The team issued jersey ploy.
The term is a marketing ploy and has been around for years, baseball, they did it again to us by using this word in their world. Before that unused jersey was used, which is much better.
Here’s why team issued is a ploy. It’s used to give the buyer a false sense of security, making him think he is getting something special when they are not.
Why because a jersey is never “issued “to the player, they are merely hung up in his locker for that night’s game and then for future games. But that term makes a collector all warm and fuzzy. So, it got traction and is seen in our hobby today.
The term issue means given to or handed to. So, a jersey is never given to a player then taken back out of his locker and sold. He gets one jersey that is in the team’s set of jerseys. He never comes near the jersey to have it issued to him.
Before the game, like I said, the equipment guys hang the jerseys in the stall for that night’s game. After the game then are put in the washing bin in the middle of the room usually.
So, for you collectors who think that players get a ton of jerseys handed to them and taken back for the term team issued to be correct are wrong.
If a player has an extra jersey that was not worn it could be Prepared for that MeiGray uses which I do like, or they are just unused.
If a player doesn’t wear a jersey in the set that the trainer made up for the team, it just hangs in the storage area or jersey closet awaiting, unused, for the player to need it, when called up or switched out by the trainer.
So don’t be fooled into thinking a jersey called team issued is anything else but an authentic replica of some kind, even if the team choose to use that term.
However, some teams are now using this term because they think it makes sense I guess, when unused is what the jersey is, not issued.
Why do I say all this, because the real problem is not seeing it on a fight strap from the team, but someone calling a jersey team issued when it is not team issued. Never even owned by the team, but somehow became team issued.
So if someone is telling you its team issued, really do some homework to see that it was in fact team owned, which doesn’t mean hanging in the team store, means actually in the equipment managers inventory for the year.