With the nation's economy in a full fledged recession I have noticed that our customers are necessarily more price conscious then ever. With school budgets being squeezed, even at the collegiate level, and independent teams having a near impossible time raising money or finding a sponsor it is indeed a challenging time.

As manufacturers of high quality, custom-made athletic uniforms we are accustomed to doing a majority of our business in the so called “major” sports. By that I mean baseball, basketball and football. Certainly, soccer and sometimes lacrosse have become quite popular as well; particularly in certain areas.

As a manufacturer of custom made baseball uniforms and a long time coach and fan of the great game of baseball there is a movement afoot that I find very interesting. Our company has been approached several times in the last year or two about manufacturing “vintage” style uniforms; like those worn by baseball players in the late 1800s.

Click Here To View Cisco's Baseball Uniforms

Here's a quick post to announce a new section of our website. We recently split our Baseball Page into multiple pages and created a new sub-section of the site, just for baseball. The baseball sub-category contains pages specific to each of the different parts of a baseball uniform. We have created a page for each of the following baseball uniform components.

I have been asked more and more this year, particularly in the last several weeks, if the lousy economy and all of the depressing financial news has affected our business. As the President of a company that manufactures athletic uniforms you would think that like most other businesses the answer would be a resounding yes. That is not really the case however. Our business is stable and even up in many areas.

As I write this I am watching a Major League baseball playoff game and will later be watching the NFL Monday night game. I watch these games on my flat screen television with all the accompanying remote control devices nearby. To those of you who are middle age like me I’m sure you remember the days when we actually had to walk to our television sets to change the channel. And I wonder why I have trouble managing my waistline these days.

Can the design of an athletic uniform and the fabric that it is constructed of actually affect an athlete’s performance? I don’t think that there is any doubt anymore that the answer to that question is yes; maybe in subtle ways but still yes.

Over many years in the custom athletic uniform business, our jobs as salespeople have transformed into more of a consultancy. Gone are the days when our customer service people speak to a customer, he or she orders item A, and we produce and ship the order. Not so long ago we offered only a handful of fabrics, basically two methods of uniform decoration and most importantly; just several dozen different styles.

Uniform Characteristics Have Evolved Over Time

When speaking with a customer the other day it occurred to me how our customer’s perceptions have changed over the years regarding custom athletic uniforms. Not so long ago, when showing samples to a potential customer, it was not uncommon at all for that customer to ask if we had anything “heavier” available. “Heavy” meant quality and durability and was considered just plain better at that time.

I had tryouts for my 2009 summer baseball team this weekend - ALREADY - and it has occurred to me how much things have changed over the years. For the record, the players that I coach are now high school juniors and seniors.