Adopting a Personal Uniform

Keeping things as simple as possible frees up my available attention and focus.

Photo credit: Museums Victoria - Unsplash

Getting older is unnecessarily lamented. I think this is because humans typically lust after the days of their youth when the world was large, cares were minimal and everything was novel. When I was younger nobody told me how little I’d care about superfluous things as I aged. This is especially true after you have kids.

Case in point: my wardrobe. For anyone who knew me 10-15 years ago, I always wore a band T-shirt. I used to play in bands, I went to hundreds of concerts between the ages of 15 and 30. Music was my life. I still love music but I don’t have much time for it anymore. I loved wearing shirts from my favorite bands. I put so much of my identity into those bands and the music I played. Over the past several years, I phased out my band T-shirts and started dressing like an “adult”.

I don’t think expressing yourself through your clothes is bad. But I want to blend in and be as invisible as possible when I’m out in public. For this week’s post, I want to make the case for why you should adopt a personal uniform—basically wearing the same thing every day.

Fewer Decisions

Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are well-known for wearing the same thing every day. Granted, they both could be considered monsters but they got things done. Regardless of what you think of them, they established systems in their lives that helped them make the fewest unnecessary decisions. I’m nowhere near their level of productivity or innovation but there are valuable lessons I can learn from hyper-successful people like them.

As my family has grown so too have the number of decisions I need to make. I only have so much time in the morning to get the house going before I start work. Since I started wearing the same thing daily, I’ve noticed how much quicker I can get up and going. I’ve adopted this mindset for other parts of my life. Keeping things as simple as possible frees up my available attention and focus for the work, activities, and people that matter most to me. 

My personal uniform is simple: a black T-shirt, black pants (shorts when it’s hot) and a black hat. Why so much black? Because it’s my favorite color and it goes with nearly everything. My favorite shirts are the Gildan Softstyle Cotton T-shirts. You can buy a two-pack on Amazon for around $12. But don’t confuse price with quality. These are inexpensive shirts that are durable. I never have to worry about the fit or finish because each shirt is like the others. Look closely and you’ll notice lots of brands use Gildan shirts to screen print their logos on. The difference is that a screen-printed shirt costs more than $20. In contrast, my plain black shirt cost $6.

Blending In

As I mentioned above, I don’t want to wear logos anymore. I don’t need the general public to know I like something based on what my shirt says. The only exception I’ll make for this is with hats. That’s because most nice-fitting hats come from well-known brands, like Patagonia for example.

(If you know of any good logo-free hats then send them my way.)

When I used to wear T-shirts with logos or baseball hats, I’d strike up all sorts of conversations with people. As time passed, I grew tired of these conversations, especially with people who didn’t like a particular team I represented. For example, a kid in Boston once told me to “Get the f**k out of Boston” for wearing an Atlanta Braves hat. I couldn’t believe someone would get that triggered—especially a kid—for wearing a hat that didn’t have a red B on it.

One of my favorite YouTube channels is by Peter Santenello. I noticed he is often wearing a plain black T-shirt. I think he does this because he wants to blend in and direct the focus to the people in his videos. This makes sense because he doesn’t want the attention. He is trying to let people tell their stories. He’s merely a facilitator of the conversation. 

Dad Approved

Little kids are messy. There’s no way around it. Whether it be food, boogers, dirt, or chalk, they touch anything and everything regardless of what’s on their hands. With my first child, I would always keep a small towel handy so I wouldn’t get spit up on my shirt. Now that I have three kids, I don’t care if they get my clothes dirty. I just swap out what I’m wearing with something identical.

During my cross-country road trip this summer, I stayed at several hotels and met other dads. I noticed about half of the dads I saw wore something similar to my personal uniform. I think we all came to the conclusion that being fashionable wasn’t worth the hassle. Instead, we opted for something that blends in, isn’t expensive, and is easy to replace. 

The utilitarian mentality has seeped into other aspects of my life. I’m focused on buying fewer, high-quality items that serve multiple purposes. This is why I love dive watches so much. They can be worn for many different occasions, they’re tough and require little maintenance.

Should You Adopt a Personal Uniform?

Adopting a personal uniform isn’t a decision I made one day and stuck to it. For me, it is the pursuit of a logical conclusion. There’s nothing emotional about wearing the same black clothes every day. I made my decision based on practical reasons.

I do think everyone should adopt some sort of personal uniform just to help reduce the number of decisions they have to make on a given day and to avoid buying useless items they don’t need. If dressing elaborately and differently each day is your thing then more power to you. Keep doing what you love. But if you’re feeling decision fatigue in your life, need to simplify things, and are tired of wasting money on clothes you don’t wear then it sounds like you’re ready for a personal uniform. 

I do own other clothes for more professional and formal occasions but in general, I wear the same thing daily. I keep my professional attire to simple colors with no patterns and designs. I’m far from being an authority on the subject. I encourage you to check out A Continuous Lean and The Contender on Substack. Those two newsletters will introduce you to timeless yet practical men’s fashion. I’ll get there someday but not while I have young kids. 

As always, I appreciate your attention.