A Collector's Item?

I was doing some research for my next jersey I want to have customized today. If you know my collection, I am very rigid on specific jerseys being worn in specific eras when it comes to whose name and number goes on the back, and one of the ways to determine those eras are through the manufacturer's mark on the back of the jersey. You know these quite well, I'd wager - Reebok, Adidas, and CCM are the current ones we see most often. Back in the late 1990s before CCM received the league-wide contract, other manufacturers got into the game as Nike, Starter, and Pro Player were all worn by a handful of teams!

I want to focus on Pro Player exclusively today, though, as I have two authentic jerseys made by them. In my research, one of these two teams in my collection did wear Pro Player jerseys on the ice, and I'll have customization to reflect that era for that team. The other team, though, didn't start playing NHL hockey until 2000-01, and that brings me to the Columbus Blue Jackets jersey I own.

Back in August of 1994, Fruit of the Loom (yes, the underwear people) made a bit of a splash when it purchased the Daniel Young International Corporation, which operated under the name "Pro Player", for $45 million. While Pro Player hadn't gained the foothold it would soon have thanks to a major cash infusion by Fruit of the Loom, the purchase allowed Fruit of the Loom to venture into the lucrative professional sports merchandise market through some of the licensing it had acquired.

In 1996, Pro Player made a huge splash into the sports world when it purchased the naming rights to Miami's baseball stadium that housed the Florida Marlins. The former Joe Robbie Stadium would now be known as Pro Player Stadium in a ten-year, $20 million deal that Larry Lebowitz of the South Florida SunSentinel described as having "little to do with sentimentality and everything to do with the growing corporate influence over professional sports."

As noted by Lebowitz in his article, "Pro Player, which boasts sales of $200 million a year, gets a national platform from which to cement its brand name to millions of sports fans via repeat mentions in television and radio broadcasts, promotional materials, news stories, ads and in-stadium announcements."

Suddenly, this little business venture by Fruit of the Loom took on a whole new look as Pro Player became the first sports merchanise business to slap their name on a stadium or arena. Wayne Huizenga, the former Blockbuster Video magnate, owned MLB's Florida Marlins, the NFL's Miami Dolphins, and the NHL's Florida Panthers at the time, so the ripples of this deal were going to be felt all the way down the sports merchandise line with both sides seeing all sorts of room for potential growth and partnerships. And with Pro Player already having the NBA's Miami Heat under license, it appeared that South Florida was now exclusively a Pro Player territory.

As Pro Player's popularity grew, it began to rival other bigger names in the sports apparel industry such as Reebok, Nike, and Starter. Starter had began to work with the NHL, and a number of NHL teams were using Starter as its on-ice jersey for its players. The problem was that Starter's finances were in shambles after the MLB and NHL strikes in 1994 combined with major bank consoliations which made securing operating loans to produce merchandise much more difficult. As a result of Starter's struggling financial situation in 1997 and 1998, the NHL pulled its license from Starter at the conclusion of the 1998-99 NHL season.

It should be noted that, not related to having the NHL license revoked, Starter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999.

With the NHL needing a new partner to make apparel and jerseys for the 1999-2000 season, Pro Player filled some of that void by taking on the NHL license to do so. They made on-ice, authentic jerseys for a handful of teams including the Colorado Avalanche, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and, curiously, the two new expansion teams for the 2000-01 season in the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild. And that's where this story takes an interesting turn.

As stated off the top, I was poking around in trying to determine which players may have worn the Pro Player jersey before the NHL flipped the on-ice jersey license exclusively to CCM and its companies in 2000-01. This meant I went hunting for jersey unveilings and player introductions following the expansion draft, and a couple of images led me to a website known as the "Columbus Blue Jackets Game Worn Jersey Guide" where I discovered my collector's item. Or what I believe may be a collector's item.

On that page, the website's author has an entire section devoted to the 1999-2000 Pro Player Year, so I immediately went down that rabbit hole as I believed it contained the information I sought. It was there where I read, "These first jerseys were made by Pro Player and were used for the unveiling, press conferences for the first free agent signings and for early player and Stinger appearances, but were never used on the ice in an NHL game."

That sound you just heard was my jaw hitting the desk because that means I have an authentic jersey that was never worn on the ice. That doesn't mean it wasn't worn by a player, though, as the site states "for the first free agent signings and for early player" appearances. Being that Lyle Odelein was one of the first free agent signings made by the Blue Jackets back on July 3, 2000, it would appear he's wearing one of those #00 jerseys that the owners wore early on. Might Odelein and #00 be the customization I get?

Perhaps the better idea is to leave this jersey with no customization to represent the NHL's shift in jersey manufacturers and how Pro Player essentially were left in the cold once CCM took over the league-wide jersey manufacturing for the NHL. The fact that I have a jersey made for players, but was never worn by any player on the team while on the ice is, to me, a cool tidbit of knowledge about a jersey that I own.

I haven't made up my mind on what I want to do with this Pro Player Columbus Blue Jackets jersey just yet, but rest assured that I'm going to take some time to think about this one because of the historical moment that it represents.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!