In all of the galleries that I post, if you click on a particular jersey for an enlarged view, you’ll see that I provide the season that particular style of jersey was first issued for each player. But when you are collecting, if you want to more accurately pinpoint which year a jersey was issued, you can look at the tags and labels to determine the season that Champion issued a particular jersey. For instance, Champion produced thousands of Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jerseys from 1991-1992 through 1997-1998. For a collector, it might be important to have a first-issue or early issue Jordan road jersey. But since they basically all look the same, how can you tell which year a particular Jordan jersey actually came off of Champion’s production line? This post will tell you what to look for when trying to date a particular jersey that you otherwise can’t date by obvious traits like the style/color, team logo/graphics, player font, etc. It will show you the various labels and tags used by Champion over the years that will allow you to dive a bit deeper when collecting. This post only deals with REPLICA jerseys. I’ll address Authentic (sewn) jerseys in a future post. And of course, this isn’t an exact science…there are variations to what I layout below and I’ll be sure to address some of those.

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In 1995, Bullets ownership looked to change the name of the team out of sensitivity to gun violence in the city. After 30+ years, the Bullets officially became the Wizards at the start of the

Champion produced replica jerseys based on team popularity and player popularity….basically on what fans would purchase.

Although Champion began producing jerseys for all NBA teams for the 1990-1991 season, they didn’t start producing replica jerseys for resale until 1991-1992 (most likely the summer of 1991, prior to the start of the season). Evidence of this can be seen in the Portland Trailblazers jersey design. For the 1990-1991 season, the Trailblazers had the “lower case” Blazers logo.

How the NBA defines the three categories of jerseys available for retail:

Authentic

The authentic jersey features the same fabrications and embellishments worn by players on-court but offered in regular apparel sizing.

Swingman

The swingman jersey includes nearly all the same visuals as an authentic jersey but integrates a consistent performance mesh fabrication and one layer twill wordmark, name and number applications.

Replica

The replica jersey is a screen-printed derivation of the jersey that highlights basic inserts and design elements.

 

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For the past 15 years I have collected and sold Champion basketball jerseys. Over that time I have documented over 1,200 different jerseys. All of that content just collected in a folder on my computer….until now. For the past ten years I have wanted to create a blog-o-site that contained a comprehensive photo archive of every Champion NBA replica jersey ever made. But I didn’t have time, and I thought since the internet has everything, someone would eventually come along and create it. But, as the popularity of Champion jerseys continues to increase, there still is no place on the web where enthusiasts/collectors can go to see/discuss/learn about Champion basketball jerseys. Maybe I’m the only one who cares that much, and maybe that’s a problem…my girlfriend tends to think so. But nonetheless, this is my gift to the internet…which is now one step closer to containing everything ever.

Over the next several months, I’ll attempt to post one team gallery per week. Eventually as more content is posted, you’ll be able to search by player as well. And hopefully at some point, I’ll create