Originally posted by DiabloScott
OK, so recapping:
The highest level of jersey purism eschews any jersey that is now or ever was or even is the same color as a pro team jersey, race leader/points/climber/intergiro/meta volante jersey from any stage race, rainbow-adorned (vertical or horizontal or on the trim), or has any advertising other than the maker of the clothing. These people will only wear clothing that they have either earned through sponsorship or club membership, or purchased at a ride they've actually completed or clothes with no advertising and not predominantly yellow/green/spotted/blue/gold/cyclamin/white/purple (I think gray is OK, someone please check this for me).
Then the middle ground includes riders who will wear clothing that may have some advertising and look sort of like a racer jersey but make sure that no one will actually think it's some team's jersey such as Eddy Merckx, Litespeed, or Jamba Juice branded clothing. These people clearly don't want to upset any of the purists by dressing like the posers but do want to impress their friends and give the impression that they could race if they wanted to. Maybe they also have a yellow jersey that they wear occaisionally but are careful not to have it on during July and whenever they do wear it they have a good excuse ready when someone occuses them of trying to look like Lance. They also might even have an obscure Division 3 team jersey that probably no one else would recognize but there would have to be a good story like someone they met in Andorra wanted to trade jerseys with them as a gesture of friendship.
Then there's the retro set who will wear the classic jerseys of yesteryear, maybe for teams that no longer exist like Brooklyn or Del Tongo because it shows that they know a hell of a lot more about the history of cycling than most folks ever will and maybe someone will actually think they used to race or maybe someone will start up a conversation about the olden days. These guys (all retro guys are male) usually are reasonably fit and can sort of walk the walk but don't feel like they have to prove it to a bunch of Fred newbs who should have more respect. Usually though, they wear wool with perhaps one or two stripes on the chest.
And finally we have the posers who show no compunction at all about having a complete Super Mario world champion zebra striped kit with matching bike and helmet, or full USPS TdF yellow jersey and Trek Madone with DA10 that they had to wait months for. These folks honestly don't even know that the other categories of jersey purism even exist and believe that everyone else on the multi-use path admires them for having such *****in cycling clothes.