Attention jersey collectors

[carpandean]

There has been a recent influx of knockoff "authentic" (on ice) Sabres third jerseys on the market. I have held two in my hand (one known to be a knockoff when a friend purchased it and one returned to a seemingly surprised seller) and compared them side-to-side with my known authentic. Each had some good aspects and some bad aspects - in fact, combining aspects of each, you might be able to put together one very good copy - but if you are in the market, you should be very careful when ordering online.

 

Some things to look for:

 

1) Reebok switched from "RBK" to "Reebok on" their hockey gear last year. My authentic from November '08 says "Reebok" in the collar and on the main tag, while both copies say "RBK". I can't say that no true authentic was made with the RBK, but it is cause for concern.

 

2) One knockoff had silver eyelets around the laces. The authentics are blue. The second one had blue eyelets, though they were slightly thinner.

 

3) The stitching on the stripes, etc., on one of them was far too sparse. On the real ones, the stitching on the stripes is very dense, forming (for example) an almost solid blue line through a yellow stripe (when viewed from inside the jersey.) On the other knockoff, the stitching on the stripes was almost the same, but the tags were just tacked on. You could see the four stitches on the corners of the main tag, when looking at the back of the jersey. It was also missing some lines of stitching, such as the trapezoid around the Reebok symbol on the back of the neck.

 

4) The material on one of them was thinner in many areas, such as the gray neck "V" and the armpit mesh. The other one was better and harder to detect without a side-by-side comparison.

 

5) On one, the center crest was made from a cheaper, shinier material and actually was a little wrinkly. The white stitching (Buffalo, swords, etc.) on that one was also very uneven. This was the most noticeable error on that particular one. It was what you'd expect to see on a low-end replica.

 

6) While only slight, there was a difference in the yellow of the stripes/collar on one of them. Again, hard to detect without seeing them side-by-side. It was, however, just a hair closer to canary yellow (there is a lot of orange in the "gold" on real Sabres jerseys.)

 

7) On one, most of the stripes' edges were a little uneven (not to mention that they weren't quite the right width) and looked like they were sewn as quickly as possible.

 

8) Size 48 was an option. I didn't even think about this one until after the fact, but Reebok only offers 46 and 50 for smaller sizes now; 48 is not an option.

 

9) The fight stripe on one was a slightly different design and the attachment point was much smaller.

 

All-in-all, the one that was a known knockoff from China (and priced that way) would be the hardest to spot from the outside save for the silver eyelets. Paint those and it would be very tough. Most of the errors (sparse stitching, fight strap attachment, etc.) are on the inside. The other one would be much easier to spot just by looking at the center crest.

[Taro T]

There has been a recent influx of knockoff "authentic" (on ice) Sabres third jerseys on the market. I have held two in my hand (one known to be a knockoff when a friend purchased it and one returned to a seemingly surprised seller) and compared them side-to-side with my known authentic. Each had some good aspects and some bad aspects - in fact, combining aspects of each, you might be able to put together one very good copy - but if you are in the market, you should be very careful when ordering online.

 

Some things to look for:

 

1) Reebok switched from "RBK" to "Reebok on" their hockey gear last year. My authentic from November '08 says "Reebok" in the collar and on the main tag, while both copies say "RBK". I can't say that no true authentic was made with the RBK, but it is cause for concern.

 

2) One knockoff had silver eyelets around the laces. The authentics are blue. The second one had blue eyelets, though they were slightly thinner.

 

3) The stitching on the stripes, etc., on one of them was far too sparse. On the real ones, the stitching on the stripes is very dense, forming (for example) an almost solid blue line through a yellow stripe (when viewed from inside the jersey.) On the other knockoff, the stitching on the stripes was almost the same, but the tags were just tacked on. You could see the four stitches on the corners of the main tag, when looking at the back of the jersey. It was also missing some lines of stitching, such as the trapezoid around the Reebok symbol on the back of the neck.

 

4) The material on one of them was thinner in many areas, such as the gray neck "V" and the armpit mesh. The other one was better and harder to detect without a side-by-side comparison.

 

5) On one, the center crest was made from a cheaper, shinier material and actually was a little wrinkly. The white stitching (Buffalo, swords, etc.) on that one was also very uneven. This was the most noticeable error on that particular one. It was what you'd expect to see on a low-end replica.

 

6) While only slight, there was a difference in the yellow of the stripes/collar on one of them. Again, hard to detect without seeing them side-by-side. It was, however, just a hair closer to canary yellow (there is a lot of orange in the "gold" on real Sabres jerseys.)

 

7) On one, most of the stripes' edges were a little uneven (not to mention that they weren't quite the right width) and looked like they were sewn as quickly as possible.

 

8) Size 48 was an option. I didn't even think about this one until after the fact, but Reebok only offers 46 and 50 for smaller sizes now; 48 is not an option.

 

9) The fight stripe on one was a slightly different design and the attachment point was much smaller.

 

All-in-all, the one that was a known knockoff from China (and priced that way) would be the hardest to spot from the outside save for the silver eyelets. Paint those and it would be very tough. Most of the errors (sparse stitching, fight strap attachment, etc.) are on the inside. The other one would be much easier to spot just by looking at the center crest.

Did the knockoffs have the RBK - logo (w/ larger shadowed RBK - logo) piping inside on the back of the neck above the REEBOK tag? That would seem to be a detail that a counterfitter wouldn't bother with as no one will see it when the sweater is worn.

[carpandean]

Did the knockoffs have the RBK - logo (w/ larger shadowed RBK - logo) piping inside on the back of the neck above the REEBOK tag? That would seem to be a detail that a counterfitter wouldn't bother with as no one will see it when the sweater is worn.

Like the original, there is a piece of black fabric, about 3/8" wide, sewn over the seam that connects the yellow neck to the blue jersey, covering about 10" around the back of the neck. On the true authentic, it says "Reebok" every 1-1/2" or so in white letters (the reverse can be seen on the replicas at shop.nhl.com.) I don't have the known knockoff to look at right now, but I do remember that it said "RBK" (not sure about logos, etc.) On the other knockoff, it has the letters "RBK" over a shadowed Reebok logo and between each subsequent one of those is a white Reebok logo.

 

The '06-'07 pre-Edge slugs and thirds didn't have that black piece. The '07-'08 (Edge) slugs had a different version of the RBK/logo one with slightly larger letters/logos (can be seen still in on the zoom-able graphic on shop.nhl.com.) I'd guess that the '08-'09 Edge slugs have the "Reebok" version, too.

[Taro T]

Like the original, there is a piece of black fabric, about 3/8" wide, sewn over the seam that connects the yellow neck to the blue jersey, covering about 10" around the back of the neck. On the true authentic, it says "Reebok" every 1-1/2" or so in white letters (the reverse can be seen on the replicas at shop.nhl.com.) I don't have the known knockoff to look at right now, but I do remember that it said "RBK" (not sure about logos, etc.) On the other knockoff, it has the letters "RBK" over a shadowed Reebok logo and between each subsequent one of those is a white Reebok logo.

 

The '06-'07 pre-Edge slugs and thirds didn't have that black piece. The '07-'08 (Edge) slugs had a different version of the RBK/logo one with slightly larger letters/logos (can be seen still in on the zoom-able graphic on shop.nhl.com.) I'd guess that the '08-'09 Edge slugs have the "Reebok" version, too.

That's interesting. My original (purchased directly from the Sabres at ~ the same time as yours) has the ~3/8" wide black fabric w/ "RBK" next to the silhouetted logo (same logo w/ parallelogram as on the back under the neck) in bright white letters over a larger grayed out "RBK" next to the silhouetted logo; there's 3 of the white ones over each gray one.

[carpandean]

That's interesting. My original (purchased directly from the Sabres at ~ the same time as yours) has the ~3/8" wide black fabric w/ "RBK" next to the silhouetted logo (same logo w/ parallelogram as on the back under the neck) in bright white letters over a larger grayed out "RBK" next to the silhouetted logo; there's 3 of the white ones over each gray one.

Are the letters large like those shown on the slugs here (you can zoom in) or smaller? If they are smaller, what you describe sounds like what is on the second knockoff. Maybe it was used on the first batch until they used up the remaining stock and the people making the knockoffs copied those. Does your main tag say RBK (as seen on the slug I linked) or Reebok?

[Taro T]

Are the letters large like those shown on the slugs here (you can zoom in) or smaller? If they are smaller, what you describe sounds like what is on the second knockoff. Maybe it was used on the first batch until they used up the remaining stock and the people making the knockoffs copied those. Does your main tag say RBK (as seen on the slug I linked) or Reebok?

The lettering is much smaller. The grayed out RBK logo w/ box on the authentic is about the size of the white letter in the photo you found. Each grayed out text & logo has 3 white text and logos running across it.

 

Tag states "Reebok" to the right of the NHL logo.

[VansTheMans]

I'd buy some knock offs if they were cheap. :thumbsup:

[NUeagles2011]

I'd buy some knock offs if they were cheap. :thumbsup:

 

Try Jerseys101.com. You can get NHL jerseys for like 45 as well as NFL, MLB, and NBA. They only have Myers, Vanek, Miller, and Pommer and I don't know how "real" they are, but they are cheep enough.

[wonderbread]

Try Jerseys101.com. You can get NHL jerseys for like 45 as well as NFL, MLB, and NBA. They only have Myers, Vanek, Miller, and Pommer and I don't know how "real" they are, but they are cheep enough.

 

Just got my Miller jersey from jerseys101. Just like Carp mentioned. Good quality jersey. Very heavy! Impressed for 45 bucks.