Chasing MacNaughton S3E9: “Happy New Year”

Season 2 Episode 9 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; “Happy New Year” This week with Dustin away, Tim Braun and Rob Gilreath were joined by Ryan Johnson of www.JohnsonsJerseys.net and David Cummings, better known as Biddco. We took the time to discuss (times are approximate):
FloHockey Redux (3:20)
Patron Question (7:23)
Authentic Jersey Order (9:28)
Jersey Auctions (23:06)
Black Road Jerseys (28:00)
UMD Old School Jerseys (34:08)
MTU Current Jerseys (38:14)
Best NCAA Jerseys (40:45)
Sublimated Jerseys (49:10)
Favorite MTU Jersey (63:52)

Flo Hockey Redux

This week, we begin again airing frustrations with FloHockey and the CCHA’s decision to partner with them. Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s frustrating to pay more for an inferior product that other leagues enjoy, and the only edge the service has is that it offers multiple niche sport that the average Tech or WCHA fan simply doesn’t care about. To make matters worse, a point that hasn’t been discussed is that Hockey East has made every game free to stream for the COVID season as a fan service, and that is something I don’t believe I’ve seen any other league do.

Here’s hoping that Flo makes their price point more approachable, or we move away from Flo in the future.

Patron Question

Our question this week gave us quite a chuckle, but it’s because we’ve all been thinking it as well. When is the team going to wear the 100th season jerseys? It’s a little saddening because the jersey was meant to be a bit of a showboat for the fans, but fans are obviously not allowed in attendance. We have little more than speculation to offer (such as against Northern, save it for next year, etc.), but we hope you all enjoy the discussion anyway.

Jersey Order

We’re having some fun getting this together, to summarize it loosely. The University has expressed some concern that the numbers we’ve handed them in interest forms seem outrageous for just fans. However, the interest seems to reach far beyond just Tech fans and extend to all hockey fans. We’re offering a rare opportunity to own an on-ice quality jersey that most schools don’t offer at an affordable price, which is attractive to fans of other schools across the nation.

As the guy that used to be in charge of local distribution in Houghton twice over, it was definitely a lot of fun to be sure jerseys get in the right hands. It can be very stressful to be in charge of thousands of dollars worth of fabric getting into the correct hands, then sending the remaining jerseys off to Tim for national distribution. Hopefully Tim’s arrangement with Exclusive Pro Sports proves to be easier going forward. No matter what, the order will happen and distribution continues to be in more than competent hands. Patience is the name of the game here. We thoroughly enjoy being able to offer this opportunity to an absolutely rabid fanbase.

An important thing to remember with these jerseys is that all profits go 3 ways. Tim gets about a third for the trouble of dealing with compiling the order list, dealing with emails, and sorting and distributing jerseys (which can take him up to a week on its own). Us here at Tech Hockey Guide get about a third to ensure we still have a platform for our volunteer contributors, and the last third goes to Mitch’s Misfits to be sure that they have appropriate funds to purchase day-to-day items and to go across the nation to be the loud, proud and very visible lunatics we know and love. Our margin on each jersey is very meager (about 10%), but we ensure the profits go toward enriching our Michigan Tech hockey community in the best ways we know how.

Listen to the pod this week for more of the inside scoop on the jersey order. The signup for authentic jerseys is still active here.

Jersey Auctions

There have been rumblings that the game-worn 100th anniversary jerseys will be auctioned off at the completion of the season and the University has raised concerns about the order, stating that it might depreciate the value of the gamers because people have a cheaper option that is pretty much every bit as good. However, we don’t really see the argument because the game worn and authentic jersey markets are completely separate. There’s been rabid demand in the horrific looking one-off game worn jerseys that the school has put out, so we can easily see the 100th season jerseys getting into the $500-$1,000 range without breaking a sweat. Plus, the raffle jerseys are a special opportunity to own an extra special part of Michigan Tech history that we imagine die-hard fans aren’t going to want to pass up, whether they get in on our order or not.

Black Road Jerseys

We’ve opted to leave this jersey out of the order this year. We’re running into the same problem that we did with the golds in the last order. The team is switching over to a different jersey style, and we first of all cannot in good conscience call it an authentic on-ice jersey, and also the sizing will be off as it was last time. The golds and creams have since been changed over to the CCM style and we’re comfortable selling those as on-ice authentics, but at this point in time we are not able to say the same of the road blacks. Until the team changes over to the new style, we cannot sell it to you and call it authentic. We’re simply not comfortable doing that. We’ll keep you updated with any potential changes, but folks looking for a road black will likely have to wait for the next order.

UMD Old School Jerseys

David wore the UMD Triangle Dog jersey from the 1990s, and it was an incredible relic of that era. Ryan, the authority of Michigan Tech game worn hockey jerseys, had a lot of high praises to sing about the jersey and used to own one, but has since moved it to the hands of a UMD fan. It’s a very difficult jersey to find, and David and Ryan share anecdotes of how they found their editions of that jersey style.

MTU Current Jerseys

Tech fans have been spoiled by a beautiful on-ice aesthetic. Tech’s jerseys have constantly been ranked among the best, if not the best, college hockey jerseys in the nation. It seems as though Tech has more or less set the trend in college hockey that has seen a revival in off-white as a primary jersey color. David wasn’t allowed on the podcast without admitting that Tech has the best jersey in the NCAA, and he happily complied and seemed to talk about them with a lot of enthusiasm.

Ryan holds an opinion (that I, and many others, vehemently disagree with) that Tech hasn’t done enough to keep up with the times and that their look is too deeply rooted in nostalgia. He would like to see Tech go all-out with a redesign every year so he can keep his collection going. He’s even mocked up a grey jersey, that I as the writer of this piece really hate. But, to each their own.

Silver alternate jersey, maybe? *fingers crossed*
Well that’s what I would do anyway.
Let’s do that Huskies?! pic.twitter.com/2yC0obcWYg

— Johnson’s Jerseys (@JohnsonsJerseys) September 24, 2019

Listeners that both agree and disagree with the direction of MTU’s on-ice jersey aesthetic are encouraged to contribute to the conversation in the comment section! Who knows, we may even discuss your hot take on the podcast.

Best NCAA Jerseys

The guys on this week’s episode are permitted to pick one jersey per conference to be their favorite. David really enjoys cursive logos, simplistic concepts, and throwback designs. Rob tosses in Merrimack, Anchorage and Fairbanks into the mix, and doesn’t care much for any of the B1G teams.

We do take some pot-shots at Arizona State for having more jersey styles than years of existence.

Sublimated Jerseys

Ryan brings up the subject of UConn’s gradient jersey, and as a lover of unique designs, that’s a jersey he really loves to see because nobody else has anything like it in NCAA DI. Ryan brings up the concept of sublimation jersey dying, which essentially unlocks unlimited jersey design potential. He wishes more teams would take advantage of the technology to accomplish any design scheme they want instead of going with cookie cutter designs with a logo that you tend to see on sublimated designs.

Ryan’s offered the idea of having a design contest for a jersey. It’s possible to make jersey design an object of passion instead of another thing that just has to be crossed off of a long list of things Athletics has to deal with. He even his services to help make a Tech one-off jersey for free, which would be really cool to see, but if I had the option to delete grey from his array of color options I would do it without hesitation.

Favorite MTU Jersey

Of the current jerseys, the guys on the pod rank their favorites. You’ll have to tune into the pod this week to see hear what the guys have to say!

Cut for time

This week’s cut content available for patrons involves a critique from a fan not wanting to hear us complain about Flo hockey anymore, which resulted in additional complaining about Flo Hockey. We also discuss more details of the jersey order, the possibility that University Images may get ahold of authentic jerseys and jack up the prices without offering customization, and further discussion you’ll just have to subscribe to find out!

Learn More

For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is nearly 84 minutes.
Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod and you can submit questions through our email address, ChasingMac@techhockeyguide.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review which will help us reach more people, and tell your friends. Please check out Jonathan Zamaites series previews every Friday and Mike Anleitner’s Old Dog in Texas column every Wednesday. Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles on Tuesdays. As always, special thanks to our patron saint Doc McResin for his generous donation to get this thing running, we hope you enjoy. Also, thanks to The Thank You Notes for all the bumpers in today’s episode. If you like what you hear, check them out at thethankyounotes.bandcamp.com.