I’ve lived in Southeast Asia for more than four years now, and I have a little bit of an auspicious reputation –as the guy who always wears basketball jerseys. It’s true, from the Knicks to the Celtics, Thunder to old-school Lakers, UConn Huskies to the Philippines national team jersey, I’m always wearing basketball tops. Yes, I am a fan of the game, but I rarely watch a whole game (unless it’s the playoffs or having it on in the background), and I think I’ve only played three or four times in the last couple of years.
So why do I wear every basketball jersey under the sun, almost 24-7? It’s friggin hot in Southeast Asia. Like all the time. Some times of the year or in some places, it’s also insufferably humid. I now live in the Philippines, and the air is so wet that it feels like it’s on the brink of raining almost all of the time.
Shopping at Wilson’s Jersey Shop
While I’ve come to adjust to the heat (and actually enjoy it), I never can adapt to the humidity. The second I walk out of my house I start sweating, and all day is a battle against breaking out into a full on drip. So if I wear anything that’s cotton and doesn’t breath like a t-shirt, I’ll start sweating even more – and the wet patches on my shirts are unsightly and embarrassing.
The easy solution is to wear basketball jerseys, which leads me to the best place I get them made, Wilson’s Sporting Good Shop in Angeles City, the Philippines. I could buy my basketball jerseys off the rack (the Philippines is hoops-crazed so they’re not hard to find) but my size is weird – like XXL on the shoulders but only L or XL around the stomach and for length. If you find the right place, it’s also pretty cheap to get them custom made, so I try to go that route.
I used to go to a different basketball jersey and sports shop called Jenny’s on Walking Street, and while I loved the proprietor and her family, they often screwed up. From ill-fitting sizes to bad cuts to incorrect spelling and ALWAYS being late to deliver, Jenny’s screwed up way too much, which cost me a lot of time and money. So when a friend turned me on to Wilson’s, I was impressed.
They are a lot more expensive – it’s nearly $20 USD to get a jersey custom made, which is a fortune compared to the approximate $10 price tag for jerseys at other places. But they also get them right. They can accommodate any team and custom order, they size them accurately, and deliver on time. (Nowadays, they do have a 3-week turnaround time for custom orders).
To have fun with it, I started collecting custom made jerseys that are for NBA teams but with the name of that city’s most famous rap musician replacing the team name. So I have a Chicago Bulls jersey with “Common” on the front, a Knicks jersey with “Tribe” on the front and “Quest” on the back, etc. It’s a fun way to mix it up, and I’ve found that Wilsons flat out doesn’t make mistakes. Their quality of materials and stitching is much better, too, which is important because they won’t fall apart, fade, or shrink to nothing in the dryer.
I’m glad I found Wilsons Sports Shop for my jerseys – and as an anti-sweating wardrobe!
About Norm Schriever
Norm Schriever is a blogger, Amazon best-sellling author, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. His work appears in the Huffington Post, Business.com, Good Morning America, The Anderson Cooper Show on CNN, NBC, MSN, Yahoo, Hotels.com, and media all around the world.
Norm grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut, where he was never accused of overstudying. After expatriating to Costa Rica in 2011, he started traveling the world and documenting what he saw. He now lives in Southeast Asia, writing his heart out and working with local charities.
