Academics, philanthropy and community service are classic markers of fraternity life, however, there is only one true emblem of a fraternal man -- his clothing. What many people don’t know is that there is a separate section of every fraternity’s bylaws that outlines the proper attire of a true fraternity brother.While no fraternity member has ever actually seen or read that separate section, every single one knows that it exists. That is the only plausible explanation for the dress code that will emerge in the beer garden at Red Lion come spring when the sun is out in full force. The odds are very likely that from prior experience you already know how to tell which circle of men in a beer garden are fraternity members.
It all starts with the shirt. There are always a few classier, or more insecure, individuals who are rocking their favorite brightly colored Polo, but the majority of fraternity members will be wearing something much less formal- the jersey. While they may not be able to wear them anywhere but the beer garden of a bar, nothing says “frat” quite like a jersey with Greek letters on the front and an obnoxious nickname on the back. 

For some reason, common sense generally tends to slip one’s mind when they come back at 3 a.m. to come up with a cleverly “discrete” reference to something wildly inappropriate. Sexual innuendos, alcohol references, nothing is safe from going on the back of a frat jersey. Read the front to determine Greek affiliation, read the back to learn a lot more than you may want about that particular person. 

If you still cannot tell if someone is in a fraternity based off of a shirt, the next step is to look at their shorts. It is not so much what shorts they are wearing, rather what shorts they aren’t. Upon signing a bid to a fraternity, a man joins an unspoken pact to never, ever wear cargo shorts. Many fraternity members wore cargo shorts in high school, but for some reason when they got to college they suddenly burned all evidence of those occurrences. 

Cargos may have a couple of unnecessary pockets and be a little bit too baggy, but the majority of fraternity members are not wearing them simply to conform. If any member of a group in question is wearing cargo shorts and is not clearly the loser of a bet or being helplessly made fun of, then the odds are good that the group is not a group of fraternity men.

The final way to distinguish those with fraternal bonds is by their shoes. Champaign-Urbana may be one of the least nautically friendly schools in the Big Ten, but that does not stop fraternity members from rocking their boat shoes. Another tradition that clearly originated elsewhere, nothing says frat "bro" more than a well-worn pair of boat shoes. Although the odds are fairly high that a member of the group in question has never even been on a sailboat, they are probably not frat bros if they’re not all wearing boat shoes. 
Frat jerseys, no cargos, boat shoes. The true emblems of fraternal life. Look for those three things in any beer garden and you will easily distinguish the bros from the fraternity bros.