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FranklinT

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Everything posted by FranklinT

  1. Surprising I’d expect a dialogue from them. Maybe Ump Attire could facilitate.
  2. That’s right forgot about that. Thanks! (Think it looks ridiculous with the blue trimmed numbers)
  3. I’m confused by their marketing lines of this being “mlb replica style.” From everything I can remember MLB guys are wearing predominately black jackets (a heavyweight jacket, the convertible old majestic style, and a lighter jacket with some white accents.) Can’t recall seeing a jacket with these gray shoulders and cuffs. Am I missing something?
  4. Will these catch on and replace the old shoulder stripe models? You buying? I know some college conferences have moved to a similar style. My $.02 - not a fan of the wrist stripes
  5. The made in USA Fechheimers were the gold standard. Nothing will ever come close IMO (I have one from 2006 ish still in near perfect shape) is there a label showing who is making them now?
  6. Good find. The only two things reasonably priced on that site. Who the heck buys anything directly from Wilson at those prices? Seesh…
  7. I have these I bought them from UA prob about 10 or so years ago. Still use them and they are good bags. I like the back zipper. It’s odd but I don’t believe UA sells these anymore but somehow they are on Amazon. Back in the day (late 90s/early 2000s) UA was a minor player and was owned I believe by a woman named Beulah Hester who was a sewer and made ball bags and some other items. These bags aren’t those but they are somewhat similar. I can’t remember UA’s other product offerings at the time. They may have had private label shirts and carried some gear. Then Jim purchased them and kept those bags for a bit but I believe Beulah was getting older and couldn’t produce them anymore.
  8. Picked one up and I’m not a fan. The interior pockets aren’t the same size the the one to fit a plate brush is in the back. I’ve always used the front pocket for my brush. Like most Smitty items, didn’t feel this is of the highest quality either. id rather spend a few more bucks for dry lo’s
  9. Although navy gets a bad rap (and rightfully so) some of those old videos of MLB guys sporting the logo athletic navy shirts (mid 90s ish) haven’t aged too poorly if you check out pics now. I do think something seems wrong for guys working high level high school and above baseball wearing navy. Seems little league ish and out of touch.
  10. Oh lord….pullover knit sweater. Anybody else remember +POS selling sweaters 15-20 years ago?
  11. One of the many products from around that time where we thought “uhoh Honigs has lost their way”
  12. Correct these were the +POS resin masks which were marketed to be super light. A guy in our area had one and it sure was super light. They were prone to cracking after experiencing long durations of heat and sunlight. Believe all star made these for +POS and +POS just slapped their name and logo on the ones they sold. Definitely not carbon fiber these were sold in the mid/late 90s I believe. You can search the forum for more about these masks.
  13. Very similar to the Mizuno throat guard
  14. These are the “dry lo” bags created by former AAA umpire Mark Lollo and now sold by Force 3
  15. You have to wear a CK shirt? Wow
  16. As a long time umpire and gear junkie, and someone who is interested by the behind the scenes aspect of businesses and processes, I think it’s important to look how the landscape of officiating retailers has changed in the past 20 or so years. Back 20 years ago, we had Honigs, +POS, and Davis (who was a small player back then.). Honigs and +POS all has their own private label offerings of shirts, pants, plate shoes, jackets, protective gear, etc. Heck Davis carried their Davis made in USA plate shoes (which I believe were generally the same as the +POS plate shoes with some minor changes including Davis’ patent leather finish) and Hardwick and Fechheimer were providing made in USA pants and plate coats. Talk about a different era. Now UA is the leading retailer but everybody offers primarily Smitty clothing. Davis sells Cliff Keen but I can’t tell you the last time I saw a Cliff Keen shirt in the wild. I understand there are slightly more protective gear options (Wilson, Diamond, All Star, Schutt, etc) but the market has contracted so much where there’s primarily one manufacturer for clothing and apparel. I think this shows how small the market is and it’s harder to make money by not going the Smitty retailer route. I think for the same reasons a Nike plate shoe made available to the public would never happen.
  17. Correct…I recall when they initially introduced these shirts at the MLB level the color they called it was polo blue and was meant to be a darker blue not a “powder. Believe “Carolina blue” is the official color of the Majestic shirts (much different than polo blue.) Keeping this straight? 🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐
  18. These are totally different colors and came out at different times. The bottom is the classic “powder blue” that’s been around since the 90s. Sure every manufacturers shade of that color will be different (Smitty vs Honigs etc). The top shirt is the polo blue color that the mlb guys wore for a period of time in the mid 2000s I believe. It’s a darker color clearly and you will never get a match between those two shirt colors they are totally different.
  19. My bad I didn’t reference the right quote from Marquez: This growing interest in footwear birthed a text chain featuring about 25 aspiring sneakerhead umpires. In the thread, umpires regularly share photos of their latest pickups and group shots of different crews wearing Jordans together. Currently, the only place where umpires can't wear sneakers is behind home plate, where steel-toe boots are necessary to protect from foul tips. The group, however, is trying to figure out how to get a steel-toe insert into a Jordan. "Trust me, we have thought about it," Marquez said. "And if one of us is able to do it, we will do it."
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