Page 6 - Tom Reding

One of the most annoying things about decals and stickers is dealing with the left-over sticker residue after they are removed. In some cases, you’ll get lucky and the sticker will peal off with little effort, but in most cases, with well made stickers, you’ll be left with ugly sticker “gunk” on whatever surface you placed the sticker. Removing this sticker residue doesn’t have to be a hassle as long as you know the proper techniques and solutions for removal. It’s especially important to understand what solutions you can use on different surfaces. What you might use to remove a sticker from a window may not necessarily be the same thing you would want to use on your car’s bumper. Different solutions can do damage to the wrong surfaces if you’re not careful. The last thing you want to do is have to have your car repainted because you used a solution or technique that destroyed the clear coat and the paint. Let’s take a look at a few different ways to ensure that you can easily remove those

Spring sports are starting up again and that means more laundry to do. If you’ve never had to try and remove a grass stain from a white uniform, then consider yourself lucky. Grass stains can be extremely difficult to get out of clothing, especially when they’ve been worn in and already set, but we’ve got some tips that should help you out. Before we get into the best ways to remove grass stains from clothing and uniforms, let’s take a quick look at why grass stains are so hard to get out of clothing in the first place.

Why Are Grass Stains So Hard to Remove?

There are certain things that tend to stain our clothes more easily than others, and there are also things that tend to create worse stains. If you’ve ever played an outdoor sport, or have a child that likes to play outside, then you’re all too familiar with the struggle of grass stains. Getting them out of clothes seems to be an almost impossible task… especially when sports like baseball tend to use white pants. But why are they

When it comes to finding the best quality decals for your football, baseball, or lacrosse helmet, it’s important to research what the decals are made of to better understand how they will stand up to the pressure applied during play. There are many different types of stickers and decals, but not all of them are created equal. The same stickers you buy for your kids to play with wouldn’t be the same types of stickers you would want to put on your football helmet. Certain stickers adhere to surfaces better, some are more durable abuse, while some stickers hold up better in situations where heat may be an issue. It’s important to understand the application and scenarios your sticker/decal will be in, to understand exactly what type of sticker you should go with. The most common materials used for stickers are plastic, high performance polyester, vinyl, and even static cling window stickers. When it comes to football helmets, and other sportdecals that need to stand up to intense wear and

With the baseball and softball seasons coming to an end, this is one of the best times to go out and buy that new bat you’ve been thinking about. Prices on baseball and softball bats tend to drop a little bit when the sports are out of season, so purchasing a bat now could save you a little bit of money. Depending on which sport you play, and what style of that sport, there are a few things you’re going to want to look at when it comes to buying the right bat. What works for baseball may not work for softball, and what works for 12” fast-pitch softball may not work for 16” slow pitch softball. Understanding the sport and why certain bats are made the way they are, will help you determine which bat is going to best help you and your team. Just because a bat is expensive doesn’t mean that it’s going to be better, and just because a bat is cheap doesn’t mean it’s not going to get the job done. Think about it, if you’re playing 12” fast-pitch softball, which uses a hard ball (similar to a baseball),

Maintaining your sports jerseys can take a lot of work. After hours out in the sun, mud, and grass, pieces of the jersey can begin to fall apart or deteriorate, which can lead to an unprofessional, or unkempt look for the team. Knowing how to properly repair your jersey to keep it looking as best as possible is a great way to show your commitment to a team and to show that you truly care about how you represent the team and its members. We’ve all had jerseys with those plastic letters on the back of them. Either they were ironed on by a parent or came pre-installed from the jersey supplier, but it’s always just a matter of time until the numbers slowly start to peel off or crack and need replacing. If you’re unfamiliar with the process of installing new plastic numbers on to a jersey, or replacing/repairing old ones, it’s fairly straight forward, but if don’t incorrectly you could damage the numbers and/or the jersey itself. The process for installing new numbers vs. repairing old ones

COVID restrictions in certain states have begun to relax a little bit as more and more vaccines make it into people’s arms, but there are still precautions that should be taken. Youth sports as well as adult recreational sports were completely paused at the start of the pandemic, but as we learn more about how the virus spreads and what we can do to mitigate that spread, some sports have been able to resume. As Illinois holds within Phase 4 of the reopening plan, almost all sports are able to resume, but some of the higher risk sports still have restrictions that participants and staff must follow in order to assure the safety of everyone involved.

Illinois Sports COVID Risk Factor

Illinois has broken down the various sporting events into three levels of risk. These levels of risk are determined by the physical interaction of the players due to the nature of the sport they are playing. For all of these sports, regardless of the risk factor, all participants should wear a properly fitting