To clean or not to clean?

[Streetsideguy]

I recently picked up this piece and am considering getting it framed or shadow boxed with some other cool KSU stuff from that era. The jacket has a mothball smell and could stand to be cleaned. Any thoughts on having it dry cleaned prior to framing?


Pretty cool piece of KSU history here. Bob Boozers Letterman's jacket from when he was at Kansas State University

2x Big 8 Player of the year (1958-1959)
2x 1st Team All American (1958-1959)
1960 Gold Medal US Olympic Team Member
NBA All Star (1968)
NBA Champion (1971)
Jersey retired by KSU

[Leon]

I am not a vintage uni collector but if I were I would want one as original as possible. The only thing(s) I would do is stabilize anything that might deteriorate very quickly. But my thoughts might be contrary to popular/best opinion. If it displays nicely (and that looks to) I would consider leaving it as original.

[icollectDCsports]

Many collectors of game worn items such as jerseys will not clean them if there's a chance that some of the evidence of game use (such as grass stains on baseball and football jerseys or stick marks on hockey jerseys) will be diminished or removed. If your concern is smell, there may be ways to destinkify it without cleaning and I think some collectors have used Febreze. But if appearance is also your concern, then I'd go ahead and have it cleaned as I wouldn't have quite the same issues as you may have with some other items such as jerseys. Be careful, however, to inspect it to make sure there aren't loose seams or stitching that could come undone by the cleaning process. And I'd make sure the person cleaning it understands the need to treat it gently.

[perezfan]

Appearance looks great. I would NOT risk cleaning... Even professionally.

You can take measures (as described above) to improve the smell. Just my .02

[UnVme7]

Nope, I wouldn't clean it

[deeg23]

The answer to that question about 99.9% of the time should be not to clean