Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

[Preston]

Re: Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

Got another question --

A guy I know has a 99 tagged Drew Bennett jersey wearing #19 (he did wear this # his rookie year), my question is...The jersey is a puma and Drew was a rookie in 2001, so I am guessing if this is a game jersey of Drew's, it is a recycled jersey...is there a chance he could have worn it in 2001 preseason? I've looked on getty for pics from our 2001 preseason with no luck...can anyone help? If I could see a puma logo on the sleeve I would love to have this, but the reebok logo is on the ones from later in the season (I found 5 pics of him in 2001 on getty, all of which were October or later).

Any help would be much appreciated!

Preston

[G1X]

Re: Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

Preston,

Do you have photos of the Bennett jersey that you could post?

What some teams would do is that if they had switched suppliers but needed to "recycle" an older jersey from a previous supplier, they would either (1) sew the new suppliers sleeve logo over the old suppliers sleeve logo (Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers, and others); (2) sew a blank patch over the old sleeve logo so that no logo was showing (Carolina Panthers); or (3) remove the old logo so that no logo was showing (Detroit Lions). Interesting, when the Detroit Lions switched from Apex in 1994 to Reebok in 1995, they also went to the trouble of replacing the tail tagging as well as the sleeve logos on most of the jerseys!

VERY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE REGARDING 1994 LIONS JERSEYS: For those of you who live-and-die with photo-matching, 1994 Lions jerseys can be near-impossible to match. Here's why. Since most of the Apex jerseys were only used for about half of the season, most were "recycled" for 1995 as outlined above. Photos from the latter part of 1994 show the Lions wearing Apex with the Apex logo on the sleeve. Most jerseys from 1994 were recycled meaning that both the Apex tagging and the NFL 75th patch were removed. The only thing that remains is the '94 year tag in the tail. When viewing one of these jerseys, look for the outline of the Apex logo on the sleeve, and of course, the outline of the NFL 75th Anniversary patch.

To further confuse the issue, the Lions "recycled" their Wilson jerseys for use in the early part of the 1994 season as the the Apex shipment did not arrive promptly. (Apex went out-of-business soon thereafter.) That is the reason that there are many Wilson jerseys in the hobby that have the NFL 75th Anniversary patch still intact. Also note that there are some 1994 jerseys with the Apex logo/tagging still intact that are in the hobby, especially the "throwback" jerseys the Lions wore several times that season.)

I've included below photos of a Chargers jersey where a Starter jersey was "recycled" into an Adidas, and a Ravens Starter jersey was "recycled" into a Nike jersey. The last three photos show a 1994 Lions jerseys supplied by Apex that was "recycled" for use in 1995 with Reebok logos and tagging. The last photo might be difficult to see, but look closely and you can see the triangular stitching where the Apex sleeve logo was removed.

My apologies if I got a bit off-track, but thought that it was appropriate for the discussion to point out some of the things teams were doing during that era. Hope this information is helpful.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for World Football League and Atlanta Falcons jerseys, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis game-used items.

[Preston]

Re: Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

Hey Mark,

I don't have a photo of the Bennett but I'm getting it for a very good price. I remember it's the same size as the one I just purchased but I wondered if you knew a good site that you think would have some photos of him wearing the jersey in the preseason, as I am thinking this was a VERY early jersey made for a guy who they didn't think would make the team, but did.

[G1X]

Re: Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

Preston,

What about the sleeve logos? Are they Puma or Reebok?

The jersey could well have been a Puma that was intended to be "recycled" and used in 2001, but if the Puma sleeve logos are still exposed, I would be surprised if Bennett ever wore the jersey in a preseason game due to contractual obligations to Reebok. The reason the teams mentioned in my previous thread took the pains to cover the sleeve logos was to avoid violating their contractual obligations to wear only equipment with the logo of their current supplier.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for World Football League and Atlanta Falcons jerseys, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis game-used items.

[Preston]

Re: Did PUMA ever produce Titans game worn jerseys?

Hey Mark,

I do remember them being Puma sleeves - and I kinda wondered too if he could have gotten away with wearing it in a game (couldn't originally remember if the official switchover was 2001 or 2002).

That helps a LOT - most likely this is just a game issue jersey then. I'll probably save my money unless I see something that just sticks out.

Thanks again for the help!!