When I reach for a zip-up hoodie, I notice the fabric and construction before the logo. Cotton terry feels familiar and breathable, while fleece and performance knits are better for holding warmth or moving through a busy day. I grouped the full-zips by how they wear: easy everyday layers first, technical fleece next, then the more distinctive full-zips. The pullover hoodies sit together in their own group at the end, for anyone still weighing a zip against a pullover.

Fibre, weight and how well a knit holds its shape decide this for me. Splendid's Winslow Zip Up Hoodie and Helsa's full-zip fleece show two different approaches to the same layer. A zip that runs smoothly and a hem that sits flat matter more to me than the logo. I check the fabric percentages rather than trusting a soft-sounding label, and I try the zip before I commit.

Tuck the front hem only. It reads as considered rather than fussy. The Sporty & Rich embroidered zip hoodie and the Beyond Yoga fleece sit well over high-rise denim, and a zip left halfway open over a plain tee works with a trouser. Keep the rest of the outfit simple, because one zip up hoodie is usually plenty.

Skims, Aviator Nation and Asher add full-zip hoodies in soft fleece, and Sporty & Rich, James Perse and Nili Lotan bring a velour zip, a French terry zip and a chalk designer version to close out the zips. The same sweatpants and a clean sneaker keep the look easy.

Champion, founded in Rochester in 1919 as Knickerbocker Knitting Mills, says it developed the hooded sweatshirt in the 1930s as a warm-up for athletes waiting on the sidelines. The story that it was first made for workers in freezing upstate warehouses gets repeated a lot, but Harold Lipson, who started out sweeping floors at Champion and ended up as its president, remembered them being made for track teams, football teams and coaches standing out in the cold.

The pullovers below keep that sideline shape: a hood, usually a kangaroo pocket and nothing down the front, so they sit flatter under a coat and there is no zip to pull a soft knit out of shape. A few brands from the zip grids make a pullover twin. The FP Movement Final Call Hoodie, Aviator Nation's 5 Stripe Hoodie in vintage white and Sporty & Rich's Yankees Curve Hoodie, which is 100 percent cotton and made in Portugal, all mirror zips higher up the page.

MOTHER's Half Base Hoodie is the soft grey one I keep coming back to, a mid-weight stretch fleece made in the USA. Vuori's Sedona Classic and the Splits59 Joey are the easiest to wear to a class, the adidas Essentials is the heavyweight oversized fleece, and Leset's Mae is a mid-weight stretch knit that looks neater over trousers.

What I would skip: a pullover over a collared shirt. Pulling it on and off crushes the collar every time, and that is exactly when a zip earns its place.

If I were buying one zip up hoodie from this edit, it would be a mid-weight cotton full-zip in grey or black from the first group, because it works over everything. The designer zips in the third group are nice, but the difference is mostly fit and finish. If you never wear a hoodie open, I would take the FP Movement Final Call pullover instead.