In all, 7 shirts were reviewed including our new Ultimate Umpire Shirt that is made of a wrinkle-resistant, no-pick fabric and will be available within a few weeks as well as Smitty and Dalco brand umpire shirts, two that we retail.ULTIMATE UMPIRE SHIRTS RANKED #1
So, who had the highest ranking? We did.
I'm not surprised. Although it's not my style to be cocky, my confidence stems from having looked at all of these shirts - that Mr. Reiser eventually reviewed - for the purpose of designing a better umpire shirt. So we know those shirts well and anything less than a #1 ranking would have been disappointing.
So, what did the article say about our Ultimate Umpire Shirt? Here are some excerpts:
"This is definitely a quality shirt that was designed with care and attention to appeal to umpires across the board."REVIEW OF THE REVIEW
"The shirt looks great and performed best in the wrinkle test."
(The shirt is at) a competitive price ($32.95) with Cliff Keen and Honig’s for a nicer shirt."
Overall, I was impressed with Pete's thoroughness of the review. No one, to my knowledge, has taken the time to synthesize the data and present the conclusions to others in such a detailed manner.
Within the review itself, there were 7 categories. Within these categories, each shirt received a rank. Higher ranks received inversely more points. For example, 1st in a category resulted in 7 points (2nd - 6 points,... worst - 1 point). Using this system, the one with the highest number of cumulative points ranked the highest overall.
The Ultimate Umpire Shirt received the highest score of 37. Fantastic!
I was excited to see that two of the categories of testing included a wrinkle test and a prick test. Besides comfort and a professional no-holes appearance with moisture management properties, the Ultimate Umpire Shirt was engineered to be wrinkle-resistant and to not prick (or pill).
I was certainly satisfied with our #1 rank on the wrinkle test and #2 rank on the prick test.
If there was any disappointment in the review, it was that we didn't receive higher marks in some areas. Some lower scores, however, have some logic to them.
- The construction rank of #3 honestly isn't too bad considering the sample provided was our first prototype in that design. The Ultimate Umpire Shirts will definitely be constructed with the same expected, high standards as our line of Ultimate Referee Shirts.
- I say "not bad" to the value rank of #4 considering that our umpire shirt was not intended to be a "value" shirt but a premium one geared for more experienced umpires who demand the highest in quality.
HIGH SMITTY AND LOW DALCO RANKINGSI was not surprised at all by Smitty being ranked the 2nd highest. Smitty makes quality apparel in all sports, and we would not carry their items if otherwise. Of its rankings, it was the highest in value. I completely agree with that.
For us as a retailer, this is perfect. We have the best overall umpire shirt on the market in the new premium Ultimate Umpire Shirt, and we have the best value umpire shirt in the Smitty Umpire Shirt.
I am, however, somewhat surprised that Dalco received such low rankings, especially considering its high popularity and marks with our customers - so high it is one of our Customers' Choice products.More specifically, it ranked worst in the prick test and construction. As I reflect, I can't recall one Dalco shirt being returned for any construction deficiencies or unusual wear-and-tear issues. I do concur, however, that the Dalco shirt does not score well as it relates to wrinkles out of the bag. This likely affected its appearance rating and both the wrinkle and appearance ratings, in turn, contributed to a lower value rating.
SUMMARY
Thanks Pete for the review and time you put in it. We are, of course, happy with the results, and we hope to have the new Ultimate Umpire Shirt in navy and powder blue available by the end of March with additional colors arriving at a later date.
Read the complete review.
5 comments:
Jim, do you think that it is "good business" to advetise this shirt as the #1 ranked umpire shirt because 1 umpire liked it better than some others. Hell, I can say that I like wearing Honig's poly wool slacks better that Smittys. I doubt Honigs is going to put in their catalog "The #1 ranked slack on the market" because I like their slacks better.
Absolutely! I'm glad you brought it up.
To date, no one besides the writer of the Midwest Umpire Blog has ever attempted a Consumer Reports style review of umpire shirts. So until Referee Magazine or some other entity does the same, this is the most thorough review available.
Besides, we designed the umpire shirt after looking at all the others and said "let's make one better". So, I know first hand that it is.
I would definitely not have advertised it that way if I thought it was not. Why? Because if someone buys the shirt thinking it's the best, gets it and realizes that it is not even close then I've lost the trust of a customer no matter what I advertise in the future about anything else. Losing that trust is definitely not worth making a sale.
Now we had the option to take the route that another company has which is to say they have the best shirt on the market just because they think that it is. And I think their shirt came in 5th out of the 7 in that review.
In our case we don't just say it was ranked #1, we fully disclose how this ranking came about in this very blog post so you know exactly where we are coming from.
Regardless, I'd love to send you an ultimate shirt to review. E-mail me at jim@ump-attire.com your color preference, size and address. I'd welcome the posting here of your comments and comparisons to other umpire shirts on the market.
I heard that the California State Assn. is thinking of eliminating navy and powder as high school baseball shirt colors.
Are you going to come out with this shirt in black anytime soon?
Thanks for your question about the black shirt. Yes, we are planning on having black available. Had hoped to have it available this fall, but looks like our next target is by the first of the year.
Very disappointed with this shirt. Advertised as "no pick" but after two wears (one plate, one field) and one wash there are seven snags and pills on the shirt. Looks like it went through the wash with a pile of lumber!
My other shirts are from Honigs and they have multiple washes/wears with zero snags.
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