barry sanders jersey

[mfsquirrelmaster]

http://www.scpauctions.com/scpauctions/LotDetail.cfm?Lot_ID=14237

Having problems finding pics of Sanders with similar sleeves.
Any help?

[Made in Motown]

I have seen many photos of B. Sanders from '92 - getty images, programs, football cards, signed 8X10s and I also have never seen him wear the full sleeves. It is easy to pick out the '92 jerseys in random photos. Detroit only wore Wilson from '91-'93. In '91 the NFL shield was located under the collar point & they wore the JRT memorial patch. In '92 the shield was moved to the collar point & they wore no patch. In '93 they wore the 60 seasons patch. In all the '92 photos I have seen B. Sanders has his sleeves altered so that they end in the middle of the second fatter stripe (in fact, I think this was above the Wilson logo = no "W" logo on B. Sanders game jerseys).

[G1X]

One clarification from the Made in Motown post about Detroit wearing Wilson jerseys. The Lions continued to wear Wilson in the early part of the 1994 season until their APEX jerseys arrived and were put into use.

The Wilson jerseys and APEX jerseys differ as follows:
1. The Wilson jerseys used in 1994 usually lack a sleeve logo. The Lions were under contract with APEX in 1994, so they hid or removed the exposed Wilson logos.
2. On the 1994 APEX jerseys, the APEX logo is usually prominent on both sleeves.
3. The Wilson numbers were screened-on.
4. The APEX numbers were sewn-on except for some of the linemen (mainly defensive linemen) who preferred screened-on numbers.
5. The lettering on the nameplate on Wilson (and Sand Knit jerseys used prior to the Wilson years), is a slightly darker shade of blue when compared to the APEX lettering.

Interestingly, the Lions recycled a lot of their 1994 APEX jerseys for use in 1995. APEX was defunct by that time, so the Lions switched to Reebok. They removed the APEX sleeve logos AND the APEX tail tagging on the recycled jerseys, and replaced them with Reebok logos and tagging. However, they left the year tags intact. That's the reason you will see Reebok labeled Lions jerseys with a '94 year tag.

Hope I didn't steer off course, but I thought that this information might be useful for Lions and Barry Sanders collectors. The above observations are based on information I garnered after making a bulk buy of over 800 Detroit Lions jerseys in 1999 that included a lot of jerseys from the early and mid-1990s (no Barry Sanders jerseys were included). There are probably some Lions collectors out there who can add to this. And as always, keep in mind that there were "exceptions to the rule" with the Lions jerseys I acquired.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

[Made in Motown]

Thank you G1X for the detailed '94 Lions info. I knew the Lions used the Wilsons from '93 in '94, but I never knew why. Do you know how many games they used the Wilsons in? Did some players wear them for longer? - in some photos you can see players with both Apex and Wilson jerseys. The Lions obviously had Apex jerseys by the third game in Dallas, since they wore the throwbacks made by Apex. [Side note: the tags for the throwback jerseys do not include the "94" year tag you see on the non-throwback Apex jerseys/Reebok retags.]

Even in '94 B. Sanders had his jerseys altered so the sleeves ended in the middle of the second thicker stripe. The Apex logo was moved from the middle stripe up to the top stripe.

[RKGIBSON]

Here is Barry Sanders 94 jersey form 9-11-94 vs the Vikings, and 10-30-94 vs the Giants. It is a Wilson. His away jerseys went to Apex after the Giants game. It has a team letter and is photo matched. I am the second owner of this jersey.

Roger

[gatorcollector]

Mark,

I bought a Lomas Brown jersey from Jim Yackel which he described as a 94 jersey recycled for use in 95. Must be the situation you described. Here are some pics for anyone interested:

[G1X]

Yes, that is a great example of the 1994 APEX jerseys recycled and re-tagged with Reebok logos and tail tag for 1995. You might notice that an APEX logo was removed from the sleeve stripe.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

[chrisjo33]

Not sure if this is any help at all, but I found a couple of pics showing Sanders wearing the full sleeves... the first one is his Rookie card (1989), but I have no idea what year the second pic is from. However, in the second pic it looks like the jersey has a grey number with white outline, as opposed to the auction photo that shows a white number with grey outline.

Apologies if this isn't what you're looking for, but I guess at the very least it shows that he did wear the longer sleeves at some point or another during his career.

[Made in Motown]

The Lions wore MacGregor Sand-Knit for B. Sanders first two years ('89 & '90). He may have had full sleeves then, but I have never seen him in a Wilson jersey with full sleeves. Your second photo is actually of Billy Sims. From '79 to '81 the Lions had those silver shimmer numbers.

[RKGIBSON]

Here is a picture of the sleeve cuff, where the Apex logo was removed, on a Lion jersey that has the 94 Reebok tag but used in 95.

Roger

[sylbry]

Out of curiousity was it common for the Lions to write the game dates on the tag or to remove the Reebok logo from the sleeves like the jersey in the AM auction?

[mdallen22]

Here is Barry Sanders 94 jersey form 9-11-94 vs the Vikings, and 10-30-94 vs the Giants. It is a Wilson. His away jerseys went to Apex after the Giants game. It has a team letter and is photo matched. I am the second owner of this jersey.

Roger

Any Interest in selling? Send me an email at mdast8@mail.rmu.edu