How Do Draft Picks Get Personalized Jerseys So Fast?
If you tune in to watch the NFL Draft tonight, you'll probably notice the personalized jerseys each pick is handed almost immediately after being selected. Is the whole draft scripted like pro wrestling? Do they print up jerseys for every possible scenario and send the extras to El Salvador?
As it turns out, they're just really fast.
As reported by the New York Times, for the last few years draft picks have received team jerseys with their names on them:
"After a team makes its first-round pick...workers from Stahls’, a company that specializes in personalizing sports gear that is hired by Nike, then jump into action. In advance, they made nameplates for each of the 30 prospects in the color scheme that matches each of the 32 teams’ jerseys, or 960 nameplates in all."
This short video shows exactly what happens in those two minutes:
See Also: The Humble, Personalized-Jersey-Free Early Days of the NFL Draft
This post originally appeared in 2014.