MAD PROPS
THINK OF your favorite sports movie and of the thousands of uniforms, cleats, helmets and sticks used to bring the film to life. Ever wonder: Where are those things now? Chances are, they're sitting in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Torrance, Calif., home of Sports Studio, a company that creates costumes and equipment for many of Hollywood's most memorable sports flicks.
To see more, visit SI.com/movieprops
MIRACLE (2004)
To get those authentic 1980s-era bucket helmets, propmasters went to Canada and got original molds from manufacturers to have the old lids re-created.
FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)
If you build it, they will come—and if you make 1910s-era cleats, uniforms, bats and catchers' gear, it will appear in multiple movies. Shoeless Joe actually wore duds that also appeared in Eight Men Out.
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992)
There were no original patterns for these unis, so the company worked off photographs and old uniforms that they were able to find in museums to guide the creation process.
SPACE JAM (1996)
The most popular item in the entire warehouse, according to Sports Studio CEO Mark Koesterer, is easily Michael Jordan's Space Jam jersey.
42 (2013)
Finding fabric that appropriately represented the post--World War II period but also looked good on camera took four months, says Koesterer.