History of the Flapjack

If you’ve been a part of the Lazy One family, you may already own a pair of our Flapjack Onesie pajamas. Drawing on the traditional long john design with a flap on the butt, our Flapjack PJs are wonderful to wear anytime of the day while lounging with your family. You might wonder where and why long johns were created in the first place or what the true difference is between those and union suits. Without the early innovators of yesterday, we wouldn’t be where we are today with the Flapjack! While the historical timeline for long johns is a bit cloudy, we can still get a good idea of how thermal underwear came to be.

18TH AND 19TH CENTURY ORIGINS – SMEDLEY AND STANFIELD

There were two notable people that contributed to the beginnings of long underwear. The one credited with the creation of them was John Smedley. In his textile mills in Matlock, Derbyshire (that’s England!), he manufactured these long underwear in the late 18th century. Their official website—yes, the company is STILL in business!—claims this: “ In 1784 our factory started life producing simple muslin fabric and spinning cotton and in 1825 we moved on to producing more complex garments using one of the first ever fully fashioned knitting machines, creating the original “Long Johns.””

There was another figure in the textile world that also contributed to the design of long johns. Working successfully in the wool world, Charles E. Stanfield left his first business to his brother-in-law and established Truro Woolen Mills in 1870 in Nova Scotia, Canada.