I just saw a guy wearing a battle vest on the subway.
For those of you who are under 45 years old and haven’t seen Van Halen in concert no less than four times, a battle vest is best described as a Levi’s jean jacket with the sleeves cut off.
Technically it’s a Levi’s Type III Trucker jacket but that clarification would expose me as a level ten denim head and, for the purposes of this blog, I’m really only allowed to nerd out on fitness.
Unfortunately, subway battle vest guy’s example didn’t have a hand painted Iron Maiden album cover on the back (listen, we can’t have it all) but otherwise it looked pretty authentic.
Seeing this piece of clothing nostalgia had me thinking that, I’m pretty sure, I’ve seen every fashion trend that was popular in my lifetime come back around.
But just as quickly as you can say “flannel shirt tied around the waist” I was reminded by Instagram that I was wrong.
Perhaps not all of you are old enough to be served what I can only refer to as “retro accounts” on social media.
In my case, these come in the form of dusty camcorder tapes that someone with a lot of free time dug out of the attic and cut together as a highlight reel of what it was like to grow up on Long Island in the 1980s.
There are the accents. The neon. The Duran Duran t-shirts. And, the aforementioned trend that has yet to come back, girls with hair as high as Snoop Dogg during a recording session.
The other thing I noticed is that boys seemed very comfortable just walking around shirtless in those days.
Whether it’s a nine year old drinking from a garden hose with nothing but short shorts and high socks on or a teenager walking through the high school parking lot on the way back to his Chevy Monte Carlo, shirts seemed to be optional back then.
Except for me.
I wouldn’t be caught dead with my shirt off in public.
Every photo from my youth - whether at the water park or at a pool party - I’m wearing a t-shirt.
Shirts and skins on the basketball court? I’ll be on shirts, please.
No hidden reason for this. I just wasn’t comfortable with my body so I didn’t want others to see it.
In fact, the first time I felt comfortable being photographed with my shirt off was on a vacation with my wife in the Bahamas after we’d been married for about 7 years.
I was 35 years old.
(SIDE NOTE: I hemmed and hawed for a while about whether or not to include the photo. Part of me thinks it would help the story. Part of me thinks it’s douchey. Part of me thinks you’ve been subject to my “after” photo enough times that another shirtless photo of me would get me more unsubscribers than my most depressing blog posts about dead strangers. But ultimately I decided to include it for the sake of the story. Feel free to quickly scroll past this if you feel the need!)
Training for the sake of vanity has taken a real hit as of late. And while I still think a lot of people train to look better, they hide it behind the guise of health or performance.
A lot has also been made of body positivity the past few years. Which most people think is solely a call to appreciate the body you have regardless of weight or size or body composition.
And I think those things are a net positive. We should appreciate all that our body can do and not just how it looks. Sacrificing your health to look a certain way is a terrible idea.
But to me there is also something about building and altering your body in a way that makes you feel comfortable enough to take off your shirt in public that is underrated, That you take the responsibility into your own hands to do something that makes you feel more confident that is remarkably empowering.
And no, this doesn’t mean we’re all trying to look like Greek statues or land a spot in the next Marvel movie.
It just means there’s value in reclaiming your body — not from society or the media, but from your own doubt. Your own history. The version of yourself that sat by the pool in a T-shirt because he didn’t want to be seen.
There’s value in doing the reps, following the program, showing up again and again, and watching your body slowly shift into something you feel proud of.
It’s not superficial. It’s not selfish. And it’s not shameful.
Because when you train to feel stronger, more capable, and yes — better in your own skin — you’re doing something powerful. You’re choosing to believe that change is possible. That confidence can be built like muscle. That progress is earned, not gifted.
And when that happens — when the work inside the gym shows up outside it in the way you carry yourself, the way you walk through the world, the way you feel in your body?
That’s not just fitness.
It’s freedom.
Maybe the real progress isn’t about taking off the shirt — it’s about not needing to hide behind it anymore.
And maybe confidence - like battle vests - is due for a comeback.
Have you ever heard of Gary Vaynerchuk's concept of "jab, jab, jab, hook"?
No, Gary Vee isn’t a middleweight title contender — he’s a marketer best known for spotting social media trends early and yelling at people about how lazy they are.
Anyway, jab, jab, jab, hook refers to the idea of giving value three times for every one time you ask for something in return. You can even see this play out on platforms like Facebook, where you get three organic posts for every one ad. That’s not random. People have studied that stuff.
Over the past month, I’ve probably asked you to forward this blog or send the sign-up link to a friend in the hopes of inching my subscriber count closer to 10,000. (We’re currently at 7,582, for those of you keeping score at home.)
And maybe that’s too many asks.
Though, in my defense, I didn’t ask you for anything for the first four years of this blog. So this is more like — to keep the boxing analogy going — me punching you in the face for 12 rounds and then, as you sit on the stool bloodied and swollen, asking if you’d mind forwarding this to a friend.
That’s a terrible analogy. Let’s move on.
Anyway, I’ll try to keep the asks light moving forward. But if you do know someone who would enjoy getting these in their inbox each week (and honestly, who wouldn’t?), feel free to send them this link (thefortnyc.com) or sign them up[HERE] (thefortnyc.com).
Much appreciated.
And I promise not to hit you.