Pete is Back – The Original Penguin!
On a sales trip to NYC in 1955 Abbot Pederson decided to pop into a local bar prior to catching his return flight to Minneapolis. Stumbling out some time later in an attempt to find a taxi he took a wrong turning and found himself outside a taxidermists shop, staring at a row of stuffed penguins. Before you could say ‘flightless bird’, Pederson had bought one of the penguins, named him Pete and was sipping cocktails with him on the flight home.
At some point on the flight Pederson accidently knocked the head off the bird, and worse for wear was assisted by a stewardess who removed his tie and placed it round Pete’s neck. She joked that such a dapper fellow deserved to be immortalised, perhaps on a shirt similar to the one Pederson was wearing.
On his return to Minneapolis Pederson wasted no time in realising his dream. A keen golfer, he created a shirt that was casual, yet smart and equally at home on the 18th hole as well as the 19th. So the Munsingwear golf shirt was born.
Pete, thereafter was associated with the American elite – Clint Eastwood, Richard Nixon, Frank Sinatra to name but a few. An Original Penguin had become an American Classic.
The shirts were catapulted back into fashion around 2000, when there was a demand for them in vintage boutiques. In 2003, this overwhelming demand led to the rebirth of the brand. Their archive of mid century classics were reworked to reflect todays life style without compromising the heritage or craftsmanship that gave the brand its iconic status.
