Recently some discussion has been happening regarding the authenticity of materials used in the making of “game worn memorabilia” plaques and items. Specifically a collector had a framed picture with pieces of a game worn jersey. The company that made the piece was called Relic Wear LLC and some collectors wondered about the legitimacy of the claims in the LOA.
Its understandable that this can be questioned. It has been seen that even card companies insert event worn jerseys into cards, however in most cases, that is explicitly described on the back of the card. You can’t have an NHL jersey of a rookie player before their first season, after all.
Most of these companies have methods for procurement, whether its throguht secondary market practices or direct from the team as we can see a Detroit Red Wing set stamp specific for Upper Deck used in one of their cards, which we discussed in a previous article.
Other times, as loosely explained by MeiGray when asked about missing jerseys at auction from special events, some jerseys are not made available due to “other commitments”, which means to get cut up, as we covered in this article.
Some card companies are so proud of their procurement and manufacturing procedures, they document it for their fans: (Panini no longer is authorized to work with NHL products).
In regard to Relic Wear LLC and other pop up cut-up companies, many document the authenticity of the jersey prior to destroying it.
In our article about Kana Golf Studio cutting up an Anaheim Ducks jersey to use for golf club covers, they document with before and after pictures.
While researching Relic Wear LLC, you can see that the company was started to capitalize off the success the card companies were having with their inserts by this screen capture viewing an archived version of the website. The Relic Wear website was active from estimated May 2011 – December 2014. Around this time, many of their products could have been seen on eBay. Some collectors from that period may even remember the eBay auction that offered the remains of a cut-up Ovechkin jersey.
On the archived FAQ page, you can see the procurement of the items used by Relic Wear were procured with LOAs.
Just as any collector can purchase jerseys from Meigray or other collectors, those with the intent to cut up jerseys can do the same.