Let’s take a look at some fake Champion Pro-Cut jerseys, in particular several Toronto Raptors Tracy McGrady rookie jerseys. With the popularity of the Raptors skyrocketing over the past few years, capped off by their championship this year, Raptors 1990s Champion jerseys have been in high demand. And with high demand, come higher prices, and higher prices lead to counterfeits. One of the popular fakes on Ebay is the Tracy McGrady Toronto Raptors Rookie jersey. McGrady was selected straight out of high school by the Toronto Raptors with the ninth overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft. So the first thing to note is that during McGrady’s rookie season of 1997-1998, Nike was the exclusive uniform supplier for the Raptors. Champion could only produce Raptor replica jerseys starting in 1997-1998; they could not produce Raptors Authentic or Pro Cut jerseys. Therefore, any Champion Pro Cut Tracy McGrady jersey is a fake. Below is a game used McGrady rookie jersey from Nike for reference:
Let’s take a look at some recent Ebay listings for McGrady Champion Pro Cut jerseys (remember, they immediately are all fakes based on the fact McGrady never wore a Champion jersey on the court with the Raptors, only Nike). Some sellers probably know they are selling complete fakes, while others probably think they have a genuine McGrady Raptors Champion Pro-Cut and do not know that they were duped at some point into buying a fake.
This listing is what I would call a “subtle” fake. The jersey shell appears to be a legit Pro Cut Champion jersey (most likely a team issued blank that was never used), and someone added a McGrady name/number kit. Looking at the jock tag, it is a legit Champion tag, but you’ll see two things immediately stand out. The sizing is 48 with +3 body length (McGrady was size 50 with +4 body length). And more importantly this jersey was issued for the 1995-1996 season, two seasons before McGrady stepped foot on an NBA court.
Now lets take a look at some “blatant” fakes. These jerseys don’t have an ounce of authentic fabric, and the errors on the jerseys stick out like a sore thumb. Yet they received multiple bids and sold for a couple hundred dollars.
The listing below is a blatant fake for the following reasons:
- Champion never produced a Pro-Cut or Authentic McGrady Raptors jersey
- The jersey is not double-tagged
- The size is 46, and again McGrady wore a 50 with +4 length
- The jock tag does not say “Made in the USA”
- A legit Champion jock tag does not have a copyright symbol above “It takes a little more to make a Champion”
- The jersey number (#1) is short and fat, so even the number/lettering kit isn’t legit
Now let’s take a look at another blatant fake, and this time we’ll compare the double tags from the fake jersey to double tags from a legit Damon Stoudamire Pro Cut from the same season (1995-1996). The listing below is fake for the following reasons:
- Champion never produced a Pro-Cut or Authentic McGrady Raptors jersey
- The double tag with year/team/body length is upside down
- The year on the jersey is 1995-1996, McGrady didn’t enter the league until 1997-1998
- The sizing is close, but still not correct (McGrady wore a size 50 with +4 length)
- The jock tag does not say “Made in the USA”
- A legit Champion jock tag does not have a copyright symbol above “It takes a little more to make a Champion”
- “Body Length +4” is sewn onto the tag, and not stamped
- Overall, the embroidery work on the double tags is not nearly as sharp and crisp as on a legit Champion jock tag. Usually you really tell from the sizing numbers, as on fakes they will normally be thinner and not as smooth. For instance, compare the “2” in size 42 and size 52. The fake “2” isn’t as rounded on top and sides and is thinner.
And for good measure, below is similar “blatant” fake to the one above, but a road jersey. You can now easily look at the tagging and determine it’s a fake. This appears to be from the same manufacturer who made the jersey above, since they are purposefully misaligning the double tags.
You have helped answer so many of my questions I don’t know where to start. I do have 1 particular question about a jersey I’m having trouble with. It is a purple Raptors stoudamire jersey with the dinosaur,however it does not have the pin stripes. It’s just all purple with the Dino and the word raptors. The collar reads “assembled in Mexico of us components”. Have you ever come across this particular jersey I can’t figure out if it’s legit. Thanks
The jersey is totally legit (assuming you are talking about a replica jersey, and not an authentic/sewn jersey). Champion didn’t start putting pinstripes on Raptors jerseys until the 1998-1999 season. By that time, Stoudamire was playing the Trailblazers. So if you found a Stoudamire Raptors replica jersey WITH pinstripes, that would be fake. What a lot of people don’ know is that one of the rarest Raptors replica jerseys to find is the Vince Carter without pinstripes. Those were made right after he was drafted, but then Champion quickly switched to pinstripes…so probably only one production run of Carter jerseys without pinstripes.
I got a question. Can you tell me what replica player jerseys where made in (white Golden State Warriors) ?
I have only ever found Joe Smith, Chris Webber and a few Spreewell.
I am surprised there is no Chris Mullins. Also no Mitch Richmond Warriors (Blue or White) only with the Kings.
I’ll get the Warriors gallery posted at some point. But they did make a Richmond Warriors blue jersey…extremely rare. As for home/white jerseys in the original early 90s style, you are correct…they only made Joe Smith, Chris Webber and Latrell Sprewell. It is surprising they never made the Mullin or Hardaway jersey in home/white.
Hi quick question I just got a black pinstripe jordan gold nba logo pretty cheap I cant find any info on it I see a few up for 300 to 600 do you know when they were made or if they were limited I’m new to this appreciate any info thanks !!
That would be the Jordan authentic alternate Bulls jersey from the 1996-1997 season since it has the gold NBA logo (marking the 50th Anniversary celebration of the NBA that year). This jersey also exists for the 1995-1996 season (with regular NBA logo). As far as authentics go, Champion made a lot of these. They fetch about $150 – $200 on Ebay.
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Great Site! I was wondering: Why don’t I ever see some Champion authentics in size 52? I’m an XXL and looking specifically for Penny Hardaway, Shawn Kemp, and Gary Payton (around the 1996 era) and have NEVER seen them. Did champion stop at size 48 around that time or something?
Thanks
Yes, Champion didn’t start producing size 52XXL until the 1996-1997 season…and that was only for replicas. Champion didn’t start making size 52XXL authentics until the 1998-1999 season (this is the time they added the second Champion tag to all Authentics, to the left of the jock tag).
Ready for a new post!!
do any of the champion jerseys that are official have the trademark over the “it takes a little more to be a champion” or all they all fake???
If it has the copyright symbol on the jock tag above “it takes a little more to be a champion”, it’s a fake.
What happened to the Suns, Sonics… in the “Teams” section of the archive? Thanks so much, love the site.
Those team galleries are still being worked on. Hopefully I’ll have all galleries up by end of the year, so keep checking back
Hi!! Been visiting you blog for a while and it is awesome. If you allow me to ask you something… I have a collection of about 50 NBA Champion jerseys and I am starting to sell them. I own two Horace Grant Orlando Magic plain blue jerseys (not the stripped ones) and I noticed that the three stripes of the shoulders are in different order. One of them (made in USA) has two white stripes and a black one in the middle while the other one, assembled in Costa Rica, has two black stripes and the middle one in white. I do not see any other difference between the two jerseys.
Do you happen to know whether both of them are authentic despite the difference in the order of the stripes? I know it is a tricky question but I have not seen in your ‘Team collection’ the one with B/W/B stripes. Online it seems most jerseys have the stripes in the shoulder in W/B/W.
Thanks!!
The orientation for the authentic/on-court Magic road jerseys (blue pinstripe) was black/white/black. But Champion was very good at making really bad replica jerseys, and therefore most of the Magic road jerseys produced from 1994-1995 through 1996-1997 have the white/black/white orientation for some reason. In 1997-1998, Champion was finally able to add pinstripes to the jerseys and the trim on all of those jerseys was black/white/black, replicating what the Magic actually wore on the court. So both versions of the Grant jersey you have are legit. I’m not sure there was a rhyme or reason to when the B/W/B jerseys were produced versus the the more common W/B/W trim. You’ll see a pretty even mix of Hardaway jerseys with both trims, and most are from the 1995-1996 season (based on the neck tagging). But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Shaquille O’Neal blue road jersey from that time frame with the B/W/B trim…and he was still with the Magic during the 1995-1996 season.
Thank for your reply!! Happy to see both jerseys are legit. To be honest it amazes me that someone knows all these stuff about Champion jerseys. Again great site, Champion jerseys are something special in the world of sports clothes. Have a good one!
What about Pro cuts without a second jock tag? I saw where a Scottie Pippen sold at auction for 22k but only has the classic champion tag, no team tag with year/length
https://sports.ha.com/itm/basketball/1996-97-scottie-pippen-game-worn-and-signed-chicago-bulls-uniform-photo-matched-to-twelve-games-and-career-high-points-game-/a/50006-50845.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515
Tag could have been removed. Obviously that jersey has the authentication needed and the shorts are tagged appropriately. There are exceptions to everything. I just give general guidelines on what I would require from a Pro-Cut jersey before purchasing given the cost and the rampant counterfeiting. But game used is a whole different beast.
Love the site! It hadn’t been loading for me for the past few months so I’m happy to see it’s back up! I’m a collector from Canada. I have about 60 replicas. Check me out on Instagram: championjerseyscanada
One question: if the jock tag says Wash in Cold rather then the usual Wash in Warm, is it automatically a fake? Also, there are no real LBJ champion jerseys correct? I picked up one but I’m pretty positive it’s fake
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “machine wash cold” jock tag, so most likely a fake. And correct, there would be no American version of the LBJ Cavs jersey because Champion stopped producing replicas after the 2001-2002 season (Reebok took over the license), and James didn’t come into the league until 2003-2004. There are Champion Europe LBJ jerseys however since Champion continued to produce replicas for the European market.
Hi guys,
Please someone help me!
I’ve came across Penny Hardaway jersey, European edition. It doesn’t have champion logo, and it has name on the back: A.HARDAWAY
It is black one pinstipe.
Fake?
Thank you in advance!
The European versions of the Anfernee Hardaway replicas always put A. HARDAWAY on back, so that is legit. Someone might have removed the Champion logo. Very unlikely someone would make a replica fake of this jersey, not worth the effort for how many Hardaway jerseys were produced