[Themaintainers] Uniform maintenance

[Ruth Kitchin Tillman]

This week at a quilt event here in State College, I met the young woman who
maintains the Penn State football uniforms. I was intrigued by the system I
hadn’t even realized would be in place. I learned that players tend to get
one game shirt a year — of each color inversion? (though they’ll be
replaced for the first string at the bowl game and if they get messed up
enough) they also have practice shirts they may wear longer.

On Mondays after game weekends, they go through an industrial laundry
process which removes sweat and dirt and blood (but leaves them smelling
“chemicalish”). On Tuesdays she tends to get around 150 total shirts to
check for tears and then mend. Mending is done with a sewing machine on the
zigzag setting, most of the time. She said she has to be careful to leave
enough stretch so it won’t get torn at the mend if the shirt is later
pulled.

When Ohio State debuted shorter pants (???) the coach here had her spend a
summer week doing very rough hems on the pants to bring them around/above
knee height.

It’s not a full time job, but used to be done by a seamstress with her
other work and the person I met does it with other jobs around her classes
(not a traditional undergrad).

I don’t follow football or know much about it, but I was fascinated by this
hidden repair that keeps the players’ shirts from falling apart through the
season. I am used to the idea of a theater or ballet having a seamstress
group, but had not thought of the same of sports. I thought this list might
be interested in the encounter and what it might mean at their institutions
or for their favorite teams.

Ruth
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