Vintage Gear: Champion Michael Jordan #45 Bulls Replica Jersey

Michael Jordan‘s number 45 Chicago Bulls jersey was an absolute must-have item back in the spring of 1995. And this jersey we’re checking out for today’s Vintage Gear was the only way to go – the Champion replica.

Children of the ’80s and ’90s know the Champion replica jersey well, as it was the primary way to wear your favorite player’s team, name and number, and also widely available. No swanky Mitchell & Ness authentics, and believe it or not, authentic sports jerseys were on the rare side 20 years ago. Not even faux-authentic swingmans were populating stores.

Within one week after Michael Jordan’s first game back against the Indiana Pacers on March 19, 1995, sporting goods stores and department stores like J.C. Penney started receiving their first shipments of the bright red mesh jerseys screen printed with the new number.

Only one problem. No one could keep them in stock. For a solid month stores would get limited allotments, many of which were set aside for wait-listed customers, leaving the remaining number to be distributed on first come first serve basis. That means if you happened to be in the store the day – no, the minute – the jerseys were racked, you could come away with one. If they had your size.

Pretty impressive supply and demand in action, especially considering that a functioning and useful Internet had been in service for less than a year at that point – that no one was using to order products like we do today – and there was zero social media. All phone calls, TV news reports, and word of mouth then. And you could forget mail order catalogs for stuff like this.

Then of course by the time many people finally got their Jordan 45 jersey, MJ switched back to 23. Which meant everyone had to get a fresh one of those jerseys.

Depending on condition, you can pick one of these old Jordan jerseys up for little cash on eBay. You might not display it or wear it but there are few Michael Jordan memorabilia items more meaningfully representative of the era.