Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not?
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Toronto Blue Jays gear can be seen as far as the eye can see, as Blue Jays mania takes over in Saskatoon.
Fans in the city are making sure they are decked out as the Blue Jays continue their playoff run in the American League Championship Series.
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The best-of-seven series heads back to Toronto on Sunday, with the Mariners ahead 3-2. If the Blue Jays win that game, Game 7 will be Monday in Toronto.
Gear is flying off the shelves in Saskatoon stores, and Paige Willey who works at Olympian Sports, said she has been customizing jerseys more and more.
“I do a lot of (Vladimir) Guerrero Jr., and a lot of (Alejandro) Kirk jerseys,” she said.
Willey said she began to notice an uptick in Blue Jays sales during the summer, and that there was a sharp increase as the playoffs began.
“Early July (it began), but I would say late September is where we really are starting to see an increase,” she said. “Specifically in jerseys, even (Friday) we’ve had at least 15 to 20 people in the store looking for Blue Jay stuff.”
Willey said there hasn’t been one specific item that’s more popular than the others.
“Our hats are very popular,” she said. “We carry hoodies and T-shirts. We recently got some neat vintage jackets and crew necks, those are pretty popular as well.”
Willey has been shocked to see how many jerseys are constantly flying off the shelves.
“Even with the price of (jerseys) going up and the pricepoint. I was shocked to see how many jerseys we sell over a week, we at least sell 10.”
Willey said Olympian Sports has also done some custom stitching for shirts and other items.
“We do lots of vinyl jerseys, and then we also do stitched on ones as well,” she said. “Lots of people get youth T-shirts. We have a lot of youth stuff and then they usually will get a name or number put on the back of those.”
Rahul Joshi, owner of Saskatoon Custom Tees, is no stranger to doing custom designs for clothing apparel, and as the Jays continue their playoff run, the demand has continued to grow.
“We have been getting a lot of inquiries from customers using our websites,” he said. “They’ve been asking about getting Blue Jays names printed on the back of the T-shirts, some people also gave me a small Blue Jays logo.”
Joshi said for the most part the requests have been simple.
“It’s mostly (a) player’s name on the back of the jersey,” he said. “Usually they would ask for their number to (be) put on the back of the jersey to support.”
Joshi said he sees around six to seven inquiries a week from people seeking custom Blue Jays apparel.
“When the Blue Jays are in the playoffs and they’re doing well it just makes stuff like this go viral, people want to be a part of the game.”
— with files from CKOM News
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