Restoration: 1969 Seattle Pilots Home Jersey

1969 Seattle Pilots home jersey restoration

The Dream Shop is again visited by MLB royalty... one of the probably no more than 50 original Seattle Pilots original home jerseys that still exist from their sole season of 1969. Collector Sherman Chan trusted me to restore it for him. We've told the story of the expansion 1969 Pilots here before, a team that existed for only one season before going bankrupt and becoming the 1970 Milwaukee Brewers, just two weeks before the start of that season. The Brewers' first set of uniforms were the Pilots' planned 1970 suits, hurriedly stripped of their wordmarks, and "BREWERS" added arched on the front with minimal creativity. The Pilots' sleeve braid remained behind. This post is only for the truly hardcore among you. Follow along with the photos, and I will tell you the story.

After its MLB service was ended, this particular jersey went to the Brewers minor league system where it became a Danville Warriors jersey. There is no sign that "BREWERS" was ever sewn on the front of this jersey. This photo was supplied by Sherman, in its pre-restored state.

Ghosts of the original wordmark were still visible as they almost always are. These ghosts are caused by the way the sewing thread bunches the fabric below, ever so slightly, making it harder for light to pass through. Sherman had the jersey restored elsewhere-- but was not happy with the result.

Here is the jersey as I received it, previously restored. This was the point I had to start from. It might look perfectly fine to most, but it was inexactly done, and this displeased its owner. With an item this rare, its inaccuracy was not acceptable.

Here is my art laid atop the initial restoration. You can see the mismatch. How does this happen? It seems the prior shop found a Pilot jersey photo on the web, scanned the wordmark, and used it without carefully correcting its artifacts. "Artifacts" refers to changes that happen to a sewn design when it is worn and washed dozens of times. Visually and artistically, there is no way the "TS" at the end of this word went downhill like that.

I first compiled a grouping of existing Pilots logos from my files. It's really important to note that nearly every Pilots jersey ever made had its original lettering stripped as it was reused. We did find a single claimed original, and it was used prominently in our restoration. Notice that two of these examples have the "S" sloped down, and probably this is where the prior restorer got his incorrect data.

After removing the offending new lettering, the magic light table shows us where both the original "flying wings" patch was sewn, as well as the "WARRIORS" wordmark. That dark spot is a small fabric repair.

Look closely at this light table view, squint real hard and cock your head 22 1/2 degrees to the right, and you will be able to see ghosts of the original wordmark, faintly still existent even after 51 years, behind the darker shadow of the newer wordmark that I just removed. The shadows are caused by the original stitches that held the emblem in place, shifting the individual threads in the cloth ever so slightly closer to each other when the sewing machine pulled the thread tight.

This tracing roughly shows us where the original lettering was sewn.

Carefully heat pressed in place....

A closeup of the completed job. The light table tells us that we did a good job, covering the oldest ghosts perfectly.