Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Comparing to the on ice thing isn't good. I'm guessing his friend bought him a replica (~100-125) and not an authentic ($300+). There are huge differences between the two in colour, stitching/fabric quality, and the ratio of stripes/patches/lettering/etc..
From what I've heard many of the fake olympic jerseys were quite well done. Your best bet is to compare it with the real thing. But make sure you compare a replica to a replica and an authentic to an authentic.
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The knock-offs all try to pass themselves off as "authentic", which is why they sew a pointless fight-strap into them. They claim to be discounted from the factory in China, even though the actual authentic jerseys are made in Canada (RBK ones at least, I don't know about the Nike Olympic ones), and I believe the official replicas are made in Indonesia (again, RBK, not sure about Nike).
The difference in quality between a legitimate replica jersey and a legitimate authentic jersey is relatively minor on first glance. The fabric on the authentic is slightly nicer and the big thing is that the logos and patches are all sewn on to the authentics, where they're glued onto the replicas. There shouldn't be any significant difference in colours and striping between an authentic and a legitimate replica. A legitimate replica should have the correct letters/numbers because they use the same stock as the authentics (unless you order the horrible ones from NHL.com).
From about 20 feet away, I probably couldn't tell you whether a person was wearing an authentic jersey or a replica; but I could tell if it was a Chinese knock-off.
Again, this is all based on the Flames jerseys. I haven't seen enough of the Olympic ones to know what the tell-tale differences are. Although, really, the most obvious tell-tale sign that you're buying a knock-off is if you're buying it from someone other than a recognized store and you're paying significantly less than what you could buy it for in Jersey City or the FanAttic (meaning much less than half the price of a regular retail store for no logical reason - like end-of-season clearance, or selling off stock of traded players).
Here's a site the Habs put up to help people spot fakes of their jersey:
http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=62049