This jersey that sits before me is in near pristine condition, as it is so rarely worn and usually hung back up after being just a few hours off of its hanger. Looking at the jersey straight on, the first noticeable attributes of the thing are inherently very clear; the jersey is a mixed combination of a dark scarlet or bloody crimson with very plain white trappings. The center piece of the jersey is the Detroit Red Wings logo, an antique car wheel, perhaps a wheel from a Packard or another classic motor city car with feathered, elegant wings branching off of the center rim of the wheel. The symbol itself is mainly outlined in that plain white, with nearly every detail like the spokes, the wheel well and the feathered etchings embroidered in such a way that they have a distinct patch-like but smooth texture to them. The scarlet seeps into the emblem and fills in the empty spaces in between the spokes, the rim, and the feathers, creating a very striking image from a distance as in the right light, the wheel looks as if it shines. The emblem is stitched very heavily onto the jersey itself and sits rather high on the chest about four or so inches below the collar. At the bottom of the jersey, a thick white tapering about three inches in length is similarly stitched onto the jersey and the contrast of the scarlet and white again adds to the shimmering effect of the wheel from a distance. The jersey is also porous to allow players to let excess heat escape from the thick cloth and every single part of the jersey, minus the collar and the emblem has these pores.

The sleeves of the jersey are fairly thick and end quite abruptly despite the jersey being made for a large, hockey playing man. The alleged reason that they end mid forearm is to prevent the cloth itself from wrapping around the player’s hands and restricting their ability to play but when you wear the thing, your forearms tend to get chilly. Ironic how that works. Each sleeve features one white stripe roughly eleven inches from the cuff and each stripe is about two inches or so in length. On the reverse side of the right sleeve, is the player number 9 which is another patch but it’s made of a much more silky material and again this patch is the same white color as all the other detailing of the jersey.

Looking into the neck of the jersey is a thick tag that reads “KOHO. AUTHENTIC ON-ICE GAME JERSEY. CENTER ICE AUTHENTIC. CHANDAIL AUTHENTIQUE.” This tag is mostly black with grey embroidering on the edges and the KOHO label is outlined in gold. Attached to this tag is a smaller white one with a Canadian flag on it that reads “MADE IN CANADA. FABRIQUE AU CANADA. HECHO EN CANADA. 48” and underneath this tag is another even smaller one that reads “48”.

Flipping over to the back of the jersey, the final emblems and patches are quite prominently displayed. A large KOHO patch sits less than an inch from the cover and is embroidered with scarlet and white, the letters of the word being white surrounded by a field of scarlet. About an inch and a half underneath the KOHO label is the name of player number 9, “HOWE”. The name is made of the same material as the small arm number and each of the ends of the name are slightly frayed from sitting against chairs. Finally about two inches underneath of that is the player’s number, 9 again made of the same silky material and very prominently displayed against the field of crimson. The patch is roughly twelve inches long and the 9 is cut in such a way that it looks as if it were composed of a bunch of trapezoids.

The reason why the jersey is so significant to me is far more simple than most would think, as it’s become very much a coat of arms of my family and it to me at least represents the relationship between myself and my dad. Like I explained before, my parents divorced when I was about eleven years old and as such I don’t see my dad a whole lot, as he moved to California to work. So in the ensuing decade, any time I got to see my dad was significant to me and through inheriting the replica jersey, it’s like I have a piece of him near me at all times.