Uni orders for 2009 Summer-Fall season
MON 6/15 (9:45PM) -- All dates and deadlines below pertaining to this season have been corrected to June (not July).
SAT 6/13 (12:30AM) -- At long last, I can come up for air and post this here order template. Click on it and it will take you to a download page, where you click where it tells you to download it...
dreamleague-unis.doc (using MediaFire.com free file hosting)
...and here are the upcoming deadlines:
- First off, obviously, change all the pictures and little specifications in the document above to YOUR jersey design. The template is just a sample of what one should look like.
- Wed June 17 (next Wednesday!) to fill out the order template so I can get it to the vendor and they can vet it for do-ability (i.e., not too complicated design) and any trademark issues that might come up as the shipments come through customs.
- Fri June 19 (next Friday!) to make payment arrangements through Dream League. We prefer check and you must be able to pay a down payment (probably 50%) that will be specified by the vendor once they see all the orders for this season.
Any questions, email me asap.
WED 6/3 (12:00PM) -- Wow, there are a great many of you who want to order some of these awesome unis we've got setup with a vendor from the PI. Last season, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality. It is, indeed, top notch. And I dare you to find a better deal than we've arranged...
- Reversibles are NOT possible at this time. No different than the NBA, as their unis are not reversible.
- $40 per top+bottom (jersey+short), minimum 8 per team, or
- $25 per uni top only (no shorts), minimum 8 per team.
- Fully customizable, but somewhat limited to NCAA and NBA fonts.
- You cannot use any existing logo that is trademarked (will not pass customs).
- Pay by cash or check (or credit card, but subject to PayPal trxn fees).
- Probably best to come to my house to pay or go ahead and mail it in now.
- Deadline to pay is probably Wed 6/17 or Sun 6/21 (depends on my workload).
- Takes about a month to make/sew, ship out, and arrive here in the Bay.
- Email me and I'll send you the order template soon (depends on my workload).
If you're interested, email me but also in parallel, start collecting a list from your players of what they want on the names on the back, their sizes, their jersey numbers. it's also good to have a list of heights and weights, and if they like their jerseys extra baggy or what not (little details).
I will ask if you have any logos that would be subject to trademark issues. Because if they are, they won't pass customs and those unis will be confiscated, with your money lost.
Meanwhile, depending on my workload, I'll need to prepare the order template and you'll eventually fill that stuff in. I'll email you back, hopefully by this Sun 6/7, with this Microsoft Word template.
You will then put in relevant photos or descriptions and all of the above to complete the order. A "jersey" is really a uniform that is one color. so like, whatever NBA jersey you can buy off the rack, it's like ordering a customized version of that with your own team name and whatever NCAA or NBA font you want.
Like most things in dreamleague, the process will happen quickly, but takes awhile (due to my workload) for it to get off the ground. That's why I say, do some of those things above in parallel while I get the template completed.
The deadline for this year's bulk uni order will probably be something like Wed 6/17 or Sun 6/21, hopefully sooner and again, it depends on my workload. That means you should expect the unis to arrive by the end of July. Hey, it's better than last season. Last season, everyone got theirs in the middle of playoffs. So you see, we are actually improving. It's only our 2nd time doing this.
Any other questions, email me and I'll post tidbits I forgot here later.
Uni orders from 2009 Winter-Spring season
WED 3/2 (5:45PM) -- Latest and greatest...
- East Bay Cardinals (Jones Wu) -- PAID $320x2 FOR 8x2 TOPS+BOTTOMS
- Just The Tip (David Dang) -- PAID $200 FOR 8 TOPS ONLY
- Trybe (Andrew Park) -- PAID $320x2 FOR 8x2 TOPS+BOTTOMS
- Visual Basic (Vince Cao) -- PAID $520 FOR 13 TOPS+BOTTOMS
- Smokey (Logan Phantahavong) -- PAID $200 FOR 8 TOPS ONLY
- Zhi Li (team tbd) -- PAID $225 FOR 9 TOPS ONLY
- Neil Wong (team name later) -- PAID $320 FOR 8 TOPS+BOTTOMS
- SFFD (Ricky Hui) -- PAID $400 FOR 10 TOPS+BOTTOMS
Again, if your name is not on this list, we do not anticipate getting an order or payment from you. Next revision of this list will have payment status.
TUE 2/17 (8:00AM) -- I'm going as fast as I can on this because I know y'all want to wear your new unis sooner rather than later (even though it's not like dreamleague is going anywhere soon), and please do your part and pay per the payment button, but here is the first list of guys and teams that have made orders. I still need to check and see if they've paid. Now, given my work schedule and the fact that I need to parse through each of the order forms to make sure details are nice and tight, my hope is that we ship this off by the end of the week, which should yield a delivery date of maybe March 23 (?). So if you ordered and you are not on this list, email me quick so we can figure out if you slipped through the email inbox or what...
TUE 2/10 (9:30AM) -- Alright, we are finally ready to go! Remember, here are the basics...
- $40 per top+bottom uni, minimum of 8 per team order
- Fully customizable. Grab images off the web of unis you want to emulate and be descriptive.
- All jerseys will feature a small Dream League logo on the shoulder. A la the NBA. Kind of as thanks to DL for arranging this deal!
- You may order only jersey tops if you already have shorts (DISCLAIMER: as long as we have enough bulk orders)
- If only jersey tops, the cost is based on complexity of design, case-by-case basis, but generally $25 each
- Must be ordered and paid in full by Mon 2/16
- Approximate shipment arrival date: Mon 3/16 (one month ship time)
- Any questions, email rich-at-dreamleague-dot-org
Here's how to proceed...
- Download the Dream League Jersey Application Form (right-click, Save As)
- Fill in all details. Pick mesh, dri-fit, or shimmer-sheen for Fabric.
- You may order only jersey tops if you want, it's evident on the Excel form.
- If you don't want names on jersey backs, leave the LAST NAME column empty.
- Copy and paste images that you download from the web (Excel menu: Insert/Picture/From File). Add descriptions of color and what not. Delete the sample KG Boston one.
- It's best if you can measure your favorite jerseys/shorts to make sure the sizes are exact to specification.
- If not, then estimate saying MED, LARGE, XL, XXL, or XXXL, or so on and so forth.
- Pay $320 here for 8 jersey tops+bottoms...
*** GOOGLE CHECKOUT BUTTON REMOVED, PLEASE EMAIL COMMISH ***
You may also pay by check or cash. Email rich-at-dreamleague-dot-org.
Dream League will ensure your order is in the correct format and send it off to the vendor. We will act on your behalf with our jersey vendor from the Philippines. We have been ordering from various vendors for the past 7 years and now we have settled on one reliable, low-cost vendor. We have a lot of experience dealing with these vendors, so if you have any questions, please feel free to email us.
Previous posts regarding uniforms
TUE 1/27 (8:00AM) -- I forgot to add something about how much of a deposit you would need to put down. I'm awaiting a response on such dot-the-i's and cross-the-t's things, but I'm thinking it's gonna have to be half. The most efficient way to do this is to setup a Google Checkout button and run these transactions through dreamleague. Then we'll invoice you the 2nd half ($160 for 8 unis, for example) and you'll need to pay that when the unis get delivered.
This halfway strategy should be fair in case of any issues with the product upon the delivery (maybe they messed up the sizes or numbers or what have you), so that we can rectify such problems without one side of the transaction being too far "under" the other. And who knows, maybe after a couple of years, we can reduce the down payment to less than half. We'll see. Incidentally, I think we just uncovered another advantage of dreamleague's uni vendor arrangement. There's no way you could just put down half if you ordered a bunch of screen-print reversibles from Eastbay!
MON 1/26 (10:15PM) -- It's kind of a blessing that we are approaching our annual American quasi-holiday also known as Superbowl Sunday, because the reduced workload gives me some time to work on and give you an update on our uniform vendor situation. Meanwhile, I'm compiling all the responses I got for teams playing this Sun 2/1 (see the previous post below). My gmail indicates 20+ responses to that one email. If you're a gmail user, you know that responding to each one of those so-called "conversations" is gonna be a bitch, so I plan to post results of that email here on the Bird's Eye instead of responding to those individually.
So, here's the update on the uniform vendor situation. Vendor X balked on having a minimum of 8 unis per team and hasn't gotten back to us. Having been a captain of rec league teams for 20 years, I can tell you that this is a huge pain point for the average captain. After all, this is a one-, two-, or three-season rec league team, not a traveling tournament team with roster spots 8, 9, and 10 a revolving door. Vendor Y has not returned our RFP despite saying they would, so it's sayonara for them. Vendor Z stepped up and has been quite helpful in meeting our needs. We will probably "sign the deal" this Friday or early next week.
Here are the relevant points...
- $40 per uni (jersey+shorts included), 8 unis minimum per order -- if you can find a place that beats this price for what we get below, let me know and we'll jump ship
- Here's a biggie: since I went through all this trouble securing the best deal you could ever find, with the power of dreamleague's 200+ league/tourney teams across the US, we will put a small dreamleague logo like the NBA logo on NBA jerseys on each shoulder of jersey and corner of short.
- Choose a material: dri-fit is en vogue right now (nice-looking, light, dries the quickest after washing), mesh is a classic, shimmer-sheen's another one you could go with
- Choose specific sizes for each uni, especially indicating the level of bagginess you like (you know, baggy or extremely baggy)
- Choose your tackle twill material: either cloth, patton-leather, or quasi-plastic a la NBA replica
- Custom-made jerseys, so you basically do your best mimicking some NCAA, NBA, or what-have-you design, email that to us, and chances are they can do it. Tell us colors, etc. Probably best to use Microsoft Word with some pictures of existing unis downloaded off the Web copy/pasted.
- Shipping time: we're working on this, but it looks like it's gonna be 4 weeks. The good news is, the more teams that order at one time, the lower the shipping costs which make it do-able for $40 each. Sorry that the season has already started. Not much I can do about all the moving targets.
So we're getting real close. We have like 5-6 teams interested already. For those teams, thank you for your patience and I'll be getting back to you real soon. For those of you considering this particular deal, please just go ahead and email me and be ready to respond quickly. As with everything else in dreamleague, it's like getting to the ferry boat station for that rare ferry across the Bay. It doesn't leave until the ferry's fairly full and if you miss this one, you have to wait until the next one, and until that one fills up to a certain point as well. I'm sorry there isn't a better way to do it yet. At least we are kickin' ass on the pricing!
Now, if you aren't into the affordable quality category, let me know and I can set you up with a higher-end vendor. I don't really have big discounts on those, though. I like to go with Authentic Threads for medium-high quality at about $60-75 each uni. I have personally ordered many times with NCBL for ultra-high quality at about $80-100 for my traveling tournament teams.
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