Jersey Issues

At last night’s Suns game I noticed that a lot of Suns fans are still wearing their Shaquille O’Neal jerseys that they bought over the last two seasons. Of course, wearing old jerseys is not anything new. At the US Airways Center one is likeley to see a variety of jerseys from some noted retired Suns stars, such as Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle. The occasional Shawn Marion jersey is still spotted even though The Matrix is now a member of the Dallas Mavericks.  One may also see Suns fans wearing jerseys from such noted former Suns as Jason Kidd or Stephon Marbury. I even once saw a Jake Tsakalidis jersey at one of the Mercury WNBA Finals games.

As a Suns fan that happens to have a large jersey collection, I feel that it’s my responsibility to help out my fellow Suns fans and offer some suggestions as to what to do with that jersey of your favorite former Sun (even if you do feel like a sucker for buying that Shaq jersey).

First, you must know what type of jersey you have. There are three types  - replica, swingman, and authentic.

Replicas are screen printed, and look the least like the jerseys the players actually wear. If you bought a replica, and your player is traded, you’re pretty much out of luck. You could wear the jersey and end up on this website. Or you can hold onto it and hope the player’s Suns career will turn out to be memorable and the jersey will become a fashionable throwback in oh, 10 years. (Note to the dude wearing the Tsakalidis jersey - I don’t think you have a chance of that happening).

A Swingman jersey is a hybrid of an authentic and a replica. It’s similar to what the players wear, but made of different, less expensive materials. The numbers and letters are stitched on, but painted to resemble the multiple layers of stitched on lettering that the authentics use. If you have a Swingman jersey and your player is traded, you have hope. All you’d need to do is unstitch the name on the back and take it to your local lettering shop to get re-lettered as the guy that currently wears that jersey number.  I took this approach with my old Penny Hardaway swingman jersey. Of course, after Penny left the Suns there were guys like Yuta Tabuse and Dijon Thompson who wore #1, so the jersey sat in my closet collecting dust. However, when Amare Stoudemire switched from #32 to #1 my jersey was ready to go. (now if Taylor Griffin becomes a star - or ever plays - you’ll have something to do with your Shaq jersey)

Now, if you shell out the big bucks for an authentic jersey, you could follow the same advice as the Swingman jersey and unstitch the jersey. Because of the thicker material, and the multiple layers of stitching this process would be more difficult on the authentic. And if you spent close to $200 on a jersey, would you really want to risk tearing it by unstitching the jersey?  You could try to sell it on EBay and make something off it. My advice is keep it and wear it as a throwback later. After all, I don’t think many people would spend the money on an authentic jersey of someone like Pat Burke so most likely the player will be someone whose career you’d want to remember.

Now, if I could just figure out what to do with my three authentic Shawn Marion jerseys.