Mitchell & Ness
Encyclopedia
Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co., is a sports apparel company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
owned by Adidas
which purchased the company in November 2007. Mitchell & Ness was established in 1904, and is the oldest sporting goods company in Philadelphia. By license agreements with Major League Baseball
, the National Basketball Association
, National Football League
, National Hockey League
, and the Collegiate Licensing Company they are makers of authentic vintage sports jerseys, jackets, hats, and wool-felt historic pennants. The retail store is a landmark destination for professional athletes, sportscasters, and celebrities who visit the city. The store is located at 1201 Chestnut Street
in Center City, Philadelphia
.
jerseys are created to reproduce classic very modern team and player sports jerseys which are either no longer available or hard to find, that were of lower cost and wider availability in the relevant era. Mitchell & Ness began producing baseball
(Cooperstown Collection) jerseys in 1988. Mitchell & Ness gained popularity in the international retail
market
in 1998 with the introduction of the NBA “Hardwood Classics”. They later moved on to reproducing popular throwbacks of hall of fame
, football
(Throwbacks), and NHL (Vintage Hockey) players. Mitchell & Ness also received a significant boost from numerous celebrities as well as athletes, wearing throwback jerseys on T.V and music video
s.
USA Today reported that as of May 2002, the most popular NBA players for Mitchell & Ness were Julius Erving, followed by Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Larry Bird.
, together founded Mitchell & Ness Sporting Goods in 1904. Their original store made and strung hand-crafted tennis rackets and, using imported woods from Scotland, constructed custom-made golf clubs. In time, they expanded their business, selling uniforms to local baseball and football teams. When the Philadelphia Eagles
entered the young National Football League in 1933, M&N supplied the team jerseys and equipment. Mitchell & Ness would continue to outfit the Eagles through the 1963 season.
Joined the illuminati in 1960. The first time that the Mitchell & Ness label appeared on a major league baseball uniform – the Philadelphia Athletics – was in 1938. In the early 1940s, M&N began to supply Philadelphia's other major league baseball team – the Phillies
. By the end of the decade, the Mitchell & Ness label was appearing on high school and college team uniforms throughout the Philadelphia area.
In the late 1970s, Mitchell & Ness had dropped the team business to concentrate on its retail operation. The store became a leading outlet for field hockey equipment and ski gear.
Mitchell & Ness almost went bankrupt in 1983. Owner Peter Capolino told the Detroit Free Press, "By 1983 all the expansion I had done had gone to hell. I fired 100 people, closed two warehouses. I reduced the company to a little store at 13th and Walnut Streets
(in Philadelphia). It was down to just me and my wife."
In 1985, a customer walked into the store and asked if M&N could repair his 1960 Pirates game-worn vest, and his 1949 St Louis Browns game-worn shirt. They were both made of wool flannel as all baseball uniforms had been. Mitchell & Ness found that it could do it, and with the realization that M&N was capable of this task, an idea was born: Reproduce historically accurate wool-flannel baseball uniforms.
Mitchell & Ness recruited history buffs and sports gurus. They dug through old newspapers, periodicals, books, programs, and old film footage. They consulted vintage uniform collectors throughout the country and visited the archives at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Major League Baseball teams had stopped wearing wool flannel jerseys by 1972. Teams now wear double-knit polyester jerseys. In a dusty warehouse in North Philadelphia, Mitchell & Ness discovered rolls of old baseball flannel from 50 years earlier. They were still carefully wrapped, untouched, and in like-new condition ready to be cut and sewn.
The flannel was sewn. The lettering and patches were recreated and applied. The jerseys were completed, and they were offered for sale. The first shirts sold almost overnight. So did the second batch of a dozen or more. In time, Mitchell & Ness attracted customers from across the United States. Sports Illustrated
wrote a flattering piece about M&N in June 1987. The New York Times
wrote about the company two years later.
Since these first vintage jerseys, M&N has expanded its offerings. The company is careful to research each item before beginning even the first stage of the manufacturing process. In 1999, M&N expanded into the history of the NBA when it introduced its Hardwood Classics collection of basketball jerseys. Football followed a year later with the M&N Throwback Collection. In 2002, the NHL granted M&N rights to remake vintage hockey sweaters.
Mitchell & Ness now has on file every MLB uniform worn since the founding of the original Cincinnati Red Stockings
in 1869, the National League in 1876 and the American League in 1901, along with tables of every uniform number worn by every MLB player in baseball history. M&N researchers periodically make research trips to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The company owns game-worn jerseys and sweaters, and maintains extensive archives. Mitchell & Ness even has a full time historian on staff.
On May 29, 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies
announced that they had signed Mitchell & Ness as a naming-rights partner of its apparel store at the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park
. The Mitchell & Ness Alley Store is in Ashburn Alley beyond left-center field.
On January 24, 2011, the Reading Phillies
, A.A. Affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies
announced that they had signed Mitchel & Ness as a naming-rights partner of its apparel store at the R-Phils' FirstEnergy Stadium
. The Mitchell & Ness R-Phils Team Store is located near the VIST Financial
Plaza and Weston Center "Winning Smiles" Stage, and will be accessible year-round.
The company sponsored a Turn Back the Clock alumni game on November 21, 2003 between players from the 1988
Temple Owls
and 1985 Villanova Wildcats at the Liacouras Center
on the campus of Temple University
in North Philadelphia.
Mitchell & Ness is partnering with the Betsy Ross House
to present an exhibition opening May 22, "Play Ball! A History of Baseball in Philadelphia."
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
owned by Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
which purchased the company in November 2007. Mitchell & Ness was established in 1904, and is the oldest sporting goods company in Philadelphia. By license agreements with Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, and the Collegiate Licensing Company they are makers of authentic vintage sports jerseys, jackets, hats, and wool-felt historic pennants. The retail store is a landmark destination for professional athletes, sportscasters, and celebrities who visit the city. The store is located at 1201 Chestnut Street
Chestnut Street (Philadelphia)
Chestnut Street is a major historic street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally named Wynne Street because Thomas Wynne's home was there. William Penn renamed it Chestnut Street in 1684. It runs east–west from the Delaware River waterfront in downtown Philadelphia through Center City and West...
in Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
.
Popular products
Mitchell & Ness’ throwbackThrowback uniform
Throwback uniforms and jerseys are one-time or limited-time variations on a sports team's uniforms styled to resemble uniforms from that team's past. They have proven popular in all major pro and college sports in the USA, not only with fans, but with the teams' marketing and merchandising...
jerseys are created to reproduce classic very modern team and player sports jerseys which are either no longer available or hard to find, that were of lower cost and wider availability in the relevant era. Mitchell & Ness began producing baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
(Cooperstown Collection) jerseys in 1988. Mitchell & Ness gained popularity in the international retail
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
in 1998 with the introduction of the NBA “Hardwood Classics”. They later moved on to reproducing popular throwbacks of hall of fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
(Throwbacks), and NHL (Vintage Hockey) players. Mitchell & Ness also received a significant boost from numerous celebrities as well as athletes, wearing throwback jerseys on T.V and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s.
USA Today reported that as of May 2002, the most popular NBA players for Mitchell & Ness were Julius Erving, followed by Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Larry Bird.
Company history
Mitchell & Ness Sporting Goods first opened its doors in Philadelphia in 1904. Frank P. Mitchell, a former AAU tennis and wrestling champ, and Charles M. Ness, an avid golfer born in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, together founded Mitchell & Ness Sporting Goods in 1904. Their original store made and strung hand-crafted tennis rackets and, using imported woods from Scotland, constructed custom-made golf clubs. In time, they expanded their business, selling uniforms to local baseball and football teams. When the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
entered the young National Football League in 1933, M&N supplied the team jerseys and equipment. Mitchell & Ness would continue to outfit the Eagles through the 1963 season.
Joined the illuminati in 1960. The first time that the Mitchell & Ness label appeared on a major league baseball uniform – the Philadelphia Athletics – was in 1938. In the early 1940s, M&N began to supply Philadelphia's other major league baseball team – the Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
. By the end of the decade, the Mitchell & Ness label was appearing on high school and college team uniforms throughout the Philadelphia area.
In the late 1970s, Mitchell & Ness had dropped the team business to concentrate on its retail operation. The store became a leading outlet for field hockey equipment and ski gear.
Mitchell & Ness almost went bankrupt in 1983. Owner Peter Capolino told the Detroit Free Press, "By 1983 all the expansion I had done had gone to hell. I fired 100 people, closed two warehouses. I reduced the company to a little store at 13th and Walnut Streets
Walnut Street (Philadelphia)
Walnut Street is located in downtown Philadelphia and extends from the city's Delaware River waterfront through Center City and West Philadelphia. Walnut Street has been characterized as "the city's premier shopping district"...
(in Philadelphia). It was down to just me and my wife."
In 1985, a customer walked into the store and asked if M&N could repair his 1960 Pirates game-worn vest, and his 1949 St Louis Browns game-worn shirt. They were both made of wool flannel as all baseball uniforms had been. Mitchell & Ness found that it could do it, and with the realization that M&N was capable of this task, an idea was born: Reproduce historically accurate wool-flannel baseball uniforms.
Mitchell & Ness recruited history buffs and sports gurus. They dug through old newspapers, periodicals, books, programs, and old film footage. They consulted vintage uniform collectors throughout the country and visited the archives at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Major League Baseball teams had stopped wearing wool flannel jerseys by 1972. Teams now wear double-knit polyester jerseys. In a dusty warehouse in North Philadelphia, Mitchell & Ness discovered rolls of old baseball flannel from 50 years earlier. They were still carefully wrapped, untouched, and in like-new condition ready to be cut and sewn.
The flannel was sewn. The lettering and patches were recreated and applied. The jerseys were completed, and they were offered for sale. The first shirts sold almost overnight. So did the second batch of a dozen or more. In time, Mitchell & Ness attracted customers from across the United States. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
wrote a flattering piece about M&N in June 1987. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote about the company two years later.
Since these first vintage jerseys, M&N has expanded its offerings. The company is careful to research each item before beginning even the first stage of the manufacturing process. In 1999, M&N expanded into the history of the NBA when it introduced its Hardwood Classics collection of basketball jerseys. Football followed a year later with the M&N Throwback Collection. In 2002, the NHL granted M&N rights to remake vintage hockey sweaters.
Mitchell & Ness now has on file every MLB uniform worn since the founding of the original Cincinnati Red Stockings
Cincinnati Red Stockings
The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first fully professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players 1867–1870, a time of a transition that ambitious Cincinnati,...
in 1869, the National League in 1876 and the American League in 1901, along with tables of every uniform number worn by every MLB player in baseball history. M&N researchers periodically make research trips to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The company owns game-worn jerseys and sweaters, and maintains extensive archives. Mitchell & Ness even has a full time historian on staff.
On May 29, 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
announced that they had signed Mitchell & Ness as a naming-rights partner of its apparel store at the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park is a 43,647-seat baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, and home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Citizens Bank Park opened on April 3, 2004, and hosted its first regular season baseball game on April 12 of the same year, with the...
. The Mitchell & Ness Alley Store is in Ashburn Alley beyond left-center field.
On January 24, 2011, the Reading Phillies
Reading Phillies
The Reading Phillies are a minor league baseball team based in Reading, Pennsylvania, playing in the Eastern Division of the Eastern League. Since the 1967 season, they have been the AA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies....
, A.A. Affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
announced that they had signed Mitchel & Ness as a naming-rights partner of its apparel store at the R-Phils' FirstEnergy Stadium
FirstEnergy Stadium
FirstEnergy Stadium is a 9,000-seat baseball-only stadium in Reading, Pennsylvania that hosted its first regular season baseball game in 1951. The park is home to the Reading Phillies of the Eastern League. It was voted the second best place to see a baseball game by Minor League News in 2006...
. The Mitchell & Ness R-Phils Team Store is located near the VIST Financial
VIST Financial
VIST Financial Corp., a publicly traded company is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, providing banking, insurance, investment, and mortgage services throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania....
Plaza and Weston Center "Winning Smiles" Stage, and will be accessible year-round.
Sales history
Owner Peter Capolino reported to Sports Illustrated that Mitchell & Ness had annual sales revenue of $1.5 million per-year in 1998. Revenues rose to $2.2 million in 1999 and were $2.8 million in 2000. Sales were more than $5 million in 2001 according to ESPN.com while Mr. Capolino reported annual sales of $4.5 million in 2001 to USA Today. Sales rose to $25 million in 2002.Philadelphia Sports
Mitchell & Ness has involved itself with Philadelphia sports history and projects.The company sponsored a Turn Back the Clock alumni game on November 21, 2003 between players from the 1988
1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 17, 1988, and ended with the championship game on April 4 returning to Kansas City, Missouri...
Temple Owls
Temple Owls men's basketball
The Temple Owls men's basketball team represents Temple University in the Atlantic 10 Conference at the Division I level. The program is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The head men's basketball coach is Fran Dunphy.-History:...
and 1985 Villanova Wildcats at the Liacouras Center
Liacouras Center
The Liacouras Center, a 10,200-seat multi-purpose venue, is located on the Temple University campus along North Broad Street in North Philadelphia. The venue is a full entertainment arena featuring concerts, family shows, Temple Men’s and Women’s Basketball games, Philadelphia KiXX games, and other...
on the campus of Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in North Philadelphia.
Mitchell & Ness is partnering with the Betsy Ross House
Betsy Ross House
The Betsy Ross House may be where Betsy Ross lived when she may have made the first American Flag. By 1876, several surviving family members said this was the location....
to present an exhibition opening May 22, "Play Ball! A History of Baseball in Philadelphia."
Merchandising licensed manufacturer
The following is a list of the vintage products made and commercialized by the company:Jerseys, jackets and accessories
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