Border Crossing

If you go to the Diamondbacks website you can buy a 2007 authentic hat, they claim that it it 100% wool.

Working on a screen shot, but I know the Phillies handle this situation by spelling the name across the jersey PHILLLIES. The third “l” disappears behind the placket.

I too loathe purple, mostly since it is the colour of my two most hated schools: UW and South Eugene High School, but I think that on her it works quite nicely.

There’s been a lot of chatter in the Comments section lately about the 49ers’ overuse of their “SF” logo. That problem might become moot, because the team may move.
I wonder if the 49ers will change back to the throwbacks when they move. I just hope that the move isn’t to LA or Anaheim.

[quote comment=”21153″]The D-Backs’ uniforms are dreadful. I agree: How in the world is it acceptable to split the “a” like that? That color red looks like spoiled tomato soup. I also think that abbreviating a team name on a uniform is stupid – if you can’t fit the name onthe jersey, then your team name shoudl be different!

I only pray that Cincinnati’s new duds are way better than Arizona’s.[/quote]

That’s pretty much the color of the Astros’ alternate jerseys. And since the Astros wore it on the road most of the time (but with Houston instead of Astros on the front), we might see Arizona do something like that.

Although I think the D-Backs unis are a HUGE improvement, my problem is that they employ nearly the same color scheme as the Astros unis. I guess we just need to wait a few years for the Astros to completely overhaul their color scheme again and everything will be fine.

I think the D’Backs logo looks so bad because of the square nature of the typography. I noticed the same thing in the World Series on both teams (at first I thought it was because I had a few cocktails), but it wasn’t as outright bad looking in script as it is on the Arizona jersey.

Here’s a recent Frank Deford commentary on the overuse of red uniforms.

link

the bad guy from I know what you did last summer is the model for the d-backs now?

As far as the pentagonal-panel ball, I can’t explain why, but that look is iconic to soccer/football. It’s a somewhat handsome, friendly looking ball whose design was unique to soccer. I grew up with that, and I played with several pentagonal balls growing up in the 80’s. I think it’s simply pleasing to the eye. That’s completely subjective, but once you see a pentagonal-panel ball, you don’t think of any other sport that employs a similarly sized orb.

oh, and almost forgot,
is tony clark derek lee’s grandfather?

on a side note, the quote of the event…

Accomplished rap artist and businessman Master P was there along with Romeo and Young MC.

“It think it’s great colors, a great combination,” Master P said. “This will be the uniforms that take them to the World Series.”

After doing some quickie visual research, it looks like the soccer ball used today still have the same panel shapes, but the design on the panels have changed link

[quote comment=”21186″]I think the glaring issue is that it’s in the middle of a letter. The only similar example posted so far is the Indians jersey. Most teams seem to know better and their placket is an entire letter.[/quote]
A day late and a dollar short on my comment. Thanks Paul.

I hope in the ESPN column you make some comments about the belts the Dbacks have!

im still amazed the reporters published that world series comment! thats what you get for inviting an out of towner…

Purple may not belong on a tennis court but who can say that link doesn’t look good in purple?

Again Paul you are correct. I was thinking that most teams that have a underline under their name would similar to what you were talking about but after looking I couldn’t find one that hasn’t been posted yet. Thanks for letting me know of the differances. I have been reading this blog for about 3-4 months and your attention to detail has started me on looking for errors or silliness since.

I am always impressed with what you can find that must people don’t think of.

Miguel said, [quote comment=”21202″]Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think Maria can wear whatever she wants.

I’m color-blind, though, so I’m not sure if link.

A little help, fellow uni-peeps?[/quote]

No to the purple, yes to the perfect. Yowza!

link also has an old-style ball in their logo.

Today’s interesting Ohio high school football uniform goes to St. Ignatius High in Cleveland. Per tradition, the Jesuit school puts the players names on the backs of their jerseys if the team makes the playoffs.

link link

We all must agree on one thing. The alternate “db” snake head logo is the most interesting use of text-creates-image since the Brewers “mb” glove logo was introduced. It is absolutely great, and should honestly be the primary logo.
That’s one thing I can’t agree with. Ever since I heard someone mention it’s phallic nature, that’s all I see.
Then again, that just may mean I’m disturbed.

I’m surprised nobody commented on the swoosh in the purple tennis pictures. Isn’t that combination enough to make someone’s head explode?

but, you just have to LOVE the shoes!!

Almost all “recreational” soccer balls that you would buy at the sporting goods store still use the hexagon+pentagon pattern, even if the graphics don’t match the tiling. However, actual match balls use different patterns altogether. See link for the new ball used in the most recent World Cup. Compare it to a (much) less expensive “rec” version link – same graphics, completely different construction.

they unveil the new uniforms, but MLB won’t let them unveil the new batting practice jerseys? c’mon – it’s not a complete unveiling unless you get to show off all of the jerseys…

The Diamondbacks new “db” symbol is fairly similar to the one used by country singer Dierks Bentley.
link

The new D-backs jersey bothers me. I don’t mind the logo but, as Paul said, it definitley does not translate well to the jersey. The thing that bothers me most, and you can also see it on the link as well as the new D-backs uniforms, is when the stroke around the wording is so heavy that it doesn’t allow for any negative space between any of the letters, almost like there is a solid block that forms around the letters behind the logo.

I don’t know why more teams go the link route, at least in baseball, if not in link as well (even though I kind of hate the stripes around the Clippers armholes I do like the chest insignia. If you aren’t going to go with the script at least the arched type (link — link) or vertically arched type (link(aka. the greatest uniforms in the history of the world — link (even though that capital M bothers me)).

close to Dierks, but it’s really a complete ripoff of David Blaine

link

The split “a” doesn’t really bother me, but big thumbs-down to whoever that is unveiling the new uni wearing pajama pants.

Link to article

The women’s team at Army will be wearing “MD” in a cloverleaf on their jerseys for the season in honor of late coach Maggie Dixon, who died last year. Also, the coaches in the Patriot league will all be wearing “MD” pins seen
here.

No word yet on if Pitt will also do anything in her honor, as her brother Jamie is the coach there, and they will be playing in a benefit game for her against Western Michigan at West Point.

did no one get that the diamondbacks have already been to the world series… and won… 5 years ago… in one of the most memorable world series in recent memory?

[quote comment=”21232″]I bet she looks good out of purple as well…[/quote]

that reminded me of one of the funniest pick up lines of all time…
“thats a beautiful dress. it looks great on you. it would look even better on my bedroom floor”

Don’t they have velcro to assist in lining up the placket properly? I have a White Sox road jersey and although the overlap in the script Chicago is minor, the velcro sets things straight.

[quote comment=”21202″]I’m color-blind, though, so I’m not sure if link.[/quote]
Somewhere a camel is missing its toe.

i love the diamondbacks new unis.
maybe its because i hated the old ones so much, but i think this is such an amazing step in the right direction.

I agree Skott, I like them too. Especially compared to their old ones. Are you guys really upset that you won’t be seeing link anymore?

And as far as the comment that it looks minor league, I think it might look that way since it’s trying to look “southwest”, their link looked that way, their new one does too. I’m all for geographical representation with teams.

[quote comment=”21251″]Don’t they have velcro to assist in lining up the placket properly? I have a White Sox road jersey link[/quote]

Yep, a lot of teams have the velcro, and that;s the best it’s gonna get.

There have always been alignment issues with jersey. It’s gonna happen. You either split the letter, or you can link the word to make it link.

The heart off the issue is that the agencies who design these type styles have print/web/TV in mind first and jersey contruction last. They don’t account for the break of the uni or where the buttons fall.

Anybody notice that the colors are “Sedona red” and “Sonoran sand”? Seems like these days everyone’s making up their own color names. (Apple and “Bondi blue”, etc.)

How long until some stooge in the marketing department comes up with, “Hey, if we raise the yellow component of that Sonoran sand color, it would be the same color as a Tostito… and then we could sell the color naming rights to Tostitos and every time the new uniforms were mentioned in the media, people would be saying ‘Tostitos beige’…”

You know that day is coming.

Ok, this will be a little break from the Diamondback chatter today. It appears the outrage towards the new look is only beginning. This is long-winded, so if you don’t want to read it, please scroll past it. However, I hope I’ve included enough good info and pictures to keep you interested.

First, I’ll look at the little things that are similar between the NHL pro jersey licensed apparel designers. There are four major companies who made NHL pro jerseys. They were Nike/Bauer, Pro Player, Starter, and CCM/Reebok. You know what that means: different companies = different looks. I’ve also included Bauer in here, even though Nike bought them, because they made IHL and AHL pro jerseys.

Fighting straps: They can be seen by the naked eye if you’re close enough. The Nike/Bauer, Pro Player, and Reebok/CCM jerseys can be identified by the stitching on the back. link However, Starter did things a little differently. You can actually see link due to the material and design of the jersey. This is what the link looks like on the inside.

Reinforced Elbows: All five companies have these, and all are basically the same. link As you can see, the navy blue stitching follows the elbow much in the same way a tweed jacket has a leather patch on the elbow.

Reinforced Double-Stitching: Again, all companies followed the same design. Some are more apparent than others, but link Again, very noticeable on the Islanders’ Fisherman jersey. Now, companies tend to use the same color thread as the shoulder colors for aesthetics.

Hem Identification: Here’s where things get tricky. This is also where logo creep in hockey began. I’ll start with the old CCM Islanders’ Fisherman jersey. link Now, it is very easy to see the CCM in team colors. All NHL pro jerseys looked like this until 1996 (again, trying to verify this exact date). The reason they changed is because the NHL opened its doors to other licensed apparel companies who advanced jersey technology (and people think competition is bad).
Pro Player introduced a different jersey material, somewhat similar to Air-Knit material. In doing so, they produced jerseys for teams like Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and Columbus. They were the first company to use the silver NHL logo for pro jerseys and the orange NHL logo for replicas. link
Starter was another major player to change the jersey design. They produced jerseys for teams like Carolina, Phoenix, Colorado and Pittsburgh. link The difference between pros and replicas was that Starter used their full name on the pros and link for replicas.
And, of course, Nike got in on the action too. Nike produced jerseys for Detroit, Anaheim, San Jose, and Chicago. link
And coming around full circle is Reebok/CCM. link
In the IHL/AHL, Bauer hemlines link before Nike said they didn’t want the license.
And finally, Nike IIHF jerseys have a hemline that link.

Jersey Tag ID: This is straightforward. Old CCM pro jerseys had link. Pro Player jerseys had link. Note the jersey sizing. Starter jerseys had link. Note the jersey sizing on this one as 54-R. This indicated that it was a jersey made for players, not goalies. Nike jerseys had link. Note the jersey sizing on this one as 54G. This indicated that the jersey was a jersey made for goalies, not players. The sleeves of a goalie-cut jersey are much wider and much shorter than regular jerseys to accommodate the goalie’s blocker and catcher, as well as the additional padding they wear. link is the IIHF pro jersey. Finally, when CCM split its brands into CCM, Koho, and Jofa, they had separate tags. link link

Neck hemline logo creep: Starter and Pro Player never had their logos creep up to the neckline. However, Reebok/CCM and Nike did. As you can see in this picture, link This started with Nike and CCM. When CCM announced the changes to the jerseys once they were awarded the contract of all the NHL teams, they indicated their logo would be moving north to the neck. link link Nike also followed suit, and now their link on the back of their jerseys. Bauer, on the other hand, link

Finally, I leave you all with this: link

I hate the new trend of MLB teams apparently designing their uniforms using WordArt.

Though I do like the subtle touch of the Arizona on the grays hinting at fangs with the lower extentions of the R and N.

Regarding soccer balls.

The ball that everyone considers iconic is the adidas Telestar. It’s the ball with hexagonal and pentagonal panels, with the pentagons being black. This ball was developed for the 1968(?) World Cup because it was going to be on TV, and the black panels make it easier to see the motion/rotation of the ball on TV, hence Telestar. The pattern became the norm for years, but in the last 10 or so years a lot more and differnt designs have come out. link an ebay listing with all the adidas World Cup balls.

Here’s a good view of the Blue Jays uni with the ‘A’ split and not aligned.

link

To those worried about potential global implications when the Astros play the Diamondbacks or the Diamondbacks play then Nationals: Relax. They’ll only play each other six times, being from different divisions.

And don’t be so sure about how smart equipment managers are. The Cubs and Brewers have been spotted on numerous occasions both wearing blue. Different shades, but still stupid.

As for the soccer ball thing. All these logos were definetly created after 1970, before that soccer balls would look like link. This is reflected in the other logos mentioned by some people before. Adidas changed to the link in 1970, not only as stated for reasons of TV-visibily. It was also resulted in a big change when it came to playing in the rain. The old leather balls would soak up with water pretty fast and would become terribly heavy changing the complexion of the came. If you went up for a header you went straight for a concussion, if you hit the seams of the ball there was good chance your forehead would split open. I don’t if that’s still true for the balls used in the 60s but in the 20s and 30s it was definitely true. Still the Telstar design somehow has entered the collective consciousness of Europe (can’t vouch for the USA on that) as the prototypical design, probably because its base structure was used for virtually all soccer-balls up until this summer when adidas created the Teamgeist which was made up of just three pieces of synthetic material glued together.

[quote comment=”21259″]Anyone else notice that the Dbacks black jerseys are paired with grey link pants on the road and link at home.

The red jersey also appears do have 3 different pant choices: link, link and link

The white jerseys only seem to be worn with link which is a definite good thing along with the grey jerseys only worn with link, another good thing…thank god no mixing plain and pin stripes.[/quote]

Actually those are not the current pants. For some reason they were wearing their old pants with the new jerseys. The new look has no pinstripes.
I think those are promo pics they took in the locker room prior to the “fashion show”, not pics from last night’s event.

[quote comment=”21258″]i love the diamondbacks new unis.
maybe its because i hated the old ones so much, but i think this is such an amazing step in the right direction.

I agree Skott, I like them too. Especially compared to their old ones. Are you guys really upset that you won’t be seeing link anymore?

And as far as the comment that it looks minor league, I think it might look that way since it’s trying to look “southwest”, their link looked that way, their new one does too. I’m all for geographical representation with teams.[/quote]

Thank you. The bottom line is that it is an improvement. A new design will never make everybody say “wow, that’s perfect!” We can say we don’t like this or that about the new jersey, but we can say that about any jersey. I have yet to hear anybody say that the old jerseys are better. Let’s cut them some slack – at least they are moving in a positive direction (unlike most Nike basketball jerseys).

[quote comment=”21281″][quote comment=”21259″]Anyone else notice that the Dbacks black jerseys are paired with grey link pants on the road and link at home.

The red jersey also appears do have 3 different pant choices: link, link and link

The white jerseys only seem to be worn with link which is a definite good thing along with the grey jerseys only worn with link, another good thing…thank god no mixing plain and pin stripes.[/quote]

Actually those are not the current pants. For some reason they were wearing their old pants with the new jerseys. The new look has no pinstripes.
I think those are promo pics they took in the locker room prior to the “fashion show”, not pics from last night’s event.[/quote]

The pics are screen captures from there official slide show, plus they can’t be old pants cause the pin stripes are black not purple, like from the old unis

[quote comment=”21202″]Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think Maria can wear whatever she wants.

I’m color-blind, though, so I’m not sure if link.

A little help, fellow uni-peeps?[/quote]

i cant tell what color that is. am i allowed to say i am blinded by the “toe of a camel” ???

[quote comment=”21262″][quote comment=”21235″]I realize that it’s a ways to go for a laugh, but check out gallery 1, pic 8
So simple, even a Caveman could do it.
And, black jerseys in Arizona….won’t make it to the WS if you burst into flames! I know, it’s a dry heat….[/quote]

In the same gallery there is a split ‘Z’ in the first picture and a couple of pictures later Eric Byrnes has it untucked in his picture[/quote]

Eric Byrnes may be the biggest culprit of NOT buttoning his jersey. so he may look like he plays for the D-BAAAACKS or ARIZZZZONA. Can any D-Back fans back me up on this ?

The biggest club of those listed is probably Sochaux, which isn’t saying much. I guess the point I was trying to make is that the smaller clubs that have less history and tradition are more likely to make occasional modifications to their badge and other branding. The same is, of course, true for the leagues, many of whic acquired their current names in recent years (the English Premiership, for example, in ’92-’93 I believe). It’s not surprising that some of those changes would have been made during the period when the Telestar was a popular and iconic representation of the sport.

The Blue Jays grey “Toronto” jerseys NEVER line up properly. I think that is the the primary reason I hate them so much.

I don’t think I’m the only one, cause I’ve seen them on sale for really cheap at a couple of places recently, which means one of two things; 1- They are getting rid of them or 2 – No one is willing to buy one at the normal price and stores just want to get rid of them.

[quote comment=”21188″]After doing some quickie visual research, it looks like the soccer ball used today still have the same panel shapes, but the design on the panels have changed link[/quote]
The pentagons used to be bigger, now the hexagons are bigger.

In addition, there exist odd designs today like the one employed by link (MLS never should have switched away from the original Mitre ball) and adidas

that nasty tag is “rearing” it’s ugly head again…this time in the n.f.l. (photo courtesy of msn and deadspin.com)

link

Yeah, the type is bad, but at least they aren’t purple! The font looks wanna-be metal. They should have stuck with a crest on the left. The colors are a major improvement, so give them a break on this one.

P.S. Why the hell aren’t the Blue Jays blue anymore. Does that piss anybody else off?

[quote comment=”21261″][quote comment=”21251″]Don’t they have velcro to assist in lining up the placket properly? I have a White Sox road jersey link[/quote]

Yep, a lot of teams have the velcro, and that;s the best it’s gonna get.

There have always been alignment issues with jersey. It’s gonna happen. You either split the letter, or you can link the word to make it link.

The heart off the issue is that the agencies who design these type styles have print/web/TV in mind first and jersey contruction last. They don’t account for the break of the uni or where the buttons fall.[/quote]

Yup: Boston’s road jerseys have bothered me for quite some time now (not that I’m biased or anything), along with other teams with off-centered lettering. So for those teams with singularly worded, even numbered AND equally sized, individually placed letters (that’s a mouthful), it comes down to:

A- splitting letters
or
B- off-centering letters

Personally, I’d rather split them up instead of seeing something that just looks like it was slapped on without any regard to symmetry. But of course, there are issues when you encounter something like piping. Then it seems your typography options get severely limited.

For example, I just made a friend a school sweatshirt for her birthday, and I had five letters to work with. Rather than slipping an extra letter on one side or the other, I decided to cut the middle letter in half and center it on the zip down part. And IMHO it looked worlds better than the unsymmetrical link.
It suren’t isn’t the easy way out, but with a little extra planning and fabric, I think you’ll end up with something that doesn’t look quite as, well, OFF.

[quote comment=”21182″]oh, and almost forgot,
is tony clark derek lee’s grandfather?

on a side note, the quote of the event…

Accomplished rap artist and businessman Master P was there along with Romeo and Young MC.

“It think it’s great colors, a great combination,” Master P said. “This will be the uniforms that take them to the World Series.”[/quote]

That’s a great quote. What a hardcore D-Backs fan he must be.

im assuming that based on the logo, the springbok is of the gazelle family like the reebok is…

some interesting commemerative stuff on the springboks site

link the evolution of the Springbok’s logo over the 100 years

Can’t believe no one has mentioned link yet.

i dont know if anyone else has noticed, but other than the fact that the new dbacks unis are pure trash, they look pretty much identicle to the nationals…which IMOP dont look very good either.

link

link

WHY DOES EVERYBODY LIKE RED?

and for the record, purple (i.e. axemen) beats green any day of the week.

[quote comment=”21338″][quote comment=”21329″]Can’t believe no one has mentioned link yet.[/quote]

What is this “MISL” that you speak of?[/quote]

I do believe it was the successor to the CISL (Continental Indoor Soccer League) which folded in the late 90s. There was a player on the Dallas Sidekicks named Tatu who used to take off his jersey and throw it into the stands every time he scored and would sometimes grab the orange ball that the CISL used to do the same thing so that fans would have as many souvenirs of his moment as possible. He scored a lot too so I can’t imagine how many jerseys he went through in a season.

[quote comment=”21332″][quote comment=”21327″]some interesting commemerative stuff on the springboks site

link the evolution of the Springbok’s logo over the 100 years[/quote]

Who made the decision to go from the original logo to the ’63-’64 logo? “Uh, yeah, so I was thinking we should go from a logo with a dynamic, action-oriented springbok logo, to one where the springbok looks more complacent and boring.” “Yeah, that sounds good to me, let’s go with it.” I know the ’63-’64 logo is still depicting a portion of the springbok’s stride, but it looks much less kinetic.[/quote]

the sarcastic answer to this is as follows: these people were busy subjegating 80% of their population with apartheid, they must not have had much time for uni aesthetic development

i agree that the logo is definitely an interesting choice to switch the stride, but it is also the first logo with the rugy ball, which im assuming they wanted to be incorporated with the springbok so they made the stride so that it appears the springbok is running on top of the ball. the next evolution has teh ball in stride with the springbok giving the appearance that it is carrying the ball.

another interesting question is, what was the motivation behind switching the direction of the springbok in 1996. the springbok runs off of the jersey, as opposed to inwards towards it (the logo is on the left breast)

[quote comment=”21321″][quote comment=”21182″]oh, and almost forgot,
is tony clark derek lee’s grandfather?

on a side note, the quote of the event…

Accomplished rap artist and businessman Master P was there along with Romeo and Young MC.

“It think it’s great colors, a great combination,” Master P said. “This will be the uniforms that take them to the World Series.”[/quote]

That’s a great quote. What a hardcore D-Backs fan he must be.[/quote]

The Dbacks have been touted as having the best minor league system for the past several years (mostly position players) and have the 2006 Cy Young award pitcher (or at worst runner up). Just a few of the reasons why you’ll be seeing the Dbacks back in the WS very soon.

anyone else notice that these uni’s look an awful lot like the nationals, trading blue for black. The format is basically the same.

on another note, why do nba teams who are playing a home team that wants to wear their color uni’s have to wear white? yet, the lakers wear yellow at home and the opposition can wear their color jersey. What gives?

[quote comment=”21346″]my problem with these new uni’s coming out are these blank white uni’s. the only team that’s got it right are the giants. that cream color is just amazing.

link

IMOP if youre gunna come out with new uni’s, at least be original. a.k.a the padres.

link

Not many people like that Padres sand color away jersey, I do though. The thing that sucked is this past season they wore their alternate blue tops most often.

[quote comment=”21347″][quote comment=”21321″][quote comment=”21182″]oh, and almost forgot,
is tony clark derek lee’s grandfather?

on a side note, the quote of the event…

Accomplished rap artist and businessman Master P was there along with Romeo and Young MC.

“It think it’s great colors, a great combination,” Master P said. “This will be the uniforms that take them to the World Series.”[/quote]

That’s a great quote. What a hardcore D-Backs fan he must be.[/quote]

The Dbacks have been touted as having the best minor league system for the past several years (mostly position players) and have the 2006 Cy Young award pitcher (or at worst runner up). Just a few of the reasons why you’ll be seeing the Dbacks back in the WS very soon.[/quote]

The Montreal Expos used to have the best farm systems in the post-strike era and that got them to the World Series. OOPS!!!

[quote comment=”21346″]my problem with these new uni’s coming out are these blank white uni’s. the only team that’s got it right are the giants. that cream color is just amazing.

link

IMOP if youre gunna come out with new uni’s, at least be original. a.k.a the padres.

link

I agree. I’ve been doing some Illustrator work on during down time at work today and have been trying to come up with something that would better suit the diamondbacks than these new uniforms. The base color of the jersey is yellow, kind of like the Lakers do (but don’t worry, no purple). I don’t think the yellow would conflict with any MLB team’s away jersey since I can’t think of one that wears yellow, and if one wears gold it would probably be an alternate color.

[quote comment=”21351″][quote comment=”21346″]my problem with these new uni’s coming out are these blank white uni’s. the only team that’s got it right are the giants. that cream color is just amazing.

link

IMOP if youre gunna come out with new uni’s, at least be original. a.k.a the padres.

link

Not many people like that Padres sand color away jersey, I do though. The thing that sucked is this past season they wore their alternate blue tops most often.[/quote]

What happens when the Giants play the Padres? Plus, if this off-white & off-grey trends keeps up, when will we see the powder blue roadies again?

Or…

Let’s bring back link

This is not uni-related…but over the past couple years it has really bothered me that the 2 leagues don’t have the same number of teams…My solution: move the Diamondbacks and their new unis to the AL west and put the Astros in the NL west. This way you get an even number of teams in each league and division, and they’re still aligned geographically and they diamondbacks don’t have that much history with the NL…even though they won a world series…thoughts?

[quote comment=”21332″][quote comment=”21327″]some interesting commemerative stuff on the springboks site

link the evolution of the Springbok’s logo over the 100 years[/quote]

Who made the decision to go from the original logo to the ’63-’64 logo? “Uh, yeah, so I was thinking we should go from a logo with a dynamic, action-oriented springbok logo, to one where the springbok looks more complacent and boring.” “Yeah, that sounds good to me, let’s go with it.” I know the ’63-’64 logo is still depicting a portion of the springbok’s stride, but it looks much less kinetic.[/quote]

Yer funny… but I agree with you, the original is nice, but the one they just replaced is tops, imo. If you want to see a truly un-kenetic (?) rugby mascot, check out the Argentine Puma. (Which is actually a leopard, but was mistaken by some press during their first tour, coincidentally to Sarf Africa.

Back to the red…

I am fond of the “db”, I wish the hat looked something like link

I think this is orange from my FAVORITE minor league logo Lake Elsinore Storm

[quote comment=”21252″]i love the diamondbacks new unis.
maybe its because i hated the old ones so much, but i think this is such an amazing step in the right direction.
i love it.
(i like the nationals logo, too but not as much as the Expos logo, of course – THAT was a great twist on letters like the MB brewers thing and the new DB dbacks thing)[/quote]

I agree – It’s a HUGE improvement over the old D-Back unis. Those were the worst in baseball, hands down.

Yuck, just terrible…

I am a graduate of the School of Visual Arts (in NYC) and have been a creative director for almost twenty years.

I really could never understand why an expansion team spends millions on trying to figure out what to call itself (in this case, the Diamondbacks) and after a couple of years, gets bored, and shortens the name. If they didn’t like spelling out DIAMONDBACKS every time they need to print it they never should have named it that.

And historically speaking, Tampa Bay has done it too. (I don’t count the Mets because they have always been the Mets) but, I don’t see the Pirates with uniforms that have “Bucs” on them…

I could just see the marketing guy in Arizona saying, “Now that we have been using a shortened name for awhile, lets make the logo on the uniforms match…”

This is just another terrible example of marketing without really thinking things through.

And as for the “a” getting chopped in half – that’s just bad design. It’s funny, but the most memorable logos are the ones that weren’t really designed professionally or with focus groups in mind (Yankees, Cardinals, Cubs, Tigers to name a few…)

Just my 2¢…

[quote comment=”21381″][quote comment=”21339″][quote comment=”21338″][quote comment=”21329″]Can’t believe no one has mentioned link yet.[/quote]

What is this “MISL” that you speak of?[/quote]

I do believe it was the successor to the CISL (Continental Indoor Soccer League) which folded in the late 90s. There was a player on the Dallas Sidekicks named Tatu who used to take off his jersey and throw it into the stands every time he scored and would sometimes grab the orange ball that the CISL used to do the same thing so that fans would have as many souvenirs of his moment as possible. He scored a lot too so I can’t imagine how many jerseys he went through in a season.[/quote]
The Original MISL predated the CISL, and had somelink
I had the pleasure of rooting for the Purple clad Philadelphia Fever!
The MISL then folded, teams were absorbed by the CISL or the NPSL. And through mergers and folding of more initialed leagues than boxing… the MISL is back.
link[/quote]

I remember watching the NY Arrows on channel 11 here in NY – but why oh why did the Wichita Wings use Wonder Woman’s belt buckle for a logo?

Sorry for the bad linking… amateur over here!

getting back to the soccer ball in logos, my favorite team, FC POrto (which happens to be one of Europe’s top clubs) uses an early 1900’s soccer ball as part of their emblem link The 60’s/70’s type ball is really a good generic version of the ball. Nowadays balls are designed for brand recognition (adidas and nike especially).

Oh, I almost forgot, the Portuguese Superleague uses the pentagonal ball design link, I would consider them a high level league (not an England or Spain, but a tier below), considering the top 4 finish at the World Cup, along with teams finishing at the top of UEFA tournaments the past few years.

[quote comment=”21384″]Anyone good with photoshop…I tried playing with this link, I wanted to change the cap to royal blue, the white outline to orange and the orange drop shadow to black and leave the interlocking NY royal blue…It’s a different alternate I’m envisioning. I tried the replace color function out but i just kept getting a pixelated mess.

let me know if you can help[/quote]

two things:
(1) link
(2) Make the interlocking NY white, while keeping the outline orange (which is almost the invert to what the mets had before they went midnight on us) and you MIGHT have something…..

Yeah I see what you’re saying Matthew S. Just hopin’ you would give those 2 a pass and you did.

Baseball does have a lot of repeating color tho. The ones that go unappreciated that I would like to see more of is green, orange, yellow, and brown.

[quote comment=”21405″][quote comment=”21384″]Anyone good with photoshop…I tried playing with this link, I wanted to change the cap to royal blue, the white outline to orange and the orange drop shadow to black and leave the interlocking NY royal blue…It’s a different alternate I’m envisioning. I tried the replace color function out but i just kept getting a pixelated mess.

let me know if you can help[/quote]

two things:
(1) link
(2) Make the interlocking NY white, while keeping the outline orange (which is almost the invert to what the mets had before they went midnight on us) and you MIGHT have something…..[/quote]

I wanted to see what I was talking about because it would mimick whats on the jerseys (blue lettering, orange outline, black drop shadow) but would still keep a blue hat. I hate the black hats and jerseys, but I don’t mind the drop shadow, kinda makes the letters and numbers pop.

I also couldn’t go for a white interlocking NY…too Yankees

FC Barcelona uses a really old soccer ball in their link

[quote comment=”21371″]This is not uni-related…but over the past couple years it has really bothered me that the 2 leagues don’t have the same number of teams…My solution: move the Diamondbacks and their new unis to the AL west and put the Astros in the NL west. This way you get an even number of teams in each league and division, and they’re still aligned geographically and they diamondbacks don’t have that much history with the NL…even though they won a world series…thoughts?[/quote]

I agree wholeheartedly. It has griped me for years that the already-disadvantaged Reds have had to play in the only six-team division.

Since the blight known as interleague play is now entrenched, it wouldn’t be a big deal to have one interleague series going on at all times.

i think the font on the DBacks jerseys looks badass.

[quote comment=”21416″]I’d love to see a crimson clad team in baseball. There are all these teams that use pretty much the same blood red (astros, cubs, braves, red sox, reds, cardinals, nationals, dodgers, yankees in their logo, old expos, old blue Jays, angels, twins, and now the diamondbacks…am I missing any?) but no crimson. I especially like just the crimson and white paired together, no other colors. Its pretty popular in the NCAA (Indiana, oklahoma, alabama, arkansas, texas A&M…etc) p.s. I went to none of those schools. Nittany Lion blue and white through and through.[/quote]

Crimson & silver > crimson & white = bland

[quote comment=”21431″][quote comment=”21416″]I’d love to see a crimson clad team in baseball. There are all these teams that use pretty much the same blood red (astros, cubs, braves, red sox, reds, cardinals, nationals, dodgers, yankees in their logo, old expos, old blue Jays, angels, twins, and now the diamondbacks…am I missing any?) but no crimson. I especially like just the crimson and white paired together, no other colors. Its pretty popular in the NCAA (Indiana, oklahoma, alabama, arkansas, texas A&M…etc) p.s. I went to none of those schools. Nittany Lion blue and white through and through.[/quote]

Crimson & silver > crimson & white = bland[/quote]

Washington State grad?

[quote comment=”21411″][quote comment=”21407″]Yeah I see what you’re saying Matthew S. Just hopin’ you would give those 2 a pass and you did.

Baseball does have a lot of repeating color tho. The ones that go unappreciated that I would like to see more of is green, orange, yellow, and brown.[/quote]

link
link
link
link[/quote]

I didn’t say they weren’t used, I said they were under appreciated or unappreciated. I didn’t throw those colors out there to be used together. I just thought they were being used enough in baseball. I mean everyone is talking about how red and blue are used too much, how about some realistic color combos? I mean gimme a deep red/maroon paired up with yellow or why not brown and white together (without the gold/mustard)? Or how about a dark green paired with a silver?

There just aren’t a lot of colors these types of colors used in baseball.

I live in the East Bay. Getting to Candlestick is horrible. Santa Clara (where the HQ is) is near SAn Jose, and that’s just about as bad a trip. Who cares as long as they get a new stadium. The name of the team wouldn’t change with a Santa Clara move, either. That’;s already been stated.

[quote comment=”21458″][quote comment=”21411″][quote comment=”21407″]Yeah I see what you’re saying Matthew S. Just hopin’ you would give those 2 a pass and you did.

Baseball does have a lot of repeating color tho. The ones that go unappreciated that I would like to see more of is green, orange, yellow, and brown.[/quote]

link
link
link
link[/quote]

I didn’t say they weren’t used, I said they were under appreciated or unappreciated. I didn’t throw those colors out there to be used together. I just thought they were being used enough in baseball. I mean everyone is talking about how red and blue are used too much, how about some realistic color combos? I mean gimme a deep red/maroon paired up with yellow or why not brown and white together (without the gold/mustard)? Or how about a dark green paired with a silver?

There just aren’t a lot of colors these types of colors used in baseball.[/quote]

Yes and I believe baseball has the fewest unique color schemes of the 4 major sports.

Too much navy. Way too much navy.

link

quote comment=”21435″]

And the Sabres are doing this now in hockey for the 2006-2007 season: link

[/quote]

They are not using the white jerseys. They are only using the dark jerseys as alternates. link

[quote comment=”21471″][quote comment=”21469″][quote comment=”21435″]

And the Sabres are doing this now in hockey for the 2006-2007 season: link

[/quote]

They are not using the white jerseys. They are only using the dark jerseys as alternates. link[/quote]

Lemme fix that there quote.[/quote]

Didn’t know that, thanks for the correction. The larger point though is that some teams would be better off using glorious uniforms from their respective pasts and I think the Sabres are a great example of that.

[quote comment=”21197″]Is it just me or are the new Diamondback uniforms crappy ripoffs of the Nationals crappy uniforms? It seems like we are one step closer to having a template for MLB uniforms like we have for NCAA football.[/quote]

my thoughts exactly Adam. What is so hard about designing good looking unis? Paul; we need a full scale investigation!

It’s under the ‘How to’ link.

[quote comment=”21476″]I’ll probably get spat on for saying this, but I always preferred the pullover jersey to the button up, for same placket problems, and it renders for a nice V-neck collar trim. Plus ballplayers tend to get lazy and forget to button up.[/quote]
I totally agree. Even a two- or three-button jersey would look better than the full button-down. Buttons on a jersey are impractical, especially with all the diving they do.

[quote comment=”21371″]This is not uni-related…but over the past couple years it has really bothered me that the 2 leagues don’t have the same number of teams…My solution: move the Diamondbacks and their new unis to the AL west and put the Astros in the NL west. This way you get an even number of teams in each league and division, and they’re still aligned geographically and they diamondbacks don’t have that much history with the NL…even though they won a world series…thoughts?[/quote]

It won’t work, baseball is played in series. So unless Interleague becomes year-long, then teams would have 3 and 4 days off at a time. There’s just too many games to play for that.

Haha, Maria showing more camel toe. I’m definitely not looking at the purple in those pics! I remember in one of the earliest articles, Paul brought this up in a link. On the other hand, that new snake logo of the DB’s is pretty sweet, although I agree with everyone here that it looks almost identical to the Nationals.

[quote comment=”21474″]
Didn’t know that, thanks for the correction. The larger point though is that some teams would be better off using glorious uniforms from their respective pasts and I think the Sabres are a great example of that.[/quote]

I agree with that 100%. I just was saying that the white jerseys are not in use. Yet.

I’ll say it again: link

[quote comment=”21352″]On the changing of soccer club crests, in the last say 15 years i can think of Leeds United, Manchester City, Spurs, Arsenal, Sunderland, and Chelsea who have new crests/badges.

Manchester United removed the word “football club” from theirs to turn Manchester United into a brand. In fact branding was probably a key issue in most of the redesigns, Arsenal said it was explicitly because they could not prosecute the sellers of unlicenced goods outside their ground as they had no right to their own crest as it had been in use so long without being copyrighted.

link

On the point about the use of the pentagon ball, i think that is simply an iconic mark now and no-one is worried about whether the current ball looks identical, its an architypal football. BTW the present link being used in the premiership in England is yellow and blue and looks woeful on tv it looks more purple than blue.[/quote]
That’s last year’s ball, this year’s is here…

link. It’s the high-vis ball used only in the winter (in both Spain and England, where Nike balls are used). I think it’s alright.

“On the changing of soccer club crests, in the last say 15 years i can think of Leeds United, Manchester City, Spurs, Arsenal, Sunderland, and Chelsea who have new crests/badges.”

Wasn’t it that Chelsea in fact reverted to their old crest?

[quote comment=”21349″]anyone else notice that these uni’s look an awful lot like the nationals, trading blue for black. The format is basically the same.

on another note, why do nba teams who are playing a home team that wants to wear their color uni’s have to wear white? yet, the lakers wear yellow at home and the opposition can wear their color jersey. What gives?[/quote]

It doesn’t have to be white by the letter of the law.. just has to be light coloured, or so is the case in most rule books.

[quote comment=”21496″][quote comment=”21407″]Baseball does have a lot of repeating color tho. The ones that go unappreciated that I would like to see more of is green, orange, yellow, and brown.[/quote]

Good call! There are way too many black and navy teams in baseball. It started in the late 1980s when teams starting going dark.

I wish baseball would get back to using bright colors and end these dark ages. The gold crowned Pirates hats of the early 1970s are one of my favorite hats. Definitely would like to see a brown or orange or kelly green team.[/quote]

Brown? OK, then let’s bring back the brown (and orange) of the St. Louis Browns ….

[quote comment=”21539″]
how can you say these uniforms are an improvement. they are disgusting. For one, their alternate red uniform is like a horror film. It looks like someone got stabbed in it, and the lettering is perfect, it is exactly what would be used in a horror film. Now the old uniforms weren’t great, but at least they were better. Now true purple isn’t a great color, but at least if they were put in a dark room they wouldn’t glow. Arizona doesn’t need stadium lights anymore, they have their uniforms.[/quote]

What are you talking about? Sure, they may not be great [they’re half-decent, at best], but they’re better than purple, teal and black. If you didn’t notice, teal is on the way out in sports. The Marlins are phasing teal out, the Jaguars have all but gotten rid of it, and it’s basically a trim color for the Hornets. The Astros colors may have not been the right choice, but it looks a good lot better than what they had.

[quote comment=”21517″]”On the changing of soccer club crests, in the last say 15 years i can think of Leeds United, Manchester City, Spurs, Arsenal, Sunderland, and Chelsea who have new crests/badges.”

Wasn’t it that Chelsea in fact reverted to their old crest?[/quote]

A close variant of their old one yes, the previous one had been used on their shirts for a long time so it counts as a change from my point of view :) But yes thats the way it goes right, either a brand new badge (Arsenal) or a reversion to a previous incarnation (Chelsea).

Chelsea crest wiki link note the change originally was due to copyright reasons.

On the ball as pointed out in #191 there is a newer version which looks similar but slightly different to the one I posted. personally I still dont like the colours and prefer the white ball with an orange version used if and only if there is a snowstorm or snow lying on the turf.

[quote comment=”21544″]

What are you talking about? Sure, they may not be great [they’re half-decent, at best], but they’re better than purple, teal and black. If you didn’t notice, teal is on the way out in sports. The Marlins are phasing teal out, the Jaguars have all but gotten rid of it, and it’s basically a trim color for the Hornets. The Astros colors may have not been the right choice, but it looks a good lot better than what they had.[/quote]

Maybe teal and purple aren’t great colors, but that doesn’t give an excuse to fill a uniform with red. Solid color uniforms are atrocious. At least the old uni’s had pinstripes on them, the best uniform design out there. Baseball teams should just realize that bright colors don’t work. They should just be plain gray or white, or pinstripes and have the logo or team name. The old uni’s had pinstripes, this has nothing good, the old uni’s were clearly better.

Pardon if this has already been posted:

“You’re just not going to get everybody to wear purple for whatever reason.”
D-backs team president Derrick Hall at the unveiling of the new unis.

Amen!

Oh, I also like the solid reds of the Diamondbacks. I like brilliant colors. I da not like the misaligned letters.

Hm. Teebz, I guess I had more than one thing to say.

I await your report with bated breath.

[quote comment=”21567″]Oh, I also like the solid reds of the Diamondbacks. I like brilliant colors. I da not like the misaligned letters.

Hm. Teebz, I guess I had more than one thing to say.

I await your report with bated breath.[/quote]

Like Mr. Crachit’s work, I go unnoticed and unappreciated by Miss Scrooge. ;o)

Check post #74. I tried to break up the Diamondbacks chatter.

[quote comment=”21576″]

Like Mr. Crachit’s work, I go unnoticed and unappreciated by Miss Scrooge. ;o)

Check post #74. I tried to break up the Diamondbacks chatter.[/quote]

Mr. Crachit, I do appreciate you. I checked a few times during the day, but I did not see your report. You are not post #74—inless you changed your name to maximumK.

#74 by Teebz on 11.09.06 11:51 am | Quote This Comment

But that’s what it says on my screen, Miss Scrooge. If you look one post above, though, it’s all there. :o)

Teebz–this is very strange. You are not on my screen.

#73 by Chris Mewett on 11.09.06 11:46 am
#74 by maximumK on 11.09.06 11:53 am

This is what my screen says. Anybody else out there that has Teebz at #74? Right now, I have Teebz’s last reply at #214.

[quote comment=”21585″]Paul? Ek? Anyone?

I can see me. Can anyone else?[/quote]

I can see you, too, now, but I cannot see your brilliant post. Damnit. I want to see it NOW!

—M. Scrooge

p.s. I’m guessing others can’t see it, either, otherwise someone would have commented.

[quote comment=”21585″]Paul? Ek? Anyone?

I can see me. Can anyone else?[/quote]

Sorry Teebz, not on my screen either

[quote comment=”21588″]Wait… this may explain why no one said anything all day about the post. Can I get any answers as to why my post disappeared to everyone except me?[/quote]

Because you’re Canadian, eh. Worst comes to worst, and you can repost it. Hopefully Ek or Paul can fix it very soon.

I saw Teebz’ post. Here it is without links:

Ok, this will be a little break from the Diamondback chatter today. It appears the outrage towards the new look is only beginning. This is long-winded, so if you don’t want to read it, please scroll past it. However, I hope I’ve included enough good info and pictures to keep you interested.

First, I’ll look at the little things that are similar between the NHL pro jersey licensed apparel designers. There are four major companies who made NHL pro jerseys. They were Nike/Bauer, Pro Player, Starter, and CCM/Reebok. You know what that means: different companies = different looks. I’ve also included Bauer in here, even though Nike bought them, because they made IHL and AHL pro jerseys.

Fighting straps: They can be seen by the naked eye if you’re close enough. The Nike/Bauer, Pro Player, and Reebok/CCM jerseys can be identified by the stitching on the back. This is a Nike fighting strap. However, Starter did things a little differently. You can actually see the Starter fighting strap through the jersey due to the material and design of the jersey. This is what the CCM fighting strap looks like on the inside.

Reinforced Elbows: All five companies have these, and all are basically the same. This is the elbow stitching on my Islanders’ Fisherman jersey. As you can see, the navy blue stitching follows the elbow much in the same way a tweed jacket has a leather patch on the elbow.

Reinforced Double-Stitching: Again, all companies followed the same design. Some are more apparent than others, but the shoulder stitching looks like this. Again, very noticeable on the Islanders’ Fisherman jersey. Now, companies tend to use the same color thread as the shoulder colors for aesthetics.

Hem Identification: Here’s where things get tricky. This is also where logo creep in hockey began. I’ll start with the old CCM Islanders’ Fisherman jersey. Here’s the hemline. Now, it is very easy to see the CCM in team colors. All NHL pro jerseys looked like this until 1996 (again, trying to verify this exact date). The reason they changed is because the NHL opened its doors to other licensed apparel companies who advanced jersey technology (and people think competition is bad).
Pro Player introduced a different jersey material, somewhat similar to Air-Knit material. In doing so, they produced jerseys for teams like Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and Columbus. They were the first company to use the silver NHL logo for pro jerseys and the orange NHL logo for replicas. Here’s the Anaheim hemline.
Starter was another major player to change the jersey design. They produced jerseys for teams like Carolina, Phoenix, Colorado and Pittsburgh. Here’s the Colorado hemline. The difference between pros and replicas was that Starter used their full name on the pros and and their logo, as seen on the tag here, for replicas.
And, of course, Nike got in on the action too. Nike produced jerseys for Detroit, Anaheim, San Jose, and Chicago. This is the Anaheim hemline.
And coming around full circle is Reebok/CCM. This is what they look like today.
In the IHL/AHL, Bauer hemlines looked like this before Nike said they didn’t want the license.
And finally, Nike IIHF jerseys have a hemline that look like this.

Jersey Tag ID: This is straightforward. Old CCM pro jerseys had this tag. Pro Player jerseys had this tag. Note the jersey sizing. Starter jerseys had this tag. Note the jersey sizing on this one as 54-R. This indicated that it was a jersey made for players, not goalies. Nike jerseys had this tag. Note the jersey sizing on this one as 54G. This indicated that the jersey was a jersey made for goalies, not players. The sleeves of a goalie-cut jersey are much wider and much shorter than regular jerseys to accommodate the goalie’s blocker and catcher, as well as the additional padding they wear. This Nike jersey tag is the IIHF pro jersey. Finally, when CCM split its brands into CCM, Koho, and Jofa, they had separate tags. This is a CCM tag. And this is a Koho tag.

Neck hemline logo creep: Starter and Pro Player never had their logos creep up to the neckline. However, Reebok/CCM and Nike did. As you can see in this picture, the Penguins are clearly wearing Reebok. This started with Nike and CCM. When CCM announced the changes to the jerseys once they were awarded the contract of all the NHL teams, they indicated their logo would be moving north to the neck. Here is the CCM logo on a Penguins jersey. Here is a Koho logo on an Oilers alternate jersey. Nike also followed suit, and now their distinctive swoosh can be seen on all IIHF jerseys below the neckline on the back of their jerseys. Bauer, on the other hand, had their distinctive marking on the front of the left collarbone.

Finally, I leave you all with this: my greatest jersey!

the links in teebz’ post:

starter fighting strap
CCM strap
link
reinforced stitching
CCM Isles’ hemline
Anaheim
link
Starter replica logo
link
link
link
Nike IIHF

[snip tags and neckline logo creep]

link

Wow. Thanks, Matt! I guess I owe you a beer or two. :o)

[quote comment=”21588″]Wait… this may explain why no one said anything all day about the post. Can I get any answers as to why my post disappeared to everyone except me?[/quote]

Teebz, great post.

I check at work intermittenly throughout the day and I didn’t see your post,(I read all the comments) however when I got home I checked and I saw it, post #74…very strange, very strange indeed.

A Diamond…sorry,D-Backs versus Nationals
game will look like a intra squad match next
year.

[quote comment=”21274″][quote comment=”21262″][quote comment=”21235″]
That split Z looks like what the Phillies do as mentioned above…
When the jersey is unbuttoned it actually reads ARIZ | ZONA or
PHIL | LLIES.

IIRC, the phillies method of the three L’s is a callback to the 1950’s era Whiz Kids. I shall continue to look for photos.[/quote]

Now I could be completely wrong since I don’t know whether my Phillies jersey is authentic or not. I have a good feeling it’s authentic, but whatever. On my phillies jersey it has a small strip of velcro that lines up the name. So unless you actually rip the velcro part from the patch it will stay lined up no matter how much you shake it running or whatever.