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100% accurate vs. having some soul


Pens4ever

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Whenever I get jerseys from customization the first thing is of course, checking how accurate the jersey turned out or if there are any recognizable errors. I for example living in Europe order my kits at EPS or Keener and get the stitching made over here by an old lovely lady who's really passionate with my wishes regarding getting everything stitched up. Some of her work is awesome and everything looks on point, but at times she does minor mistakes here and there.

At first those "inaccurate" things really bother me and sometimes I bring stuff back to get it redone, but as soon as I see some old gamers from the 80ies and 90ies, it hits me, how bad those were done at times - crooked, twisted, badly sewn on.

That brings me to my questions, how you handle those minor errors (e.g. one number a bit higher than the other or stitching at spots a bit inside the numbers). I for myself have two approaches: 1.) For older jerseys from the 80ies & 90ies minor errors don't bother me too much, as for me it adds a bit of soul and reminds me of the sometimes sloppy customizations of back in the days - of course that stuff is still not too helpful for reselling. 2.) And for Edge 1.0s and 2.0s in comparison I like it really sharp and any inaccuracy really distracts me and makes me change it whenever I see it.

Are you guys always thriving for 100% sharpness or is a certain amount of inaccuracy even something you add to older jerseys?

The 5 on this Twist Nordiques e.g. is definitely a kind of twisted, but after looking on that resembling Twist gamer, I even feel, it adds a certain kind of accuracy or at least soul to the jersey:

Quebec Nordiques 1991/1992 Home Tony Twist CCM Sz. 48 (back)

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Like you, I might be a bit more forgiving when it comes to older jerseys, but still, I would prefer to have everything stitched uniformly, (i.e., not crooked).  To me it's equally important to have the proper spacing between the letters and numbers.  And on a few occasions in the past, some customizers have placed the back numbers too low, with a large gap between the nameplate and top of the numbers.

To eliminate most of these problems, whenever I order only the kits, I've taken to just applying them myself to the jersey.  It's really easy, since the kits (as far as I've seen) already have an adhesive backing on the twill.  I just place everything where I want it, and then just press down with an iron.  That way everything is positioned exactly the way I want it, without having to explain in painful detail how I want the characters positioned.  Keener and EPS usually send nameplates with adhesive backing, but even in the event that there isn't one, you can simply use a spray adhesive (like 3M), or that dry adhesive that comes in sheets, which you can cut to your desired shape, and which melts after you heat it with the iron.

If the stitching turns out sloppy, I can't help you there, but at least you don't have to worry about things being crooked!

 

 

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As has been stated elsewhere, most of my collection is made up of replicas, so by definition they'll never be authentically accurate, but I send them to EPS and they do an excellent job. I'm willing to accept the fact that they won't do everything precisely as done for on-ice jerseys but they do exemplary work for what I ask of them.

For authentics, I send them to the proper sources and even then, I'm willing to accept imperfections. My collection, with the exception of four jerseys, has never seen and will never see on-ice action. I'm far from a perfectionist for that reason.

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Thanks for your insights guys and generally interesting to hear how different collectors have different tolerance levels regarding accuracy.

Thanks @LAK74 for the good advice and I fixate my kits as well with a hot iron, but somehow my sewing lady manages anyhow to twist bits and pieces sometimes. :)

At the end it's also really interesting to see how the attitude of team customizers and equipment managers towards accurate/neat work changed. Back in the days it was more often about "get that jerseys ready and put that kit somehow on" and "come on, that jersey still does it, just fix that humongous tear with a few stitches" and that added plenty of patina to the jerseys. I love that!

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I have a minor league jersey I had lettered by the same lady that does all of the work for the team. The back numbers are a little crooked. I still haven't taken it back to her to get it fixed, in part because, well, it's accurate.  In this case, all of the team jerseys have hand-cut lettering sewn at a dining table.  Every jersey is going to have its own imperfections, so yeah, maybe we'll just call it "soul" and be happy with it. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I also have this has to be PERFECT view on customization. So technically being perfect would mean having some of the earlier customization look like crap (because they did). So I've decided to do my earlier jerseys not as precise. Looking at blues gamers from as late as 2003 I can't believe custom crafted let some of those out the door. I will say I've been trying to get all measurements from all styles of blues jerseys possible and it is making me go crazy. Just in edges I have 3 different size back numbers all one eighth diffence, it doesn't sound like much but it drives me crazy. 

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  • 1 month later...

Just saw this thread.  I completely agree.  Everyone has a different idea of what makes a jersey "authentic" and what constitutes a "foul".  But, to me, having a jersey done by the original customizer trumps just about everything else.  I've seen so many oddities and mistakes on the GW versions of the jerseys I own, that I am willing to overlook some little mistakes here and there on mine.

Case in point. I collect mainly Flyers authentics from the 90s. I had a jersey done by Ruberti's and when I got it back, I noticed that the nameplate was put on inside out.  I was kinda pissed at first, until I realized that this happened all the time back in the day.  I've seen a bunch of GWs with inside-out nameplates.  I actually have a Phantoms GW with an inside-out nameplate.  Looks a little funky, but it happens.  For me, knowing that the guy who worked on all those legendary jerseys over the years is the same guy who did my jersey makes me feel special... in a weird sort of way.

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