Some sources credit Princetonians with introducing the sports jacket. They pared down the construction of the English hunting, or Norfolk, jacket and wore it with non-matching trousers. Brooks Brothers would eventually call it the "odd jacket."
Others credit Jacobi Press with devising the "odd jacket." The clothier purchased an inflated inventory of English tweeds prior to World War I, but the demand for tweed declined with the advent of war because gabardine was the fabric required for military officers’ uniforms. After the war, Press needed to reduce his surplus inventory of tweeds—as well as flannels—and thus came up with the idea of pairing “odd” tweed jackets with "odd" gray flannel trousers.
J. Press became the campus-based firm to most successfully embody the elegant and classic "Ivy League Look." While it was not the first Jewish-owned firm to make and sell Ivy style clothes, J. Press has had the greatest longevity of all the Ivy technical and stylistic leaders.
Founded in 1902 by Jacobi Press, an immigrant from Lithuania, J. Press has become known as the best quality maker of the natural shoulder suit, a reputation that has remained unchanged for decades. It also has been the progenitor of other leading Jewish/Ivy custom clothiers and manufacturers. This elite group of clothiers includes Fenn-Feinstein, and Chipp, as well as the mid-priced manufacturing firm Gant, founded by former J. Press stock boys, the brothers Marty and Elliot Gant.