What's wrong with this jersey?

[Sodboy13]

There's a long, agonizing story behind this one. In the meantime, just take a look and tell me what's screwed up.

[havlat24]

i am new to these boards. i don't follow the blue jays very closely but isn't the name supposed to be straight across?

[officeglenn]

OK, I'll bite.

1. The letter font is way off. I don't know what the Jays' correct nameplate font is called, but this one looks to be Eurostile Bold Condensed.

2. The numbers are less off than the nameplate, but they're still off. The corners should be much rounder, especially on the 3, and the tail on the bottom of the 2 should extend further to the right, with the serif slanted as well. On the 3, there should also be more space from the middle to the bottom tails than from the top to the middle. On this one, they look pretty much equidistant.

So, basically, everything is wrong with the back of that jersey. Don't leave me hanging ... what's the story?

[TFoA]

Ah Like glenn said, they got you with the nameplate font. That was the obivous one.

I don't think I would've caught the number font though. Guess I need to fix my logo eye.

[FlyersHockey1967]

I don't think I would've caught the number font though. Guess I need to fix my logo eye.

No need, cause that was a number. I don't see a logo on there anywhere.

[TFoA]

I don't think I would've caught the number font though. Guess I need to fix my logo eye.

No need, cause that was a number. I don't see a logo on there anywhere.

lol. "Logo/number eye."

[Sodboy13]

OK, I'll bite.

1. The letter font is way off. I don't know what the Jays' correct nameplate font is called, but this one looks to be Eurostile Bold Condensed.

2. The numbers are less off than the nameplate, but they're still off. The corners should be much rounder, especially on the 3, and the tail on the bottom of the 2 should extend further to the right, with the serif slanted as well. On the 3, there should also be more space from the middle to the bottom tails than from the top to the middle. On this one, they look pretty much equidistant.

So, basically, everything is wrong with the back of that jersey. Don't leave me hanging ... what's the story?

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Congrats, officeglenn! Now you get to hear me piss and moan about how this all came to pass.

I dropped off my treasured Jays graphite jersey to get customized on August 28th, along with a Lightning alternate Jersey. I've had two hockey jerseys done before at the place (City Sports Lettering in Oak Forest, IL,) so I had no questions about their quality, even though I knew the Lightning jersey might be a tall order. I brought in and e-mailed photographs and explained how I wanted the customization done, in detail, to make it easier for them and let them know exactly how I wanted it. No problem, they said. 3 to 4 weeks.

4 weeks pass, and I call. Not done yet, because they're having trouble tracking down that electric Lightning font. Understandable. Couple more weeks pass with no word. I call again. "We should have it done by next Tuesday, and since it took so long, we'll drop it off right at your home." Fine. Tuesday comes and goes, with nothing. Call again. "We're really having trouble getting that file." Finally, they get whatever file it is they need, though it doesn't have all the numbers. No big issue there, really: I change my order from a Puppa #93 to a Ciccarelli #22. The Lightning jersey is finally done, 9 weeks after I brought it in. But no Blue Jays jersey.

"We've never done one of the new Jays before, and we just really want to make sure we get it right." Um, okay, it is a current style, ya know, shouldn't be that hard to track down. Then every couple of weeks, it's the parade of excuses, often paired with me showing up at the store on the day I was told to, only to be told when I arrive that it's just not ready yet:

"Our scanner broke."

"We're out of the sparkle silver material, we're waiting for the shipment."

"We did a Jays jersey for someone else, a home one, and it turns out we don't stock that dark grey color they use." (Well, good thing my jersey doesn't require that color. As I explained to you in person and via e-mail.)

"The numbers are cut, we've just gotta sew 'em on, it'll be ready on _____." (THREE separate occasions.)

December 23rd. Occurrence number 3 of the "we've just gotta sew 'em on" excuse, after being told to come in and pick it up on this specific date. "It'll be ready by 2 today, we're just gonna ship it out to you." I politely explain I'd rather not have it shipped, I'll just come and pick it up. They'll call me when it's ready. 3:00 and no call, so I call them. "Oh yeah, uh, it looks like it got shipped out."

January 6th, two weeks later, and no jersey in the mail from the store that's 2 1/2 miles away from me. I call, around 2:30. "Okay, well, we shipped it, I don't know why it's not there yet, let me call FedEx and try to track it down for you. Call me back in half an hour." So I wait (while fully aware of the fact that if it was, indeed, shipped with FedEx, it could be looked up with its tracking number online in about 10 seconds.

3:00 comes.

"City Sports Lettering."

"Hi, is Tony there?"

"Oh, no, he's gone for the day."

That does it. I go off, in a fairly restrained fashion, listing every single hoop I've had to jump through. Guy goes over to Tony's desk, says he doesn't see anything from FedEx. I tell him he'd better call Tony on his personal phone, ASAP, and find out what the hell's going on. Naturally, I receive no call.

I call Monday morning, getting an apologetic Tony on the line. "Yeah, it looks like it never left FedEx's hub, they're bringing it back to us, it should be here in a couple of days." At this point, these guys could fertilize every lawn in Cook County with all the BS they've shoveled toward me. Finally, Friday, January 12th, four-and-a-half frickin' months after I dropped this jersey off, it's done, it's there, it's ready for pickup.

And I get something that looks like a Korean eBay bootleg.

At the end of my rope (and because Tony, the guy who spearheaded this whole operation, wasn't there,) I take the jersey and go home. I print out what this is actually supposed to look like, once again. I take it there and get told "Well, we never said it would be exactly like what the team wears. Only the Blue Jays could do that. We just use pictures on the internet to try and get it as close as possible. The only team we promise to doexactly is the Blackhawks. This looks pretty close to me." True, they never said that. Nor does it say anywhere on their site that customization is done to MLB specifications. But when you promote yourself as the official lettering supplier for the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Cubs' team shops, and your store has a wall of baseball jerseys, it certainly implies that you know what you're doing. Also, at no point was I ever told that what I'd be getting wouldn't be exactly what the team wears. Semantic loophole, I suppose.

So, in conclusion: I've got this jersey, and I don't know whether to keep it despite its major flaws, or ship it off to Exclusive Pro, have it stripped, and start over again. All I do know is, I got ed, and they lost a customer.

[RyanB06]

Wow. That's a rough story, dude. You should definitely send that off to EPS - if you're going to rock the Doc, you might as well do it right.

[sacker12]

Thanks for giving me one more reason not to use City Sports Lettering. The main reason I got my Braves alt replica customized by EPS is because I got a good deal on the replica, plus the customization was the right price. And, the best part, it was done in a timely fashion.

[ebod39]

thanks for sharing, I've been meaning to call them but I won't bother now.

There line of "we never said it would be exact" is absolute B.S., because

that's what they're in the business for. Didn't they even use "getting it right" as an

excuse to why it was taking so long? That's messed up. Any chance to get your money back?

You should contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint, it will

go on their permament record.

[officeglenn]

Yikes. That sucks, man. I really hope this doesn't wind up costing you a bunch more money ... and time.

[BRice16]

The thing is, any good lettering shop should be able to do the exact work since the community now has all of the TrueType font files from the NFL, NHL and MLB teams. All I have to do with the people here locally is email them the file I downloaded from here and they put it in the computer and cut out the letters and numbers on what is basically a tackle-twill printer. they've done numerous jerseys for me with no problem just by using the font files from here. And they're a hell of alot cheaper than Exclusive Pro.

[LogoHound]

Ok, Iv'e never had apparel customized so excuse the dumb questions. You were paying the company to put a players name and number on a jersey? Isn't that why they sell licensed player jerseys? I mean, if the name and numbers are being added after the fact wouldn't that make it counterfeit?

[RyanB06]

Ok, Iv'e never had apparel customized so excuse the dumb questions. You were paying the company to put a players name and number on a jersey? Isn't that why they sell licensed player jerseys? I mean, if the name and numbers are being added after the fact wouldn't that make it counterfeit?

No. Especially if the name/number/jersey combination isn't available any other way than customizing it. I did a little quick research just now, and an alternate Halladay from mlb.com's shop will run you $209 plus shipping (because it must be custom-made). The unlettered alternate is available for $139. The lettering from EPS runs $44. That's already $183 (compare to the $209). And by the way, EPS is licensed by all four major leagues.

That's why people send jerseys to be customized - it's sometimes cheaper to have a third-party do it than to have it done when they order the jersey initally.

[LogoHound]

Ok, Iv'e never had apparel customized so excuse the dumb questions. You were paying the company to put a players name and number on a jersey? Isn't that why they sell licensed player jerseys? I mean, if the name and numbers are being added after the fact wouldn't that make it counterfeit?

No. Especially if the name/number/jersey combination isn't available any other way than customizing it. I did a little quick research just now, and an alternate Halladay from mlb.com's shop will run you $209 plus shipping (because it must be custom-made). The unlettered alternate is available for $139. The lettering from EPS runs $44. That's already $183 (compare to the $209). And by the way, EPS is licensed by all four major leagues.

That's why people send jerseys to be customized - it's sometimes cheaper to have a third-party do it than to have it done when they order the jersey initally.

Ok, so it is considered to be authentic after being altered? If so then the 3rd party shops have a license to do so, right? In that case they should have access to all the vector files. They would also have to pay royalties to the MLBP, in which case they should be attaching some sort of hologram. Or am I wrong?

[RyanB06]

Ok, Iv'e never had apparel customized so excuse the dumb questions. You were paying the company to put a players name and number on a jersey? Isn't that why they sell licensed player jerseys? I mean, if the name and numbers are being added after the fact wouldn't that make it counterfeit?

No. Especially if the name/number/jersey combination isn't available any other way than customizing it. I did a little quick research just now, and an alternate Halladay from mlb.com's shop will run you $209 plus shipping (because it must be custom-made). The unlettered alternate is available for $139. The lettering from EPS runs $44. That's already $183 (compare to the $209). And by the way, EPS is licensed by all four major leagues.

That's why people send jerseys to be customized - it's sometimes cheaper to have a third-party do it than to have it done when they order the jersey initally.

Ok, so it is considered to be authentic after being altered? If so then the 3rd party shops have a license to do so, right? In that case they should have access to all the vector files. They would also have to pay royalties to the MLBP, in which case they should be attaching some sort of hologram. Or am I wrong?

Let's go through this slowly:

Ok, so it is considered to be authentic after being altered?

An authentic jersey is an authentic jersey. "Altered" isn't the word you need to be using here. Customizing is not altering.

If so then the 3rd party shops have a license to do so, right? In that case they should have access to all the vector files.

Covered above.

They would also have to pay royalties to the MLBP, in which case they should be attaching some sort of hologram.

I don't know how EPS does it, you'd have to e-mail them and ask that. As for the hologram, I think you're confusing authentication with customizing. Two different animals.

Hope that helps.

[averyj]

To reiterate that whole ordeal sodboy had to go through, that cr@p went from..

August 28 2006

to

January 12, 2007

Jeez, that story hurts.

[M59]

Not that this is going to help AT ALL...that font actually looks better than the one the Jays actually use. I've hated the current NOB font from the day they introduced it.

Glad I haven't used City Sports in years, though.

[mr71]

Not that this is going to help AT ALL...that font actually looks better than the one the Jays actually use. I've hated the current NOB font from the day they introduced it.

Glad I haven't used City Sports in years, though.

I'm glad I saw this post. With my problems with AuthenticLettering, I was going to go to these guys which I had done in the past as I have some jerseys to be done. Now I guess EPS is the way to go

[Domi28]

I ordered a Domi Leafs jersey from Citysportslettering about 7 years ago. It took forever and wasn't done right. They heat pressed the #'s on, but only stitched the sleeve #'s on one arm for some reason.