Masontown sports apparel company produces NFL Draft jerseys
Kim Jones, a Canonsburg resident and Stahls’ Decorating Fulfillment Center general manager, displays the football jersey the Pittsburgh Steelers’ No. 1 draft pick would model during Thursday night’s NFL Draft.
Stahls’ Decorating Fulfillment Center near Masontown produces the personalized football jerseys modeled by first-round draft picks at the NFL Draft in Chicago.
MASONTOWN – A sports apparel company near Masontown helped to make dreams come true for dozens of rookie football players selected Thursday night during the NFL Draft in Chicago.
A team from Stahls’ Decorating Fulfillment Center produced the personalized jerseys, churning them out in just minutes for the nationally televised event, that first-round picks proudly displayed while standing on stage at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theater.
The three-person team has to work quickly, using a hot press to attach the surname of each drafted player on the back of his new team’s jersey when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces the next pick. Rookies holding their No. 1 jersey while standing next to the commissioner has become a picture-perfect moment for the NFL and produced a lasting memory for the players.
About 20 employees from Stahls, which is located off Route 21 just outside Masontown, were immersed in a flurry of activity in Chicago this week for the draft and fan events.
“It’s a lot of fun and a lot of people get to go (to the NFL Draft) who have never been before,” said Kim Jones, a Canonsburg resident and the company’s general manager. “But it’s also a lot of work. It’s a big event.”
Immense planning goes into producing the jerseys for an event nearly as celebrated as the Super Bowl.
The company spent weeks cutting numerous surnames of potential first-round draft picks using each team’s colors and style so they can immediately be “embellished” with a hot press onto a blank jersey as Goodell announces the player’s name. A team of three Stahls workers and their heat presses set up behind the stage are a well-oiled machine, but Jones said last-minute trades can throw a wrench into the process.
“It’s live. You got to get (the name) when it comes and can’t make any mistakes,” Jones said, adding they usually get the player’s names a couple minutes before it’s publicly announced. “We’ve got a great team that’s fast and efficient.”
The company began producing the personalized jerseys for drafted players a few years ago, and it has become a “made-for-TV” moment for the draft picks and their families. It’s getting bigger and bigger each year, Jones said, so Stahls brought 19 workers to Chicago this year.
The other 16 employees are spending the weekend at “Draft Town” in Chicago’s Grant Park making thousands of mostly personalized jerseys for fans.
“It’s growing every year and it was a phenomenal success so we have an even bigger staff this time,” said Jones, who remained back at the Masontown factory this week to oversee other apparel production. “They’re all crazy busy. They’re pressing as fast as they can.”
The company works closely with the NFL, producing licensed jerseys and other apparel.
Stahls also has another plant in Paisley Industrial Park in Cumberland Township across the Monongahela River from its apparel factory. The company employs more than 100 people on average, depending on the season, and makes other sports apparel and screen-printed T-shirts.