New '08-09 for Basketball Features 4 New Referee Shoes

Whereas last season, you saw us focus on what's up top with 2 new ultimate v-neck referee shirts and 2 new jackets including the CCA jacket, this year we've hit a new low - on the body that is - with 4 new pairs of shoes.

These new shoes have more than doubled our selection into what I think, with 5 brands from on-sale Spot-bilts to top of the line Official Footwear Patent Leather, is perhaps the most well-rounded court referee shoes selection available.

THE NEW SHOES
See some quick information below or click the links to view more information plus alternative and zoomed views you'll only find at ump-attire.com.

• New Balance 888 Court Referee Shoe
  Our only mid-cut option, this is a shoe with some solid features from the trusted New Balance brand.
  
  
• Official Footwear Throwdown Leather Referee Shoes
  The all-leather counterpart to the much heralded Ultimate Patent Leather Shoe, was the recipient of many customer requests from those who loved the Official Footwear features but preferred a non-patent leather.
  
  
• Pentagon Patent Leather Referee Shoe
  We're cheating a little by calling this a new shoe. We actually had a small inventory for only a few weeks last year before a mix up with Pentagon and their overseas manufacturer led to these not being available during last year's actual season.
  
  
• Reebok Breezy Patent Leather
  Although a nice addition, we have sold out of the relatively small amount we had on our first order. Plus Reebok is out already as well. You'd think we would have learned our lesson from Pentagon last year but it's not the norm for a company to announce a new product only to run out before the season begins.
  

SHIRTS AND JACKETS
And not to ignore the top part of the uniform we have added the "When-are-you-going-to-make-that" Grey Ultimate V-Neck Referee Shirt, the "don't-you-all-have-that" Reversible Referee Jacket (for both football and basketball), and the "I'm-looking-for-a-shirt-that-doesn't-show-through-my" V-Neck HOTSPORT loose fit shirt.

OTHER ITEMS
Yet other items including mini-crew socks and Mueller injury protection items just seemed to be no-brainers to add to the mix.

You can view all new products for basketball (wrestling, too) here. Don't hesitate to make suggestions for any items for next season.

The Weightlessness of Lightweight Umpire Masks

In making decisions about our umpire mask selection for 2009, we reviewed several different samples and descriptions before settling on adding 4.

What I don't understand is that while every manufacturer claims to have a lightweight mask in their arsenal, they almost never share upfront how much it weighs. To solve the mystery, we simply purchase samples and weigh them ourselves.

One example is a particular single-bar mask from a company called Champion Sports they refer to as their "Ultra-lightweight" mask for what looked like an excellent price. Our interest was now sparked for 2 reasons: weight and price. So, we ordered a sample and weighed it. The result? The mask weighed almost 2 pounds! "Ultra" lightweight? Not even close. "Light" weight? I don't think so.

Now if you've been around us long enough, you know we list the weights of all our umpire masks and more. We even have a page where we list a comparison weight and features chart (see bottom of the linked page). But most other retailers don't list the weights of their umpire masks labeled as "lightweight", "ultra-lightweight", "feather-weight" or other.

So, how do you as a customer know which lightweight mask is truly lightweight from one retailer to the next? Well, the bad news is you can't know, that is unless the weights are listed or unless you're trying them on locally.

It's the same way you don't really know how low in fat some food product is unless you read the label. And when it comes to umpire masks, most manufacturers and retailers don't have a label.

Common sense tells me that if a manufacturer or retailer has a truly lightweight umpire mask, you're going to want to shout from the mountaintops just how light it is by sharing the actual weight. If you just call it a lightweight mask without listing the weight, my logic continues that while it's probably lightweight compared to a welder's or astronaut's helmet, it's probably not lightweight at all relatively to other umpire masks.

Would love to hear your thoughts on your "lightweight" mask or your buying experiences related to them.