# What happens to college and pro "one use" uniforms? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 27, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810 "2013-04-27T00:55:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810/1 "2013-04-27T00:55:42Z")
It is very popular for college and pro teams to wear “alternate” uniforms on a one time basis. Sometimes it is “throwbacks”. Sometimes it is just an unconventional design. I suppose it promotes enough additional sales among fans to make it profitable for Nike, Addidas, Under Armour of whoever to provide the stuff for free to the teams. So what happens to them after the single use? Do the players get to keep them? Are they used in charity auctions? Does the team store them in case they want to use them again? I’m particularly interested in the football helmets. Those thing aren’t cheap. What happens to them? Are they repainted and reused? Is it a collectors item for the players? Just my curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810/2 "2013-04-27T00:58:05Z")
Football helmets are often modified with decals. They don’t necessarily manufacture an entirely new set just for a single game. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810/3 "2013-04-27T01:10:07Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Football helmets are often modified with decals. They don’t necessarily manufacture an entirely new set just for a single game. But can you do a whole helmet with decals? I recall a Notre Dame game last season that was played at a neutral venue. The helmets were like nothing I’ve ever seen. Everyone is familiar with the ND Gold helmet but these things had unusual graphics that covered the entire helmet. Take a look. [http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/notre-dame-outdoes-itself-shamrock-series-uniforms-not-002805305–ncaaf.html](http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/notre-dame-outdoes-itself-shamrock-series-uniforms-not-002805305--ncaaf.html) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810/4 "2013-04-27T01:29:24Z")
I can’t say how these helmets are done, but decal technology is quite sophisticated. You can do an entire bus or van in a decal. ---
**Author:** ![Fred\_Garvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c67d28/32.png) [@Fred\_Garvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred_Garvin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-college-and-pro-one-use-uniforms/656810/5 "2013-04-27T20:22:03Z")
The Red Sox auctioned off their “Boston” uniforms from the April 20th game against the Kansas City Royals for One Fund Boston. They raised $310,000 including [getting $37,400 for Ortiz’ jersey alone](http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/27/ortiz-boston-jersey-raises-37400-for-boston-one-fund/)