Thursday: Fake Jerseys

Hello fellow jersey enthusiasts and welcome back!

Quick note: I've created my own blog on blogger here to post my own concepts and photo edits, along with some other things every once in a while, so go check it out if you'd like. Here's the link, and I will also have a post or area on the blog with my jersey collection, once I can figure it out. The design is also very rough for now but I'll be working on that soon.

Today we only have four concepts to review (technically five but two are just different versions of the same concept), but I also have added something extra that you guys can read.

First off here are the votes that are going on this week. First off we have our usual COTW vote, nothing different. We also have the 2nd quarter vote for COTY, it's hard to believe this year is over half over already. Last but not least we have the HJC Open vote for the quarterfinals. I sadly didn't make it past last round, and by the time I voted I had given up and just voted for my opponent. Oh well. I'll be ready for next year and good luck to everyone who remains, it'll be tough to win.

HJC Quarter Final Vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

2nd Quarter Vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW July 5-11 Vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

So the first thing we have for today is some logo news:

The AHL's Milwaukee Admirals have unveiled their new logos and uniforms yesterday

All photos from Nashville Predators

I love this rebrand and the new jersey design as well. They no longer look like a cartoon and draw from their past for the logo. The jersey design is new and unique and still looks great. Only thing I don't really like is the shoulder patch, I like the idea but it just looks too busy to me.

The next thing here is a small article type thing that compares fake jerseys to legitimate ones from my own personal experience. It is pretty long for an introduction to a post so I decided to put it inside a spoiler tag type of thing, hopefully it's working, and if not here's a link to the same exact article posted on my personal blog.

Here's the article (hopefully):

So if anyone has read the comments on Ryan's fake jersey quiz on the design blog (go check it out if you haven't yet!), you'll have seen that I admitted I own a few fakes. I bought a good bit of fake jerseys a while back thinking they were close enough to the real ones for me to be okay with owning. However after time I noticed how bad they really were and now I own a few legitimate jerseys that are the same (or similar enough) to the fakes I own so I'm going to compare them. The fake Lemieux jersey was ordered from Borntrade, and the Nugent-Hopkins one was from Ebay, which I honestly assume came from Borntrade but I am not positive on this.

The first two jerseys I own that I'll be comparing are my Penguins jerseys of this style. The real one is my Olli Maatta alternate jersey that I got at the very end of this season, actually from the PensGear store at the very last home game of the season, in the playoffs against the Rangers. The fake is a vintage Mario Lemieux jersey.

The first thing you notice is that the real jersey easily appears to be a better quality especially in the logo. The puffy logos of fakes make it easier for them to get crinkled up and get creases in them.

A close up of both the logos where you can much more easily see the creases in the fake logo. Also, the jersey is supposed to be a 1991 vintage jersey, but it uses the modern skating penguin logo like the current alternates have rather than the vintage one.

Here is the back of each jersey. As you can tell the same thing applies to these as it does to the logos, the numbers on the fake jersey has a lot of wrinkles and creases in it.

Next up I'll be showing you a direct comparison, of the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fake jersey I ordered about 3 years ago, not even knowing it was a fake, compared to the legitimate replacement I bought that I just got in yesterday.

To avoid sounding like a broken record, just look at what I said about the logos and numbers for the Penguins jerseys. Same thing applies here.

Now still the same thing I've said every time so far applies here, but there's also more to notice on this one. The font on the fake jersey is a lot thicker than on the legitimate one, and the outlines are also much thinner than they should be.

The next thing to compare is both the collar and the Reebok branding on the back. The collar is noticeably wrong on the fake; the orange and white should be a lot more even, however on the fake there is a lot more white than orange. Then the Reebok logo. on the fake jersey it's just embroidered onto the jersey, however on the legitimate jersey it's embroidered on its own small patch and then sewn on, and this is present on my Maatta jersey in this post, as well as other ones of mine such as my AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins jersey, and my WHL Red Deer Rebels one (which I want to get Nugent-Hopkins on the back of by the way, so if anyone knows a good website that can do it accurately please leave a comment). Although, I do have 2 legit Malkin jerseys, one of each home and away that have the old Reebok bird logo thing on it, and those both have it embroidered on. It appears that any modern jerseys have the Reebok logo on a patch like these ones in that case.

This next area can usually tell if a jersey is fake or not, and has never been wrong for me. Look at the difference in the NHL logos in the collar insert. It's pretty noticeable if you look close, and the fake jersey companies can never seem to get it right, not like they probably care anyways. Another thing to note is that the legitimate NHL patches are usually stiffer than the ones on the fakes, and always has been in my personal experience.

The last area here is simply just a comparison of the different shades of orange. Now like I said I ordered the fake jersey around 3 years ago so there could possibly have been some color fade or darkening in those 3 years, I honestly don't know if that's possible or not. But if you look at a direct comparison the orange on the real jersey is much brighter than on the fake, as is the blue but I didn't compare those in a picture.

So that's all I have for this mini-article thing. I hope you learned something about fake jerseys compared to a very close version or even the exact version of the jersey they are supposed to be, and why you should stay away from the fake jerseys. I know that the NHL charges a lot for even the Replica jerseys, but it is much more worth it than buying fakes, especially for us jersey enthusiasts because we know it'll be an accurate jersey. So next time you go to buy a jersey this will hopefully sway you to go to a legitimate retailer or even the NHL shop and avoid the fakes. You can even find some nice ones on Ebay sometimes but you also have to be very wary of fakes. I've found myself an authentic Buffaslug jersey on there for $60 (USD) and a replica Atlanta Thrashers jersey for around the same price. Feel free to drop by and ask me on twitter (@WhatsTheMaatta_ , possibly switching over to @WhatsThaMaatta_ soon) if you see a jersey on Ebay or anywhere that you suspect is fake and I'll check it out for you!

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And now on to the concepts!

As usual here's my scoring guidelines. I tried using the spoiler tag again but that appears to have not worked because of the other one so here they are:

Idea: Even if the concept is bad is there still a good, creative idea at the core? 1 point

Creativity: 1 point

Execution: 2 points

Realism: Would this jersey be believable to be seen on the ice? 1 point

Pizazz, wow factor, just something that makes the concept really stand out. It's hard to do but I don't think you can have a perfect concept without it: 1 point

Other areas of the concept, or just the overall look, regardless of the other categories: 5/6 points

If I feel that one of the categories doesn't need reviewed as much as the other ones I will exclude it from being reviewed and move the points to another one. Other areas will always be reviewed, and logically the final score will just be the individual scores added up. 

Christian L. - Portland Mountaineers (NHL Expansion)

Idea: Given all of the recent expansion talk this is definitely a good idea (1/1)

Creativity: Coming up with your own teams and logos for an expansion is definitely creative (1/1)

Execution: 
-"Portland" at the top looks a tad off center to me (1.75/2)

Realism: Especially with the roundel fad thing over the past 15 or so years I could definitely see this being used (1/1)

Pizazz: Stands out to me (1/1)

Other areas: 
+Solid logo
+Mountains in the M are a great touch
- The logo inside the roundel looks top heavy
-At the top of the M it would look better if the stroke of the M and the pickaxes flowed into each other rather than being separate like they are
(3/4)

Overall: Great logo in my opinion (8.75/10)

Idea: Refer to what I said about the logo (1/1)

Creativity: Again, refer to what I said about the logo (1/1)

Execution: 

-Vertical stitching should stop at the hem stripe on the road jersey like it does on the home (1.5/2)

Realism: Simple, definitely realistic design (1/1)

Pizazz: Still stands out to me (1/1)

Other areas: 

+Simple, solid, classy design

+Fits the brand well, in my opinion

+I like the choice of the laces collar

-Add some white to the home jersey, and gray to the road

-Just replacing the gray on the home jersey with white might be a better option

-The gray on the home blends in with the green and yellow, again replacing it with white or adding some white would make it pop more 

(3/4)

Overall: (8.5/10) and a COTW nomination

Mike S. - San Jose Sharks

Idea: Simple usually looks the best, so a lot of good concepts have been coming from this series (1/1)

Creativity: Plays off the current set but makes additions and improvements (1/1)

Execution: Solid (2/2)

Realism: Not too sure... (0.5/1)

Pizazz: I think this concept stands out (1/1)

Other areas: 

+Plays off of and improves the current set well

+the NorCal patch is a great choice

+the gradient striping is pulled off pretty well

-however I'm not too sure how well It would work for the Sharks, or an NHL team in general

-gradient stripes' sizes are inconsistent

(3/4)

Overall: (8.5/10)

Zach E. - Buffalo Sabres

Idea: A lot of people want to see the Sabres in yellow... well completely yellow and not half yellow and half blue...(1/1)

Creativity: Simple overall but pretty creative (1/1)

Execution:

-Numbers are way too big

-That includes TV numbers

-The TV numbers should be displayed differently; the 5 should partially cut off and show on the other side since it would not be centered the way it is now, this only applies for numbers with a 1 in it

-White fill from yoke outlines bleeds into stitching, and also the some of the stitching is white on the back hemline

-Shoulder patches are also too big

-The name is a tad small and looks off center

-Shades of blue look inconsistent throughout the concept

A lot of smaller, not incredibly noticeable, yet essential things (0.5/2)

Realism: Definitely(1/1)

Pizazz: Close but not quite (0.5/1)

Other areas: 

+Again, yellow alternate

+The custom B/sword logo looks great

+That logo also works really well with the wordmark

+Striping resembles current and past Sabres jerseys

-When I first saw these they reminded me of the Oilers' jerseys, I would make the white stripe just a little thicker 

-I would also avoid the colored namebar

(3/4)

Overall: I prefer the wordmark version, the B logo seems more fit as a shoulder patch but meshes well with the wordmark as I mentioned (7/10)

Well that's another post finished. A lot of good concepts in todays small batch, and for those of you who read it I hope you enjoyed the article thing on fake jerseys. Do you guys have something else to say about the concepts today, the Admirals, fake jerseys, or anything else? Then leave a comment! I hope you guys enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys again next Thursday.