Nine hoodies, one cut, a hand-drawn brand printed across the box, and the only thing that separates them is color – that’s how a two-minute purchase turns into twenty minutes of product photo squinting. The hoodie listing on Cheers Australia don’t rank the colors and there’s no particular reason they would, so the ranking below is based on something a little deeper than taste: how each pair holds up after a few months of real wear rather than how they photograph under a studio light.
Nine combinations, and what they actually are
Handstyle carries the widest color spread of anything in the Geedup Hoodie range, wider than PFK or Mono Logo pieces, and it runs roughly like this: Black/White, Red & Black, Blue, Green/White, Graphite/Pale Blue, a gray paired with Sky Blue, Lavender Black, Black/Burnt Orange, and Maroon/Cream. The price barely changes across the set – some sit at A$145 and the rest at A$149 – so money doesn’t quietly make the decision for you here, which is both liberating and a little helpful at the same time.
It’s probably worth clearing something up before the rankings start, which is that Handstyle calls the printed brand rather than a separate garment, so all nine of them have the same premium cotton-polyester blend fleece running underneath (XS to 4XL, same as the rest of the hoodies) and the color pairing tends to call the body first and the print second.
The forgiving end of the scale
Black/white is the color that disappears into everything. The fleece hides the lot, the white brand reads cleanly from a distance, and nothing in the combination needs to be managed day to day, which is probably why it is rather the first handstyle hoodie that people buy and the one that they continue to reach for in a second Melbourne winter.
Black / Burnt Orange sits almost level with it – same black body, same low-stress maintenance, just with a warm print that stops the whole thing reading as plain black. Red & Black is a step more vibrant without being harsh, and red fleece turns out to be surprisingly good at hiding marks. Blue, which the site simply lists as such, lands in the same bracket: dark enough to forgive, easy enough to wear with gray or black pants without anyone thinking twice.
The ones that keep you honest
Maroon/cream is the hardest of the nine to live with, and it’s also probably the best looking. Cream shows cuff dirt first, then the inside of the collar, then everything else, and on a hoodie you actually have the three places that are touched the most. Lavender Black runs into a milder version of the same problem – pale lavender is a beautiful color that registers a mark the moment one lands.
Green/white and graphite/blue sit in the middle, and graphite is dark enough to behave, while the pale blue print keeps it from looking like plain charcoal. Then there’s the gray and sky blue pairing, which looks great and happens to be the single best surface for displaying the wise white lint ever invented. It rewards anyone who owns a lint roller and silently punishes everyone else.
Ranked, from least demanding down
Pair a color with the bottom
Color choices become more complicated when a hoodie stops working on its own. A black or graphite handstyle will sit happily under almost any tracksuit pants, while maroon and lavender want a bottom half that stays completely out of the way, which in practice means black or a simple grey. If a tracksuit set is the plan instead of a single piece, the pants and sets are listed below Geedup Tracksuit Australia are where that pairing has settled, and matching a strong color palette with a muted bottom half is usually a better bet than tying two strong colors together. A children’s tracksuit follows the same logic, except children find cream-colored problems significantly faster than adults.
The numbers worth knowing before the package arrives
Color is the thing that most people change their mind about once a hoodie is in their hands, so delivery and return timings are more important here than they would be for a simple black order. Orders are processed within 1-3 business days of payment, with business hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Standard delivery is quoted at 8-12 working days, express at 5-7, and international at 12-15. Postage is worked out at checkout instead of showing up front, there is no free shipping threshold published anywhere that I could find, and a tracking number is emailed once the order is moved.
Returns run on a clock of 14 days from the day the order actually reaches you – not from the day you ordered it, which people find out – and the hoodie must be unworn, unwashed and unaltered. The process starts with a message to support quoting the order number and the reason – nothing should be posted back before this is sorted. Approved refunds go to the original payment method and may take another 5-10 business days to surface, which is bank timing rather than store timing. Any incorrect, damaged or simply the wrong item must be marked within 48 hours of delivery, and return postage may land on you unless the fault was theirs.
Frequently asked questions
What handstyle color should a first time buyer choose?
Black/White, almost every time. It’s the least demanding of the nine, it reads well in photos and in person, and no one will think for a single second about foxing or cuff marks. Save the cream or lavender for a second hoodie if you know how the fit suits you.
Do the lighter colors cost more?
No, and it’s not much of a pattern either. The Handstyle hoodies are split between A$145 and A$149, and the darker and lighter options appear on either side of that line, so color and price aren’t related as you might assume.
What happens if the color looks different in person?
That’s what the 14 days are for, provided the hoodie hasn’t been worn or washed – and a cold wash, inside out, is the way to save after you’ve decided to keep it. Message support with the order number, wait for the go-ahead, then send it back, bearing in mind that the return postage may be in a change-of-mind case.
Choose the base color against the pants already hanging in your closet instead of against the photo, and nine options narrow down to two or three pretty quickly. Go dark for a first handstyle from Geedup Co and keep the cream or lavender in mind for later when you know how the fleece turns and how often you reach for it.