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I just finished a charity ride and found that the brand new jersey bought for it has a hole in the back center pocket. It is neatly cut, with stitching around it to prevent fraying, so I'm sure it is a feature rather than a defect. What is the intended purpose?

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found your spelling a little hard to understand, please feel free to revert my changes if they didn't help. – freiheit♦ Aug 13 '11 at 20:06
Thanks for correcting it, it was written on my phone at the finish line :-D – STW Aug 13 '11 at 20:28
I've seen small holes in some relatively waterproof garments that I assumed were to let water run out. – Daniel R Hicks Aug 14 '11 at 2:25
You also see similar holes in, eg, the fronts of police uniform shirts, intended to allow badges to be applied without damaging the fabric. – Daniel R Hicks Aug 14 '11 at 2:27

3 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

My best guess is the hole would allow a headphone cable to run down the collar, through the inside of the shirt, and into the pocket.

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It seems this is correct, the manufacturer's site (www.pactimo.com) mentions an "MP3/race radio opening in rear pocket" as a feature for some of their cycling jerseys. – STW Aug 14 '11 at 21:16
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That's terrible that they advertise it as MP3/race radio (I don't think headphones on bikes are a good idea). They could have just labelled it 'for race radio headphones' to not upset fogies like myself... – ʍǝɥʇɐɯ Aug 14 '11 at 21:28
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Just a thought. It could also be good to use to run a power cord from an external battery pack to a head lamp for night time mountain bike riding. – Benzo Mar 30 '12 at 14:19
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I'm going to guess the garmet manufacturer puts the hole there so that when you wash the jersey (which hopefully you do occasionaly), water doesn't pool in the pocket but instead drains out the hole.

This doesn't really explain why it's only in the center pocket and not the side ones ...

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That would be a good feature on a watertight jersey, but in this case the jersey is just a regular jersey with lots of moisture-wicking ability – STW Aug 22 '11 at 13:45
Draining Slowly => Lots of stress on seams, Draining Fast => Less stress on seams... – Ben Aug 22 '11 at 17:36
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I remember that decades ago when wool cycling jerseys were common, the middle pocket in the back sometimes had a button and button hole. You could button the largest pocket. I don't remember if the other pockets also had buttons and button holes. My guess is that the stitched hole is a vestigial button hole from an old jersey style.

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