Edit: I forgot the most important thing, a garishly designed shirt of plastic like texture made from petroleum products that look like part of a super hero costume
I am not a fan of the shirts that everybody is using these days. They are everywhere now, from Pool, to shooting matches, to drag racing... everywhere there is a competition, there is a wild colored "jersey". To each it's own I reckon, I do not have anything against people using them, they are probably very comfortable, just not my thing.
Side story. My pool mentor, my godfather, was a very wealthy man, his kind soul rest in peace. He used to be a businessman and he had a very lavish house. I used to stay with my godparents frequently and that is how I was introduced to pool. He had a very nice expensive competition table on the lower level of his home, there he had a jukebox, his own private bar and a fairly large TV for the early nineties. Superbly curated mancave. I remember one weekend that I was staying with them, at around 5pm on Saturday evening, a bunch of cars start rolling in, the expensive kind, and they were stopped at the gate by the groundskeeper, checked for an invitation and let in the property. After about an hour of looking at the spectacle I ask my godmother "what is going on?" She said "go down to your godfathers pool room and you'll see". There were abour 15 or 20 very wealthy men there, his friends, and they were giving my godfather big rolls of cash and all of that was put into a briefcase, locked and then put into a safe. Turned out that my godfather liked to gamble and he "organized" a tournament with his equally rich friends in his pool room, at 1k entry fee per person. Gambling like that was illegal and very frowned upon back home; I am originally from Puerto Rico, before I moved to CONUS when I enlisted in the Marines. I did not know that he was one of the top money players in the island, which was a side of him I did not see before. That night I saw my godfather beat every single one of them in a single elimination race to 5 eight ball, 8 ball had to go in the pocket the last object ball went into (neat little version of 8 ball we play back home) and win that big pile of cash. I still remember it like it was yesterday. He played with a Dufferin cue and had a few spare shafts, all with Elk Master tips and blue Master chalk. I think some shafts were customized in some way shape or form. His case was of genuine crocodile leather.
But anyways, as my pool mentor, he was very adamant about my dress when I was younger and active in tournaments back home. He insisted I at least wore a clean, tucked in polo shirt, either with dark slacks or a dark pair of clean and pressed jeans, with a decent pair of clean, comfortable shoes. He also insisted in a fresh shave when I got old enough, or having my beard nicely trimmed. He was also very adamant about my demeanor and pool etiquette. Crap, I still call fouls on myself thanks to him. He started playing around the era of straight pool and one pocket, with Irving Crane impeccably dressed for his games, so he believed I could benefit some from that "self discipline" with dress and demeanor, and apply it to how I played the game as well.
Before he passed away he saw me play in a fairly large tournament, watching from a corner where I could not see him. I did not win, came in second, but I will never forget him coming to me to give me a hug and tell me how proud he was of me, my demeanor in the face of a loss and "class" as he called it. To him, it did not matter I had lost the first place, it mattered that he mentored me "the right way" and I had become a good player myself. I will never forget that. The relationship between godparents and godchildren in hispanic countries is very special; it is a bond that can't be broken as they make an oath, before God, that they will care for you in the event of one's parents deaths. So we are considered their children and part of their own families as well.
Rest in Peace, Padrino.
