Milwaukee Bucks gift players NBA Finals championship jackets made in Ogden by Coleman Knitting Mills
In this July 2021 photo, Coleman Knitting Mills production worker Eleazar Vázquez works on a letterman jacket for Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday at the company's office in Ogden. The Bucks ordered custom jackets to gift to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, the front of a letterman jacket made for Milwaukee Bucks player Khris Middleton is shown at Coleman Knitting Mills in Ogden. The Bucks ordered the custom-made jackets to give to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, the back of a letterman jacket made for Milwaukee Bucks player Khris Middleton is shown at Coleman Knitting Mills in Ogden. The Bucks ordered the custom-made jackets to give to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, the sleeves of letterman jackets made for Milwaukee Bucks players are shown at Coleman Knitting Mills in Ogden. The Bucks ordered the custom-made jackets to give to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, Coleman Knitting Mills production worker Juana Vazquez works on pieces of a letterman jacket for one of the Milwaukee Bucks' Antetokounmpo brothers at the company's office in Ogden. The Bucks ordered custom jackets to gift to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, Coleman Knitting Mills production worker Ana Rodriguez sews a patch to the inside of a letterman jacket piece for Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis Antetokounmpo at the company's office in Ogden. The Bucks ordered custom jackets to gift to players for winning the NBA Finals.
In this July 2021 photo, the front of a letterman jacket made for a Milwaukee Bucks player is shown at Coleman Knitting Mills in Ogden. The Bucks ordered the custom-made jackets to give to players for winning the NBA Finals.
The Milwaukee Bucks will gift to their 16 players custom-made, letterman-style jackets Friday for their NBA Finals win that brought the league championship back to the city for the first time in 50 years after the team finished off the Phoenix Suns in a 4-2 series win Tuesday.
The company who designed and manufactured the jackets, and made the gift possible: Coleman Knitting Mills in Ogden.
Bucks players like Giannis Antetokounmpo were meant to put the jackets on full display during the team’s championship parade Thursday morning in Milwaukee until a delay with the flight containing the overnight shipment meant that wouldn’t be possible.
A common business acquaintance between Coleman Knitting Mills and the Bucks previously connected the parties, which led to the team ordering these jackets to gift to their players.
“We loved getting this order,” said Abe Dalebout, who owns the clothing manufacturer with his wife, Fremont High girls basketball coach Lisa Dalebout. “We love that a larger-profile company like the Milwaukee Bucks, a sports franchise, is using an American company to make something for them that the players can cherish for a long time.”
The gifts are largely the same that Utahns are accustomed to, as Coleman is well-known for making letterman jackets for most high schools around the state. The Bucks’ jackets, though, have longer arms and more space for adornments.
Milwaukee’s jackets have black wool bodies with black leather arms, with all names and patches knit in-house. The fabrics are cut there, the leather is sourced from a U.S.-based supplier, and everything is assembled at Coleman’s downtown location.
Dalebout said his company has previously taken orders from Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell and rap mogul Jay-Z. When down 0-2, the Bucks decided to go through with the order even if the team didn’t win the Finals.
Production workers began making the parts on Monday, July 12, and started assembling the jacket elements Monday, July 19. Once Milwaukee was up 3-2 in the series, the folks at Coleman buckled down.
Tuesday night’s series-clincher meant the production crew came in early Wednesday morning to put on the finishing touches that signified the Bucks won the championship — and to get them out the door and on a plane to be worn in the parade, which didn’t happen due to circumstances out of their control.
Dalebout said his team “values all the jackets, whether it’s a high school kid or if it’s Giannis’s jacket they’re making, they treat it exactly the same. But you do look at his name on the jacket and say ‘wow,’ it’s kind of a cool thought to think about him wearing it.”
Coleman Knitting Mills usually hosts customers at its office to measure and fit them, or makes trips to area high schools to measure groups of people. But the Bucks ordered these as gifts, which meant crews used online listings for players’ height, weight and wingspan to make an educated guess for each one.
“A lot of them, their body is an extra-large jacket, which is fairly standard, but the sleeves are 5 or 6 inches longer in each sleeve because their wingspan is so large,” Dalebout said.
Despite the shipment not arriving in time for Thursday’s parade, the Bucks circled back to order a handful more jackets for the coaching staff and owner, the company said.
One Bucks player is Bountiful native Sam Merrill. If the Utah State graduate got a letterman jacket while at Bountiful High School, this would be his second personalized covering from Coleman Knitting Mills.
William C. Coleman started the company in 1949 and it was owned and operated by members of the Coleman family until 2018, when Dick and Kathy Coleman retired and sold it to the Dalebouts — “close family friends,” according to the company’s website.
“Dick and Kathy Coleman, they did such a good job of such a beautiful, quality standard of a jacket and we were happy to continue that tradition,” Abe Dalebout said. “So it’s cool when you get high-profile people realizing the quality of it, and we make it right here in Ogden.”
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