Orizaba OriginalTM was born in 2016 when we went to Mexico to create the best Baja hoodie that money can buy. Today we carry a huge selection of Mexican blankets and Mexican bags too! Plus wholesale, and even custom designed products and textiles.
Part surf trip, part creative and entrepreneurial adventure, we searched far and wide for the most talented designers and the best manufacturers to help us create our products. From Tijuana to Guadalajara and Mexico City all the way to Oaxaca and Chiapas, we set out to build a network of designers, manufacturers, and other partners, and lay the groundwork for creating a variety of amazing products, starting with the Baja hoodie.
Unlike typical Mexican drug rug sweatshirts which are often shapeless and formless, with textile and color designs that are flat and uninteresting, and quality varying with every piece (and usually toward low end!) we wanted to offer outstanding quality Baja jackets in interesting designs and textured weaves, and still come through at the low price consumers expect.
Orizaba Original Baja Hoodies. Perfect fit, outstanding quality & variety. Designed and made in Mexico, ready to ship WORLDWIDE from USA.
Our pullovers are unisex, but sizing corresponds to Men’s USA standards. If you're a man you should buy the size you would usually shop for in a hoodie or sweater, and it should be loose and comfortable. If you prefer an extra baggy fit or you'll wear it over more than just a t-shirt or other shirt, go a size up! And since they're unisex, if you're shopping for a women's Baja then you should buy a size down. Our smaller sizes can fit some kids for now, but we'll have kids size Bajas coming soon!
Before you buy, be sure to check out our size charts.
What's a Baja Hoodie and why do they call it a drug rug?
Originating in the cold mountain regions of Mexico and popular on the relatively cool coastal region of Baja California, Baja hoodies have been around for decades. Warm, versatile, and inexpensive, they're popular in a variety of hippie, rasta, surfer, musician, festival, and camping or climbing subcultures and countercultures. And being so fun and comfortable, they never go out of style.
The material is called "jerga" and it's made from a blend of synthetics and cotton, often from anything that's available such as recycled clothing and other used fabrics that can be shredded, re-spun, and re-woven. Sudaderas de jerga ("jerga sweatshirts") as well as Mexican falsa blankets often start as a waste stream, and become an eco-friendly product that everyone loves! They're perfect for cool evenings by the beach or to wrap up after a long day of surfing, they make an excellent layer in cold mountain air, they're lightweight and great for travel, and they even wick moisture due to the woven synthetic blend. And the pure comfort and color variety make them so fun they've stood the test of time and spread throughout the USA and now even the world.
American surfers first found them back in the 60s and 70s (or possibly earlier), while searching the cool waters of rugged Baja California for uncrowded waves. If you've never been, Baja California is PURE adventure. Unspoiled terrain, nearly no development, some of the best surfing on Earth, and no one around for 100s of miles when your car cracks an axel on a road that's never been maintained. Ha!
While lots of Mexico is really warm, the cold ocean water in Baja Norte makes it rather cool, especially certain times of year. And so "canguros" are perfect (yet another name for them, in reference to the signature "kangaroo pocket"), and they made their way there from the mountains even before the surfers did. Once they were found by the Americans, of course they made their way north, and with the Americanized names Baja poncho (not exactly accurate because while ponchos may have a hood, they don't have sleeves) and Baja hoodie.
Now being a lively and rowdy bunch, a joke arose in the surf community in reference to certain more illicit merchandise that often crossed that same border near Tijuana... "Drug rug" forever became yet another name for the sudadera de jerga.
Why the name Orizaba Original?
We named our company after Pico de Orizaba, the tallest volcano in Mexico and one of the highest points in North America. At 18,491 feet, it towers over the central Mexican plateau to the south, and descends through jacked canyons all the way to Gulf of Mexico to the north. And although it's further south than Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, and Cuba, Pico de Orizaba is cold and often snow-capped, and one heck of a destination for mountaineering and even skiing!
View of Pico de Orizaba looking south from the Gulf of Mexico
