by Justin Orlewicz (Sports Editor)
Email: joel at ufvcascade dot ca
You may have seen the ads on Facebook or some other social network device advertising cheap hockey jerseys for sale: authentic with fighting strap! Well, buyer beware. These jerseys are knock -offs.
Professional sports jerseys are an expensive commodity; it’s not an argument. This has become the alternative for sports fans that can’t afford the real thing, but still want to wear their team’s colours with pride. In fact, they are actually hurting their favourite sports team. A lot of the fans that are buying these jerseys are unaware that these are cheap knock-offs; they don’t even know that they are being sold a fake! These poor fans are not being told that these are not the authentic pro jerseys that they are buying like advertised, but just a cheap imitation of one.
A jersey collector can spot a knock-off right away, but almost anyone can identify a fake after being shown the difference between the two. It’s quite simple; the material is cheaper, and all the logos are enlarged. Two more questions have to be asked now; where are these jerseys coming from, and who is selling them? The first question is easy to answer: somewhere in the Asian region where copyright laws don’t exist. The second question is a little bit more complicated, but not that difficult to understand. People use the social networks that are available to the general public and have high traffic and advertise professional jerseys at half the price. Too good to be true, right? Why not take a look and see if it’s for real and what they are offering. Credit card, address and you have one at your door step just like you bought it from NHL.com.
The other method that these phonies have been getting out to all the good hearted fans of the world is Craigslist. People have connections or ways of obtaining large amounts of the jerseys and develop lists of their stock and what is available and in what sizes and then advertise it on Craigslist. They will even go as far as emailing their friends with lists of their stock and to see if they want any of them. These people will even take special orders of players that are not on the list and most of the time they will be able to come through with the discomfort of having to wait a week or two.
These jerseys are getting out to the general public in a hurry; it’s almost like a locust infestation. The “fake jerseys” are spreading like wild fires and there is nothing that can put the fire out.
A study done in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the three biggest hockey markets in Canada, it was discovered that half of the jerseys being worn at these events are fakes. This study was done in the last month of NHL regular season action.
You can look at it in a few ways. First, it’s good to see these buildings full of their team’s colours. Second, it makes jerseys affordable to someone who can’t afford to the pay the large amount requested by the NHL for one of their semi-pro jerseys. Lastly, it’s hurting the less fortunate teams financially; the NHL is trying to regain it’s presence in the United States, and the fake jerseys don’t help their cause. Maybe it’s time for the NHL to slightly lower their semi-pro jersey prices in order to compete with the fake jersey market. You already see promotions on NHL.com that offer free name lettering on their jerseys for certain occasions.
It’s really for the fan to decide what they want to buy and support and what they can afford in order to wear their team’s colours proudly. So, as fans you decide, but be aware that these are fakes just like the handbags and other goods that are offered in the same methods that were just listed. The choice is yours!
