Jerseys 101 — Page 2

The AHP #65, It’s All About the Jerseys (And Your Help)

June 9, 2011 by Jay Vean - The AHP

Hi again everyone. James and I are planning a summer podcast focused on jerseys and want you to be a part of the show. We’ll plan the show based on your questions and feedback and would love to hear from you. You can choose to participate in many different ways.

You can click on this link —> http://goo.gl/uCdd2 , fill out the Google form, and click submit.

You can comment on The Avs Hockey Podcast’s Facebook page found here. If you leave a comment there please include the favorite hockey jersey in your collection (if you have a collection.)

You can leave a comment on this blog post. If you leave a comment here please include the favorite hockey jersey in your collection (if you have a collection.)

Or you can email James and me at avalanchepodcast@comcast.net.

Check out a few of James’ jerseys on his jersey blog, Jerseys and Hockey Love. Check out the whole blog as well as some of the stories about his jerseys on “The Jerseys” tab.

Check out the stories behind some of my jerseys on my blog here under the categories section on the right. And here are pictures of most of the hockey jerseys in my collection. Bookmark my gallery as I post pictures every once in a while.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you and are looking forward to the show as well. Keep an eye out on Twitter and Facebook for details about when the show will be posted. Thanks Avalanche fans!

Some International Flavor

July 13, 2010 by Jay Vean - The AHP

First off, I have to come clean, I was never that big of a Wojtek Wolski fan when he played here in Denver, but I did have his back when he needed me. With that said, let’s get to the jersey.

A few years ago a seller on eBay listed a handful of jerseys that were to be worn during the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships which were hosted that year in Canada. It’s pretty tough to find who didn’t make the Team Canada roster after tryouts, but the fact that this jersey exists makes me assume that Wolski was one of the final roster cuts.

The story may be unclear, but the jersey does exist, and here it is.

There are all kinds of great details to share about this jersey. First, there are the patches. One is the tournament patch found on the upper left hand part of the chest.

This patch is only found on the jerseys that were worn in, or made for, the tournament itself. Many eBay sellers reproduce patches like this and sell them, but the “real deal” is obviously always better in terms of quality and detail.

Another patch that I love on this jersey is the IIHF patch found on the back of the jersey on the lower right tail.

The International Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body over all international hockey competition. Again, this patch is imitated by many people, but never duplicated like people can find on jerseys made for or worn in IIHF tournaments.

The other thing collectors find on Nike authentic jerseys is this.

Nike heat seals a barcode like this on all of their authentic jerseys. It’s found underneath the lower left hand side of the back hem of the jersey. There has been a lot of discussion regarding these tags and even the experts don’t know if this tag means that this jersey was made to wear in games or it was something that Nike did with all of their authentic jerseys. Either way, it’s definitely something worth paying attention to if you’re a collector.

Nike also changed the cut to the jerseys they made for international teams just after this tournament. The more form fitting cut they labeled “Swift” has not been very popular for hockey fans, but it has been something the company has stuck with so the players must not mind it too much. This jersey having more of the traditional cut was something that drew me to it. I prefer the larger cut of this jersey and jerseys of its time. The design looks very much like a Nike Swift, but the cut is definitely not Swift-like.

Another Nike international jersey trademark is the names on the back of the jersey are heat pressed rather than actually sewn onto the nameplate. I guess Nike didn’t want all that thread weighing the players down when they wore this jersey.

There’s more too. Canada decided not too long before this tournament to start outlining the emblem on the chest and shoulders in gold rather than the red and black they had used in the past. The larger image of the front of the jersey (shown above) doesn’t show this very well, the close up of the crest on the chest and the shoulder patch shows the gold accents way better.

This jersey, like all of the game worn or game issued jerseys in my collection, tells a story. The story isn’t as long as it would have been if Wolski had actually played in the tournament, but that’s alright, some international flavor is always welcome in my collection anyways.

Joe Sakic 2001 All-Star Jersey: A Nice Little Fixer Upper

July 9, 2010 by Jay Vean - The AHP

Sometimes, especially on eBay, rare treasures can be found for reasonable prices. Sometimes those rare treasures need some TLC. The jersey featured below is definitely one of those treasures.

Ever since the 2001 NHL All-Star game here in Denver I had been looking for a blue North American authentic version of the jerseys that I could potentially make into a Joe Sakic. I didn’t have the money to buy an authentic back then. The jerseys being right around $250 didn’t help either. I don’t think I’d buy any blank jersey right now for that much. Either way, I trusted I would get one eventually.

After a wait of just short of a decade I was able to finally find the jersey I was looking for on eBay, and the wait was well worth it for many reasons. First off, the seller obviously had no idea what they had. It was listed as an “Avalanche alternate jersey” in a size 58. There was no mention in the title or description about it being an NHL All-Star jersey. One pretty bad picture of the front was all that was included in the listing and that was it.

Based on the size I had a strong feeling that this jersey was different in a good way. Size 58s from this era of jerseys were only made for the teams and not for retail sale. That had me very curious. The listing also mentioned the fight strap had been cut off of the jersey. That’s never good when it comes to authentic jerseys. The fight strap is one of the things that makes the jersey authentic in the first place. I’m also assuming that scared off a few bidders. I ended up placing a last second bid and won the jersey for $32 delivered. Not too bad at all.

Opening that box was pretty exciting when it arrived. My focus went directly to the back of the jersey on the lower right hand side. I found what I was looking for because it looked like this:

The silver NHL shield is found on all of the authentic jerseys of that era. No big deal. But the NHLPA logo to the left of the NHL shield is a big deal. Those are only found on jerseys that are made to wear in the actual NHL All-Star games. On a side note, I found the red jersey below on eBay as well. It has a similar story behind it. Check out the lower right hand side of the back of the jersey. You’ll see the NHLPA logo there as well. That means it was going to be used in an All-Star game, but it ended up as a blank extra just like my potential Sakic.

By the way, just in case you’re wondering, NHLPA stands for the National Hockey League Players’ Association.

With the good news of the future Sakic jersey being what I wanted it to be there now came new challenges. Look really closely where the fight strap should be, just below the middle of the back, and notice that most of it isn’t there.

Here’s the front, just for the “before” reference.

Overall, the jersey was in pretty good shape. I’d classify it as very good used condition. I was very happy overall, but I was just getting started.

I now had my next steps to make this jersey into something special: find someone that could fix the fight strap, find a blue nameplate for the back of the jersey, find a Team Canada flag patch for the left sleeve, a small Avalanche patch for the right sleeve, and a company could letter it into a Sakic for me. No problem.

A few connections on a jersey forum that I’m a member of helped me find someone that could very easily fix the fight strap. That same guy knew someone that could get me some blue material for the nameplate on the eventual finished jersey. I purchased the patches I needed from a local sports memorabilia store that I’ve been going to for 25 years. And after discussing things with my favorite local jersey lettering place I found out that they were the actual company that lettered the on-ice All-Star jerseys for the game at Pepsi Center in 2001. How’s that for a plan?

Fast forward about six months and here is the finished product:

It’s a beautiful thing.

In the end, a $32 jersey became something very special. In the grand scheme of things I made a game issued Joe Sakic 2001 All-Star jersey for a fraction of the price of a documented game issued jersey. Also in the end, it was quite a bargain and was definitely well worth the wait.

Many jersey collectors will say the most expensive jerseys price-wise automatically end up as the centerpieces of their collections, but sometimes the best deals and the projects stemming from those deals steal the show in the end. This jersey is a perfect example of just that.

Andrew Brunette, My First Game Worn Jersey.

June 25, 2010 by Jay Vean - The AHP

There came a time, a few years ago, where I felt that I had saved enough money to start thinking about “upping the ante” when it came to my jersey collection. I had a lot of cool Avs jerseys, but something was missing. It was time to go after some game worn jerseys.

I ended up on Captain’s Jerseys site. I’d hyperlink it for you, but he doesn’t do near as much as he used to when it comes to jerseys on his site. Anyways, I ran across an Andrew Brunette game used alternate jersey from the 2005-2006 season. I’m a real sucker for any jersey with a patch on it. (Have I mentioned that 100 times already yet?) I sent him what I thought was a fair offer on the jersey, he countered with an offer that wasn’t so fair, and I decided to turn it down. Guess what showed up on eBay a few weeks later? After I got over feeling cheated about him not giving me a heads up about the jersey being listed I followed the auction and won it. If I remember right, the auction ended at about $75 cheaper than my original offer to him. Funny how things work out sometimes. I finally had my first game worn jersey for my collection.

I don’t meet many Avalanche fans, or jersey fans, that don’t like the style of this jersey for a lot of reasons. I’ve missed them since the Avalanche stopped wearing them. They just have that classic look that everyone has a hard time disliking.

The first thing I noticed on the jersey was the game wear. Seeing the “battle scars” that litter the jersey is always part of the excitement when a gamer arrives. This jersey had a fair amount of wear. Here are some examples.

And I don’t really want to even guess what this is above the 15 on the right sleeve. Glue? A burn from the boards? Snot? Who knows?

I noticed a few more things about this jersey right away too. One thing is the new NHL shield sewn directly over the old NHL shield on the back tail. This is consistent with many of the jerseys from this era. When Reebok took over the branding from CCM/Koho, this is what they did to recycle the jerseys in a sense. Here’s the new shield:

And here’s the old NHL shield with the tail of the jersey flipped up.

The tag you see above is the Meigray tag. Every team that has signed a deal with Meigray has their game worn and game issued jerseys tagged this way. Each jersey has its own number and the “C” in front of the “02824” indicates that this jersey came from the third year of the game worn jersey program. Here’s the weird part though, this jersey has two Meigray tags. The one above is actually on the bottom of the front right of the jersey, where no Meigray tags ever are. Here’s the real Meigray tag, where it’s supposed to be, on the back left side of the bottom of the jersey.

The small patch to the left of the Meigray tag helped Meigray “recycle” the jerseys they had tagged for the 2004-2005 NHL season, which was a total wash as a result of the players being locked out by the owners of the league. I contacted Meigray about the double tag and they said it was a mistake on their part. It was also noted in their records that this jersey was double-tagged. I hadn’t seen a jersey with two Meigray tags on it before this one and I haven’t seen one since. Strange quirks are fun, especially when the jersey is yours.

Since this jersey I have added many more game issued and game worn jerseys which you’ll hear all about in the future, I just wanted to share with you how the fever began.

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