An Expensive Mistake

There's no denying that mid-1990s Jaromir Jagr had some of the best hair in hockey history. Look at that glorious mane to the left! That's one of hockey's best mullets of all-time, and I'm not sure there's another that has even been close in recent memory. While we marvel at Jagr's flowing locks, I do want to point out that the jersey he is wearing is the original diagonal-name jersey that the Penguins wore in the 1990s. Easily identifiable by the robo-Penguin on the shoulder, the black jersey with "Pittsburgh" spelled out diagonally on the front was used by the team from 1992 until it was retired following the 1996-97 season. I have one of these jerseys in my closet, and it looks phenomenal with the customization as it just has that traditional black-and-yellow Penguins jersey from Lemieux-Jagr era. Toss in a solid mullet like Jagr's flow, and you're ready for a Penguins game.

Why I bring this up today was due to a recent viewing of a jersey being sold on a website. The image below is for the jersey that's up for sale, and I'm sure you'll notice there's a very significant difference between what Jagr is wearing above and what's shown below.

As you can quite clearly see, the numbers on Jagr's jersey at the top are yellow with the white outline - two-colour numbers as the pros say - while the jersey in question has the colour scheme reversed and in three-colour twill (white on black on yellow). Clearly, there's an error here, but the error made is actually a lot more expensive than you may think due to something you can't see immediately.

If you inspect the number closely, you'll see a design on the white portion of the number that looks like a series of V-shapes aligned closely together. This type of twill fabric is known as "arctic twill", and it was used by a handful of NHL teams during the 1990s to add another layer of depth to the numbers. Personally, I found it hardly noticeable whule watching from home or in the stands, but teams used it to catch the light a little more to make the numbers stand out. Was it effective? That part is debatable, but what isn't debatable is that the cost of arctic twill fabric was considerably more than the regular tackle twill we're used to seeing.

You may be asking how such an egregious error could be made, and I'm not sure myself. What I do know is that the Penguins' alternate jersey during this time, pictured to the left, used this fabric for its numbering and lettering, so it would appear someone got the wrong specific uniform font applied to the wrong jersey. Whoever walked away with this jersey with the wrong lettering also paid considerably more for the customization thanks to the arctic twill used for the numbers and letters, so mistake hurts twice in that the it's wrong and it was a larger hit to the pocketbook.

That part that makes me sad is that this is an original CCM jersey with all the proper tags and identifiers that has essentially been ruined because someone either choose the wrong font for the jersey or someone messed up and put the wrong font on the jersey. Finding original CCM jerseys of the diagonal-name Penguins jersey in what appears to be great condition is getting harder and harder, so seeing this one made virtually worthless hurts the jersey collector in me.

I can tell you I will not be buying this jersey. The error is one thing, and I completely get that a person who doesn't follow hockey closely may never know that this jersey was covered in wrong. That's part of the "caveat emptor" warning that Romans had, and it certainly applies to buying anything online. The second reason, though, makes it easier to dismiss this jersey outright, and that's the asking price.

That's a ton of dough to buy someone's mistake, and it simply would not be worth the effort to correct that error. Personally, the person selling this jersey should be embarrassed, so don't fall into his or her trap and spend your money on someone's expensive mistake. This jersey should remain available until the end of time thanks to the cost and the error.

Caveat emptor as always, folks!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!