Things To Consider While Buying Hockey Jerseys

Whether you are a general manager of a hockey team or an individual player, you must maintain a budget while buying hockey jerseys. You need to find a proper jersey within the budget that you have set. For this, you need to be honest and upfront with the dealer and ask them to provide the best possible options within your price range. 

Apart from the cost, there are a few other things to consider while buying jerseys. Let us take a look at some of them.

Construction

Most of the jerseys you will find on the market are made of 100% polyester. You will also find jerseys in three different varieties, namely pro-weight, mid-weight, and lightweight. With jerseys of higher quality, you will often find reinforced elbows and shoulders. These are high impact areas where manufacturers have included an additional fabric layer. 

Custom Vs. Stock Jerseys

If you need hockey jerseys in bulk, then it is better to go for stock jerseys that manufacturers produce in mass. Depending on stock levels and urgency, you can find blank stock jerseys reasonably quickly. While only limited color options like red, blue, white, and black were available before, nowadays you can choose from several designs. 

Custom jerseys are those that the manufacturers make from scratch. They are of two types, custom sublimation, and custom cut and sew. The Sublimation technique lets the manufacture incorporate any color combination or design into hockey jerseys, and it involves the transfer of colors onto the polyester fabrics. The styles may range from simple and subtle to zany and flamboyant.

On the other hand, custom cut and sew involves jerseys being made from scratch based on a preferred striping pattern and color choices. These usually cost more than sublimated jerseys because it involves customizations like numbers, names, and cresting. 

Personalization

Personalizing hockey jerseys is not only fun, but it also helps you highlight your team’s personality. You should consider whether names or numbers sewn on your jersey, and what type of font you want for them. If you look at professional hockey teams, they have the numbers sewn on the jerseys while the crests are embroidered. Although you will mostly see logos on the shoulders or the chest area, some choose to place them on bottom hems and sleeves as well. 

Cresting

There are mainly four options when it comes to cresting. If you want a professional look and have money to spend, you can go for embroidered crests. The cost of this will depend on the stitch count. Then comes the Sublimation crests where the logo is heat transferred and then sewn to your jersey, giving it a professional look. This is a popular cresting option for hockey jerseys that is ideal for multiple colors, and it is much cheaper than the embroidered variants.

Silk Screening is the cheapest option for cresting, and if you have a logo with only one or two colors, you should go for this one. This is a viable option for cresting hockey jerseys when you have a large volume order. Last but not least, there is the front lettering cresting where the initials and club names are written in the front of the jersey, which gives it a vintage look that sets it apart from other jerseys. Usually, the manufacturers use a vinyl heat press for front-lettering. 

Wrapping it up: These are the various factors you need to keep in mind while choosing jerseys for your hockey team. Remember, the more customizations you add, the more it is going to cost you. So it is crucial to find a balance between quality and price.