gonna need another 1000 TPS reports done up, in triplicate.
Yeahhhh…thanks Dan.
[/voiceover]
Breast Pocket + Button = Hell Yeah!!!
tiny pocket on jeans: cell phone
They had slits in the SIDES of the shirt, under the arms (but far enough away from the armpit… hehe), that were PDA and Cell-phone sized. And you could zip them. I have two of these shirts. NO I will not sell them. NOBODY I know is making shirts like these anymore. Someone really should.
I know what you are talking about, eventhough I have not seen the actual shirt. Traditional Indian male outfits consist of long “tunic” like shirts with what they call in America as “side seam pickets”. They are quite roomy to hold not only your pda and wallet. They don’t have zips though.
Btw, thanks Dan for post on a lighter topic!
As it is, I have a difficult time remembering to remove small paper items (credit card receipts, business cards, etc) from my pants pockets. I surely wouldn’t remember to remove them from my BP.
If the BP could somehow signal me when I remove my shirt that it still contains a foreign object, then I might consider using it.
Almost all my shirts have a BP, and I use it every day. It usually has my phone and a pen or my phone and my sun glasses (or any combo of the above).
I’d be lost without that BP. It’s like a woman’s purse to me.
Woody Allen will tell you that a BP is life-saving. His mother gave him a bullet to carry in his BP wherever he went. One day, as he was walking the streets of New York, somebody hurled a Bible out of a high-rise building, hitting him right in the chest. “If not for the bullet,” Allen concludes, “that Bible would have gone straight through my heart.”
Check out his 1968 stand-up comedy acts and you’ll hear the story to it.
I have appreciated the value of the BP for quite some time now. Being a smoker it’s a very handy place to store a cigarette box and lighter. In fact, I’ve even gone as far as not purchasing a shirt because it didn’t have a BP on it!
I never use it for my cellphone anymore because of an unfortunate accident that involved a BP. Let’s just say that when running to use the toilet and stopping suddenly, things in your BP have a tendency to jump out :o)
Call, me old fashioned, but i prefer the term, breast pocket. It just has a better sense of purpuse and being. Calling it BP just makes you sound like you have a petroleum fixation. Anyhow, still one of lifes more important/interesting pockets.
But can i draw you attention to the little know, ankle pocket. Approximately the same size as a breast pocket, but it has a completely different set of tasks to conform to. if you don’t believe me, and i can’t believe it myself, someone has accually set up http://www.anklepocket.com.
enjoy!!
The tiny jean pocket, I was unreliably informed as a youth, is for keeping an emergency condom in.
I never had a chance to deploy this technique in the field, so to speak, but it did lend a certain amount of kudos while drinking cheap cider and hanging around street corners trying to look ironic.
I’m just using my tiny jeans pocket for my swiss army knife. It’s not one of those red plastic knifes but one with aluminium handles (my knife).
One of my most favorite shirts is older than I am and my dad was wearing it in the 70′s& early 80′s
its an old blue and yellow stripped shirt by penguin (those in Australia will know the brand not sure if the US had it)
its BP has come in handy many many times.
the condition this shirt is in is amazing its like I bought it a week ago yet its older than I am.
Regarding that tiny pocket on the front of trousers, I believe the word you are all looking for is “fob.” Being a guitarist, picks are often to be found in the fobs of all my trousers. Very handy. Too small for the occasional Pop-Tart.
Way Funny Dan!
I don’t own a shirt (Tee, casual or dress) without one! Well, okay, I have a couple without. I can’t get by without a pocket there it seems.
I’ve never liked wearing extraineous things like jewelry or watches, so for the longest while I would carry a pocket watch and I used the little pocket on my jeans for that. Then it became more of a fashion detail and became too shallow or small for an actual watch (or my waist was getting too big). So now I wear a wrist watch.
How about the comeback of “Fruit Loops” those weird little loops of fabric just below the back of the collar on some shirts?
When I was a kid, getting a shirt like that to wear to school was an open invitation for the class bully to sneak up behind you and tear it violently from the garment! What the hell are those for? What useful purpose do they serve???
I never did figure it out, but my mom always got pissed when I’d come home from school with a ripped and ruined shirt. “But mom! It had a Fruit Loop!” I’d whine. She never understood, and I’d always receive one each birthday or christmas as a kid.
I won’t buy MY kid a shirt like that if they still make ‘em!
I for one do use that little pocket-watch pocket, although mine may be a bit bigger than normal, because it fits my phone almost perfectly.
I think it also would be the perfect size for an iPod. I would of course be willing to accept the donation of an iPod to test this theory…
I can’t handle the BP. Occasionally I’ll use it to hold my cigarettes, but then I feel like I have this massive weight hanging off the front of my body. I could never handle being a woman. I’d fall flat on my face.
As light and svelte as the iPod is I could never put it in the BP, it’s just heavy enough that I feel the shirt start to sag and stretch. Not to mention the knowledge I’m just clumsy enough to bend over to pick something up and watch the ‘Pod falling in terrible slow motion to the hard concrete below.
That’s not to say I don’t love the BP, I do. Besides being right there the pocket entrance is considerably looser than the entrance to the hip pockets on a pair of jeans, making it much easier to slip things into quickly. Plus putting your sunglasses in the BP (or slipping one of the earpieces into a button-down shirt [top button undone, natch]) is much cooler than wearing them on top of your head.
why didnt you bleach this site yet
Isn’t the tiny pocket for coins?
I keep my cell phone in my breast pocket whenever I am wearing a shirt that has one so that the radiation goes into my heart and lungs, and not the important stuff near my pants pockets.
I once lost my wallet from the PB while playing minigolf…
I think you’re right, the BP has long been over looked for it’s many uses. I had to laugh at you putting the remote in you pocket as it’s usually perfect to hold the beer (in a can anyway). I use this trick on cold nights around the camp fire when my hands get too cold to hold my. Slip it in the BP and toss in a straw… you’re set to warm your hands by the fire and still have your beer.
Pop Tarts (?)
Ooh! Burnt Nipple!
Nice article, Dan! I had a lot o’laugh this afternoon after reading it! Besides being a good designer, you certainly possess some very original sense of humour, which, in this combination, attracts so many real people to read your everyday blog:-)
Nice graphics of the t-shirt with the BP in front, btw, too:))) Photoshop, I presume?
As to the BPs Question… Unfortunately, I possess such useful things only on a couple of shirts with long sleeves, which I wear mostly in spring/autumn, sometimes in winter under the pullovers, so I cannot appreciate them in full:) But when wearing a shirt with BP, I use sometimes this pocket – very nice for a pack of handkerchiefs, btw – I usually have one near me, and because it’s somethings very light to carry, to BP is ideal to this purpose.
Last BTW: Your little (maybe) experiment proves – here you see a bunch of serious people to discuss at length the usefulness of a Breast Pocket (a discussion started by a not less serious man), its pluses and minuses, raising arguments and adding a lot of informaion on this subject…
…this reminds me somehow Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musqueteers, an episode when Aramis was discussing some Chuch Matters with two priests, just when d’Artagnan came in, maybe you remeber it?…
and… finally…
…well, isn’t this…
…kind of fun? :-)))
Bravo, Dan! You always have something to amaze you readers! 9 stars out of 10! ;-)
I find the breast pocket (BP) to be an excellent alternate location for a cell phone when sitting or driving, where it’s accessible yet not ostentatious (unlike, say, setting it on the table or desk). When in motion, a more secure location, such as one’s pant pocket, is in order.
I use my watch-pocket to put my cell-phone in, it fits perfectly!
I use the small fifth pocket for storing my guitar picks…
I find the small jeans pocket to be ideal for Tokyo Subway Tickets.
That said, I used to use it for keys but lost a set one day and have since reverted to shoving keys deep down into the normal pocketed area.
I too love a BP. But the one thing i will never but into it is a pen. There is just such a stigma about having a pen there, you can’t have pen in there for 5 minutes before the pocket protector jokes start flying.
Volkswagen car keys seem to be specially designed to fit perfectly in that 5th pocket on a pair of jeans.
I used to frequently place things such as receipts in the BP, but unfortunately I was burned way too many times.
Nine times out of ten, the item in the BP would go through the W/D, leaving me SOL.
I will say this: not only do I love the web in general, but I especially love the readers of SimpleBits. 70 comments about shirt pockets — 70 intelligent comments about shirt pockets is amazing. Cheers.
I like having a BP but the only thing I put in there are small slips of paper when I have a brainwave, jot it down and then need to stick in somewhere.
But I’ve found that without a BP I feel kind of ‘exposed’.
Last year, I bought an expensive linen shirt (with a gift voucher!) and thought I would wear it to work to look cool. But when I got to work, I panicked when I realised my left nipple was exposed. Funnily enough, my right nipple has never caused me such consternation!
Looks like I’ll have to start a daily therapy program eg. work my way up from 1 hr a day with no BP.
Fantastic: first laugh of the day. Thankyou.
madness, discussing the merits of an extra pocket;)
my persaonl fave clothing garment, is combat style trousers, loads of extra pockets for carrying stuff
I’m sure the sale of BP tees (aka: the BPT) at JCrew and Hanes will double thanks to your post! I’m actually planning to get a few now.
I have used my BP to hold a tall Mocha from Starbucks, unsuccessfully I might add. It worked OK, but you can’t do any complicated movements, like open a car door…
Ever wonder why 3.5 inch disks are 3.5 inches wide? Pop one in the bp, you’ll see…
<QUOTE> 70. On August 31, 2004 10:34 PM, Dan Cederholm said:
I will say this: not only do I love the web in general, but I especially love the readers of SimpleBits. 70 comments about shirt pockets — 70 intelligent comments about shirt pockets is amazing. Cheers.</QUOTE>
We love you too, Dan! That’s why we visit your website:)))
PS 75… 76? ;-)
I have just started reading your posts you are a complete nut but I like it!
I would use the BP, but the problem is
that I keep forgetting what I put there.
You know, digging your BP in the
public, voicing “What’s in my pocket?”
in astonisment does not give very good impression of ones mental abilities.
What’s worse, at that moment you realise
that you are surrounded by uber LOTR fans.
And then there is no end to the remarks:
“What’s in his filthy little pocketsess?”
“Thief! Thief! He took our precious!”
Ok but seriously… I’ve foreseen where
Dan is getting with this. Namely, a BP edition of the Simple Bits book.
Which is brilliant!
I consider myself to be somewhat of a pocket aficionado having made use of pockets for almost my entire life. The first BP I used was at a young age (Approx. 2 years of age), we’ll call it BPv1.0 and it was handily located in the front of a pair of corduroy dungarees that my parents insisted on dressing me in. It came in handy for all manner of things; you could pop a half eaten banana in there or one of your matchbox cars and carry it around for hours at a time.
BPv2.0 was on the front of my school shirt. It was used to hold handkerchiefs and other bits and bobs like elastic bands used for firing at the back of the student in front of me. It was shortly after that I began to receive pocket money, so named because it too handily enough was compatible with BPv2.0. BPv2.0 was the backbone of BP operating, and lasted for many years before any upgrade was required.
BPv3.0 was a big step up in terms of performance and usability and came around the time I got my first blazer. BPv3.0 came at a time in my life when I started Secondary (High) school. All round it was a smarter application of usability in that it basically had all the functionality of BPv2.0 and v1.0 but it just looked a lot better. BPv3.0 could be used with any of the following plug ins;
WPv1.0 (Watch Pocket)
APv1.0 and 1.1 (Arse Pocket)
IPv1.0 (Inside Pocket)
BPv4.0 has seen the transition to using shirts for storing cigarettes, lighters, pens, business cards, credit cards, receipts, gum and many other handy bits that can be just popped in there. WPv1.0 is still in use today and has not required any upgrade. It’s used mainly for storing cloak room tickets when out clubbing, plectrums that can handily be run through the washing machine, bus tickets and in some cases coin, but you need to be wary if using this for this reason as any sudden plonking down on seating may cause your WPv1.0 to crash your “System”
Great post…but I have to say, BPs on t-shirts are very wrong and should only be allowed on shirts (by law).
The BP can also save your life: “Scanlon fled when the crossbow bolt got lodged in Brown’s phone, which he was carrying in his shirt’s breast pocket.”
I don’t have enough faith in the BP. I’m a fairly active person and find that no matter what I put in there always seems to flop out somewhere unnoticed.
In the cases where I’ve used my BP’s they seem to get stretched out and then have a shabby appearance. Cargo pants have many clear advantages over pockets on the market. When faced with the TV control, Beer, Popcorn quandry both the controls and the beer could have been easily slipped into only one pocket, leaving the other one for pretzels, and one hand free for scratching.
I’ve recently discovered an new veriaty of BP, the backpack!! it goes everywhere with me. It easly holds my cell phone, camera, poncho, pens and paper, keys, bible, micro tool, and anything else I might need for any occasion.
I don’t have enough faith in the BP. I’m a fairly active person and find that no matter what I put in there always seems to flop out somewhere unnoticed.
In the cases where I’ve used my BP’s they seem to get stretched out and then have a shabby appearance. Cargo pants have many clear advantages over pockets on the market. When faced with the TV control, Beer, Popcorn quandry both the controls and the beer could have been easily slipped into only one pocket, leaving the other one for pretzels, and one hand free for scratching.
I’ve recently discovered an new veriaty of BP, the backpack!! it goes everywhere with me. It easly holds my cell phone, camera, poncho, pens and paper, keys, bible, micro tool, and anything else I might need for any occasion.
The tiny jeans pocket is for cigarette lighter (always useful, even if you don’t smoke) and for guitar plectrums. A decade ago, while sitting and attempting to wow the ladeez at parties with my sensitive, acoustic ballads, I would regularly drop plectrums due to over-consumption of beer. It’s easy to find the spare in that little pocket quickly.
You have inspired me; I will now have to do an ode to the cargo pockets on my pants. I can no longer wear pants without them, because that means my wallet will have to go in my back pocket, and we all know how bad that is for your back.
The breast pocket is dead to me. I put my cell phone in it the other day. I bent over to pick something up and my phone fell out. And broke. For this reason, I prefer the “zipper” pocket.
dude, being a bostoner, you should know that the fifth pocket is perfect for subway tokens. Never let them get mixed in with the change in the bigger pocket.
The small jeans pocket is best for small objects you can’t afford to lose – USB Flash drive, spare digital camera battery, keys to girlfriend’s house, etc. The breast pocket comes into its own when having business meetings with Japanese people. You will inevitably be handed more business cards than you know what to do with. Correct etiquette dictates that you should receive the card with both hands, then continue to hold it reverentially in front of you as if it were the most important thing you’d ever been given. Eventually, however, you will need to use your hands for something else. Do not make the mistake of putting the card into the back pocket of your pants. This is highly offensive as it brings the card into close proximity with your buttocks, and – by implication – indicates the most extreme disrespect for the person who gave it to you. Instead, you can slip the card gracefully into your breast pocket, symbolically suggesting that the card is so precious to you that you intend to keep it always in front of you, close to your heart and in the uppermost pocket in your clothing, thus asserting its importance over everything else you may be carrying – wallet, keys, USB Flash drive, digital camera battery, plectrums, Boston subway tokens etc. etc. – in your other pockets.
Putting a card into your wallet is also acceptable, so long as you carry your wallet somewhere respectable, such as the inner pocket of your suit jacket, and not stuffed into the back pocket of your pants (see above).
I use that little pocket in my jeans for guitar picks and my nail clippers… gotta have nail clippers, they’re handy little buggers.
I too have found that the t-shirts I have with the much overlooked breast pocket are quickly becoming my favorites and are always the first in and out of the wash.
you have a tee shirt, yea whatever, throw on a bp, waalaa you have a fancy shirt
Yes, but what ever happend to women’s double breast pocket?
Two breasts, two pockets.
It adds a balance, a form, a something! I think the double breast pocket form of the women’s 1 size too small pink golf shirt is about as good as it gets.
I recently took a local plane flight and remembered this article as I was using the BP more and more between the security gates and the plane.
This rant rubbed off and I felt myself repeating the same thing to someone else as I praised the all-mighty BP!
great t-shirts :)
You have inspired me, all this web.
Great work!
I once knew a very wise man who would occasionally describe something he found useful as being “Handier than a pocket on a shirt.”
The BP is BRILLIANT
You can no get pocket protectors online:
http://www.pocketprotectors.com/
The history for those who are interested :)
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/pocketprotector.html
I too love the BP as I am a smoker and I carry my cigarettes and lighter in my BP,howsomever,I also like sleeveless tee shirts and it’s almost impossible to find them with a BP.
I have at least a dozen without a BP and find it very annoying to have to carry my lucifer and fags in my pants pocket.
I’ve searched the web for iron on pockets to no avail.If you know of anywhere I can purchase them I will be forever indebted to you if you will e-mail me with the information.
Premature thanx
Big Mo.
Like Mo, I’m a smoker (off and on) and I prefer to carry my cigarettes in my breast pocket. I used to put sunglasses there, until I had a good pair fall out of the BP and land in a public toilet. Ick!
As for the small jeans pocket, I find it’s the perfect place for my camera’s lens cap when I’m taking pictures.