Why Not to Buy Fakes Part 6

Have you ever seen a jersey that you thought "there's no way they'd ever make a fake of this?" For me, that jersey was the Buff-a-slug. Now it's no secret I love the Slug, I think it's a good jersey, dated at this point, but good none the less. The same cannot be said for the majority of Sabres fans. These jerseys are INCREDIBLY common, even to this day. I can still find a brand new Slug for sale in most big box sports stores, and lots of online vendors. The reason for this is frankly, the people who want these very likely already have one, and because it was worn as the primary jersey of Buffalo for the 4 years, lots were produced. Couple all this with the fact that this jersey has been consistently at clearance prices for the better part of nearly a decade, and the cost factor is null.

So you'd imagine my surprise when I found this gem in eBay.

The logo and collar are the two major dead giveaways. The Buffaslug has since the beginning been considered by many to be a logo that looked like a slug, a big, bright yellow banana slug to be exact. I don't really see that, but looking at that cheap reflective material, it's hard to use any word but gaudy. The numbers share that problem. The collar is just a mess. Not only is there no NHL shield under it or tag on the inside, but it takes an already unpopular collar style, and making it look like someone tried to fit it to a watermelon. Another thing worth noting is the lack of reflective material. On a real slug, the grey side horn pattern is a shiny grey similar to Nashville's original jerseys, as does the dark grey on the logo and the entire sword on the shoulder patches.

Let's look at the back now, as the problems to not end there

Often times on fakes in this series, the Reebok tag on the back of the jersey looks like it was written by a dysgraphic crayon, and this is no exception, but I've never sen the vector logo butchers like this. The numbers are much too small and are black...yes they are black. They might look like dark navy, but I'm 100% convinced they're black. Look at the NOB with the bad font, they're clearly a different colour than the numbers, and the NOB is clearly navy. Even if they are navy, the material is that cheap garage vinyl.

But this isn't the only of fake Slugs out there, I could do several posts on fake slugs, but I'll only include one more. I can hear some of you complaining about how dull the yellow on the logos and numbers are. Don't worry, this next fake takes care of that.

The interesting thing about this jersey is that the logos were clearly made separately from the jersey and then applied to a fake blank edge Buff-a-slug template. The back of the jersey to me looks like a cheap rain poncho. I can't tell if the neon yellow is actually that bright or if buddy taking the photo just had the flash on...or maybe a black light...The collar on this fake is a little more accurate with the inclusion of the NHL shield under the collar, but it still looks sized to a cantaloupe. It actually seems to more resemble a regular standard Edge template with the shield stuck underneath it. The photo is blurry but there does appear to be an insert in it; something not found on a real Slug

We got another great example this week, specifically Tuesday, about how official NHL team social media tend to promote fake jerseys, very likely by accident or ignorance.

Check out what Washington Capitals twitter tweeted out yesterday!

If you've been reading this series, for the most part you can tell the obvious signs of fakes: ReEbOk logo, hard stitching around the namebar, crappy vinyl numbers, crappy fight strap. Now it's clear this fan loves his jersey, it's well loved on the back and he took it 10k ft to the Rocky Mountains, so maybe that's why Washington retweeted it, but they could at least offer to give him a real replica jersey to replace this mess. Seriously, @Capitals, give this man an authentic jersey!

Got an interesting fake you want talked about on this series, tweet it @HockeyJC and we'll put it in an upcoming post!