Winnipeg jersey customizer knows a uniform just has to be uniform

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This article was published 11/04/2015 (4126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Roch Carrier’s short story The Hockey Sweater is one of the most beloved works in Canadian literature, so much so that a line from it was once inscribed on the backs of the five-dollar bill.

In 1980, the National Film Board of Canada produced an animated version of The Hockey Sweater, which tells the story of a Quebec boy who pines for a Montreal Canadiens jersey but — sacré bleu — receives a Toronto Maple Leafs one, instead.

Although the 11-minute short was named Best Animated Film at the 1981 British Academy Film Awards, Chris (Keener) Dougherty has a bone to pick with how the yarn’s titular “character” — Maurice (Rocket) Richard’s red, white and blue Canadiens jersey — was depicted on-screen.

“The number on it is all wrong; the ‘9’ on the back (of the jersey) should be larger and extend outside the blue stripe by a couple of inches but it doesn’t because the stripe is too wide,” says Dougherty, flipping open an illustrated, paperback version of the cartoon to show a visitor the slip-up he is referring to.

Dougherty knows of what he critiques. For years, the self-taught seamster has been regarded as one of the top jersey customizers in Winnipeg. But ever since Dougherty and his longtime pal, Jason Olson, founded Keener Jerseys 18 months ago, word of Dougherty’s expertise with a needle and thread has spread past the Perimeter, to the point he now has regular clients throughout North America, and from as far afield as England, Germany and Slovakia.

What is a jersey customizer, you ask? Well, if you are one of the thousands of Winnipeg Jets fans who parade around town with your favourite skater’s name and number on your back, a jersey customizer is the person who put it there for you.

Dougherty, 40, was 12 years old when he received a white, Winnipeg Jets jersey for Christmas. The first thing he wanted to do was slap his own name on it, he says. Problem was, he couldn’t find anywhere in town that stocked letters the precise size and font as those that adorned the backs of Dale Hawerchuk, Andrew McBain and company. So Dougherty decided his only recourse was to craft his own stencils and do the job himself.

Close to 30 years later, his attention to detail hasn’t wavered.

“Besides fonts, what I pay particular attention to are things like stitch-width, and whether the threading (on a pro jersey) is angled or straight across,” Dougherty says, seated sock-footed on a couch in his and Olson’s head office/workspace at 222 Osborne St.

“Some teams use really wide stitching. But if you look at a Jets jersey, for example, you’ll see that the stitches (on the numbers and nameplates) are super-tight and narrow.”

Dougherty chuckles when he is asked how many puck heads actually care — or would even notice — how many millimetres apart the fibres on their jersey are.

“More than you would think — and it’s becoming more of a thing, all the time. I think it’s a blowback from all those fake, made-in-China jerseys that are so poorly done.”

To ensure accuracy, Dougherty has an expansive photo library of actual, game-worn jerseys — pictures he can refer to if he’s having trouble determining if the hue a particular team employs is royal blue or navy blue.

Dougherty used to work out of his apartment, juggling individual orders around a full-time job. In 2013, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers came calling to see if he could help them out with “odds and sods-type stuff” — labelling laundry bags, tub shorts and nameplates for newly acquired players.

“We knew that in order to properly service the Bombers we would have to take things to the next level,” says Olson, who has a background in business management. “That prompted us to build our business plan, secure financing, get our own shop and buy equipment like industrial sewing machines and a sublimation printer.”

A few weeks after moving into their space, Olson approached Dougherty with an idea. He had noticed that a lot of people who played recreational sports took to the ice or softball field wearing mismatched or poorly-made uniforms. But because Dougherty is such a perfectionist, Olson didn’t know if fashioning jerseys for “beer leaguers” was beneath his buddy or not.

“Not at all,” Dougherty told him. “I’d do that kind of stuff, for sure.”

“So right now our business is about 60-40, custom jerseys versus rec-league stuff,” Olson says. But the rec-league orders are growing exponentially, he adds.

Teams can go to Keener Jerseys’ website, design their own uniform right down to the crest, and expect the guys to bring it to life for them. Or they can select a colour scheme that already exists — or used to exist — at the pro level.

Last week, for example, a softball team asked Dougherty and Olson to duplicate a classic — some say awful — Houston Astros rainbow jersey the ballclub wore in the 1970s. (Dougherty is crossing his fingers that one day a hockey team will put in an order for the Vancouver Canucks’ infamous “flying V” jersey from the 1980s.)

If the Jets’ are still alive when the NHL playoffs begin in a few days, Olson and Dougherty won’t have to refer to the sports pages to know who played a vital role in getting them there.

“It’s funny how hot and cold it gets, in regards to whose names everybody wants on their sweaters,” Olson says. “After that four-goal game earlier in the season, we got tons of requests for (Mathieu) Perreault. Then when (Ondrej) Pavelec went on a tear a couple of weeks ago, (his) was the name everybody wanted.”

Dougherty does have one minor request for Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff when it comes to this summer’s draft picks: howzabout selecting a few prospects named Smith?

“I’ve almost spelled Scheifele wrong on four jerseys, already,” Dougherty says with a laugh. “I always double-check names like Scheifele and Byfuglien but when I type (Scheifele) into Google, it almost always comes up ‘Schiefele.'”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca