NHL Team Customizers

[shilenj]

For anyone who was curious, I called Cutting Edge Sports again and got an answer. I spoke with Rachel, who I was told to ask for regarding the jersey customization questions I had regarding Cutting Edge Sports West and their history with the Ducks and she told me that the two branches were affiliated at the time but that West has since closed down and just the one in Massachusetts remains. However, she said they still are able to do the Ducks customization for that time period so they apparently still have the fonts and materials. I know Cutting Edge Sports has received mixed reviews in regards to phone calls (I've heard older ladies at times have answered and weren't very helpful to potential customers) but Rachel seemed informed enough and overall genuine to talk to regarding setting up the job. I'm planning on sending mine in within a week or so and when I get it back I'll let everyone see a picture. She said it should take two or three weeks. It's a $75 charge including shipping.

Edited December 15, 2015 by shilenj

[tcmstr]

If I recall correctly, we don't know where Montreal gets their customization done, correct?

In that case, where's the best place to send in a Canadiens Winter Classic? I tried emailing their team shop, but they say the lettering (for their premiers) is all reebok pre-done and they don't do it themselves. Would Jersey Baron's customization be up to par? A couple of local shops told me they would have to wait a month or so before getting started (holiday rush + using new materials & new stitching pattern) but if there's somewhere that I can find quicker.

[AngeloS76]

If I recall correctly, we don't know where Montreal gets their customization done, correct?

In that case, where's the best place to send in a Canadiens Winter Classic? I tried emailing their team shop, but they say the lettering (for their premiers) is all reebok pre-done and they don't do it themselves. Would Jersey Baron's customization be up to par? A couple of local shops told me they would have to wait a month or so before getting started (holiday rush + using new materials & new stitching pattern) but if there's somewhere that I can find quicker.

In previous years, I know that the on-ice jerseys have had the same font set as the pre-customized jerseys available for retail, and that there wasn't any alteration between the font used on-ice and the font used for retail lettering. So, in theory, you could send your Canadiens jersey to any licensed NHL lettering supplier and it should come out the same as what the team wore.

As for JerseyBaron, check their stock for yourself and see if it matches up with what the team has presented so far: http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=jerseybaron_com&hash=item4644be5065%3Am%3Amv55ZzYEpGRC6FVnuNB8qeA&item=301801033829&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1312.R1.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xmontreal.TRS1&_nkw=montreal+canadiens+winter+classic+jersey

[tcmstr]

In previous years, I know that the on-ice jerseys have had the same font set as the pre-customized jerseys available for retail, and that there wasn't any alteration between the font used on-ice and the font used for retail lettering. So, in theory, you could send your Canadiens jersey to any licensed NHL lettering supplier and it should come out the same as what the team wore.

As for JerseyBaron, check their stock for yourself and see if it matches up with what the team has presented so far: http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=jerseybaron_com&hash=item4644be5065%3Am%3Amv55ZzYEpGRC6FVnuNB8qeA&item=301801033829&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1312.R1.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xmontreal.TRS1&_nkw=montreal+canadiens+winter+classic+jersey

I got the same answer from JB, but he doesn't currently have the kits, and won't until after the game, so I ended up buying a blank and will get a kit from him later and have a local shop stitch it on. Both shops I talked to in the area won't be able to turn a kit around faster than that, so I guess that's the best choice, for now.

Thanks for the reply though!

Edited December 17, 2015 by tcmstr

[Pens4ever]

Wanted to check your experience on EPS vs. Keener!

So far I only ordered a few times at EPS and I've been quite happy with the outcome of the kits as well as their service, but unfortunately waiting time seems to get longer and longer and my last order took 4 month to arrive.

That's why I'm thinking of a switch to Keener for the next order, but wanted to check with you guys first.

How would you rate the kit accuracy of Keener against EPS?

Is there any team or period they don't get right at all?

How much do they charge for kits with name plate?

Thanks for feedback!

P.S. I know it's always best to turn to the original team customizer, but as I'm based in Germany and I'm always having stuff from various teams, it simply safes a lot of money and time.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Pens4ever

[mfitz804]

I've only used Keener once, but I've never heard anyone complain they were inaccurate.

[The_Dude_Abides]

I just got my first order back from Keener and it was awesome. Very accurate and very well done.

There was one small error but it was my fault. I sent a 2003 Nieuwendyk Devils with my order. About 3 weeks later, I mailed him a 2003 Cup patch. He probably had the jersey completed once the patch arrived and he had already added the A. Joe never wore the A in the playoffs that year. So it was just a mix up that was my fault...but not a huge deal. All of my other jerseys turned out great.

I've dealt with EPS once before and yes, the wait is quite long. They do great work. The only issue I had was Josh...the guy isn't the friendliest. I asked a couple valid questions over the period my jerseys were there and all I got for answers were quick, rude replys. I don't need that sh*t. That's the reason I've never gone back.

It seems like EPS only really cares about the huge team orders and puts us collectors on the back burner. If they were smart, they'd set aside a portion of their shop to exclusively take care of collectors. Maybe then the turn around would be much shorter.

Now, I'm sure some of you have had nothing but great experiences with EPS but I'm just sharing mine. Like I said, they do awesome work.

[dsl135]

I'll second that on the wait (often times longer than quoted) and "rude" attitude from Josh. He's very short and seems annoyed at even the simplest of questions.

Edited March 9, 2016 by dsl135

[Pens4ever]

Hahaha! That's right, you write a detailed and friendly email and Josh replys with a maximum of 5 words.

Only good thing is that he's at least quite quick with writing back, but easy thing with the length of his answers!

Thanks for your help and I definitely think I will Keener a try for my next order!!!

[mfitz804]

Josh is a little "salty" at times, and honestly, I think he does prefer the team orders over doing stuff for collectors. I think he minds less when its a guy like me, and more when its a guy who whips out a slide rule and tells him the angle of the corner of a letter is off by 0.05%, so it has to be re-done.

The wait time is long, but the work is phenomenal. As a Devils fan, it doesn't make any sense for me to send stuff to Canada rather than to send it to the team's official customizer.

That being said, I have a couple non-Devils things coming up (hopefully) that I may give Keener a shot on.

[thebiggoalie]

I'm not advocating Josh's actions or words, but if it weren't for big team orders, he wouldn't be able to afford to even exist to do our jerseys. Customizers have contracts with professional teams for reasons, like the ability to turn the lights on, purchase materials, etc. If they had a separate group of employees to do individual customers jerseys in their warehouse, you would either be getting inconsistent, subpar work because they weren't the best of the group that was working that day, or he would be paying them enough, that he would have to employ them to work on the pro-team jerseys to fulfill orders on time anyway.

Me personally, I have sent in about 30 or so jerseys within the past few years during the spring sale, and I must have pissed him off beyond control when I was telling him how I wanted my Rangers liberty jersey with kiss cut name and numbers, and he actually went out of his way to call me, ask for dimensions, and anything else I needed to change on my order. In retrospect, I'm sure it pissed him off, but he handled himself quite well. I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I don't have any jerseys to send him packed away in a box right now. I wish I even had a couple of Devils jerseys to send in right now.

Edited March 9, 2016 by thebiggoalie

[JunkyardAthletic]

It seems like EPS only really cares about the huge team orders and puts us collectors on the back burner. If they were smart, they'd set aside a portion of their shop to exclusively take care of collectors. Maybe then the turn around would be much shorter.

Unfortunately, this is what keeps many of our lights on, the big team orders. And for Josh, it's not like he only has 5-6 teams, he is numbering in 20-30, and possibly more with NFL and college football & basketball. Take that and multiply each team by four sets of 30, and that's quite a bit of jerseys, not to mention, time.

I'm not a fan of doing collectors jobs. I'm upfront and honest about it. It's a pain in the Arse because many of you are a pain in the Arse, HOWEVER, I get it. The thing that many of you fail to remember is that you're asking, in many instances, a guy like Josh to do a job for you for a team he doesn't normally do, and you're asking him to give you specific placement of someone else's work. My suggestion is to send to the company who does the customization for that team because they do it time and time and time again.

As far as being rude, there's no place for that.

Josh is a little "salty" at times, and honestly, I think he does prefer the team orders over doing stuff for collectors. I think he minds less when its a guy like me, and more when its a guy who whips out a slide rule and tells him the angle of the corner of a letter is off by 0.05%, so it has to be re-done.

See my comment above with regards to someone other than the team customizer doing the job.

I'm not advocating Josh's actions or words, but if it weren't for big team orders, he wouldn't be able to afford to even exist to do our jerseys. Customizers have contracts with professional teams for reasons, like the ability to turn the lights on, purchase materials, etc. If they had a separate group of employees to do individual customers jerseys in their warehouse, you would either be getting inconsist, subpar work because they weren't the best of the group that was working that day, or he would be paying them enough, that he would have to employ them to work on the pro-team jerseys to fulfill orders on time anyway.

Me personally, I have sent in about 30 or so jerseys within the past few years during the spring sale, and I must have pissed him off beyond control when I was telling him how I wanted my Rangers liberty jersey with kiss cut name and numbers, and he actually went out of his way to call me, ask for dimensions, and anything else I needed to change on my order. In retrospect, I'm sure it pissed him off, but he handled himself quite well. I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I don't have any jerseys to send him packed away in a box right now. I wish I even had a couple of Devils jerseys to send in right now.

Glad you see it from the other side.

You cannot have a group waiting for collectors orders to come in. And trust me, when team orders are in, you need every body imaginable doing their thing. There's a ton of set up in the twill that needs to be cut, the laser operator, the heat pressing of the twill, and finally to sew. There's a ton to do!

Edited March 9, 2016 by JunkyardAthletic

[mfitz804]

That's what Josh has told me in discussions I've had, its the team orders keeping the business going, not the collector orders. I think he told me collector orders make up 4-5% of his business. I figure JoeM7392 and I account for 3-4%.

Its understanding that aspect of the process which makes me wait the long wait time. If that's what I need to do to assure I get back what I want, then so be it.

Josh has never been outright rude to me, its clear sometimes from his responses that e-mails from collectors are not something he really wants to be dealing with, but overall he's a good dude.

And I definitely understand where you are coming from, JunkyardAthletic, I don't even want to sell an existing jersey to some of these picky bastards, let alone do the work!

[JunkyardAthletic]

I think he told me collector orders make up 4-5% of his business. I figure JoeM7392 and I account for 3-4%.

That's A LOT of collector jersey $ for ANY customizer, especially a business like his. Just throwing out round numbers for those who aren't mathematicians, let's call it 3% of $1 million in sales (he's probably doing more), there's $30k, and now, think about what each jersey you customize averages in price.

Like I said, that's a lot of jerseys and a fair $!

[mfitz804]

That's A LOT of collector jersey $ for ANY customizer, especially a business like his. Just throwing out round numbers for those who aren't mathematicians, let's call it 3% of $1 million in sales (he's probably doing more), there's $30k, and now, think about what each jersey you customize averages in price.

Like I said, that's a lot of jerseys and a fair $!

i was more referring to collector orders "keeping the lights on"; at 5% that isn't what keeps the shop running. Its the other 95%. That's all I meant.

[JoeM7392]

I always got the standard 4-5 word responses from Josh, which is fine as I get that he's busy. However that wasn't the case when I asked about a volume discount. He actually wrote like 6 sentences, which has never happened. The idea of a 20+ jersey order must have had him perked up a bit.

Edited March 10, 2016 by JoeM7392

[mfitz804]

I always got the standard 4-5 word responses from Josh, which is fine as I get that he's busy. However that wasn't the case when I asked about a volume discount. He actually wrote like 6 sentences, which has never happened. The idea of a 20+ jersey order must have had him perked up a bit.

You're going to get to the point where driving to Illinois and hand delivering them makes more financial sense than shipping/insuring them, you know that, right?

Road trip!!!

[JoeM7392]

900 miles each way, divided by the 32 mpg my buddies little car gets, and I'm looking at ~56 gallons of gas. Multiplied by what seems to be typical cost per gallon of gas between here and Illinois, $1.70, it would be about a $95 dollar trip.

Holy crap, it really is going to cost me more to ship/insure that box. I wish I didn't know that.

Edited March 10, 2016 by JoeM7392

[Perceptor]

I sent a Flames jersey to keener at the beginning of the month to get stripped and redone. It's been sent out today so I'm expecting it within the week. That would be a 3 week turnaround which is pretty good. Just hoping it turns out well

[JoeM7392]

If Keener did it you'll be fine.

[tcmstr]

I'm back to bother y'all again about Blackhawks On-Ice companies. I'd honestly let it go until someone at work recently was quite irate that we'd sent a jersey to CSL rather than TTS, as he insisted that TTS was the on-ice letterer (was a vector logo'd Hawks) at the time. He used the list in this thread as a reference, so I got to digging around here, and I found this:

Hey guys,

I wanted to join in here and throw in my 2 cents...

I have over 100 AUTHENTIC Chicago Blackhawk jerseys...as well as NHL All Star jerseys-all with Blackhawk players through the years....

I have been using Triple Threat Sports since they opened....and I will use no other...

The owner of Triple Threat used to be the manager of City Sports-who did the Blackhawks on ice jerseys....he took his knowledge and opened up his own business and in my opinion is the best around....

They are located in Mokena IL.....and online also......

They have an extremely knowledgeable and friendly staff....they do a quick turn around....very reasonable and competitive prices....

Look them up and give them a try.....if you have any question-shoot me a message and I will try and help out....

Happy Holidays

And this:

Yes, the Hawks use City Sports Lettering.....But, I know a handful of people who-after purchasing from them-or from the Hawks store on Michigan Ave and in the UC-have brought them to Triple Threat Sports in Mokena to be stripped and redone because the lettering was crinkled or buckled...and they used way too much glue etc....

I have well, well over 100 Authentic Chicago Blackhawks jerseys and All Star jersey and I believe Triple Threat does MUCH BETTER work....better prices...better turn around time....

I trust no one else but them to touch my pride and joy....but that's just my two cents....

Sidenote (and, the reason I care so much), that may have been true at the time, however, TTS' quality has suffered greatly in the years since, particularly since this past summer. Not sure what nameplate material they're using now (it's not airknit, edge or twill), but it's bad, unless you ask for edge, which they only sometimes have. Their twill has been flimsier than before and their stitching has been subpar. Had a coworker send a HFC jersey there (CSL is out of nameplate material), and they were completely unhappy with how it turned out. Finally, their wait times have gotten longer, and customer service has gotten bad. That's not to say CSL is off the hook, either, they've had their own fair share of issues lately, which I can go over if someone really wants. Tazer19, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this if you're lurking around these parts -- is it just us at the store noticing this TTS trend, or have you as well?

Anyways, back to the list: I don't think TTS was ever the letterer. It looks like he was, at one point, an employee of CSL who then jumped ship and began his own lettering house, but never got the on-ice contract.

[y2gray]

Thanks very much for the info LAK, you're awesome as per usual

Does anyone have a suggestion of where I should get a 90's Blackhawks jersey lettered then if I can't use the current style (and have it not be accurate). I'm looking to do up a 90's CCM Authentic with Roenick.

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.


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.

[rattlestar]

Is Blake's Sports Lettering still the best go to option for Dallas Stars customizations? That's whats been posted earlier in this thread.

​Does anyone also have any recommendations for overall good workmanship/accuracy without being specific to a team? Have a few other teams I want to get done but don't want to ship them all to different places. (I'm in Boston if anyone knows anything good local to me otherwise I don't mind shipping out)

Edited March 28, 2016 by rattlestar

[AngeloS76]

To answer your questions in order:

Is Blake's Sports Lettering still the best go to option for Dallas Stars customizations? That's whats been posted earlier in this thread.

​Does anyone have any recommendations for overall good workmanship/accuracy without being specific to a team?

Yes

Accuracy is on a team-by-team basis unfortunately

Best workmanship/neatness: EPS, Denver Athletic

Thanks very much for the info LAK, you're awesome as per usual

Does anyone have a suggestion of where I should get a 90's Blackhawks jersey lettered then if I can't use the current style (and have it not be accurate). I'm looking to do up a 90's CCM Authentic with Roenick.

Tough to say. CSL may have older-style fonts, but it would be to your advantage to see an example if possible. EPS does a fairly good job in reproducing older styles, but is not perfect.

[LAK74]

Does anyone have a suggestion of where I should get a 90's Blackhawks jersey lettered then if I can't use the current style (and have it not be accurate). I'm looking to do up a 90's CCM Authentic with Roenick.

Best workmanship/neatness: EPS, Denver Athletic. EPS does a fairly good job in reproducing older styles, but is not perfect.

Definitely agree with Angelo regarding EPS's workmanship and accuracy. They are still my general customizer of choice, but I would not use them for a 90's Hawks. I had 2 90's Hawks done by them, and their letters are too skinny, and some of the numbers have some minor issues as well.