Tired of seeing annoying ads like this one! Already a member? Sign in here. The article, by Tim Layden who says he mail-ordered a replica jersey by responding to an ad in The Sporting News way back in ! A key thread running through the article is the implicit question of why fans like to wear jerseys in the first place. Toward the end of the piece, Layden addresses this question directly and comes up with a bit of an answer:.
Why do we wear jerseys to watch others play games in jerseys? This concept goes further. That bit toward the end, about wanting to belong and wanting others to know we belong, hit me hard. I relate to it, and you probably do too. It seems like a very human impulse โ not just for sports, but for all sorts of things. Once you see it spelled out, it seems intuitively obvious, right?
I realize many of you โ perhaps most of you โ buy and wear retail jerseys. And yet: We want to belong, and we want others to know we belong. I get that. It felt official, and wearing it made me feel official. My biggest gripes regarding jersey retailing are with the teams, leagues, and manufacturers. But what about the fans who buy this stuff, including Uni Watch readers?
Remember when I wrote a few months back about the uni-verse being messed up because it has succeeded too well? If you enjoy buying jerseys โ because you want to belong and want others to know you belong, or for any other reason โ go for it.
And however you feel about retail jerseys, definitely spend some time with that Sports Illustrated article โ essential reading. One footnote to all of this: As I was working on this piece, longtime reader Kenn Tomasch sent me a photo of this ad, which appeared in a issue of Baseball Digest :. Much like the ads and vendors mentioned in the Sports Illustrated article, this appears to be an early jersey retailer.
