Advantages of being FAT
By Keith Scott on Apr 20, 2008 in Fat loss, Fitness, Weight loss, fat, health and fitness, obesity, portly
Last week I found out that I would have to attend a funeral in Tucson. I lived in Tucson for 13 very good years before I moved back to the great state of New Jersey, so going back to Tucson this time, would be a bittersweet trip for me.
After I got my tickets online, I realized that I did not have a suit or sports jacket that fit me anymore. It had been years since I wore a sports jacket anywhere and the one I had was excessively tight around my upper back and shoulders. I immediately ran out to a store that specialized in suits and sports jacket thinking that I would be able to get a nice suit or jacket in no time.
When I got to the store, I was amazed at the size of the place and the amount of formal wear that they had there. It was a warehouse of suits, and sports jackets and they seemed to have every design, and size imaginable.
As I walked the isles, I started to try on different jackets and was very quickly growing frustrated. While I found a number of jackets that fit me well around the back and shoulders, each one of them was huge in the waist area. I realized that I needed to find the section for “athletic fit” if I was going to find a jacket that worked for me. I inspected the store and found a very small section that said “athletic fit” but was shocked that there were only 5 jackets in that section. None of them was my size, so I kept looking for the ‘other’ athletic fit sections. To my surprise, there were no more. This giant warehouse of suits and jackets only had a tiny section devoted to men who were “athletic fit.” If you are a man with an athletic fit, it means you have broad shoulders, bigger upper back and a smaller waist. Naturally, I assumed that a place like this would take into consideration that there are a huge number of men out there with this “problem.” What I found next shocked me even more.
As I checked the store one last time for some jackets that might fit me, I found a gigantic section of jackets that spanned five isles across the entire section of sports jackets. This section was just as big as the regular fit section, and constituted a good portion of the sports jackets sold in this warehouse. I already walked the giant section of “regular,” I skipped over the section of “long,” and I went through the tiny section of “athletic” fit, so my hopes were up that maybe this was a section where I would find my jacket. To my amazement, this giant section was labeled “PORTLY”. I could not believe my eyes that this store, which was devoted to selling suits and sports jackets, had a huge section totally devoted to portly men, but didn’t even have a half a row of jackets devoted to guys who workout.
They had portly short, portly long, portly regular. I was stunned that the portly men had an entire section just for them, but men that were fit, did not. While I was thinking about the reasons for this, the businessman inside of me kicked in and I realized that stores don’t make the market, the needs of the people are what make the market. This means that the stores are just selling what people want and need. It became obvious that this portly section developed out of the gradual evolution of ‘fat men’ who needed sports coats and lack of ‘athletic fit’ men that did.
I have since been directed to some other stores that sold jackets that had big sections of sports jackets and will check those out soon. I found out that night that I didn’t need a jacket for the funeral. It was in Tucson, it was in the high 80s and a jacket wasn’t necessary.
While I am still a bit surprised that portly has become a norm in our society, I guess when you look around it is not such a big surprise. Go to a restaurant or a department store and just observe the people that you see…. look around at the airport the next time you are there and see how many more “portly” sections are needed. Its no wonder businesses are catering to the “larger” crowd…its good business for them. As obesity rates go up, so do our insurance premiums and that is not such good business for the rest of us.
Barry T | Apr 20, 2008 | Reply
As a previous ‘portly’ man, I can corroborate your story. There seems to be more and more ‘big and tall’ stores here in the Chicagoland area, and while I’m not completely ready for the ‘athletic fit’ area, I have noticed that I’ll have a problem once I’m there. It used to be that large men were relegated to custom-made clothing because no one offered anything off-the-rack for them; what a sad commentary that now the opposite is true.
By the way, if you ever post another picture like the one above, I’ll unsubscribe…yuk… ;-)
Jamie Morton | Apr 23, 2008 | Reply
I used to work as a pianist in a shopping mall, and was treated daily to a parade of fat and obese; that’s when I first realized the extent of the problem we have in America.
That being said, I would say not to freak out about the suit thing. “Athletic fit” shares the same problem as women’s clothing; we all have different bust and hip sizes, and “athletic” might be any combination of narrow waist and broad, muscular shoulders. Because of that, it’s difficult to fit clothes to standardized sizes. For men’s clothing, it’s very common to have a suit tailored to fit you exactly, and it’s much easier to take something in that to let it out beyond the seam allowance. So I would estimate that this is the reason that all those suits run to larger stomach; easier to take a suit in than to let it out.
As I’ve become more and more athletic, one of my problems is that I need new clothes (the old ones don’t fit!) but can’t afford them.
Chris - The Rotater | May 20, 2008 | Reply
Hi Keith,
We have definitely become a nation of “portly” porkers. The sad part is that no one seems to notice.
I have been fit for most of my life. However, in the past year and a half I’ve become so busy with my business that I’ve neglected my training. Though my weight has stayed the same, my proportions have not. (I’ve begun the journey back to good fitness.)
The unbelievable part is that so few people think that the shape I’m in now is all that bad. We have become a nation of ostriches with our heads in the sand.
Great post - It should be a wake-up call to all of us when there are more jackets in the “portly” section than in the athletic section of the store.