WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Project Pinstripe outfits young men in donated suits

Project Pinstripe outfits young men in donated suits

Dozens of young men Sunday received free tailored suits as a part of Project Pinstripe.

The nationwide program began in 2005 in New York City and will help 450 underprivileged young men across the United States this year.

Volunteers from the Tom James Company, a Nashville-based clothier and Project Pinstripe sponsor, custom fitted the men.

"We're only giving them the best of the best that we can offer them today," said Walker Hale of the Tom James Company.  "We look for young men who were looking to change their circumstances."

The men were hand selected through an application process and then hand measured when they arrived at the YMCA on Ashland City Highway. 

A typical new suit can range from $400 to $2,000.

The lightly worn suits were donated by some of Nashville's best dressers.

"It has been donated by bankers, attorneys, Titans football players, real estate agents," said Hale.  "Some of the top and cream of the crop of Nashville have really come together to donate clothing to this event."

The young men had no complaints about the free duds.

"A tailored suit? Nothing looks better than that," said DeMarcus Woodard. 

The Hume-Fogg High School senior has been accepted to the University of Memphis and University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Woodard's application was chosen as the best of the group, and he will receive a custom-fit $2,000 suit and three ties worth more than $150 a piece.

Devion Jones is a senior at Hillsboro High School and learned about the program from his YMCA summer camp counselor.

Jones hopes to study business in college.

"My major to be is entrepreneurship," said Jones, "so with me getting this suit, it makes me feel more like a CEO which is what I want to be when I get my future going."

Hale says a well-tailored suit will act as a stepping stone for the young men.

"To give men the confidence that they need," he told News 2, "to teach them that you can change your situation."

Jones said, "A suit can't make you have success but you in a suit can be a success."

In all, 43 men received free suits.