NHL Team Customizers

[thebiggoalie]

Baron does do it, or I should say he offers it. He has them done somewhere in Toronto I think, somebody will chime in with the name I'm sure.

Had him do a devils SS for me as a gift, I didn't have time to wait for EPS and he put a rush on it for me. Font is perfect, but the bottom layer of twill is juuuuuust a hair too thick, meaning the bottom green layer shows more than it should on the edges of the white. Barely noticeable and I'm very happy with the result.

Edit: hmm, didn't see you wanted a leafs. Wonder if he uses the leafs cutomizer. Which IIRC is SLC right?

Yes. It's SLC.

[mfitz804]

The Baron once told me he uses Cool Hockey for customizations, but if I recall, he's told other people on this board other names.

[Silverback53]

I recall that he uses the team customizer for the Leafs jerseys.

[TMLFAN]

You should be alright using him for a leafs customization job. It's such a basic font that it's pretty hard for anyone not to get it right.

I'm almost positive he uses SLC since they are both in Scarborough.

[dsl135]

Ducks question...

Looking at making a third jersey from 2014. (http://nhluniforms.com/Ducks/Ducks10.html) Were the numbers stacked or kiss cut?

Likewise, looking at making a current third jersey from 2015. (http://nhluniforms.com/Ducks/Ducks12.html) Are the numbers stacked or kiss cut?

Does anyone have experience with Keener, specifically for the Ducks (old and new font)? Looking at possibly getting some authentics done there.

[furiousd]

Hey friends does the Baron offer customization and if so, is it accurate? I'm thinking about Leafs...

Apologies if I missed it, but is there a ruling on the Baron's Blackhawks customization? I'm leaning towards getting a blank and sorting it out later, but I can't be the first to have looked at it. I think the name font seems a bit off...

Edited November 12, 2015 by furiousd

[TMLFAN]

Close but not 100%. If you're looking for dead nuts accuracy go to the team source.

[ted1025]

Ducks question...

Looking at making a third jersey from 2014. (http://nhluniforms.com/Ducks/Ducks10.html) Were the numbers stacked or kiss cut?

Likewise, looking at making a current third jersey from 2015. (http://nhluniforms.com/Ducks/Ducks12.html) Are the numbers stacked or kiss cut?

Does anyone have experience with Keener, specifically for the Ducks (old and new font)? Looking at possibly getting some authentics done there.

Didn't you have Keener make you a Selanne kit before?

[dsl135]

Yea. He did a throwback one for me. Just trying to gather as much info as possible about the newer fonts.

[ted1025]

Yea. He did a throwback one for me. Just trying to gather as much info as possible about the newer fonts.

Gotcha!

[mfitz804]

For those who like to monitor customization times, I just got an EPS invoice for two Devils jerseys sent in 9/18/15.

My 7/24/15 order, however, remains at large (oddball FHL jerseys).

Edited November 13, 2015 by mfitz804

[y2gray]

If I were looking to get an early 90's blank Blackhawks CCM authentic jersey and get a name on it, has the Blackhawks name and number patterns changed at all (even in the slightest)? They don't look like they have changed at all.

[AngeloS76]

Small changes over time since the early 90s. The biggest difference is in the name font. The 90s font is the same/almost the same as many other teams during that time (a few off the top of my head are LA, St. Louis, San Jose, Ottawa). The current font is a bit thicker, and some of the letters are changed in their style (the one that I noticed right away was the letter E)

Edited November 22, 2015 by AngeloS76

[catofadiferntskn]

The 7 has changed. Specifically the cut on the top right hand corner. On older 7s the cut is more vertical, newer ones are much closer to being a 45 degree cut. Hopefully that made sense.

[LAK74]

Some of the numbers have changed slightly since the early 1990's- for example, the 8's and 9's have become less elongated-looking, with more squarish holes/notches.

And the upper notches on the 3's used to be shorter than the bottom ones, but are now equal in length.

But I don't think I'd agree about the 7's; they seem basically unchanged to me.

As Angelo said earlier, the letter fonts were thinner than they are now. Back in the 90's, there were some variations in certain details, sometimes even within the same season. Some E's had short center posts, others longer. On some M's, the center point came down to the bottom of the letter, and on others it didn't. On some sets the letters were slightly thinner and had wider holes in the O's, R's, etc. I actually gave up trying to find a pattern to this variation- there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

So to the OP, I wouldn't get the 90's jersey lettered just like the current ones- there are so many individual differences that even if they are subtle, they'll show up easily when you look at the whole thing.

[tcmstr]

LAK74 has you pretty much covered, though I'd just like to point out one more thing:

Back in the 90's, there were some variations in certain details, sometimes even within the same season. Some E's had short center posts, others longer. On some M's, the center point came down to the bottom of the letter, and on others it didn't. On some sets the letters were slightly thinner and had wider holes in the O's, R's, etc. I actually gave up trying to find a pattern to this variation- there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

This still happens, to an extent, with City Sports Lettering -- particularly with M's and E's. Not as much on the on-ice product (though it's hard to tell, since I'm not usually at the Convention when they sell the game worn stuff), but definitely on customer jerseys.

My personal theory is that it depends on which one of the employees was cutting the the kits that day. It's a small operation, and the volume they're able to put out is always impressive. This, of course, leads to some issues on occasion.

[shilenj]

I haven't looked through the whole thread (I'll do that when I have a little more time) so the answer to my question may have already been answered and I apologize if that's the case but does anyone know who the Ducks' team customizer was in 2007-08 for the 1.0's used earlier in the season before they switched to the 2.0's later in the season? I want to get a 1.0 I just purchased done as a Pronger with the "C" but I'm brand new to this and this'll be my first Edge authentic.

[LAK74]

I'm pretty sure that Cutting Edge Sports did them for the whole year. But for some reason the tags say "Cutting Edge Sports West," but I have no idea if that company is any different from the Cutting Edge located in Massachusetts.

Edited December 11, 2015 by LAK74

[AngeloS76]

A supplier called "Cutting Edge Sports West" did those, as shown in the tag sewn into the hem of the gamers that year. I don't know if that supplier still exists, but I do know that Cutting Edge Sports does exist in Woburn MA. They may be able to help.

Edit: totally got beat to the punch. But yeah.

Edited December 11, 2015 by AngeloS76

[shilenj]

Thanks to the both of you. I'll try to contact them and see if Cutting Edge Sports was Cutting Edge Sports West or if they are different companies. So Cutting Edge Sports West was the Ducks' official team customizer in 2007-08 so they'll be able to do my customization exactly how it was on-ice? Assuming they are now the same company that is in Massachussets (again, I'll find out). Would I need to specify anything to them about how I want it done and what materials to use or would they know what to do? I don't even know what materials and cuts were used for the 1.0 2007-08 on-ice Ducks jerseys and I'm so new to this that I don't know how to tell what is what by looking at pictures of gamers. In sure the more I look the more I'll figure out what all these customization terms mean.

[DC Red Wings]

Anyone had any luck reaching the folks at Sports Haven lately? Been wanting to send them some stuff but I don't want to if I don't talk to anyone beforehand.

[LAK74]

So Cutting Edge Sports West was the Ducks' official team customizer in 2007-08 so they'll be able to do my customization exactly how it was on-ice? Would I need to specify anything to them about how I want it done and what materials to use or would they know what to do?

In theory, Cutting Edge should be able to do the lettering exactly how it was done on-ice. However, you should understand that even if you go with the official team customizer, it's still possible that the jersey lettering might come back a little different from what you wanted or expected. In many cases, even if a particular company letters the same style jersey for a number of years, they still may make small changes to the font from year to year, or even from set to set within the same season. Today, years later, they may not always remember what was used when.

I haven't done any extensive research on Ducks lettering, but I can give you an example of this kind of variation with Pittsburgh, another team for which Cutting Edge did the jerseys in 2007-08 (and also in other seasons following that one). The lettering for their home/road jerseys is very similar over the years, but on some jerseys you will see, for example, an "O" or a "D" with a long slit cut in the middle of the hole, through which you can see the jersey material. On other jerseys the O and D have a solid twill center with no slit. On many jerseys they stitch the "S" upside down- you can tell because the notch on top is a different size than the notch on the bottom. Some number 4's have notches cut into the bottom twill layer right above the bottom serif, while other 4's have a solid twill layer without a notch. Some of these differences can be seen between jerseys used even in the same season. My point here is that even if you ask them to letter your jersey with your player of choice for the 2007-08 season, unless you are aware of potential variations, you really won't be sure if the jersey you get back is 100% accurate to the game worns. It helps to send in photos of the gamer you're trying to duplicate, but just sending in a photo is sometimes not enough- you may have to point out certain details, like what I mentioned above, so that the customizer knows more precisely what you want. And even if you do this, you still have to hope that the customizer has the time or patience to pay attention to what you say and follow your instructions.

Since you say you are new at this, I don't know how exact you want or need your lettering to be, or how much trouble you want to go to in order to explain to the customizer exactly how you want everything, which brings me to my next point. Cutting Edge is not known to be very consistent when it comes to stitching precision. I've only had 2 jobs done by them, and they were both very good. But I've heard others complain about sloppy stitching on their jobs- not long ago someone here posted pics of their CE-done Penguins jersey, which was very sloppy, to say the least. And he wasn't the only one who had issues. So would you prefer to shoot for font accuracy with the original team customizer, and take a slight risk that the stitching job might not be particularly neat, or perhaps go with someone else like Exclusive Pro (who in my opinion has the neatest and most precise cutting/stitching of all customizers I've used), or perhaps HockeyMonkey, who lettered the Ducks jerseys starting around 2010? With them you may run a greater risk of the font being not quite as exact for 2007-08, but you may have a better chance of a more precise, neat job. Most of us here with considerable experience might tend to go for accuracy, since we know what we're looking for and how to go about explaining that to the customizer. No offense intended here, but if, as you say, you have no idea what to look for, are you really going to notice or care if there are slight inaccuracies? Is neatness of work more important to you at this time? Just something to think about.

[FlyersFan376]

Anyone had any luck reaching the folks at Sports Haven lately? Been wanting to send them some stuff but I don't want to if I don't talk to anyone beforehand.

I emailed Jim a week or two ago about preseason font customization and he got right back to me

I can pm you his email if you don't have it, might be easier to get a hold of him

[DC Red Wings]

That would be much appreciated, I don't have it. Thanks!

[shilenj]

In theory, Cutting Edge should be able to do the lettering exactly how it was done on-ice. However, you should understand that even if you go with the official team customizer, it's still possible that the jersey lettering might come back a little different from what you wanted or expected. In many cases, even if a particular company letters the same style jersey for a number of years, they still may make small changes to the font from year to year, or even from set to set within the same season. Today, years later, they may not always remember what was used when.

I haven't done any extensive research on Ducks lettering, but I can give you an example of this kind of variation with Pittsburgh, another team for which Cutting Edge did the jerseys in 2007-08 (and also in other seasons following that one). The lettering for their home/road jerseys is very similar over the years, but on some jerseys you will see, for example, an "O" or a "D" with a long slit cut in the middle of the hole, through which you can see the jersey material. On other jerseys the O and D have a solid twill center with no slit. On many jerseys they stitch the "S" upside down- you can tell because the notch on top is a different size than the notch on the bottom. Some number 4's have notches cut into the bottom twill layer right above the bottom serif, while other 4's have a solid twill layer without a notch. Some of these differences can be seen between jerseys used even in the same season. My point here is that even if you ask them to letter your jersey with your player of choice for the 2007-08 season, unless you are aware of potential variations, you really won't be sure if the jersey you get back is 100% accurate to the game worns. It helps to send in photos of the gamer you're trying to duplicate, but just sending in a photo is sometimes not enough- you may have to point out certain details, like what I mentioned above, so that the customizer knows more precisely what you want. And even if you do this, you still have to hope that the customizer has the time or patience to pay attention to what you say and follow your instructions.

Since you say you are new at this, I don't know how exact you want or need your lettering to be, or how much trouble you want to go to in order to explain to the customizer exactly how you want everything, which brings me to my next point. Cutting Edge is not known to be very consistent when it comes to stitching precision. I've only had 2 jobs done by them, and they were both very good. But I've heard others complain about sloppy stitching on their jobs- not long ago someone here posted pics of their CE-done Penguins jersey, which was very sloppy, to say the least. And he wasn't the only one who had issues. So would you prefer to shoot for font accuracy with the original team customizer, and take a slight risk that the stitching job might not be particularly neat, or perhaps go with someone else like Exclusive Pro (who in my opinion has the neatest and most precise cutting/stitching of all customizers I've used), or perhaps HockeyMonkey, who lettered the Ducks jerseys starting around 2010? With them you may run a greater risk of the font being not quite as exact for 2007-08, but you may have a better chance of a more precise, neat job. Most of us here with considerable experience might tend to go for accuracy, since we know what we're looking for and how to go about explaining that to the customizer. No offense intended here, but if, as you say, you have no idea what to look for, are you really going to notice or care if there are slight inaccuracies? Is neatness of work more important to you at this time? Just something to think about.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that to me. As a person, I care more about accuracy to be honest and even though I'm just starting, once I learn the ins and outs I know accuracy will be the top priority to me. Of course I think we all want our work done as neat as possible as well. If you don't mind me sending you a PM, I have a few more things to ask. You've been really helpful.

In regards to Cutting Edge Sports, I tried calling them yesterday about a half an hour before they close and got no answer. They didn't have an answering machine so it just kept ringing. I decided to send them an email. I'll try giving them a jingle again Monday to see if I can get an answer unless they email me back before then. So far I haven't gotten a reply but it's the weekend so I doubt I get in contact with them until Monday.

Edited December 15, 2015 by shilenj