Umpire Shirt Comparison Review

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by diner30

I can't believe that some people in this forum are so narrow minded as to not buy a piece of equipment or apparel because of the name. The name "Smitty" is derived from the creator of the Smitty Lanyard, Brett Smith. When Mr. Smith invented the Smitty lanyard he created the Smitty Lanyard Co. The company has evolved to now include apparel (it should be noted that Mr. Smith no longer owns the company). If you have legitimate reasons for choosing one brand over the other that is fine, and I think that honest assesments should be given and taken into consideration. But are you really not going to wear something because you don't care for the name? By the way guys, the pants are polyester. They didn't shrink over the winter...perhaps something else expanded.

Sorry, but when the company got bought, good, old American greed set in, and they went on the cheap, and put out the worst slacks in the industry--or among the worst. And one of the problems is that they were sized incorrectly, some by as much as an inch. The waistband material also shrank--even in cold water. And the clasps and buttons came off after very little use. So if they were tight, there were reasons. And unless you know what you're dealing with, it's easy to gain the impression that they suck just because of the name. No, they suck because they are (or were) cheap crap.

According to Jim Kirk at Ump-attire, they resolved those problems, but they still turned me off to the brand, because I don't care for companies that profit too grandly by cutting corners like that. The shirts are admittedly very good, but that is apparently an area they either corrected, or didn't cut corners in the first place. All I know is that with two pairs of unusable slacks, tailoring and shipping, the Smitty's company screwed me out of over $100.00, and I don't think that getting fleeced like that should go unmentioned.