AN oddity, but a legitimate one

[sox83cubs84]

Pictured below are the front and back of a 1991-92 Texas Rangers gamer of Juan Gonzalez






The jersey, now up for bids on eBay, bears a peculiar, but legitmate oddity. Rawlings last supplied the Rangers in 1991, until they resumed in 2000. Russell supplied Texas from 1992-99. The first year of that stretch was Russell's inaugural year of having the MLB uniform contract, and there were a few teams that didn't like what they received. Although the Rangers didn't reject them as a team (like the Mariners did), there were a few players, Juan-Gone being one of them that didn't care for them, and asked for their 1991 shirts to wear. Since the 91s were from Rawlings, and in 1992 Russell had the official deal, the Rawlings sleeve logo couldn't be visible, as Rawlings was no longer the official MLB uniform provider. Their equipment guy had to sew small swatches of white or grey (home or road) fabric over the Rawlings logo in order for them to be useable in a 1992 MLB game. I've seen 1 or 2 of these, but none in the last decade.

Dave Miedema

[Lokee]

Re: AN oddity, but a legitimate one

I saw a couple Mariners ones like that at the last team store sale. Interesting.

[xpress34]

Re: AN oddity, but a legitimate one

Dave -

While I was working for Nike, they lost their NFL contract to Reebok. I remember seeing some photos of Broncos players the next year wearing their Reebok jerseys, but they were still wearing Nike pants that had swatches sewn over the Nike Swoosh logo.

- Smitty

[sox83cubs84]

Re: AN oddity, but a legitimate one

Dave -

While I was working for Nike, they lost their NFL contract to Reebok. I remember seeing some photos of Broncos players the next year wearing their Reebok jerseys, but they were still wearing Nike pants that had swatches sewn over the Nike Swoosh logo.

- Smitty

I know what you mean, Smitty...that wasn't terribly rare in 2001-02 (the years Reebok began taking over NFL uniform supplies) I've seen it on a few jerseys, too.

The funniest story I can recall in this genre (and since you worked for Nike, you may have insight on this) involved Refrigerator Perry's game shoes. While under contract to Nike, he once wore a competitor's footwear for a game with Nike "cover-up" logos. Usually not noticeable, Perry was fingered for the cover-up almost immediately, as his "swoosh" logos were applied upside-down.


Dave Miedema

[DoctorLoomis]

Re: AN oddity, but a legitimate one

I own a pair of Reebok tagged Broncos pants that were manufactured by Nike....