Vintage Jerseys

Vintage is vogue. Jerseys patterned after historic baseball, basketball and football uniforms have become a must-have look for celebs such as Billy Crystal, Rosie O'Donnell and Will Smith. The trend even transcends historical rivalries: Celtics rookie Joe Forte has worn a Magic Johnson Lakers jerseys after games.

The jerseys first hit the scene with fashionable rappers. Outkast's Big Boi kicked off the current trend by sporting a 1980 Nolan Ryan Astros jersey in the 1999 video for Black Ice. Since then the outfits have sold briskly despite price tags of between $250 and $350. (The shirts are replicas, not actual game jerseys; details are altered to prevent people from selling them as the real things.) Sales for Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co., the company licensed by the NBA, NFL and MLB to make the jerseys, have gone from $1.5 million in '98 to an expected $18 million this year. "I never did any marketing," says Mitchell & Ness president Peter Capolino. "The nostalgia for these looks is different from anything that's happening today on the athletic scene."