Blanket Sleeper - Sizes, Gender Differences, and Availability

Sizes, Gender Differences, and Availability

In the United States and Canada, mass-produced blanket sleepers for both boys and girls up to size 4 (see US standard clothing sizes) are quite common, and can be found in nearly any department store and online. Sizes larger than 4 are progressively less common, being found in only some stores and online, and usually only seasonally (peaking around October or November). The availability of larger-size sleepers in department stores also varies from year to year.

Alternative sources for larger-size, mass-produced sleepers include Internet auction sites, such as eBay, and certain mail order clothing retailers, such as Lands' End.

Individual blanket sleepers can be marketed either as a unisex garment, or as a garment intended for one gender. Even in the latter case, however, there is often no difference stylistically between sleepers marketed specifically for boys, and ones marketed specifically for girls. (The size numbers are also consistent, as, although there are slight differences in the meanings of size numbers between boys and girls in the U.S. standard clothing size system, these are too small to matter in the case of a garment as loose-fitting as a blanket sleeper.) Occasionally, however, sleepers marketed for girls may include effeminate decorative features such as lacy frills, and sleepers with screen-printed front panels may feature images of media characters appealing primarily to children of one gender. Also, the ranges of colors available may be different between the genders, in particular pink sleepers are rarely worn by boys due to a cultural association of that color with femininity. Unisex designs and colors offer a more sustainable option allowing the most use over time.

In smaller sizes, there is little or no difference in the availability of sleepers for boys and for girls. However, the culturally-perceived age-appropriateness of the blanket sleeper falls off more rapidly for boys than for girls, and sleepers for older boys are correspondingly less common than those for older girls, with the gap in availability increasing as the size increases. (For older girls, much of the appeal of wearing blanket sleepers may be based on the playful norm-flouting quality of wearing a garment traditionally worn only by younger children; for boys of the same age, this would tend to be considered less culturally acceptable.) Nevertheless, sleepers for both boys and girls continue to have a reasonable degree of availability in department stores (and Internet auction sites) up to about size 14-16.

Blanket sleepers for adult women are uncommon, but in most years can be found in at least one major department store chain.

Mass-produced blanket sleepers for adult men are extremely rare, and when they do appear are usually two-piece, and/or have detachable feet. However, major home sewing pattern publishers sometimes offer patterns for conventionally-styled blanket sleepers in men's sizes, and in the Internet Age a cottage industry has developed, with several websites offering blanket sleepers manufactured on a small scale for men as well as women and children. Also, mass-produced, unisex-styled blanket sleepers marketed for women are sometimes purchased and worn by men, although the difference in the size ranges between men and women means that this option is available only to men of smaller stature.

The blanket sleeper can be a subject of interest, particularly among the AB/DL community. A large portion of the demand for blanket sleepers in adult sizes likely derives from this source, and many of the small businesses that sell blanket sleepers on the Internet are willing to cater to it.