Why Muffler Towels Show Up at Both Stadiums and Concerts: The Origins of Holding Them Up
Towels are among the most familiar pieces of cheering gear at sporting events and concerts. Fans hold them up, spin them or wear them, depending on the sport or the show.
A strip of cloth about 20 cm wide and a meter long. Why did this shape become a cheering tool in completely different places at the same time? Here is the history of fan towels, plus the three things people do with them: hold them overhead, swing or spin them in hand, or wear them around the neck. For the terminology, see What Is a Player Towel?.
The Short Answer: One Began as a Cold-Weather Garment, the Other as a Sweat Cloth
There isn’t just one answer. The football scarf began as cloth to keep out the cold; the concert towel began as cloth to wipe away sweat. The two started in different places, took separate routes and settled on the same dimensions.
They landed on one shape because it is so handy. Held overhead it is a banner, swung wide it is a flag, on a hot day it wipes sweat, and on a cold one it wraps around your neck. A cloth roughly 20 cm wide and 1 meter long can play all four roles. The shape didn’t come after the use; its versatility drew the uses to it.
Muffler towelAbout 20 cm by 1 m
- BannerHeld overhead
- FlagSwung wide
- Sweat clothFor hot days
- ScarfFor cold ones
The shape's versatility drew the uses to it.
Timeline: From the Granny Scarf to the Pikachu Towel
Laid out in order, the events show where the two routes met.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Early 20th century | English fans wear wool scarves for warmth, mostly hand-knitted by family |
| 1934 | Footage of an FA Cup match, Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace, records colored scarves |
| 1963 | Liverpool fans began singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as a cheering song, and the custom of holding scarves up while singing takes hold |
| 1970s | Wearing a scarf becomes a normal matchday sight across Britain |
| 1978 | A company for commercial scarf production is founded, and mass production begins |
| 1980s | Jacquard looms make designs with woven emblems possible |
| 1993 | The J.League opens, and “towel mufflers,” which swapped wool for towel cloth, spread |
| Around 2000 | Towel spinning at concert venues catches on in some places (origins disputed) |
| 2026 | The official J.League store offers collaboration towels with Pikachu and IDOLiSH7 |
- Granny scarvesHand-knitted, no emblem
- Kop singsScarves go overhead
- Woven emblemsJacquard looms arrive
- Towel mufflersJ.League opens
- Towel spinOrigins disputed
- Pikachu collabJ.League official store
Wool became terry cloth when the tradition crossed to Japan.
Britain: Family-Knitted Cloth Becomes a “Tribal Mark”
The first football scarves weren’t a product. In early 20th-century England, stadiums mostly had roofless standing areas, and watching in midwinter was an endurance sport. So wives, mothers and grandmothers knitted scarves in wool of the two club colors. They carried no emblem and were called granny scarves (Ruffneck Scarves’ explainer).
The oldest footage in which colored scarves can be seen is said to be newsreel of the 1934 FA Cup match between Arsenal and Crystal Palace. According to the football historian Guy Oliver of FIFA, wearing scarves became a normal sight across Britain in the 1970s.
At Anfield, home of the English club Liverpool FC, the most devoted fans gather in a stand known as the Kop (Liverpool FC’s official explainer).
A turning point for the cheering that grew up there came in 1963. When Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was released, the fans on the Kop quickly began singing it as a cheering song. Within a few years, a style took hold in which red-and-white scarves were held overhead as the crowd sang before the match (Liverpool tourism’s official site). It went on to spread to clubs around the world.
Sunil Vidhani, son of Kishan Vidhani, a pioneer of commercial scarf production, has said that football scarves are a way to show which tribe you belong to. The moment protective clothing turned into proof of belonging is where the culture of holding things up begins. For how crowds coordinate their movements to cheer, see also What Are Choreo and Ultras?.
Japan: Wool Gave Way to Towel
The scarf-raising culture born in Britain reached Japan in a different material. What became standard in stadiums wasn’t the wool scarf but the “towel muffler,” made of towel cloth. It is said to have spread quickly as the J.League gained popularity after opening in 1993 (Towel Shop JP’s explainer, in Japanese).
The likely reason for the switch is that Japan’s football season runs through the summer, and wrapping a wool scarf around your neck in a midsummer stadium isn’t realistic. A towel, on the other hand, can wipe your sweat once it has done its holding-up duty. A change of material to suit the climate ended up producing a more multifunctional item than the British original.
Still, there is no settled account of which club or manufacturer first planned the “towel muffler” as a product. For baseball cheering towels, one well-known theory says the Lotte club started towel cheering in Japan, while a claim about the orange towel of the Yomiuri Giants was also reported in 2013 (NEWS Post Seven, in Japanese). Several theories about the origin still sit side by side.
The “Terrible Towel” of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, said to have begun in the 1970s, centers on waving rather than holding up, and belongs to a different lineage.
The Source: Fan Towels Are Woven in Imabari
It’s rarely mentioned, but most cheering towels and muffler towels are made in Imabari, in Ehime Prefecture. Imabari has an approximately 130-year history as Japan’s largest towel-producing area. It is known for soft water from the Takanawa and Ishizuchi mountain ranges that suits bleaching and dyeing, and for an in-region production system that can carry a towel from yarn dyeing through finishing. (Maruyama Towel’s explainer, in Japanese).
Weaving or printing a club emblem or an artist’s logo in small lots without any bleeding is a demanding order, and having a production region able to fill it was the industrial precondition for fan towels becoming standard in Japan. It looks like a story about culture, but half of it is a story about manufacturing.
Three Things to Do With a Towel
How you use a towel changes with where and how you’re cheering. Here are three: holding it up, swinging or spinning it, and wearing it around your neck.
| Action | Where it’s common | How it’s used and what defines it |
|---|---|---|
| Hold it overhead | Football and baseball stands | Originated with British fans holding up scarves. Show the text and make the same picture as the person next to you |
| Hold in hand and swing or spin | Concerts, NFL stadiums | Moves the whole venue at the chorus or at a goal. The origin of Japan’s towel spin is disputed |
| Wear around the neck | Music festivals, summer outdoors | Carries less and frees both hands. Also used as fashion |
Hold overhead
- Show the text to the crowd
- Make one picture with your neighbors
Swing or spin
- Moves the whole venue at the chorus
- Origin of the Japanese spin is disputed
Wear around the neck
- Carry less, free both hands
- Also worn as fashion
Same item, different scene, different way to hold it.
The concert towel spin is said to have caught on in some places around 2000, and one view holds that it became a nationwide standard through reggae artists’ shows. But the year and place it began are disputed, and it isn’t settled whether it was a distinctly Japanese development or an overseas influence.
Spinning and holding up are used differently by genre. The tendency often described is that rock band shows favor wearing it and holding it up, while reggae and hip-hop shows favor spinning. Same item, different “correct” grip in each fandom sphere, a complication towels have that photo cards and light sticks don’t. Venue etiquette also overlaps with the thinking in What Is Sansen-Fuku?, the outfits fans wear to shows.
The Towel as Self-Disclosure
Why do people hold up towels? One survey of Hanshin Tigers fans found that about 90% of roughly 3,000 women owned an “oshi towel.” The psychological explanation that goes with it: holding up a towel is a way of telling the stranger beside you which player you support, and the principle of reciprocity kicks in to create a sense of solidarity (Shueisha Online, in Japanese).
- ~130 years
- History of the Imabari towel region
- ~90%
- Hanshin women fans surveyed who own an oshi towel
An everyday item, but an industry and a habit sit behind it.
Sources: Maruyama Towel (Imabari towels, in Japanese); Shueisha Online (Hanshin fans survey, in Japanese)
In 2025, Hanshin’s towels carried players’ catchphrases, such as pitcher Taichi Ishii’s “Katsu Muscle” (“Winning Muscles”) and Duplantier’s (with DeNA from 2026) “Bochibochi Ikoka” (“Let’s Take It Easy”). The towel carries not just a player’s name but his character. You could say it does the same job as oshi-color merch, more cheaply and over a larger surface.
In Practice: Choosing and Caring
Decide whether you’ll mainly hold it up, spin it or wear it, and your criteria get clearer.
When choosing
- For holding up at a stadium, pick a large, thick towel with big text. Judge it by whether it can be read from a distant seat
- For spinning or wearing at a concert, choose a light material that dries quickly. A thick towel gets heavy when spun, and your arm won’t last
- For summer festivals, put quick-drying first. Some products also offer UV protection
- Price range: official J.League club towel mufflers generally run about ¥2,000 to ¥2,500
When using and storing
- At high-movement shows, wrap it once around your neck and tuck the ends into your T-shirt so you don’t drop it
- It will pick up sweat and sunscreen, so wash it the same day. Left unwashed, it yellows
- Keep display towels separate from ones you use. There’s no need to take a commemorative collaboration towel out every time
- To prevent color transfer, wash dark towels alone the first time
A towel’s strength is that, unlike acrylic stands or photo cards, the psychological barrier to everyday use is low. It’s a washable, practical item, so buying more brings little guilt. For organizing them when they pile up, see Storage Ideas for Oshi Merch.
The Past Year
- From August 7, 2026 to February 28, 2027, the “J.League x Pikachu Towel Muffler” is sold made-to-order on the official J.League online store (¥2,500). What’s telling is that, in a collaboration between sports and a hugely popular franchise, a towel muffler came in all 61 designs alongside the T-shirts and keychains (J.League official online store, in Japanese)
- In February 2026, an “IDOLiSH7 x J.League” muffler towel appeared. Crossovers between idol franchises and sports merch continue.
- Several clubs, including Niigata and Tosu, are releasing new designs for the 2026/27 season in turn. Variations such as fringes and player names get finer each year (J.League official site, in Japanese)
- It was also a year when Hanshin’s “oshi towel” culture was featured in the media. The idea of towels printed with each player’s catchphrase has been widely introduced
There were no rule changes. It was a year in which an existing culture swelled through collaborations and ever finer design variations.
Notes From The Oshi Lab: Hold Up a Towel and Join the Circle
What we find appealing about a towel is that simply holding it up at the same moment lets you cheer together with the people around you. Unfold a towel with a player’s name or team colors and it shows whom you’re cheering for. For someone visiting a venue for the first time, matching the movement of those around you may be the way into the cheer.
When companies and clubs plan towels, thinking beyond design to when, and to which song, they’ll be held up makes the fun at the venue easier to get across. Just as Liverpool fans hold up scarves to a song, we believe a viewpoint that links merchandise to cheering movements broadens the enjoyment of using towels.
One more thing we don’t want to forget is the production region. The quality of fan towels rests on Imabari, and the more collaborations there are, the more the region’s skills are tested. The sustainability of oshi-katsu merch is a question of design and also a question of the place that makes it, and towels show that more clearly than any other item. We’ve laid out the overall scale of the market in The Oshi-Katsu Market Size (2026 Edition).
Related articles: What Is a Player Towel? / The J.League and Oshi-Katsu / Pro Baseball and Oshi-Katsu / What Is Sansen-Fuku?
FAQ
What is the difference between a muffler towel and a face towel?
A muffler towel is usually a long, narrow strip about 20 cm wide and 110 to 120 cm long, longer than a face towel. That length made it the cheering pick: the text stays readable when you hold it overhead, and there is still plenty left to wrap around your neck.
Why did football scarves come about?
They are said to have started in early 20th-century England as a way to stay warm on roofless standing terraces. At first they were hand-knitted by family members in the club colors, with no emblem.
When did the towel spin at concerts begin?
It is said to have caught on in some places around 2000, and the leading view is that it became a nationwide standard through reggae artists' shows. No record of its beginning survives, though, and accounts vary.
Where are fan towels made?
Most are made in the Imabari region of Ehime Prefecture. Imabari has an approximately 130-year history as Japan's largest towel-producing area, with soft water well suited to bleaching and dyeing and an in-region production system that can carry a towel from yarn dyeing through finishing.
Should I choose differently for holding up and wearing?
Yes. For holding overhead at a stadium, pick a large, thick towel with big, legible text. For spinning or wrapping at a concert, choose something light that dries quickly. For summer festivals, put quick-drying fabric first.
