What I learned about NHL authentic jerseys at the Oilers locker room sale

[oakland ehs]

Edit: I'm selling this jersey now on ebay - http://tinyurl.com/3kzybv

So I went to the Oilers locker room sale today - basically when they blow out everything from the team stores on the floor of Rexall Place, as well as game used equipment, jerseys, etc. Pretty cool place just to roam around and browse some of the equipment, seeing what the players use, being extremely tempted to buy certain things. It was tough to turn down an autographed, game worn Jason Smith helmet, but I'll save something like that for a display in my future mansion.

Anyways, back to the point of this post. There was about 15 game-issue jerseys available - 7 or 8 were put out at 11 am, when the sale was opened to season ticket holders (I am not, but had a card for it from someone who is), and then another 7 or 8 at 1 pm when it was opened for the general public. At 11 I just browsed, but in the time until 1 I decided I was going to try and snag one of the game issue jerseys, at the very least to get a good look at it.

So I'm standing in a short queue waiting for the new, nicer game used autographed sticks, and the jerseys, and finally they're put on the rack. There's 4 or 5 guys in front of me, so Hemsky, Gagner, and Horcoff are gone. It's down to Souray, Garon, Gilbert, and Cogliano, and in a quick decision I decided to go with Gilbert. In hindsight, not the best plan when I'm considering re-selling the jersey, and the other 3 guys are much more popular than Tom Gilbert, but that's beside the point.

For $275, not a bad deal at all to be getting an authentic jersey, with a player name - and actually game issued at that, vs. just a retail jersey. Think about it... around here $300 for an authentic + $110 for the player name = $410. I do work in a store with a very good employee discount, but I still figured this would be a nice addition, at the very least for awhile until I re-sell it.

As for the actual juicy details on the jersey...

We all know about how many players were not happy with the performance of the new RBK authentic jerseys - the wicking technology managed to backfire, not allowing sweat to escape the body and in turn made its way down to the players' skates. Many, many players switched back to the old 6100 style authentic jerseys, and some had modifications at that. Still, quite a few players, especially younger players/callups/rookies looked as if they were wearing the new 7187 jerseys, judging by the eye on how tight they appear.

From what I learned today though, the entire Oilers team was wearing the 6100 material with the 7187 cut. Side panels on the torso were stretchy material, but most of the material was the old air knit.

To clarify as well, even though it's the old material, the Oilers individual cut of the new jerseys was still incorporated into this one, with the weird rocket ship shape at the back neck.

Photo evidence...

This season at times it looked as if some teams had the true cut of the 6100, but were forced to cut the egg-shape hemline out of it themselves, and sometimes it looked as if it was done sloppily with scissors. This, and all the other jerseys had perfect hemlines - like they're supposed to. So were those just early versions - or lazy manufacturing?

The elbows are much wider than the 7187s, which brings us to...

Hmm, isn't that a funny looking doublestitched elbow? I had just assumed they were all the same elbows as the old jerseys - basically just an oval shaped spot that has the double layered stitching as opposed to the rest of the jersey's single layer.

See (faintly) the elbow stiching on Jagr's jersey, or the stitching on my authentic Jason Smith jersey.

Now, the jersey is properly stitched, it's just a bit funny in how it's done - never seen it before.

Very nice stitching on the letters and numbers - I half expected them to be done a bit more shoddily just because this jersey was meant for game use, and it's going to get beat up anyways, but it's a quality job.

What kind of boggled me was the SIZE of jerseys these guys were wearing, in the old style, looser jerseys at that.

Sure, Gilbert at 6'3" and 200lbs might need a big jersey. Maybe even with his big pads he'd need the extended length (I assume that's what the + means), but 58+? That's enormous. I am 6'2" and 230lbs (not the muscle of an NHL player but not the fat of the beer guy up in the 300's either), and a size 52 is very big on me with even a t-shirt and a hoodie under it. I'd wear a 48 but the sleeves aren't long enough. (keep in mind these are the old style sizes, new ones I'm 52-54 comfortably)

Granted I'm not wearing big shoulder and elbow pads, but still, I played hockey until a year ago and my jersey was never bigger than a size 52, and it was never tight. Every one of the game issue jerseys was at least a size 58 - including 5'10", 185 lb Andrew Cogliano and 5'11", 190 lb Sam Gagner. The Mathieu Garon of course was a goalie cut - didn't even bother checking that out. Souray, Gilbert, Hemsky, and an earlier Stortini were all 58+, which looked to be varying in how much added length there was. Perhaps some of them were just sleeve length and that's it - I wasn't going to spend a grand to take them all home for measurements.

Anyways, with the smallest players wearing 58s, it makes me wonder if 58 is just the standard size for NHL player jerseys, with modifications made from there as necessary. That way all you need to take on the road for possible trades/callups/jersey damage are blanks of all the same size and all they need to do is the necessary stitching for the name and number. It's not like baseball where they're supposed to fit your body as opposed to hockey jerseys where you can fit 3 of your body in it.

Finally, I've got the last jersey photo I took that makes it look a weird egg shape the way it's folded, so I figured I'd post it anyways.

I'll post more pictures when they're uploaded - I didn't have my own camera with me at the rink. I've got some randoms of semi-interesting things of the day, as well as a doozie for the counterfeit thread.

So take this post for what it is, feel free to make comments, and stay tuned for a few more photos later on.

[Neon_Matrix]

You are wrong with the jerseys. It is still built like a Edge but has a few portions of it replaced with the old Air-Knit polyester. It is wider in the sleeves but it is still mostly the Edge construction.

I own a first run Leafs pro and I can tell you from your pictures that they are constructed the same way apart from the materials used as well as the striping details which is stitched onto the originals but seem to be sublimated into this version. You can also see some of the panels which still use some of the more stretchy materials around the neck area.

From all sorts of photos I have seen, there is no consistency with the original Edge's and the modified ones. Most of the inconsistency's seem to be around the elbow where some have has the old style of sewing in a piece of fabric while others don't have any reinforcement.

Don't get confused - it is the EDGE, just with a few materials swapped out, mostly the ones which made up the sleeves otherwise, I can tell you from your pics, some of the stretchy finer mesh vents were kept. It seems like all that was really changed was the material on the sleeves and the original stretchy mesh was kept for the torso (they look very similar but the original materials had stretch to them).

Just my two cents on this.. it is pretty cool you got to snag a game issue but your write up on it had a few errors.

If you can snag one pic for me... can you lay it out with the arms out naturally? I am curious to see if it goes out straight or if it has the natural bend...

[oakland ehs]

For the photos, I tried one laying the arms out, but they do have the bend in them because I couldn't get them stretched out nicely for a photo.

Not too sure where you're coming from on this one though... I might not have explained it well enough, but I did mean to imply that this jersey is cut in the same style as the EDGE, however almost all of the materials are swapped. The only material that seems the same is the sides of the torso, from front vertical stripe to the back where the vertical seam is. Seems to be the only holdover from the EDGE, as well as the only thing with much stretch to it at all.

Of course, the neckline is too, but I hardly count that because it's such a minority detail on the jersey.

[Neon_Matrix]

From what I learned today though, the entire Oilers team was wearing the 6100s. Every jersey out there in the game issue lot was the old style.

That was my gripe.

[oakland ehs]

Ahh yeah, I should re-word that.

[oakland ehs]

I had hoped this thread would spur some discussion or some actual knowledge on the status of the EDGE uniforms for next season. There's no way Reebok and the NHL will allow years of work and money poured into research to just throw it away after one year and a massive uniform overhaul of the entire league.

[TheGodfather]

From what I learned today though, the entire Oilers team was wearing the 6100s. Every jersey out there in the game issue lot was the old style.

That was my gripe.

Suprising since I thought you were a huge EDGE lover.

[griffelh]

This is the information that was posted about this issue by Barry Meisel on another forum:

RBK 1.0 vs. RBK 2.0:

When the new RBK Edge jerseys were delivered to the teams (let?s call it the RBK Edge 1.0), and the teams began using them, it was learned that the chemical treatment administered to the new wick away fabric inadvertently prevented sweat from escaping. Instead of keeping the players cooler and lighter, sweat actually built up in the players? equipment and left the jerseys wetter. It was a flaw that RBK immediately attempted to correct by chemically treating the jersey differently.

Sometime in October, RBK responded to the feedback from the teams and made changes to the jersey: An RBK Edge actually has a variety of different fabrics in it. RBK left the stretch mesh under the arms and back, but replaced the front panel, shoulders and sleeves with an Airknit material.

Over the last few weeks, we have been tagging and sending to the teams small supplies of RBK Edge 2.0 jerseys.

Besides the new front fabric, these 2.0 jerseys also have responded to team suggestions by making minor customizing adjustments to the size and cut around the arms and shoulders of the garments. RBK and the NHL think the 2.0 will alleviate many of the problems NHL teams were facing with the new jerseys.

You probably saw a published report (one of the few entirely accurate reports in the media) that Ottawa was the first program team to introduce its RBK Edge 2.0 set. Teams will be introducing their RBK Edge 2.0 sets as they are delivered by RBK.

How many jerseys?

Because of sizing and durability issues (mainly for fighters, and players who sweat a lot) in the RBK 1.0 sets, some players have had more than one jersey in Set 1. Which players, and how many per team, will become evident when we get the Set 1 final reports.

And because teams can switch to RBK 2.0, we actually believe that there will be FEWER jerseys this season than in seasons past. We say that because RBK is manufacturing as quickly as possible, but has delivered enough jerseys only for teams to produce a Set 2 and Set 3 ? and depending upon call-ups, special situations, etc, those jerseys are going to be in very, very short supply for the near future.

As the season continues, we will be able to provide more accurate information. But as of right now, the 14 program teams? jersey sets look as follows:

Set 1 (RBK 1.0)---Start of pre-season through November or December, depending upon if the team switches to 2.0, and when their 2.0s are manufactured and delivered.

Sets 2 and 3 (RBK 2.0, if a team chooses)---Some teams will switch out completely. Others might blend the 1.0 and 2.0, depending upon what the players/teams prefer.

[oakland ehs]

Very interesting.

Any info on when 2.0 might be available for retail sale?

[ElwoodCuse]

Any info on when 2.0 might be available for retail sale?

Every article I saw that discussed the alterations said they had no plans to change the "authentics" that they offer to fans for $250 blank. Maybe this has changed since then but I don't know.

What DOES Meigray do with ruined jerseys? Say, if you preordered one and it got ripped in half in a fight (like so many did). Might be cool, but at full price?

Also if the Panthers were involved with them I bet Barry would have gotten emails from people offering him ungodly sums for Richard Zednik's jersey. You know the one.

[ohryan]

This is the information that was posted about this issue by Barry Meisel on another forum:

RBK 1.0 vs. RBK 2.0:

When the new RBK Edge jerseys were delivered to the teams (let?s call it the RBK Edge 1.0), and the teams began using them, it was learned that the chemical treatment administered to the new wick away fabric inadvertently prevented sweat from escaping. Instead of keeping the players cooler and lighter, sweat actually built up in the players? equipment and left the jerseys wetter. It was a flaw that RBK immediately attempted to correct by chemically treating the jersey differently.

Sometime in October, RBK responded to the feedback from the teams and made changes to the jersey: An RBK Edge actually has a variety of different fabrics in it. RBK left the stretch mesh under the arms and back, but replaced the front panel, shoulders and sleeves with an Airknit material.

Over the last few weeks, we have been tagging and sending to the teams small supplies of RBK Edge 2.0 jerseys.

Besides the new front fabric, these 2.0 jerseys also have responded to team suggestions by making minor customizing adjustments to the size and cut around the arms and shoulders of the garments. RBK and the NHL think the 2.0 will alleviate many of the problems NHL teams were facing with the new jerseys.

You probably saw a published report (one of the few entirely accurate reports in the media) that Ottawa was the first program team to introduce its RBK Edge 2.0 set. Teams will be introducing their RBK Edge 2.0 sets as they are delivered by RBK.

How many jerseys?

Because of sizing and durability issues (mainly for fighters, and players who sweat a lot) in the RBK 1.0 sets, some players have had more than one jersey in Set 1. Which players, and how many per team, will become evident when we get the Set 1 final reports.

And because teams can switch to RBK 2.0, we actually believe that there will be FEWER jerseys this season than in seasons past. We say that because RBK is manufacturing as quickly as possible, but has delivered enough jerseys only for teams to produce a Set 2 and Set 3 ? and depending upon call-ups, special situations, etc, those jerseys are going to be in very, very short supply for the near future.

As the season continues, we will be able to provide more accurate information. But as of right now, the 14 program teams? jersey sets look as follows:

Set 1 (RBK 1.0)---Start of pre-season through November or December, depending upon if the team switches to 2.0, and when their 2.0s are manufactured and delivered.

Sets 2 and 3 (RBK 2.0, if a team chooses)---Some teams will switch out completely. Others might blend the 1.0 and 2.0, depending upon what the players/teams prefer.

So, in other words, Reebok (or RBK or whatever) should have just never messed with them in the first place? It's kind of like Pepsi Clear or New Coke... great ideas by someone trying really, really hard to "think outside the box." but in reality, a train wreck.

[BadSeed84]

Yeah they should just make the replica's like how they used to, cause they were cheaper.

[ferrousoxide66]

You passed up Cogs for Gilbert? Whaaaaa?

[ElwoodCuse]

Yeah they should just make the replica's like how they used to, cause they were cheaper.

Crappy as those they are, they are better than what MLB tries to pass off as replicas

[oakland ehs]

You passed up Cogs for Gilbert? Whaaaaa?

Haha... sorry. I like Cogliano a lot but I've been pulling for Gilbert, first of all because he came back from Colorado in the trade relieving us of Tommy Salo, and second of all, and more seriously, since he turned pro last season and made his Oilers debut.

I remember his first NHL game in Ottawa in February 07 when the Oil were getting destroyed by injuries. With a minute left the Sens were up by a goal and Gilbert was on the ice, and saw a loose puck in the slot, jumped in from the point and tied the game before they ended up losing in the shootout.

He was so green, he had a brand new RBK helmet that hadn't had the inside panels changed from gray to white like all NHL teams do.

I get attached to guys I get to see from the beginning, and that other people seem to overlook. With the Oilers, it's Tom Gilbert. With the A's, it's Daric Barton because I got to see live his first game and hit, and got an autograph.

Or I could just be like every girl aged 9-90 and fall in love with Sam Gagner the day he was drafted

[griffelh]

Any info on when 2.0 might be available for retail sale?

Every article I saw that discussed the alterations said they had no plans to change the "authentics" that they offer to fans for $250 blank. Maybe this has changed since then but I don't know.

What DOES Meigray do with ruined jerseys? Say, if you preordered one and it got ripped in half in a fight (like so many did). Might be cool, but at full price?

Also if the Panthers were involved with them I bet Barry would have gotten emails from people offering him ungodly sums for Richard Zednik's jersey. You know the one.

If you are not happy with a jersey that you pre-ordered, for any reason, you can exchange it for a different jersey. MG is actually great to deal with. And, you can obtain Game Issued and preseason jerseys for less than the cost of retail authentics!

[Reaper]

He was so green, he had a brand new RBK helmet that hadn't had the inside panels changed from gray to white like all NHL teams do.

No, he simply used a helmet with EPP foam instead of the more traditional vinyl nitrite. Also, teams don't "change the inside panels" from one padding type to another. A player simply tells the equipment provider which type of padding he would like and they provide him with a helmet as per his request.

[ElwoodCuse]

If you are not happy with a jersey that you pre-ordered, for any reason, you can exchange it for a different jersey. MG is actually great to deal with. And, you can obtain Game Issued and preseason jerseys for less than the cost of retail authentics!

Well yeah, I just mean do they offer them for sale at all.

Can't wait for the summer sale, got my eye on some Toby Petersen jerseys. For less than retail, as you say.

[slapshot]

I have an interesting observation about the RBK jerseys. I recently won a game-worn Springfield Falcons jersey from this season.

The numbers on the back and sleeves are of the Reebok NFL EQT-jersey variety; one-layer tackle twill with silkscreened "layered" coloring with fake stitching screened on. So even though it looks like white-on-navy-on-blue, it's just a white number with the navy and blue stitching screened on.

The lettering is sewn on, and the front crest and shoulder patches are full twill (not screened).

My guess is one single layer of twill is more consistent with the moisture wicking material of the jersey than multiple layers of twill are.

[oakland ehs]

Seriously... that's game worn with crappy EQT numbers?