Middlebury Snow Bowl Patch, Felt (Worn) — c. 1950s-60s

A vintage Middlebury College Snow Bowl patch from Hancock, Vermont, estimated to date from the 1950s or 60s — the same chain-stitched shield, carried further. The felt has gone to a warm tan, the navy has dulled, and the skis crossed behind the bowl have faded most of the way from red to brown.

Crossed skis were the universal shorthand before logos got professionalized. You saw them on a jacket, on a bumper, on a sign at the end of a dirt road, and you knew immediately what the person or the place was about.

It worked because skis used to look like that — two long wooden planks, obviously a pair. Try drawing the same symbol with modern shaped skis and it falls apart completely.

Which makes this one of the few patch designs that is genuinely period-locked. It could not be drawn today and mean the same thing.

Chain-stitched on felt, cut edge, with substantial honest wear. Photos are the condition report.