The clothing brand “Champion” in recent years have had a strong following. It’s premier brand that is popular with the young consumers, from teenagers to twenty-somethings. From backpacks to hoodies, from t-shirts to even shoes, Champion is popular brand among the “popular” people.
But some years back, Champion was a mostly forgotten brand, except maybe if you bought clothes that branded with the college’s name, logo, and designs from your local college and university. The only place I found Champion products at the time since I’m a fan of the brand (I’ll get into that in a bit) was at my local Sears which had the t-shirts, the hoodies, and the workout pants/shorts or if I went to the nearby Payless Shoe Source which had Champion shoes.
But back in the 1990s, during a time when basketball was my absolute favorite sport (and favorite thing in general) and it was an exciting time to be an NBA fan, Champion was the official jersey supplier of NBA and official manufacturer of NBA jerseys marketed towards fans. Two main category of fan NBA jerseys were replica (the design were silkscreen) and authentic (the design were embroidered and stitched). Most people I went to school with, and including myself, had the replica as it was the most affordable.
Although the replicas are priced at a reasonable $40, that was still a lot of money for a humble teenager living a modest lifestyle. So around this time, my family and I discovered a store called Ross. Ross may have been brought up in school if someone was trying to make fun of you as being cheap, but I was a fan of Ross. Name brand goods at low prices; looking back now, why does anyone ever cared what some “cool” kid that doesn’t even have a job yet talk negatively about Ross.
It was at a Ross that I picked up my very first basketball jersey, a Charles Barkley Phoenix Suns Size 44 made by Champion. It costed me just $10 for a brand new jersey. I was delighted! Our school has a uniform dress code, but on free dress days when we are allowed to freely wear our clothing of choice, I definitely wore this jersey on at least a few occasions. During those times, when a player had just traded teams, their old jersey is considered obsolete. Charles Barkley had gone to the Houston Rockets at the time and so the Phoenix Suns jersey is considered outdated. But I didn’t care, I still really liked my basketball jersey.
Another jersey that I found also at a Ross for $10 was a Champion jersey was a Gary Payton 1996 Dream Team USA Basketball jersey, a replica version of the one worn in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. I really liked this jersey as well; the colors and the graphic designs just scream 1990s awesome that I now look at it.
Both of these jerseys were also made in USA, as can be seen by the rectangular tag on the lower left of the jersey (lower right if you are looking at the front of the jersey).
Sometime later, not sure when…maybe around the 2000s, the license to produce NBA jersey had been given to another brand. I’m not sure what brand or brands that may be today as I’m not too knowledgeable in this aspect. Champion, from what I can tell, focused and got by in business through producing college alumni clothing for college campuses’ stores, and like the previous mentioned product placement in Sears and Payless.
Nowadays, Champion is one of the brands that the cool people wear. I remember walking through a Macy’s and there were a bunch of awesome looking Champion hoodies and shirts. Their shoes are decently popular as well. My favorite walking shoes right now is a pair of “ninety-three eighteen” models as they are quite comfortable, and they were on sale! As for my two Champion jerseys, I’m glad that I held on to them and that the 1990s was the “baggy” clothes era, as those baggy jerseys from my early teenage years fits “just-right” if I were to put them on today.