4H Club - Hip Hip Horray for Honig's
 

Ordered some stuff a few weeks ago, got to my house 2 days after ordering them. The plate shoes were a bit big, so I called the office here in CT and they told me to send them back with the invoice and a note with what size I'd want.

I got a bit nervous when about 10 business days later, still nothing back in the mail. Called them today, they sent it back to what they had on file as my permanent address (which is now my old address), and not to where the first package was sent to or returned from. Whoops! Honest mistake.

I told them my mail was being forwarded home, and I would probably get the package in a week or two, but asked if they could send me my stuff and then I would send back to them the other package when it finally got here. They complied, and apologized for the mistake.

Even when they screw up, which is rare, they still take care of their customers. Bravo...

Just a story I thought I'd share

One reason why 95% of my gear is from Honig's

That is one of the joys of working in Carolina. Almost every trip can be made to go through Raleigh, and get the stuff 1st hand.;)

Here, you go to Honig's on the way to Disneyland or an Angels game.

I know in FLA I went to Honig's on the way to a Marlins game. I was the only person at both sites LOL!!

I'm LOL'ing ... that's a good line.

lol...Good one! Although I'm surprised nobody else was at Honig's :eek:

-Josh

I wonder why Honig's is not responding to the need for charcoal gray slacks. The one thing that makes them superior to the others (other than the service) is their slacks, and they only have them in heather and that slightly darker shade that they call charcoal, but isn't.

A lot of guys made the mistake of buying those slacks when the regulation changed to charcoal, and they don't match the standard charcoal and they all got stuck with them. It's dumbfounding.

Whoa. That's good to know. I love Honig's, and I also need the darker pants. Any recommendations?

Honigs started the poly-woolz back in 2003ish? I can tell you that the current poly-wools are the exact same pant worn by the MLB guys...except the big leagers get heavy duty white pockets and each are measured and have their own custom pattern. If smitty and some others are making their pants darker.... thats on them. Sometimes dye lots vary and the color might be off from batch to batch but generally, they are pretty consistant ( Honigs). If you are doing college and above... wear only honigs poly wools.
If you work HS and below and want to save money... try the new Honigs polys with the side tabs. Just my 2 cents. Oh ya... buy The Official's Locker Room!

The Smitty pants are charcoal and the poly-wools look almost exactly like them color wise. The texture of the material is different, but the color is almost the same.

Compared to the Davis pants, even the Smittys and poly-wools don't look like charcoal.

One of the reasons why it's great to have an official's supply store near home where you can personally go try on your shoes.

Between the Lines is moving within about 40 minutes of me soon. We don't have any real official's supply stores anywhere near here, so I'm excited.

Honig's pants are the standard darker shade of pants. If some other companies came along made their pants a different color that isn't Honig's fault. Maybe in a few years you'll be complaining how Honig's doesn't sell black shirts with thick trim like the Official's Choice.

Uh ... no, I won't.

The Honig's polywools are the original or standard shade of charcoal. The Honig's ultimate slacks are lighter than the polywools, which are already lighter than all the other brands' "charcoal." If you work the higher levels, like Chris said, if you have polywools, you'll match all of your partners. At any level JUCO or under, if you wear the polywools, you'll match some of your partners, and if you wear the Honig's ultimates (the ones with the expanders), you will match none of your partners, no matter what shade they claim they are. The ones that will match will be the Cliff Keen/Gerry Davis/Smitty's shade and not the almost heather shade of the Honig's ultimates.

The polywools are the best, though. Just stay away from the ultimates.

I have the Honig's ultimate pants. I like them, find them to be comfortable and quite frankly never paid much attention as to whether or not they exactly matched the pants my partner was wearing. I really don't care if they are exactly the same shade and my guess is the only people who would notice would be a small group of other umpires (maybe).

I order just about everything at Honigs. I have had only one issue with a product over the years (referee shirt came with a small hole in it) and they took care of it quickly and without a hassle. I usually get my orders in about two days. I know they aren't the cheapest in some cases, but I trust them and will stick with them.

Just another reason why the umpires shouldn't be congregating together during the game. We don't want people in the bleachers yelling, "Hey, your pants don't match!"

That would be just plain hurtful.

I have them also. I too like them very much. Around here it is required to match your partners, and you are required to wear charcoal and they're not charcoal, or they don't match the other charcoals. When I work the other units and weekend leagues, I wear whatever my partner has because I have them all. I was just trying to save the guy the same mistake that a bunch of guys made by thinking that the Honig's ultimate "charcoal" were the required shade, which they're not.

You can't even have white marks on your shoes around here. Several guys were denied playoff assignments last month for showing up at the playoff meeting wearing those Reebok shoes with all of the white designs. A few others who wore the Honig's ultimates were told to get the charcoal that matches the new standard. Honig's should make their middle-of-the-line slacks as dark or darker than the polywools ... that's all I'm saying.

Around here, the only pants acceptable for college are Davis. I bought 2 pair of Honigs pants (20% discount from an Evans clinic) and can't use them anywhere but the JUCOs. The Davis pants look & feel much better anyway.

Honigs prices have gone up, product selection seem to be more limited, but their polywool pants, the only product I purchase from them anymore, are the best.

Davis pants, with their near touching belt loops in the back, look like crap, IMHO.

Every guy that I've talked to that have the Davis pants hate them. On top of that they don't match anything else.

I don't hate them. I do hate the 3 belt loops in the back, but there are an incredibly comfortable plate pant (first worn last night).

The Honig's Ultimate have another problem. I bought mine at the beginning of the season. I've dropped 2 inches in the waist since then -- no problem, right, since those pants adjust 4 inches in the waist. Yup, no problem if you don't mind looking like a sail with all the extra fabric in the legs. And the color is too light for charcoal.

For color, sizing, appearance and comfort, the Honigs polywools, I believe, are the best choice. The color of the Davis doesn't seem "quite right" and those I know who wear them always seem to have excess fabric flapping.

The belt loops on Davis pants look like they could fit another two or three belts in there.

Used my new Honigs K80 shoes today... 2nd warmup pitch was in the dirt, squeeked between the lazy catcher's legs, and hit me square on the instep of my right foot. Old shoes probably would have dealt with it, but with these it hurt like a b****. So keep those toes pointed towards the pitcher... lesson learned.

New RbK Plate Shoes
 

One of the things I particularly like about the new RbK Plate Shoes is the protection plate comes over onto the side of you instep. I have never been hit there but it will help in your situation.

I am so glad that San Diego is not as anal as Los Angeles on this subject. We follow NFHS guidelines that say that any shade of gray is acceptable and that trying to match every umpire is futile, and also the association has no problem with white trim on shoes. That is just asinine. If white trim is good enough for professional baseball, it is damn sure good enough for snot-nosed varsity high school ball.

I'm not this anal in real life. In real life, I would not be taking black nail polish and painting over the white logos and model numbers on my New Balances.

I don't want to be "that guy." I want to be stealth.