Custom Crafted?

[kingjammy24]

Hi,

Does anyone know the story behind the whole Custom Crafted NHL debacle?

I'm trying to find a synopsis of the whole thing but cannot.

Anyone basically know what happened?

thanks,
Rudy.

[Nathan]

Here's the quick synopsis.

Custom Crafted is a legitimate business that did the lettering and numbering for various NHL teams throughout the 1980s and 1990s. They would affix their screened tag to the hem of the jerseys that they would prep for game use (as did numerous other companies, such as Eastside Lettering with Detroit).

Somewhere along the line, a person or group of people figured out a way to counterfeit that tag. This allowed them to buy NHL authentic jerseys, get them lettered and numbered, add the tag, and doctor a bunch of phony game use. Since the only ones able to put the tag on was (supposed to be) the lettering company, this led to a lot of fake gamers being passed on as real ones.

One problem is that the counterfeiters would hit up journeyman players as well as the big stars. The end result is, there's fake Brett Hull and Scott Stevens jerseys out there, but there's also a decent number of Basil McRae and Eric Weinrich.

Although it doesn't hold true in all cases, there are some distinctive marks of what is referred to as a "CC Special" (which is one of the fake gamers with the CC tag). The two main ones are an excessive amount of red paint or ink (supposed to be board paint), and an unusual puckered appearance to either the crest or the numbers on the jersey itself. Milt Byron has a pretty good page on what to look for on his website (www.byronshockeyland.com)

Hope this helps you out.

[kingjammy24]

Nathan,

Thanks for your response. I emailed Milt Byron and here is his extremely succinct response:

"In a nut shell it was an ugly situation, people lost thousands of dollars and the end result was an out of court settlement.
Guy was faking them and this lead to my appearance on People's Court back in 2003. The bad stuff was tracked back to the owner of CC.
He faked wear, faked repairs, lied to collectors but, could not beat me. Untimately I figured his every move and shut him down."

I think the part I find so interesting is that the company contracted by NHL teams to provide lettering/cresting was also the same source pumping out these fake jerseys. That's akin to a local lettering shop contracted by an MLB team, deliberately creating fake gamers.
Regarding the People's Court appearance, I understand Andy Moog appeared as well to testify regarding his own jerseys? And the FBI was involved?
It sounds like a fantastic story. I just wish I could get all the details in a well-written, detailed account of it all from start to finish. I think this community could learn alot from the story.

Rudy.