Jersey (clothing)

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In sport, a jersey is a shirt worn by a member of a team, often with the wearer's name and team number as well. Many Cycling jerseys of specific colour or pattern represent certain statuses in cycling, such as the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) of the leader of the Tour de France, or the rainbow jersey. The World Cycling Union also says a champion must wear the champions jersey in a race, not the team jersey. Cycling jerseys are usually made of special synthetic material to help sweat away from the skin. The main garment of an ice hockey uniform, which was traditionally called a sweater, is increasingly known as a hockey jersey. This garment, along with basketball jerseys which are usually sleeveless and baseball jerseys which are usually button up, have become fashion accessories.

In some sports, such as baseball, basketball, and American football, a player's jersey may be "retired". When a jersey is retired that player's jersey is placed usually where the team plays in honour of that player's accomplishment. The retiring of a jersey at one time included the retiring of the number on the player's jersey leaving it unavailable for future players, to further honour that player. However, as jerseys are usually double digit (00-99), that leaves only 100 possible numbers—if the rules of the sport allow it. For example, in U.S. college basketball, only 36 distinct numbers are possible, as rules prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5. As such the practice of retiring the number has dwindled, and in most cases only the specific jersey is retired and put on display.