The Hoodie: Not your Enemy

This article originally appeared in the April 2023 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter.

This year was my 21st ISC West, and once again I found myself in the familiar position of watching a product demo. It was a typical video analytics demonstration. The video showed a car driving into a garage, which was quickly followed by a creeping bad guy (the analytics did well – they alerted on the whole thing and raised an alarm). The “bad guy,” of course, was wearing a black hoodie, because duh, all dudes wearing black hoodies are the bad guys…right?

If you know me at all, you know that product demos and booth visits tend to take a strange left-hand turn when I’m involved. Maybe it’s the comedian in me longing to escape, but I am always looking to make people “break” and laugh or crack a smile during their trade show spiel (which they have undoubtedly given countless times that day already).

So I said, why does every bad guy need to be some hoodie-wearing kid? Most of the bad guys I know don’t wear hoodies because everyone immediately thinks they are a bad guy, or worse, a HACKER!

I managed to make him laugh and break from the script. He admitted, “I’m not really sure how we can make him a bad guy without it.”

The whole interaction brought me back to a speech I heard earlier that month at the Converged Security Summit – a recently relaunched annual event in Atlanta held by integrator GC&E Systems Group for its customers. At this year’s event, one of the keynotes was from R.C. Woodson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Bristol Bay Native Corp. In short, this expert has lived and breathed IT and cybersecurity since he left a 21-year career in the U.S. Air Force in 2006.

Mr. Woodson brought up an interesting concept in his keynote: Suits and hoodies. He explained that all the talent coming out of today’s colleges and universities – especially in technology and IT – are 100% hoodie wearers. “You need a balance in your organization,” he said to the room full of security end-user customers and guest vendors. “You need to have suits AND hoodies.”

There’s a pretty good chance that today’s newest recruit in your organization wears a hoodie 24/7, and he or she is most certainly NOT a bad guy. These are the people who are going to bring innovation, a fresh eye and new life to your organization.

“Embrace the hoodies,” Woodson told the audience. And as much as it is good advice, it serves as a warning, too.

That warning is to all the “old-school” business owners and executives out there…the ones who might turn down their nose at a young professional who shows up every day wearing a hoodie instead of a blue blazer. Woodson told me he encourages execs in all industries to allow and even encourage hoodies instead of suits. After all, these employees should be made to feel welcome and comfortable; although that may take an adjustment from upper management.

So spinning it back to ISC West, after I had that conversation on the show floor, I took a moment and looked around. There were hoodies EVERYWHERE! Sure, there were more suits and blazers, but the hoodie was in full effect.

Time to embrace the good-guy effect when it comes to hoodies. You never know when one will save your organization!