1992-93 CCM Home Authentic
#22 Rick Tocchet
Manufacturer: CCM
Size: 48
Purchased From: Century Sports
Lettered by: NJK Lettering
The Story: This is the continuation of a story that I began telling on another page. After the Penguins unveiled their new logo and their new jerseys, I had to have one of each. So I headed to the Penguins Pro Shop at South Hills Village to buy them. I had planned on getting replica jerseys much like the John Cullen replica that I had purchased there before, and I ended up buying both the home and road jerseys that day. Of course, customized jerseys had to be paid for in advance, so I plunked down the $180 ($90 apiece) for them and waited (not so) patiently until they were done. When I got the call from the Penguins Pro Shop, I hopped in the car and flew out to South Hills Village to pick them up. The first jersey I looked at was the Kevin Stevens road replica, which I was very happy with. When I looked at my Rick Tocchet jersey, however, I was none too pleased. They had customized the jersey with eight-inch numbers on the back, which, when compared to the twelve-inch numbers used on authentics, made the jersey look really bad. I protested the poor choice of lettering and was told that I'd have to speak with the manager, who wasn't available at the time. After numerous phone calls and a couple of trips to the mall over the next week, I finally caught up with her and demanded my money back. After first telling me that a customized jersey wasn't returnable, she finally told me she understood why I wasn't happy. Now that I had her admission that the jersey wasn't up to par - or even close to par - all it took was a threat to contact whoever the manager was above her to get my $90 plus tax returned.
So now, I have a dillemma. I wanted a jersey, and had a crappy one, so I didn't have it anymore. I also had $90 plus tax burning a hole in my pocket. So I went straight to Rupp's Hockey Supply, who had the jersey, but couldn't letter it for three weeks. I had waited long enough and wasn't going to wait another three weeks! Next stop: Century Sports. They had every jersey I could possibly want, but their salesman wanted to show me something different. He explained to me that Century not only had plenty of the replicas that I wanted, but they also had authentic jerseys - the exact same jerseys that are worn on the ice by the team. He showed them both to me so I could compare them side-by-side, and there was a huge difference in quality. Best of all, the blank authentic jersey only cost $90...plus tax! So for the price of a customized replica jersey, I could buy a blank authentic!
The next day, on an entirely separate topic, and completely by happenstance, I was looking for a place to get something else - specifically, my brother's wrestling jacket - embroidered. A parent on his wrestling team told me about this lady out in Avella, PA. She runs an embroidery shop out of her garage and she can embroider anything. She even letters jerseys for the Pittsburgh Penguins. WHAT?!?!? That parent gave me her number and I called her to introduce myself the next day. We talked briefly about the jacket and she said she could do it without a problem, then talk turned to my new jersey. She said she didn't want this to become common knowledge, but yes, she letters jerseys for the team. She said as long as I could keep that a secret, she'd letter my jersey for me. The price was $40! I couldn't believe it!
I took the jersey out to Norma, about a half-hour drive for me, and she did a fantastic job - exactly as she did on the Penguins jerseys. We talked hockey jerseys for a while and she even hooked me up with some of the patches that she sewed onto the team's jerseys the year before, including the original, non-mass produced "Badger" Bob Johnson Memorial Patch and the Penguins 25th and the NHL's 75th Anniversary Patches. I made a friend and she made a long-time customer. And who says nothing good can come out of a collecting hobby?
More importantly, this jersey started me down the road of collecting authentic Penguins jerseys. I also learned a valuable lesson about how important the lettering is to a jersey - a lesson that I've been fortunate enough to pass down to my son and my daughter when they began their own "collections!"
Size: 48
Purchased From: Century Sports
Lettered by: NJK Lettering
The Story: This is the continuation of a story that I began telling on another page. After the Penguins unveiled their new logo and their new jerseys, I had to have one of each. So I headed to the Penguins Pro Shop at South Hills Village to buy them. I had planned on getting replica jerseys much like the John Cullen replica that I had purchased there before, and I ended up buying both the home and road jerseys that day. Of course, customized jerseys had to be paid for in advance, so I plunked down the $180 ($90 apiece) for them and waited (not so) patiently until they were done. When I got the call from the Penguins Pro Shop, I hopped in the car and flew out to South Hills Village to pick them up. The first jersey I looked at was the Kevin Stevens road replica, which I was very happy with. When I looked at my Rick Tocchet jersey, however, I was none too pleased. They had customized the jersey with eight-inch numbers on the back, which, when compared to the twelve-inch numbers used on authentics, made the jersey look really bad. I protested the poor choice of lettering and was told that I'd have to speak with the manager, who wasn't available at the time. After numerous phone calls and a couple of trips to the mall over the next week, I finally caught up with her and demanded my money back. After first telling me that a customized jersey wasn't returnable, she finally told me she understood why I wasn't happy. Now that I had her admission that the jersey wasn't up to par - or even close to par - all it took was a threat to contact whoever the manager was above her to get my $90 plus tax returned.
So now, I have a dillemma. I wanted a jersey, and had a crappy one, so I didn't have it anymore. I also had $90 plus tax burning a hole in my pocket. So I went straight to Rupp's Hockey Supply, who had the jersey, but couldn't letter it for three weeks. I had waited long enough and wasn't going to wait another three weeks! Next stop: Century Sports. They had every jersey I could possibly want, but their salesman wanted to show me something different. He explained to me that Century not only had plenty of the replicas that I wanted, but they also had authentic jerseys - the exact same jerseys that are worn on the ice by the team. He showed them both to me so I could compare them side-by-side, and there was a huge difference in quality. Best of all, the blank authentic jersey only cost $90...plus tax! So for the price of a customized replica jersey, I could buy a blank authentic!
The next day, on an entirely separate topic, and completely by happenstance, I was looking for a place to get something else - specifically, my brother's wrestling jacket - embroidered. A parent on his wrestling team told me about this lady out in Avella, PA. She runs an embroidery shop out of her garage and she can embroider anything. She even letters jerseys for the Pittsburgh Penguins. WHAT?!?!? That parent gave me her number and I called her to introduce myself the next day. We talked briefly about the jacket and she said she could do it without a problem, then talk turned to my new jersey. She said she didn't want this to become common knowledge, but yes, she letters jerseys for the team. She said as long as I could keep that a secret, she'd letter my jersey for me. The price was $40! I couldn't believe it!
I took the jersey out to Norma, about a half-hour drive for me, and she did a fantastic job - exactly as she did on the Penguins jerseys. We talked hockey jerseys for a while and she even hooked me up with some of the patches that she sewed onto the team's jerseys the year before, including the original, non-mass produced "Badger" Bob Johnson Memorial Patch and the Penguins 25th and the NHL's 75th Anniversary Patches. I made a friend and she made a long-time customer. And who says nothing good can come out of a collecting hobby?
More importantly, this jersey started me down the road of collecting authentic Penguins jerseys. I also learned a valuable lesson about how important the lettering is to a jersey - a lesson that I've been fortunate enough to pass down to my son and my daughter when they began their own "collections!"