JeffB

I have seen Houston Aeros jerseys in both green with blue shoulders and the reverse, blue with green shoulders. I get the impression the green ones were from their earlier days and the blue ones from their later seasons. What I'd really like to know is: Was the blue jersey used as an alternate for the green before taking over as the primary like I suspect? If anyone has a good handle on when the green and blue jerseys were worn, I'd love to hear about the exact timeline for both styles. Thanks!

So, I called Custom Crafted and they told me in no uncertain terms that the sample prototype was immediately rejected by the either the team president or owner (I can't recall just exactly which one he said) before it even got down to the level of coach Keenan, who is often credited as being the one who shot it down. With the jersey rejected so quickly, no customization specs were ever created. Additionally, I wrote to all the ebay sellers who are selling blank or customized jerseys or kits, and putting all the answers together, the customization you see offered on ebay is just an interpretation of someone else's opinion since there is no actual right answer. To put it another way, it's not that anything you see is "wrong" because there is not "correct" answer. I actually love the idea of the musical note Melody Maker font for the names on the back and don't mind the numbers, but I would, since there is no correct answer, go with a different color combination to get away from the blue on blue look myself. Custom Crafted's opinion was they would have likely gone with the standard block font used on the Blues jerseys from 1985-1984 (like I used in my sample pictures at the top of this thread) since the jerseys were so busy like the Bruins and Canucks did with their 1995-96 alternates, but again, that's really just an opinion too, but from someone in the business.

Nathan, do you have an opinion on this name and number customization? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Never-Used-St-Louis-Blues-95-96-034-THE-TRUMPETER-034-Wayne-Gretzky-Pro-Jersey-sz-56-/282173594061 The 9's are a copy of the Los Angeles Burger King jersey font and the music note name on the back is a font called Melody Maker. I have my doubts about this customization, particularly the choice of the dark blue main coloring.

My immediate reaction is.... mixed. On the one hand I can't believe they would have used blue numbers, but on the other hand, that font for the name? Would anyone just make that up? Its kinda, sorta, gotta be real, doesn't it? Back to those digits, the Canucks, Bruins and Penguins used unremarkable block font numbers, while the Kings and Ducks went off the board with theirs, so there's no way to know which camp the Blues would have been in, but part of me thinks that the more dye-sublimated the design (meaning Duck and Kings), the stranger the font...

This is a bit of a fly in the ointment, since Gretzky was only with the Blues for the latter part of the 1995-96 season. If this were truly a jersey that was not set to debut until 1996-97, then I would have to change my customization choice to #16 Brett Hull. Meanwhile, back on topic, what lettering option do you think works best for this jersey style...

In 1995-96 the first wave of NHL third jerseys arrived in Boston, Vancouver, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. The story goes that there was also supposed to be one in St. Louis, but coach Mike Keenan took one look at it and shot it down. A single photo was published in a book proved its existence, but that was all we ever saw of it for 20 years. Until now.... A mad genius on ebay actually produced a run of these dye sublimated bad boys and I've got mine! The conundrum is, how to customize it? Since they never wore it, no one knows what the plan was for the numbers and letters. I asked my customizers and, since it never made it on the ice, they were never given any specs for it. In 1995-96 St. Louis was wearing their diagonally striped jerseys with the angled numbers, but I have chosen to not use that since I personally don't believe the team would have used those on this style. I've mocked up every color combination in the style used on their previous jerseys from 1993-94. So, here they are, all six color combinations submitted for your feedback. So, which one would you go with out of these six? I'm also leaning toward NOT asking for a nameplate due to the slight change in tones of blue in the shoulder region. The Kings and Ducks did not use plates while the Bruins, Canucks and Penguins did, so there is a precedent for not using one. #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6

For whatever reason, that seller has a long history of changing user ID's periodically. After a zillion transactions, I think he chalks up just enough complaints (likely from post office errors out of his control and/or crackpots who can never be satisfied) and runs afoul of ebay's policies and is forced to start over.

Some time after the movie Miracle came out in 2004, some of the jerseys used in the filming of the movie started to appear on ebay. I first saw the West Germany jerseys and thought they were unique, badged like a soccer jersey more than crested like a hockey jersey. I waited to see if the prices would drop as they listed jersey after jersey from the set, also hoping to get one with a very "German" name on the back. Eventually I waited too long and they sold the entire set. Oh well. Later on I got the chance to get some of the other countries jerseys for some reasonable prices and began to pick up more and more. Eventually I decided to try to get the entire set of all 11 varieties. Most proved rather easy to get, with a few requiring a bit of searching, like Finland and the Soviet Union. I was even able to add a Soviet winter coat and track jacket, but the German jersey proved highly elusive. I think part of the issue may have been the jerseys didn't say "Germany" on them anywhere and may have been listed on ebay as something else, like "red hockey jersey" or "eagles jersey". It finally took about ten years for one to show up on ebay - and with a buy it now price. My heart was pounding as I tired to complete the purchase while on my phone at work with a horrible cellular connection. All it was going to take was one more collector in my position to scoop the jersey up while I fought for a signal, so I didn't even bother to make an offer. Whatever I overpaid was my fine for not getting it when I had the chance the first time around. The film was released on this date in 2004 and here is a link to my story on the movie and my collection. http://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/2016/02/miracle-movie-jerseys.html

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all got the jerseys you were hoping for! Thanks for posting the link to my blog. I hope you all enjoyed "Hockey Jesus". I was pleasantly surprised at how many images I had to pick from, both as a forward and as a goaltender.

Well this has taken a turn for the weird…

My first impression of the Detroit jersey was "NASCAR". I don't hate it, but I can also picture it with some Coca-Cola and Goodyear patches on it's zoomy self. The Blackhawks is fine for being rendered within this year's SS template. It's no 2009 Winter Classic or 2015 Winter Classic throwbacks, but it gets the job done without being stupid in the least. The Wild? That one leaves me flat. It's too bad they had to be forced into the NHL's SS template. The Wild is capable of so much more and I was hoping for a unique, knock-me-on-my-butt retro jersey. I'm really a fan of the design element of two touching stripes of equal width, so I don't hate it, but as a Minnesotan I really wanted something to make me tear my pocket off my jeans as I ripped my wallet out to buy one immediately. I'd like it better if they repeated the dual arm stripes across the waist for certain, but they dropped the ball on that big time. Green jersey, inch wide stripe, green pants with green socks. Yea. Great. They look like a pine tree. Some honest-to-God waist striping would have really, really helped the overall look, but effing Reebok just can't seem to manage that when they really need to, can they? I give it a 5, but over all, it really just looks like one of those generic Logo 7 shirt/jerseys you'd find at Marshall's all through the 1990's. Yea, it's got some stripes, it's done in the team colors and it carries a team logo, but it doesn't say "WILD" like the team is capable of producing left to their own devices.

I've stripped older double knit baseball jerseys with very few problems getting the names and numbers off. Once the numbers are off, I have had regular issues with the bottom layer of twill color bleeding from the adhesives and heat pressing and staining the jersey. For example, I'm a Twins fan, and their white pinstripe jerseys have red numbers with a blue outline, making the blue the base color. After stripping the numbers off, blue stains remain on the back of the jersey. I took the jersey to my local dry cleaners and they tried the modern "green" chemicals to get the stain out with no luck. They then sent it to their "expert" who uses the old-fahioned harsher chemicals and it came out 100% factory fresh with no issues with the blue pinstripes. I then sprayed it with some water and ran the iron over it to close up any holes remaining from the original stitching evidence and sent it out to be customized. Now, times have changed and I'd be very, very leery of attempting a cool base jersey. Those look very delicate and risky for pulls and tears.

Wow. I never knew there was a different version for the 96 Worlds and the 96 World Cup. That 96 Worlds version must be very rare.

I've had them strip several jerseys over time and each one has turned out great. We've never had to resort to a #88 to cover up an old mess and I give them a full recommendation. That said, I'm not bad at it myself and will often take care of what needs to be done to save myself the cash, but other times it's just too big of a job and it's worth it to me not to have to deal with it, such as three color numbers all sewn through the jersey separately. I'll just throw money at the problem in that case to make it go away.

This is looking like an amazing project. Once it's done, I'd certainly do a feature on it on my website.