Design-An-NFL-Uni – Part II

By Phil Hecken

It’s time for the second, and final, round of tweaks/concepts/revisions for the latest “Design a Uniform” contest, which was begun a little over a month ago. This contest was held in conjunction with Alain Nana-Sinkam, Prexy of Classic Old School Gear, (here’s a link back to that Design An NFL Jersey article) , with the winner receiving a custom-made jersey from Classic Old School Gear. More entries than ever poured in, 69 of them in total.

Last weekend, we looked at the first of those entries and today we’re going to look at the rest. The rules were somewhat simple: design a jersey for one team, and describe, in 50 words or less, that jersey.

As explained last week, the contest will work this way: All the jerseys will be presented to the readers, at which time comments on those submissions will be requested. Alain, myself, and a crack staff of UW judges will then narrow the field down to the top 11 (since a football squad is eleven men) jerseys. Once we have those 11, we’ll put them to a vote by the UW readership. The winner, as determined by you, the readers, will receive a custom made jersey. OK? OK!

And now, the final batch of your “Design-An-NFL-Uniform” contest submissions:

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Patrick Lange: Minnesota Vikings

Out with the purple and gold and in with the black and yellow. I know it will be strange to see the Vikings in anything other than purple but what has the purple done for the Vikings. They have never held the Lombardi in purple, so to hell with it.

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Braden Leibovitch: Miami Dolphins

I tried to experiment in trying to make a jersey sleeve design that capitalizes on sleeve stripes being cut off from a tighter jersey cut. The end result has underarm “fins” that break up the striping while adding to the Dolphins theme.

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Damon Liddiard: Cincinnati Bengals

First, tigers are orange, not black, also no other teams are using an orange primary right now. Tiger print is always tacky, so we put some stylized stripes on the side. I think the sleeves would hold up okay to the de-sleeving trend.

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Neil Lommel: Buffalo Bills

This predominantly modern set is inspired by the uniforms worn by the Bills in the early 1960’s including the year of their first AFL Championship in 1964. I brought back the unique, rich royal blue color for these. The shoulder stripes represent the red swoosh from the Bills primary logo.

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Chris Markham: Indianapolis Colts (also home action and road)

Since the title is uniform tweaks, not complete uniform overhauls, I’ve decided to just tweak one of the league’s best unis, the Colts, and make it perfect. It has always bugged me that the Colts have two stripes on their jersey, two on their pants, but only one on the helmet. So my simple tweak was to add a second stripe to the helmet, and two stripes to the socks. I believe this simple, yet important tweak, makes the Colts’ uniforms the downright best in the league.

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Kyle Martirez-McIntosh: Denver Broncos (also home, road, & alt)

I’m a longtime Broncos fan and while I appreciate that we won both our titles in the current uni, Denver needs a new look. The current set is starting to look a bit dated, a more traditional and timeless set would hold up better I think. I wanted to try to incorporate the modern logo and the navy centered color scheme of the current uniforms, but add more orange and hearken back to the 80’s and early 90’s gear. I love the look of UCLA and Syracuse with the shoulder loops (Syracuse’s color scheme works perfect for Denver) but the looped look in the pros is Indy’s thing so I didn’t want to touch it. I decided to go with a Northwestern stripe on the sleeves to echo the shoulder loops, on the helmet I got rid of the pointy stripe in favor of a single stripe, and the pants have a triple stripe running down the sides. I kept most existing uniform colors (including two variations of white pants) but I ditched the navy pants to prevent the team from even thinking about going dark on dark.

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Virgilio Mathus: Chicago Bears (also alt)

I decided to go old-school, so I went with a bi-color navy-orange approach. The sleeve and collar piping consist of a thick stripe in the middle flanked by to thinner stripes. Block numbers and letters. The “C” and “Bears” logos are placed at the collar tip and chest. I changed the pants to a “sandish” color and the facemask to grey to complete the old-school transformation. I’m also adding the away and alt home unis.

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Anthony McGuire: New Orleans Saints

New Orleans Saints uniform tweak. There are 3 jerseys; white, black and gold; with 3 pants; white, black and gold. I converted their jersey set to a traditional look with the strips but updated the jersey numbers and the player name with the same font that is used in their team name scrip. My idea was to change their primary helmet to black but have an alternate gold helmet that they already use. I think this is a good modern version with a classic touch. I hope this wins it all.

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Brad McPelican: Seattle Seahawks

I tried to combine their old and current uniforms but also add some new elements. I used their current logo with their old colours but added a green stripe in the middle so that it wraps around to forms three stripes on the sleeves. I also used the old script.

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Chance Michaels: Green Bay Packers (also fonts)

Green Bay’s design is beautiful, but the jerseys, with their bold sleeve striping, are relics of a day when jerseys had sleeves (which is why the Packers truncated them in 1997). My solution – drop the striping altogether. The distinctive element is now a stencil font befitting the team’s name.

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Randolph Miller: “Los Angeles” Jaguars

This is my concept should the Jaguars move to Los Angeles:

First, I switched the base color of teal to a dark red that is similar to USC’s. Then I made the “swiping jaguar” logo the primary because it lends itself to the curvature of the new helmet, as well as my jersey design’s sleeve sides. Thin color piping lies along the front seems and we drop the unitard look, for a clean, classic white pant for both home and away. Simple, clean, good looking and better than what the current “Jacksonville” team wears. ENOUGH BLACK HELMETS!!!!

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David Montgomery: Indianapolis Colts

Jersey: Solves the Colts current shoulder stripe length issue (too short). In fact, it lengthens them down the sides. Also,

Pants: switched to blue, to give the stripes continuity.

Number: Font changed. Color changed to grey with white outlining. This ties in the current grey facemask.

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Ryan Muraro: Miami Dolphins

I decided to clean-up the Miami Dolphins uniforms a bit, and change the teal to a more gray-blue hue. I also wanted to change the helmet so it matched the helmet worn by the Dolphin in the team’s primary logo.

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Scott Nebel: Minnesota Vikings

I am a huge fan of their 70s era uniforms, specifically the horizontal home sleeve stripes and the contrasting vertical away shoulder stripes. However, those old uniforms suffered from a extremely dark purple helmet with a lighter jersey, which still occurs on the Vikings current throwbacks. I’ve taken the new, updated helmet, the lighter/brighter purple color, and combined them with the 70s era uniforms. I also added the Vikings wordmark under the NFL logo and the Vikings norseman above the nameplate. I also kept the current uniform colored collars (which looks great on the aways… Not so sure on the homes), but to be honest, I could go either way with those. I was hoping the Vikings would switch to something like these when they changed uniforms in the 2006 season (instead of the Falcons/Cardinals route), but I guess we can always dream.

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T.J. Nicolaides: Philadelphia Eagles

Tweaked the ’90’s midnight green into an accent color that wouldn’t clash with the ’80s kelly green. Kept the white but also brought back a healthy dose of silver. Altered sleeves that taper to form the side piping are meant to suggest flight. Kept the modern font – it’s unique.

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Joseph Obermaier: Detroit Lions

Based on the discussion of the mythical golden helmets of the Lions ”“ here’s what a ”˜throwback’ jersey might look like.

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Masao Okazaki: Buffalo Bills

I’m resubmitting my Bills home uniform design for the contest.

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Brett Paci: Dallas Cowboys

I decided to tweak the Cowboys because they are the one team (outside of the Bengals maybe) that embraces some razzle dazzle. Its an ecclectic, but more consistent mix of old and new.

P.S. – Just to be clear, the black lines are just for the drawing. They would not actually appear on uni. Also, for some reason Illustrator saves jpegs with less saturated color, so the blue may look a little lighter than I intended.

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Dan Patterson: Denver Broncos

My redesign is for the Denver Broncos. I based my jersey on their 1966 uniform. I used the blue sleeves, but I changed the shoulder stripe. I kept the current logo and number style. For colors, I chose the royal blue and bright orange from the “orange crush” jerseys.

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Jeff Provo: Carolina Panthers

Trying to make the Panthers look more unique and less like the Lions and/or Raiders without actually changing their colors.

I know I’m not gonna win, but what the heck.

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Wes Rickards: Buffalo Bills

(for away jersey) The main draw to Buffalo is Niagara. This jersey represents that: The blue shoulders signify the river, the white chest / abs signify Horseshoe falls, and the white stripes signify the falling water.

Maybe I’m trying too hard.

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Jason Rypkema: Arizona Cardinals

“Less is more” when it comes to uniforms.

Removed ridiculous piping.
Current symbol.
Current Red.
Current font (w/black outline).
Old White Jersey (with beautiful sleeves).
Added yellow.
Kept “Cardinals” script on the front.
Kept Cardinal symbol on the home.

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George Scordo: Denver Broncos

I am going for something within reason, here so I’m not recreating the wheel.

Got rid of the newer bells & whistles (odd/angular helmet stripes/ jersey and pant swooshes) and put a few of the old bells and whistles back where they were (jersey and pants stripes) and make the helmet a look little simpler with a one-color blocked helmet stripe. I also went with grey pants for the roadies. Going Blue would look too Chicago Bears and going orange (Denver’s done it in the past) just looks silly and sticking with the white is boring and makes the Broncos look like they’re playing in long underwear.

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Jeff Shirley: Dallas Cowboys

Here’s my submission for your uniform contest. I felt the Cowboys needed a few adjustments, although I kept a lot of their inconsistencies that they’ve had in their uniforms for years.

Hope you enjoy.

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Sonny Smith: Cincinnati Bengals

It’s nothing much, in fact it’s a hand drawn piece of crap, but here is my Bengals Concept. It’s only the away jersey, The home has been lost somewhere but basically it’s the same thing only the jersey is orange.

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William Smith: Buffalo Bills

My design concepts for my beloved Buffalo Bills. A tweaked version of the old logo. A touch of gold gives a brief nod to the Sabres, and adds a unique element with the 3 color combo. Also, a return to home whites (used briefly in the 70’s and 80’s).

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David Sonny: Cincinnati Bengals

This is just a mix of the 80’s and late 90’s uniforms with a little modern twist. The pants have a tapered stripe, shoulders stripes are simplified and so on. The white uniforms would just be an inverted version as would an alternate orange.

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Mike Sullivan: St. Louis Rams

After a 1-15 season, the Rams could use some excitement and new unis. I brought back the old blue and yellow jersey idea of having the ram horns on the sleeves, except moved them into the front and back views. I also did away with the logo on the sleeves and made the uniform two-tone for a modern look.

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Christopher Tatak: Cleveland Browns

I tweaked the Cleveland Browns’ jerseys by mixing classic with future. Changed the number and lettering font and added orange outlines. Orange stripe on the front of both jerseys added. Collar made orange and NFL shield moved to new colored area above the collar. Stripes on the sleeves were enlarged.

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Ben Traxel: Denver Broncos

Still can’t find the time to do any new NFL stuff but wanted in the contest anyway. So, here is one from yesteryear that was posted months ago. One stipulation. If I win (doubtful) please let me pick a new number and NOB other than “PLAYER”. I’d much prefer it say “ALZADO” or “MORTON” or even “YOUR NAME HERE”.

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Adam Walter: San Diego Chargers

Simple concept here…I took a jersey (Powder Blue Chargers) that is generally loved and made a simple tweak. I combined this classic jersey with an even more classic look. Finally, the chargers shield was added both as the neck bumber and sock logo.

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Geoffrey Waterman: Seattle Seahawks

I borrowed the color brown from the true seahawk (an osprey) and the stripe pattern on the arm from the old green/blue uniform, removing the Seahawk logo. It’s an attempt to give a little flavor to the blue (Hawks, Rams) & red (49ers, Cards) NFC West.

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Adam Wood: New York Giants

I chose to redesign the Giants. I was trying to decide on something to spice up the home jersey. While looking I came across one my favorite unis. The 1933 Giants uniform. Pretty self explanatory. This is an updated version of that classic.

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There’s a look at the second set of contestants. Last weekend, you guys were great in guiding the “crack” staff of UW experts, plus myself and Alain, in nominating your choices for our “final 11” (because, 11 men make up a football side, don’t ya know). So, today, we’re going to ask that you again to the same.

In the comments below, let’s hear what you think of the second batch of jerseys. Remember — we’ll be putting the finalists to a vote of the full Uni Watch readership — so your thoughts will definitely help select those finalists. While the entire uniform and helmet can be used to “see the full concept,” it’s the actual jersey design on which the contest is based, so please take that into account.

These designers, like the first set last weekend, all did an outstanding job and deserve your praise as well as your critiques. So, let’s hear what you think. We’ll be back next weekend when we’ve narrowed the field down to the final 11 — and we’ll let the voting begin.

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One can only assume Mike is referring to the Gopher Head Coach, right? Here’s Ricko with the setup:

Learn something every day, right? Some of it useful, some of it not so useful, but hopefully at least it’s interesting. Better yet if it’s something you can have fun with. Even if you’re the only one who laughs.

And with that, enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

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It’s GOTTA be the pants: For those keeping score at home, or are just plain fans of the Olympic Curling Bonspiel, you know that today’s Men’s Gold Medal game features heavyweight home-nation favorites Canada, headed by awesome skip Kevin Martin, versus UW sentimental favorites and underdog Norway. Maybe you didn’t know the finalists. But unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know about the sartorial splendor that is Team Norway.

Yep. Seeking to give themselves a big lift (and perhaps a bit of attention to Uni Watch’s new most favorite sport), the Norwegians are perhaps now better known for their pants than their skills. The King of Norway got himself a pair. Even the New York Times has shown the viking warriors some love. It’s quite a phenomenon — I don’t “do” Facebook, but apparently there are some 488,000+ “fans” of the pants on there.

You know the pants — they’ve been featured on Uni Watch before — and they’re made by Loudmouth Golf. One can be fairly certain Jim Vilk would wear those. In fact, if they didn’t retail for ninty bucks a pop, I’d get a pair. Our prexy, Paul Lukas, has even offered a free membership (see second graf) to anyone who provides proof of buying (and wearing) a pair.

This year’s Bonspeil has been disappointing for many teams, but especially the American Men and Women, but overall it has had quite an amazing surge in the popularity of curling throughout the States, which can only be a good thing. For anyone in the snowed-in New York Metropolitan area who’s interested, there is an Open House at the Plainfield Curling Club tomorrow (February 28th), where earlier this week, Paul and I received a private lesson from Dean Gemmell.

But today, at 6:00 ET on CNBC, the Men’s Gold Medal game between Canada and Norway takes place, and it should be a great final. If you’ve been watching the curling all along, I know you’ll be watching — but if you haven’t — do yourselves a favor and tune in this evening. Even if curling isn’t your “thing,” at least you can root on the Norwegians in their most excellent pantaloons.

On another note, if you missed it last night, the Canadian ladies, led by Uni Watch favorite, Cheryl Bernard (and apparently not just Uni Watch) fell to defending Gold Medalists Sweden, in a thrilling match, decided on an 11th end steal by the Swedes.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: With the Olympics drawing to a close tomorrow, we’ll throw in one last scoreboard from the Games. You should be able to figure out the location. The rest is up to you. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location and final score, please, and be sure to link to your answer. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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Back again with more Uniform Tweaks, Concepts and Revisions today. Taking a look at all sports from here on out, so, if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way. Today, because of the NFL jersey contest, we’ll be featuring MLB tweaks.

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Starting off today is Daniel Chanelli, who has some concepts for 10 major league baseball teams:

Hi,

This is the first set of MLB tweaks I’ve sent into Uniwatch. I like to consider myself a baseball purist, so I don’t have any groundbreaking changes. Rather, I would like to consider these as idealized uniforms-combining classic elements with any redeeming current elements in order to create a really classic look.

Enjoy,

Dan

Yankees:

First, I gave the top hat logo the retrofitting it deserves. For the home set, I changed the pattern of the pinstripes (around the shoulders and sleeves), number font, and cap logo to match the glory days of the 1950’s. For the away jersey, I got rid of the 70’s white highlights. I know a Yankees alternate would be shunned (I don’t really want one either), but if they did wear one occasionally, I think a design based on the 1930’s set would look great.

Red Sox:

For the Sox, I added trim on the sleeves of the home jersey to match the uniform of the 60’s, stirrups included of course. I also changed the cap logo to match the one used in 1941. For the away uniform, I think the Red Sox took a great step forward by reintroducing the blue ”˜ Boston ’ font, but there’s something about the plain, block-lettering that I just love. I also kept the sock sleeve patch because I think it looks sharp.

Orioles:

One of my favorite sets; I kept the Maryland patch on both the home and away jerseys, but removed the orioles script on the sleeve of the current away jersey because I thought it made it too busy. The home jersey is in the style of the Ripken era uniform (I like the black primary better.) The current away jersey is great for bringing the ”˜ Baltimore ’ script back, but I added the original 60’s script instead. To top both sets off are the classic Orioles stirrups and the late 60’s cap, which seriously needs to make a comeback.

Indians:

In my opinion, the mid-90’s Indians uniform was perfect (I still can’t warm up to all the navy piping on the current set.) For the away uniform, I took the 2007 away jersey and removed the ”˜ Cleveland ’ script, opting instead for block lettering-mimicking the 1970 away jersey. I also brought back the ”˜C’ cap logo. The Indians currently use a navy, sleeveless alternate jersey; I changed it to a more appropriate red, and added the matching ”˜C’ cap and stirrups ”“ they just scream mid 60’s.

White Sox:

I love black and silver, but the allure of the Go-Go-Sox is too powerful. I brought back the red, the numbers on the sleeves, and classic stirrups. The away jersey is also retro, but I did wrestle with the idea of using something closer to the current away set.

Twins:

I was thrilled that the Twins were bringing back their original home uniforms as an alternate; I would make it the primary home set though. I know a lot of people are really happy about the new away jerseys, but I can’t get the similarity to the Nationals out of my mind. I liked the new ”˜Minnesota’ script, so I changed the colors to match the ”˜Twins’ script better and placed it on a plain grey jersey to mimic the original 60’s away jersey.

Braves:

In my ideal world the Braves would have stayed in Milwaukee , so I’ve brought back their original uniforms. I like both versions of the Chief Noc-A-Homa patch, so I put the pre 1957 version on the sleeve of the home jersey, and the post 1957 version on the away jersey. I also added my all-time favorite stirrups. I really think Atlanta should bring these uniforms back (at least the far-superior black tomahawk.)

Cubs:

For the Cubs, I really tried to replicate the Ernie Banks era uniform. I kept the current logo but replaced the walking cub sleeve patch with the patch from the 60’s. For the away jersey I got rid of all the white outlines and the cub patch on the pants, to give what I think is a much more classic look for the Cubs.

Reds:

The Reds had caught a lot of flak for using too much black in their uniforms, particularly their sleeveless set. I think the Reds were one of the few teams that can pull off the sleeveless look, so I brought them back and the red. The away uniform uses the original ”˜ Cincinnati ’ script. As alternates, I tried to replicate the Big Red Machine minus the pullovers. I also changed Cincinnati ’s primary logo back to the Machine era.

Pirates:

For the Pirates, I made their primary logo a colorized version of the early 70’s logo. The pirates are the other team that can pull off a sleeveless set, and I don’t know why they got rid of them. I changed the ”˜Pirates’ script back to the thinner 1960’s style and brought back the original stirrups. I contemplated changing the number font, but they are unique as they are. For alternates, I created non-pullover versions of the ’71 championship uniforms.

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Next up is just Tony, who is tweaking his Brew Crew:

Well, these are probably a little late, but I recently came across your “New Crew” feature and had to weigh in on my favorite team…

For the home uni I went back to the Brewers’ rightful look””basically the “Retro Fridays” jersey with some minor differences. I do like shirt script on the Crew’s current unis, if nothing else, so I integrated it into the old look. I also added the sleeve and collar piping to make the shirt stand out a little more. For the away uni I just took a standard away gray with the same blue piping and the “Milwaukee” script that should adorn the Brewers away shirts. The yellow-fronted cap may come off as a little too “retro” but I think it does a good job of helping the away uni look a little more distinct from the home one.

Thanks, and keep it up!

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Closing it out today is Mendy Friedman, who has a special set of uni tweaks for your World Champion New York Yankees:

Hey Every one!

With my new tweak I’ll try to help spice up my beloved Yankees Uniform. So I was up watching a Yankee Classic game and realized something, the Yankees Uniform hasn’t changed since god knows when, so I decided to try to change it up a little. I left the home Uniform Mostly the same beside for the black belt and socks with the Navy Shoes. The away uniform i decided to change because the gray seems so dull. I gave a black jersey with a white collar and buttons with white pants, a black belt with black socks and navy shoes. I love the yankees classic uniforms but its time for a change and hey if the Hated Red Sox have an alternate shouldn’t the greatest team in sports history have one?

Looking forward to a 28th next season.

Mendy

Alrighty then. That’s all for today. Check back tomorrow when we return with all new tweaks, revisions and concepts.

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Everyone’s favorite fashion uniform critic, Jim “Do I wear a kilt? You’ll never know” Vilk, has returned again to bring us THE fashion event of the Winter Olympics: Ice Dancing. Yep, the ones we’ve all been waiting for. Not one, not two…but THREE separate ‘disciplines’ make up Ice Dance. So, here’s the Vilkman with a triple-shot of his “5 & 1.”

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COMPULSORY DANCE:

5. Cathy Reed/Chris Reed, Japan: Yo, baseball fans — who says stripes only look good on the home white unis?

4. Emily Samuelson/Evan Bates, USA: Ditto. Nice sparkly dress, too.

Bronze: Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski, Russia: I can appreciate the all-black look when it’s done this well.

Silver: Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat, France: Got a funky 70s vibe from this look…and yes, I’d wear that necktie.

Gold: Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev, Russia: Fantastic. The Vilks should go out on the town dressed like that (minus the skates, of course).

“Don’t come near my podium with that”: Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng, China: Never been a fan of the “Let’s pretend we’re only covering the naughties and very little else” dresses…then there’s that way-too neon ruffled shirt.

ORIGINAL DANCE:

5. Meryl Davis/Charlie White, USA: With folk/country costumes the theme of the night, these two went Indian Indian instead of American Indian.

4. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir, Canada: Here’s a case of an outfit adding to a performance.

Bronze: Nora Hoffmann/Maxim Zavozin, Hungary: Mrs. V is Hungarian, but I would have picked this couple even if she wasn’t.

Silver: Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder, France: Can you dig it? Yes I can-can!

Gold: Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte, Italy: – If I had a bottle of red wine, I would have popped the cork…I mean unscrewed the cap…and toasted this festive look.

“Don’t come near my podium with that”: Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin, Russia: I think only Johnny Weir would say “I’d wear that.” I sure wouldn’t.

FREE DANCE:

5. Irina Shtork/Taavi Rand, Estonia: Last-place couple gets more than the Olympic experience — they get a Top 5 ranking from me. I know, that and 7 Estonian kroons will get them a cup of coffee…

4. Meryl Davis/Charlie White, USA: A little too much ruffle left the silver medalists off my podium.

Bronze: Frederica Faiella/Massimo Scali, Italy: They almost made the original dance list as well — no almost this time.

Silver: Kamila Hajkova/David Vincour, Czech Republic: Much MUCH better than those opening ceremonies outfits.

Gold: Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir, Canada: Olympic gold, AND Uni Watch gold…what more could you want?

“Don’t come near my podium with that”: Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski, Russia: Might work in Vegas, but this is the Olympics.

The ladies’ list wraps it up tomorrow.

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Thanks, Jim. I think I speak for the entire UW readership when I say…I can’t wait.

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Yowsa. That’s some post. But hey, we had lots of things to cover, so it’s all good. Everyone be sure to give your uniform design contestants your thoughts, good or bad, so that we can narrow the field down to 11 for next weekend.

Everyone have a fantastic Saturday.