Umpire Shirt Comparison Review
 

Side-by-side umpire shirt review comparing seven shirts from Dalco, Cliff Keen, Gerry Davis, Honig's, The Official's Choice, Smitty Apparel and Ump-Attire:

Midwest Ump: Umpire Shirt Comparison Review

And the winner is. . .

Not anyone who believes the Smitty or the OC shirt is superior to anything.

What a bunch of tripe.

what about LeTrell umpire shirts? anyone ever hear of them? they are offering free # with their shirts. iron ons at that!

The Smitty shirt is probably better than the Dalco shirt. I have some of each and Dalco's material is weird. With that said, I don't think the Dalco is as bad as he makes it out to be. I don't know about OC, but the Smitty shirts aren't bad though.

Despite the name, Smitty makes good umpire gear.

Somewhere there is a thread or threads regarding the shortcomings of Smitty and O.C. shirts. It was pretty convincing as I recall.

I remember KevinFinnerty had a thread about OC shirts that was pretty detailed. Most of the anti-Smitty stuff is usually because of the name. I'd be interested to see how many of the people who don't like Smitty stuff actually own any of it.

I probably would not purchase anything by the Smitty brand, mainly due to the name.

Ehh, no one knows unless you tell them. I got my cream shirts from them and a navy and black long sleeve from them as well as two jackets and I really like all of it.

That only matters if you plan on sewing the label on the outside of the garment.

From first hand experience, Smitty pants are horrible. That experience is enough to keep me from buying the shirts.

Yeah, their pants are my least favorite garment that they make. They really aren't as bad as some people make them out to be, but they don't feel as thick and durable as the poly wools or Davis charcoals.

That is clearly a baseball mentality. Smitty sells other products that work well in other sports. I would think their baseball stuff is rather good. I would not care about the name if the stuff works and is reliable.

BTW, Smitty is the company that makes lanyards and did that first before they ever made clothes.

Peace

I just recently purchased four of their shirts. Compared to my previous shirts (honigs), I would give them an equal rating.

Why? (maybe you've covered this before; I don't recall).

For me, the pants held up well, and matched my partner's Honig's poly-wools. (The GD pants don't).

The plate pants were a little tight over the shin guards.

This year, they've added the expandable waist and supposedly fixed the width of the plate pants -- I haven't tried them on over the shins yet.

my.02
 

I really appreciate the efforts you put into this review...Its not often you get to see that much detail on a products in a non sales related viewpoint....

Good job!!

I had great luck with Smitty brand apparel in Basketball. I also have an Umpire shirt and pants and have no complaints so far.

I'm with bobjenkins here... I've had nothing but good experiences with Smitty, ESPECIALLY their pants. I've had a pair for about 4 seasons now, and they hold up incredibly well. They have not discolored one bit, unlike my Cliff Keen pants which turned a pink hue at the end of my first season with them.

I had a bad experience with Smitty pants. I bought a pair of base pants last year for American Legion ball because they are lighter weight and cooler.

I only wore them a few times, cleaned them, and hung them in the closet. Got them out this year and they had shrunk! No joke! They're much tighter in the waist than they were late last summer. Bummer. :rolleyes:

I bought the Smitty pants this year. I liked the look and the feel of the pants. I was disappointed with the belt loops of all things. They advertised 3/4 inch wide loops on their new pants. The loops were barely 3/8 inch wide. Not enough for a wide belt in my opinion. I sent them back and got GD's.

+1 Cardinal Fan
 

I had the same thing happen to me, and wore the Smitty's (charcoal colored) four times last September and October. Looks to me like the waist band bunched together.

I have a pair of Cliff Keens which are okay, but I would much rather have the Honigs GD's, or a pair of Fetchhimers (if they still exist in charcoal). Now if +POS still existed.....

Before they got their problems straight (allegedly), the Smitty's slacks had sizing issues, clasp issues and workmanship issues. They were the worst slacks I ever tried.

If they solved those problems, great, but I still threw away 100 bucks trying two pairs of this inexcusably poor crap (slacks, shipping and tailoring). One pair was worn and washed three times, and the other pair was worn and washed twice. Two pairs of slacks: two improperly sized pairs of slacks with clasps that are tearing out and pocket buttons that fall off and waistbands that bunch. They sucked as badly as a new pair of slacks can suck. No such problems with any other brand.

The shirts are pretty good, however. I'm open-minded enough to say it: they're good shirts. Irrespective of all of that, the Smitty's company is a typical American company willing to take any shortcuts in quality and workmanship in order to make an undeservedly high profit at the expense of forever angering scores of members of their customer base. And the only way they'll ever know is to watch their sales disappear like they should after foisting this unusable crap on us.

... Name change!

Hands down the best shirts are +POS if you can get them.

Spoken like a man who has never owned a Logo Athletic shirt.

Way to support the US!! And when they take it over seas and Americans lose hundreds of jobs, will you be happy then?

I deal with many overseas companies. Don't talk about shortcuts and poor quality until you've dealt with other places. Plus, the quality of US products has increased drastically over the past few years. Further, you don't know that these weren't outsourced to a foreign company to have them cut and sewn, then sold here.

Sorry to highjack the thread - this just didn't sit well with me since I work for a US company that takes quality quite seriously, as do our customers.

If this is your view, buy foreign and watch our economy continue to plummet.

Then, yours is not a typical American company. And why are you arguing, when you're making the same point that I am?

And I have enough dealings to know what I am talking about.

Perhaps you should finish reading what is written, comprehend what is said, and then you wouldn't have to go off.

Au contraire le Arbitre Publius
 

I owned 12 of them at one time, and I still have 2 that I wear. I loved the LA shirts too.

The Smitty Shirts are pretty good actually, I cant complain. The pants on the other hand, seem to be a bit tight. Maybe they should write up a review on pants?

I'm not making the same point. I was defending US companies. Most US companies take business to Asia b/c the work/product is cheaper, not always because of improved quality.

You may be correct that in the past US products were less quality oriented than in other parts of the world. It is no longer that way. Thus "typical" US companies no longer fit that bill.

Further, the profit margins on the majority of products is not nearly as high as people think. Retail/list price is rarely paid by anyone.


I did.
I did.
That's why I had to.

If you left something unsaid that should have been implied, it got lost after the US bashing. Maybe you should have said it.

However, this has nothing to do with umpiring, so let's just agree to disagree and go on.

Where do you find LeTrell?
 

Where can I purchase a LeTrell umpire shirt? I have not seen their shirtlisted on any of the on-line official's supply sites that I've visited. I got one of their basketball referee shirts (a hand me down form a vet in my assoc.) and it's a great shirt IMHO. Good construction, washes well, very comfortable, looks good..(at least on me). I'd love to get a few of their umpire shirts...any info you could provide would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KJump

KJump, a quick Google search reveals:

Between The Lines Officials Gear - LeTrell Polyester Traditional Weave Mesh

Happy shopping!

Thanks Welpe. I was just so excited to read that they made umpire shirts Googling just slipped my mind.

I'll try out a Smitty based on this review. However I completely disagree with the verdict on the Dalco. I have no problem with Dalco's hanging up on my Platinum and I find them to be rugged and very cool. They are my favorite up shirts by a long way.

I wore one of my Dalcos in a scrimmage for about 2 hours behind the plate yesterday and didn't have any problems with it hanging up on my Platinum either.

You can get Smitty umpire shirts real cheap on eBay right now. Look around on there first.

There is one gentleman who is selling the Smitty's for $16.00 each. They are very good shirts--much better than Gerry Davis/Cliff Keen, and vastly better than Official's Choice at the best price possible. If you buy more than one, he'll ship them all for one price.

It's just weird. My number one criteria for shirts his how cool they will keep me on a hot summer day. I couldn't care less about what could possibly show through the vent holes. I wear plain UA shirts beneath so they don't show and really don't see what the big deal is about a CP logo shining through. No one further than fifteen feet away will notice anyway.

My three year old Dalco's help keep me cool and still look new. How anyone can rate a Cliff Keen furnace above a Dalco is beyond me.

Cliff Keen is the worst for the money.

That's where I got my cream shirts from. He's out of MLB blue but he has everything else. The Smitty shirts look better than the Dalcos. They aren't an "open hole" type mesh shirt and the material feels softer. I also like the Smitty because I think they fit better. The sleeves have that taper feel so they aren't baggy around your arms. My Dalcos are kind of big around the arm bands.

I was told they changed their shirts a few years back. I have a couple of CK shirts which have held up great over the years haven't faded a bit. My only complaint with my older CK shirts is that they are not as breathable. I understand their newer shirts may not be of the same quality.

Your understanding is correct. And it's not just the abrasive fabric, but the horrible workmanship.

Gerry Davis should stop selling his name to that website, because it's getting tarnished by the crap they're putting out under the GD label. The slacks are pretty good, but everything else is premium-priced crap, with the Cliff Keen GD shirts leading the parade. Their ball bags are a joke.

I'm going to use their ball bags until they fall apart like you guys have said. They've been fine so far in limited use. They were only about $11 apiece so no big deal. I'll get the ones from Ump Attire or the Evans bags when these crap out on me.

Whether you buy the GDs with or without the pockets, they're all single-stitched and flimsy with thin loops that bunch up and make the bags sag when you wear them. The fabric's also cheap and thin, and doesn't hold up to actual washing, so you need to sponge them off. The ones with the interior pockets have the pockets tear away from the rest of the bag after very little use. One bag: five games; a second bag: nine games.

So what did they do? They sent me two more bags. So now the four bags cost me an average of $7.45 each, rather than the $14.90 each that I paid for the first two. But you know what? Crap at half price is still crap. I am almost unwilling to use these until they're worn out--that could take the better part of a season. Maybe I'll just give them away now. (The young PONY umpires at the local league love it when I don't like a shirt or a bag or a piece of gear, because to them, it's free gear, so it's more than adequate.)

Maybe Gerry Davis makes their ballbags for show, so that umpires can wear an extra one on top of their useable bag.

On the shirts topic: I saw two different types of Majestic shirts in a store today. One was the regular mesh and one was the old "dazzle" style. (It was kind of a shiny material without holes at all) Do not buy Majestic shirts. You could tell that the quality and workmanship was bad. Color on the collars was off, they looked like they had been washed 50 times already...just really bad looking shirts.

Your understanding is correct.

Majestic Navy
 

Shirt is endorsed by MLB. That makes every other brand a replica.

I tried new shirts this year and got them from Ump Attire. I didn't see anyone talk about them, but may have missed it. They are the nylon breathable mesh umpire shirts for 29.95. I haven't used them when it is hot yet, but they are a great shirt, lay nice, feel kind of like a jersey and look great.

Then the replicas are nicer than the "endorsed" shirts, because these were crap. You'd look like a complete tool wearing them on a field.

Carrot and Stick
 

Carrot: I looked at a large Majestic umpire jersey hanging in my closet. The stitching appeared solid with no loose ends. The fabric's color was more MLB blue than navy blue, but it wasn't faded or pre-washed or pre-shrunk. The fabric had elasticity to allow the CP, without going one size larger. That carrot alone was worth the price I paid for it. The OP didn't rate this valuable feature. I have no clue how the shirts you saw even resemble mine.

Stick: The Dalco Athletic mesh shirts are so cheap on sale that I can afford to buy 2, 1 for BU and 1 for PU duties. The dark navy color, polyester durability and mesh material is worth a few U.S. dollars. A hot summer breeze evaporatively cools my upper torso, without the need for more expensive Chinese-made brand names that "wick-away" my shoe money. The OP didn't mention which brands often go on sale and which brands never go on sale.

When I was tossing around the idea for the review I contacted owner Jim Kirk regarding his Ump-Attire breathable mesh shirt. He said that they plan to retire the shirt this year and offered the Ultimate Umpire Shirt to test. The Ump-Attire website states the Ultimate Umpire Shirt will ship on March 30 and sells for $32.95. It is an outstanding shirt that scored highest in testing.

You may also be interested in checking out Jim Kirk's blog. It is both informative and straight-forward.

The Smitty Name
 

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.

Winner winner, chicken dinner!
I was simply making a joke about the pants shrinking, but nobody got it.
I gained a few pounds since last summer, and those Smittys just don't fit like they did!

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.

I won't buy any more Smitty pants. I bought a pair of base pants last summer because they were cheap(er) and I heard the lighter weight was cooler.
They were sized wrong from the start. I thought I was buying them a size large, but they were snug. I had already had them hemmed, so I couldn't return them. I gained a few pounds over the winter, and now I can't wear them.

I learned my lesson. My preference is Honigs poly wools. I'll stick with them.

You're lucky that you didn't order two pairs of their useless crap. They're so bad and in such disrepair after only a few wearings that I can't even donate them to a young umpire like I do with other stuff I try and can't use. They're so bad that they're embarrassing to give away.

Yeah, like the last two +POS shirts I bought. I gave them to a teenager who was getting started in Little League. Saw him later that summer and wished I had just thrown them in the trash.

It ain't the name, it's the experience, which was horrible. I developed the habit long ago not to give businesses the opportunity to screw me twice.

As usual, Mr. Umpire and I agree completely. As far as the 2007-08 vintage slacks, the name should be "SHlTTY."

Just curious
 

For those of you that are so jaded by the Smitty slacks (which I've found to be very good), what happened when you contaced the retailer that you purchased them from? I bought mine from Purchase Officials, and had a problem with the clasp on my first pair. They immediately sent me a new pair and took back the ones I had already worn, and I had mine almost 3 months. They said they were aware that some of the clasps were faulty and were happy to replace them. They said that Smittys was also aware of the clasp and sizing issues and has corrected them for this year. The pants that I receive this year are great. The sizing, color and claps are awesome. I will gladly pay half of what others are charging for pants that are just as good. Everyone else I've recommended the pants to love them as well.

For Chrissakes, you sound like the marketing rep for Smitty. Some people like them, some don't. What's the big deal? Does everybody have to agree with you? I haven't tried any Smitty products, and after your efforts of tiresome promotion, I most likely won't.

I got the same response from Mike at POS. Even though his stated policy was that tailored slacks can't be returned, and even though I already lightly used them, he would take them back. But you know what? He shouldn't get stuck with them either. He's just a nice guy trying to earn a living.

I ate them. But now, I'm thinking of pulling them out of the closet and making Smitty's themselves make good on my fleecing. It's inexcusable to fleece members of an industry that are already getting shortchanged. They richly deserve whatever struggles they have shaking the effects of that disastrous name.

Okay, back to the shirts.

I just got an Officials Choice Maroon shirt in the mail yesterday. Again, it's bigger than normal, but the quality is there. Worn with a black undershirt, this is a really good looking color with either heather, or charcoal.

Now, why they made that brown shirt is beyond me, because it doesn't go with either pants, but the maroon is quite snappy. Far, far better than any light blue shirts.

Just gotta hope your partner has one.