One thing that all drum corps members can relate to is the awe of being a rookie and seeing the veterans walk around in their Alumni jackets. The jackets themselves are beautiful, not just from Magic, but from every corps. Like the corps themselves, they each have their own style and were colorfully adorned with the name and/or logo of the corps, the member's name and section. The corps jacket is the physical embodiment of the member's pride in the corps they marched and the memories they made. In the late 1970s they started replacing pins that were used as fundraisers for shows with patches that were then sewn onto corps jackets. These jackets were now able to tell more of a story on their own with the colorful patchwork like a quilt with years and locations showing the abbreviated journey of the member through each year's tour. They were (and are) beautiful. For a 13 year old walking into a Top 12 DCI organization in 1996, these jackets made the veterans look like drum corps gods. They are both awesome and intimidating as hell. 

I am an Alumni of the Magic of Orlando Drum and Bugle Corps. Magic is a now defunct Drum and Bugle Corps that was from Orlando, Florida. It was active from 1990-1999 and again from 2002 to 2006. I marched in the Soprano (Trumpet) line from 1996-1998. 

Some of us now have kids of our own who are marching. About 800 of us belong to a Facebook group where we share photos, music, stories and reminisce. I shared a photo of my own corps jacket in April of 2021 that I found when I was putting away my family's winter coats. It was a pretty popular post and all of a sudden there were people who I marched with and remember vividly commenting on how they never got or had since lost their jacket. That passive-aggression could not stand. 

In May, after exhaustively researching the old corps jacket, finding the jacket maker, finding the exact same embroidery thread, recreating the Magic logo, and doing several test stitches, I was finally able to offer Magic alumni the chance to purchase the exact same jacket they would have received in the 1990s. I have never been more intimidated by one of these jackets as I was while making every single one for my fellow alumni. Knowing how much the memories that this jacket symbolizes mean to me, I was humbled and horrified at the same time with every stitch. I have also never felt more fulfilled in my business than I was when I started to receive feedback from friends of over 20 years when they received their jackets in the mail. Passion project doesn't begin to cover it. 

Are you an alumni of a corps that is no longer around, but want to keep the memories alive through your own Alumni Jacket recreation? Contact us today to discuss how we can make that memory a reality at Sales@box5appare.com.