Shouldn’t the Wizards’ unveiling have included a misspelled NOB, or a hastily lettered jersey that looked like it was done by a 12-year-old at the mall, or a player wearing his shorts backwards?
Kidding. Although as reader Matt Harris points out, it is a little weird that they had Jordan Crawford and John Wall both wearing No. 11 jerseys at the unveiling, given that neither of them wears that number on the court. Yes, I realize they used 11 to align with the calendar, but since when do teams give new numbers to players at unveilings? Just another DC oddity.
Anyway: Not bad, right? It isn’t a 100% win, but it’s definitely an improvement. Let’s go one thing at a time:
The typography: I want to make this as clear as possible: I hate this typeface. I hate the little serifs, I hate the little notch in the eye of the “a,” I hate that the “d” looks like a “cl” ligature, I hate how the numerals look. But I’d also like to make it clear that I love how they made the ascender on the “d” into the Washington Monument (ditto for the “h” on the road insignia), and I especially love how the secondary logo echos the old Bullets insignia, but I especially hate how that secondary logo draws attention to the ligature problem. So is it good or is it stupid? A seriously stupid font, but someone did some nice work with it all the same.
The home uniform: Pretty nice. Can’t say I’m in love with that vertical navy stripe on the side of the jersey or the Ree-box-ish treatment on the back neckline, but overall it’s a very solid look. And as several readers have noted, they even worked a subtle “W” shape into the bottom of the shorts. That doesn’t really do a whole lot for me, but it doesn’t hurt, and it shows that they’re paying attention to small details. Speaking of which, I also like the collar and armhole trim. Good.
The road uniform: I can’t put my finger on why, but I don’t like this one as much. I think part of it is that “Washington” is a long word that has to rendered in a small-ish type size in order to fit on the chest, and part of it is probably that the Bullets’ old road jersey were based on blue, not red. It isn’t a bad design, but it feels several notches below the home uni. Good enough.
The alternate uniform: There isn’t one, at least not yet, which seems unusually sensible for a new design program. Smart move. Good.
So overall, a major upgrade. I have to tell you one, thing though: While I’ve never particularly cared for the Wizards’ uniforms, I’ve always liked the Merlin logo. Great use of color field design, and awesome use of negative space. They’re keeping him around in a recolored version, but now he’s a guy wearing a red outfit and a white beard, so he feels less like Merlin and more like Santa Claus. I have a feeling they’ll be phasing out this logo anyway, and it’s just as well — he doesn’t work with this new uni package.
Additional photos here, additional info here, and here’s a very informative story about the rebranding process.
They could’ve beaten Bill Veeck to the punch: Remember our recent post about the Austin Braves’ one-game experiment with red shorts? Dan Cichalski, who came up with that photo, recently spoke to former MLB pitcher (and NBA player!) Ron Reed, who was on Austin’s roster at the time. Reed had an interesting tidbit of news regarding the shorts:
The shorts were worn in that first game as a trial to see if they would be appropriate for the Atlanta Braves players. Summers in Georgia are rather hot, so some genius figured shorts might be better for the players rather than the wool uniforms they wore at that time. After a couple of our Austin players came back to the dugout with giant strawberries on their knees and thighs from sliding into second, third, and home plate during that first game, the shorts idea was abandoned, thank god.
Try to imagine Hamerin’ Hank wearing shorts — ugh.
Membership update: What’s that at right? It’s Bryant Robinson’s new membership card, which is based on this auto racing livery — an inspired request (and a super-inspired execution by Scott, I think you’ll agree). That’s one of half a dozen new designs that have been added to the membershihp card gallery.
Meanwhile, eight printed/laminated cards mailed out yesterday afternoon, so recent enrollees should watch their mailboxes.
As always, you can make the membership scene by signing up here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Big shout-out to Cubs PR guy Jason Carr, who sent me some nice souvenirs from last week’s Cubs/Dodgers throwback game: a pair of socks and a striped-sleeve undershirt (it’s an XL, which is way too big for me, so this one will go into this year’s reader-appreciation raffle in December). And hey, check out how the stripes were sewn onto the sleeve — looks like Bob Halfacre and his crew actually opened up the sleeve seams and then sewed them back up after applying the stripes! Impressive. ”¦ Sad news about another abandoned, dilapidated ballpark, this time in Atlantic City (with thanks to Mark Wolven). ”¦ Hey, check it out, Ryan Connelly’s DIY design got featured in a Yahoo article about beer league hockey jerseys! ”¦ USC football will reportedly wear alternate uniforms — including a BFBS helmet — for the season finale against UCLA (with thanks to Jim Weber). ”¦ Dan Cichalski was on the field for BP prior to Saturday’s Mets/Dodgers game and spotted Matt Kemp breaking in his pink Mother’s Day batting gloves. ”¦ Brandon Acree has found what may be the best page of Joe Namath memorabilia ever! ”¦ Check out the eyeglasses Sean Avery is wearing on his ESPN player page (as noted by Garrett Schabb). ”¦ “Last weekend New Zealand and Australia played a test in rugby league (different than rugby),” says Caleb Borchers. “The Kiwis are apparently serious about promoting the team brand, even down to their underwear.” ”¦ The Lakewood Blue Claw will become the Bluepaws for Saturday’s Bark in the Park promotion (with thanks to Kevin Clark). ”¦ “The University of Florida encourages student involvement at baseball games by giving a lot of stuff away,” writes Dana John Hill. “One of the coolest giveaways is this Captain K T-shirt, which is awarded to the student who hangs up the ‘K’ signs after each strikeout recorded by a UF pitcher.” ”¦ Matt Powers notes that MLB ump Mike Everitt favors an unusual pairing: a Wilson MLB Titanium mask with a throat guard that is made for the Wilson Shock FX hockey-style helmet. ”¦ Louisville baseball held a “Patriotic Night” promotion last night — as opposed to, you know, all those treasonous nights they usually have — which of course meant they had to desecrate the flag (with thanks to David Merrill). ”¦ Last night I was listening to my favorite radio talk show, WFMU’s Thunk Tank (their slogan: “When you have to much to drink, they put you in the drunk tank, and when you have too much to think”¦”), and it was particularly good last night because they interviewed the guy who created an assault rifle made of bacon. ”¦ Rod Black reports that Alabama’s baseball and softball teams have been marking the recent tornados by wearing houndstooth ribbon decals on their helmets. “The baseball field put a huge ribbon icon out in centerfield as well,” says Rod. “That ribbon has been kind of the most popular logo for remembering the events of April 27, it seems.” Interesting that something specifically related to the football program (Bear Bryant’s hat) would end up being adopted by other sports. ”¦ The Arena League is letting fans design and vote on the logo for the next Arena Bowl (with thanks to Joe Miller).
the only alternative uni the new Wizards need are blue shorts, they would look fine with both uni’s. The road red would look good with the home whites too.
i seem to recall the wizards wearing different color pants from their tops before
didn’t seem to go over well
Yes blue shorts, and you could also mix-and-match the red and white shorts with either outfit, and have six different combinations that would be do-able.
or, since they’re not exactly doing a land-office business in shorts’ sales (they do sell them tho, yes?) … they could just introduce a blue top with blue pants next season
guaranteed they’d sell more blue tops than all three colors of pants combined
after all, unis now are all about retail sales, right?
The jersey side-stripe is really the only serious demerit on the new Wizards unis. The same stripe continues on the shorts. The shorts don’t need that thin stripe either; it completely disrupts the lines and proportions of the whole design. Deep-six that stripe and bam, best uniforms in the NBA.
In general, I find the NBA to be the worst-uniformed league out there. This is one of the very few NBA uniforms I actually like. Probably because it’s faithfully throwing back to the design ethos of a period before all the innovations that turned the NBA into the uni-crapfest that it has become. This isn’t just aping an old uniform’s defining feature, it’s a wholesale adoption of the design approach that created that old uniform. The result is better than the original.
I’m not a Wizards fan, but the couple of Wizards fans I spoke to last night both said they liked the new unis but thought all the red is going to take some getting used to. For all that two people’s worth of anecdotal evidence is worth!
The jersey-shorts vertical stripes were part of the original Unseld-Hayes Bullets team’s uniforms. It’s NOT something that Reebok thought up.
Actually, it’s adidas that does the NBA, but whatever.
Doesn’t oddy-das own Retread? You do know where adidas got their name, don’t you? The company was founded by Adolf Dassler whose nickname was “Adi.” So he took his nickname and the first three letters from his last name to form the word “adidas.” Always with the small “a.”
Adi Dassler’s brother Rolf founded Puma Athletic. The brothers did not get along at all.
In the 1960s we at Ruby’s Sporting Goods were the exclusive Rochester-area dealer for adidas. In January of 1968 the very first pair of adidas leather basketball shoes in Rochester were a pair given to me by Dave Murray of Carlsen Import Shoe Co. of NYC, the adidas distributor at the time. The basketball shoes went through a trial-and-error process until they were perfected but when they were finally right they were great shoes. My personal pair was lost several years ago. Tear.
Oh, I know adidas owns Reebok. (That’s why I threw in the “but whatever”). Saying Reebok had a hand in it is like giving credit/assigning blame to Converse for the Pro Combat stuff.
Oh, and Puma? Adi’s big brother Rudi originally called his company “Ruda” (Rudolf Dassler). But I’m sure I’m not telling you something you don’t already know.
That sucks that you lost your personal pair.
The Celtics have outstanding uniforms (except for their alts) — definitely the class of the league.
The Lakers have really good uniforms — best of the West.
The Bulls have good uniforms (and now that they’ve shitcanned that awful satiny dazzle fabric, I even kinda like their black alts).
The Jazz have (has?) a good look. I really hope they come to their senses and introduce a green alt that eventually becomes the primary road uni.
There are a handful of other teams (Bucks, Warriors, Sixers, Knicks, etc.) that look pretty good.
Other than that, you’re right, the NBA is pretty much a pile of suck.
Anyway, I think the tweak you’re talking about puts them in the “pretty good” section. It would take a few more changes for them to be serious contenders for best in the league.
Oops. I forgot the Spurs. They’re up there with the Jazz & Bulls.
It should be noted that, pre-Wizards, the solid Bullets road jerseys (of the Chris Webber era) were red.
Why can’t they just go back to being the Bullets?
The NBA is a uni-crapfest?
Boston, Cleveland, NY, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, San Antonio, Denver, Portland, Utah, Golden State, LA Clippers, LA Lakers all come to mind as having at least an above average uniform. Add Washington to the list and we have 15 great looking teams.
Average uniforms include Toronto, Miami, Houston, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, and Phoenix.
Below average would be New Jersey, Dallas, New Orleans, Minnesota, Indiana, Oklahoma City and Sacramento.
23 out of 30 teams with average or better looking uniforms does not constitute a uni-crapfest league. I agree the alternate jerseys get out of hand sometimes but the regular homes and aways are for the most part appealing to the eye.
If you don’t like the sport of basketball, that’s fine. Keep your dislike for the sport and uniforms separate.
I’m an NBA fan (and season ticketholder) and I don’t think it’s a particularly good looking league, uni-wise.
But basketball uniforms don’t really lend themselves to good design. There’s only so much you can do to make a tank top and shorts look good.
I’ll say this, though. It’s getting better. 15 or so years ago — the half & half Kings, the teal and pinkish-red Pistons, the black & blue Cavs…
Haha oh yes the NBA was horrendous in the 90s, that’s for sure. I would always shudder when my Celtics played Cleveland when they had the um, black/orange/teal Cavs mess. But nowadays I feel the league is embracing simple logos and less color (more hardwood design on the court). There’s always a group that represents the worst of the worse. If you throw out all the 3rd alternates, it really isn’t that bad.
The 90’s were an absolute low point, and aesthetically the league is recovering and does look much better. Still, I wouldn’t say it looks good now by any stretch. Better, yes, but not that good. Sure, the Celtics, Spurs, Lakers, etc. still look great, but the majority of the league is average to dreadful.
I attended one of the Mavericks-Blazers 1st round games in Dallas and took my wife (hey, free tickets). We live in Dallas, and have been to plenty of Mavs games. I asked her at one point if she could quickly tell me what the Mavs colors are, and …she couldn’t. “Blue?…Or, blue and green?”. Ok, now what are Portland’s colors? “Red and black”. Not good, Mavs.
Agreed that the 90s were the worst for NBA unis. By far. Things are so much better now, but the 80s are still the gold standard (and that’s not even taking the length of the shorts into account – I’m talking about the designs of the unis).
I would throw Denver and Atlanta into the below average category. And the Wizards just went from rock bottom to near the head of the class.
My only disagreements with Paul regarding the new unis are: 1) I like the road ones better, and 2) I’ve always hated the Merlin logo. Other than that I think we’re in agreement. Although I’m not a fan of the number font, I’m so happy about the majority of the uniform that I can overlook it.
I’d say the NBA is at least doing better than the NHL at climbing out of its garish/gaudy 90s style approach.
Go Wizarcls!! (glad I’m not the only one who sees it that way!)
I like that better than Wizards anyway. And now the starting lineup for your Washington Wizarcls.
I agree with RS Rogers on the NBA being really bad at uniforms. They need someone with Pete Rozelle’s marketing vision.
People need to identify with their chosen team. My goodness look at how many franschises, like the Nuggets and Cavaliers, have a garish rainbow plethora in the stands.
However, as long as the Bullets (oops, I mean the Wizards) do not pull out a WAS like ATL and PHX, this change is okay.
Of course, the W-Squareds would need “never-WAS” to make that FU alternate work.
….and I’ve never been a fan of the Merlin logo. Diff’rent strokes I guess.
Go clc!!
Crappy Looking Clothing?
Well like I said yesterday, now they’re Wizards wearing Bullets costumes.
I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
They need to ditch the Wizards name. It’s so bad the Major League Soccer team that had the same one ditched it.
That aside, the uniforms are an upgrade.
I think adopting the Bullets look effectively drains some suck from the name ‘Wizards’. Squint a bit next season and you’ll see the Bullets.
The “clc” sure is distracting, but perhaps it’s better than having a thick line jutting out of the arm in the DC logo.
What if it was a magic wand instead of an arm?
link
/not sure if that’s really any better, but seriously why the hell does every damn NBA logo need to have a basketball in it?
Tradition?
Love that Namath site.
You have to read through the stuff about the concert, but Atlantic City has been using $300,000 from a bond appropriation to fix Bernie Robbins Stadium.
link
They’re going to use it as a VIP section for a Dave Matthews Band concert this summer, and looks like Rick Ross will be playing there. Hopefully they find a use for it. I was there once when it was The Sandcastle Stadium for the AC Surf, and it was a gorgeous park.
And unlike many abandoned stadiums, this one was only built in 1998!
That’s just sad!
Red, white, and blue are overused in sports, but if there7s one city that should get to use them, it’s Washington.
I love the horizontal stripe. But what I can’t stand is that stupid logo on the collar. With the name below it, and then the number below *that*, it throws off the symmetry of the back of the jersey. If you’ve got to clutter up the back of a jersey like that, have the logo and the name frame the number, which should be the focus. Go logo-number-name or name-number-logo. What they (and many other teams these days, such as the Celtics and Bulls) have got just feels off.
Photo to illustrate the point I want to make: link
Mark, I think almost all of the Bundesliga (Germany’s top division) teams have both NOB and Team NameOB.
Though, they tend to just go NOB for UEFA competitions. Schalke weren’t rocking the team name during the game with Man United last week:
link
link
There’s a picture from one of their Bundesliga games with TNOB and NOB.
Shane, I hadn’t known that so many Bundesliga teams do that; before looking for photos earlier today, I had thought it was just Bayern Munchen! (Love their lowercase letters, BTW.)
They’d look even better if they radially arched the team name (or whatever’s below the number) upward so that it circled the number along with the player name on the top. Better yet, make both of those elements in a less-distinctive color or in a thinner font. Basically, keep the number as the main focus on a player’s back.
Agreed. I love that new Monument-in-ball logo, but if doesn’t belong there. Put it on the shorts instead of the clc logo.
Also, thinking more about the side stripes, I wonder if the team at any point considered using a Monument obelisk shape as a side stripe.
All they had to do was make that stripe line straight. The space on either side of the “tab” (it does look like a down-facing manila folder tab) is unused anyway. But, of course, they want to call attention to that logo up there.
Better a team logo, though, than a manufacturer’s mark (which is already on the front, I know, but still…).
By the way, I don’t even get the whole deal with NBA teams putting secondary/tertiary/quartary/duodenary logos up in that space anyway. It’s not elegant or creative!
Overall, link on the part of the Bullzards but there’s one thing that bothers me about this uniform.
I couldn’t put my finger on it last night, but I see it now. This is a uniform that absolutely needs a contrasting-color waistband on the shorts (white for the road, blue for the home?). There’s just way too much blank space from the numbers down.
Genius observation. I hadn’t thought about the waistband. Good one!
I for one would like the side stripes to match up. However, both vertical and horizontal uniform striping is a recipe for disaster … so how about NO vertical side stripes and a contrasting waistband?
Definitely, JTH. My friend made that observation as soon as he saw the new threads, and I couldn’t agree more.
Good call. As a Utarded Jazz fan I’ve thought the same thing about their current uniforms. Much like Paul’s affinity for striped socks I long for the days when bball shorts all had the thick, striped, contrasting waistband.
AGREED WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!! The players bodies look weird with this whole “no waistband” trend.
2 things:
It should be notes that the back of the jerseys they wore had the number 12 on them, I do agree that it’s weird they players didn’t wear their own numbers, but wearing a jersey with 11-12 on it as opposed to just 11 seemed a little more acceptable to me.
The other is they have no alternates because they aren’t allowed to. When a team changes their jerseys they need to wait 2 or 3 seasons for alternates as per NBA rules. As a betting man, I would bet that as soon as they can the Wizards will have blue alternates.
The reason I’ll say no to this is that the same guy who owns the Capitals owns the Wizards, and so far the Caps have been reluctant to put out a third since they changed over in 2007, and I don’t believe have any plans to.
That’s probably more because the Caps’ Rock the Red campaign is ridiculously successful.
Could that be why the Wizards’ font looks remarkably like the Capitals’ font on the front of their jerseys? They are strikingly similar.
I’d say that’s exactly why it looks that way. I’d imagine that most of signage around the Verizon Center will look a lot like that for next year as well.
The backs of the jerseys Wall and Crawford wore did not have a 12 on them. The had an 11 like the front. It was a tribute to Elvin Hayes, who’s jersey was being retired officially on the same day they released the new unis. The unveiling event also marked the start of the newly formed Bullets/Wizards Alumni Association. So #11 on the front and back was a Hayes tribute. Hayes was also sitting on the stage directly to the right of Wall and Crawford modeling the unis. Check the event footage and the photo shoot to see evidence of this.
Vandy also got into the act with RWB unis.
link|galleriespic|news
Tim – Often, Washington is abbreviated as WSH to avoid that very problem. :)
Anyway: the old Suicide Wizard* logo was the worst logo in the NBA. The new recolored (and slightly redrawn) version is the worst logo currently being used in professional sports. That said, the uniforms, other logos, and color scheme are a massive improvement over the old ones.
*Seriously, look at it. He’s shooting himself in the head.
Washington is abbreviated as WSH to avoid that very problem.
Just in the last two years, I’m also hearing a lot of use of “DMV” for the District, Maryland, Virginia. It’s evil, and I completely blame ATL and PHX for this. For a town that already has POTUS, ICBM, and JFK, you’d think we wouldn’t suffer from abbreviation envy!
DC has no abbreviation envy, more abbreviations come out of DC every day than cheese out of Wisconsin. They just need to make sure they are ahead of the curve…besides, DelMarVa was just getting too cumbersome….
DelMarVa is link, not Washington.
Maybe he’s depressed that he missed that rebound?
My biggest problem with the re-coloring of the Wizard logo is that while the first logo used three colors (gold, blue, black), the new version uses only two (red, and blue). Both use the negative space of the white, but by eliminating the third color, it loses its clarity and somewhat blurs together.
Yeah, they should have kept the gold on that logo. This is definitely a case where the logo should include a non-team color (a la the Cardinals, Blackhawks, Steelers, etc.).
you mean like the broncos in ’62, when they kept the brown on the helmet?
In all seriousness, the more I think about this, the more I think it is possible that the horse was brown. Not as a tie-in to the previous color scheme, but just because link.
There are link of logos that feature an animal rendered in non-team colors.
Here’s another of a animal rendered in non-team colors: link
Neither that Gator nor Bruin are helmet logos, btw.
You guys really need to stop applying current thinking and computer technolgies, both in terms of design and implementation, to 1962 styles and methods of rendering. This stuff was hand-drawn, people. And patterns were hand cut. Even getting multi-color registation when printing a decal was a pain in the ass, as it was with any form of color printing.
So, there were very few such helmet logos back then. Even fewer if it was only a silhouette with no detail.
Around 1962, there was the Pat Patriot/Kansas jayhawk/St. Louis cardinal head style with some detail, and there was the Oiler derrick/Colt horseshoe/Lions lion simple graphic shape style, with almost no cross pollination between the two.
We also really have to understand how determined/obsessed the Bronco organization was with exorcising the brown and gold, and the bush league/hand-me-down image associated with those colors. I don’t think anyone really yet gets how committed they were to maintaining that stance.
The AFL was fiercely working at upgrading its image any way possible, at shedding the “semi-pro” reputation, and the new broom was most definitely sweeping clean. This was league trying to, quite honestly, get a lot of people to stop making fun of them.
Maybe you had to be reading about it and watching it at the time, I dunno.
Except that the bear is not on the helmet or any part of the UCLA uniform. At least the gator shows up as a patch somewhere. Still not the same as the actual helmet logo. There is one team in the NFL that uses primarily a non-team color on it’s logo. The Redskins use…well, red skin. Steelers use a tiny bit of blue and red. Cardinals have a tiny bit of yellow. That is it.
Here’s a thought.
If “biological correctness” is going to be introduced into the discussion, I’ll say it actually MORE supports the contention it was blue.
How?
Well, beyond the more likely “TV visibility” issues, maybe it was because a signficant number of people observed, “What the hell, broncos ain’t blue.” *
So what choice did that leave them with, given their new team colors? White, of course.
* This was long before the statue at the airport, btw.
The could have used the silver that is actually already in the jerseys! It’s the trim for the numbers on both the home and away.
The new Wiz unis do have an offficial third color. It is SILVER and it is in the new “ball/monument/star” logo on the back of the jersey. So they obviously should have used silver as the third color in the redesigned “Merlin.” It would have been even more appropriate to include there than in the new “ball” logo. Some oversight, but I believe we won’t see the Merlin anywhere after this year except in the clearance bin and possibly on Wiz throwback merch.
i think the new wizards’ jersey looks like a basketball version of the caps jersey
Agreed…the first thought that went through my head when I saw them was, “That font and scheme looks like the Caps.”
why not? Leonsis owns both teams and they both play in the same arena…..
which he also owns.
This isn’t necessarily anything new, or unforgiveable. He owns ’em, he can do what he wants.
SEE: “Charles O. Finley; Kansas City A’s, California Golden Seals, Memphis Tams”
I wasn’t saying it was bad, I was just saying…
I’m gonna chalk that up as intentional – curly W aside, Caps jerseys are the most prominent sports merch in DC. Downtown is flooded in red on game days.
so, if the Caps fans are asked to “Rock the Red” and the Nats fans are asked to “Get Your Red On”….what will Wiz fans be asked to do? I guess only the mystics are the only team in the Verizon Center who won’t be using that font, or have a catchy “Red” phrase…
I’m surprised I made it this far into the comments before someone else expressed this thought. I mean it looks more like the current Caps than it does the Unseld Bullets.
Well, if you look at the link, it becomes clear that the link was inspired by the Bullets, what with the lower-case italicized (if at a reverse angle) team name incorporating elements of the sport.
So if the Wizards are borrowing from the Caps, then it’s simply a case of coming full-circle.
Probably due to the fact that Abe Polin was the owner of both teams at the time. I have no problem with the uniform similarities, just wish they’d dump the stupid Wizards nickname.
We need to get soem of the positive feedback from this site over onto “Brand New”… the system is getting trashed over there…
link
From the quoted press release: “…One of the new marks is a lowercase “dc,” with the upright tip of the “d” opening as a hand–a direct link to the “i’s” in the former all lowercase Washington Bullets logo.”
Was not aware there we “i’s” in Bullets. Silly me, I thought it was the “l’s”.
couldn’t happen to a nicer guy?
charlie samuels to be arrested later today
i wonder if the mets will wear black in denver today…in sympathy
Count on it. The problem is that they keep winning in those horrible things.
They surely will.
And I think they wore black last night as a preemptive gesture.
I see Lame Kiffin is up to his usual ass-hattery in Los Angeles. Black helmets for USC? How stupid. Of course, I also sat here and watched him break out the “Halloween” black uniforms for Tennessee while he was here, and though I laughed at the poor Vol fans, neither school deserves such ridiculous treatment of great uniforms.
Meanwhile, though I’m a huge Alabama fan, I’m also a cynical bastard that hates the proliferation of houndstooth. It started with the link against Ole Miss in about 2006, and if that had been it, fine. But now it’s on everything from hats to purses and I’m just sick of it. I’ll be interested in seeing what the football team does this fall. I’m sure some kind of patch will be be going on the jersey/helmet, but hopefully it will be something more tasteful.
Lane Kiffin seems to come from the “Your History Starts with My Arrival Steve Mangini” School of Coaching, doesn’t he.
the steve mangini?
did you mean this guy?
/ ;)
I suppose I could say, “See how easy some of these geniuses are to forget?”
My bad. Knew it didn’t sound right when I typed it.
In my defense, I’d just got off the phone with the IRS.
To be fair, I believe it was the players who pushed for the Halloween Vols uniforms and Kiffin just kind of went along for the ride, looking to please them. It seems that Nike is pushing this and he is just kind of on for the ride again. I don’t think he actively tries to implement this stuff, but he is definitely guilty of letting it happen.
Wait – why am I defending this guy, I’m a Vols fan and therefore hate Lane Kiffin. I was at the Halloween game and they looked horrible, and I’m imaging that USC will look even worse.
Not guilty of the act, but definitely guilty of letting it happen.
Yeah, to put it plainly – he’s a dummy. I’ve never liked coaches that try to be “buddy-buddy” with players. When you’re a Tennessee, or a USC, or whatever, you shouldn’t need to put on stupid uniforms to “impress” the kids. You guys (UT) are much better off without him.
Doesn’t everyone want a coach without the ‘nads to say “No” once in awhile?
The original Bullets’ version of this jersey included the vertical side stripe so these new ones are true to that feature. And isn’t Number 11 retired by the franchise in honor of “Big E,” Elvin Hayes?
John Wall wore #11 during his one year stint at “Kentcuky”:
(link)
I saw in the Washington post it had to do with Hayes.
link
Everton FC going Camo for their away Goalie jersey. First non American Camo uniform?
Unfortunately, no. Scottish club Partick Thistle wore these beauties last season. link
Ironically, American Tim Howard is Everton’s goalkeeper who will be wearing the camo jersey.
For a Scottish club called Thistle, wouldn’t Blackwatch plaid be more appropriate?
Right there with you Jeremy. The first thing I thought was “Hey, kinda funny that even out of America there will be an American wearing camo.” Sigh, when will it end?!
Hockey has had many non-American camo jerseys. Canada is a separate country, after all. ;o)
Uh…that “dc” patch on the shorts looks like…well… a twig and berries…
Just another point made that they wanted to emulate Washington D.C. in every possible way with this redesign.
So, Bill Clinton is a minority owner now?
Count me as one who really likes what the Wiz did. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to fonts, but this is the first “modern” font that I’ve really liked. In my opinion, it appears they started with the monumental “d”, and built the rest of the font based on that.
As for an “alternate” uniform, my guess is we won’t get more than half way through the next NBA season before you see the red shorts paired with the mainly white tops.
I hate the typeface on the wiz jerseys but LOVE the style overall.
The reason I hate the typeface is because it looks eerily similar to Leonsis’ other team, the Capitals.
The Caps and Bullets have pretty much looked similar since the Caps started. They’ve had the same owner for a long time.
Remember, both teams went with the blue, bronze, black scheme around the time the MCI Center opened.
**RESEARCH PROJECT**
This just occurred to me. The Bills have been wearing the link for the games they play in Toronto. Even though the Bills are changing uniforms this season, the same patch will likely remain the same.
Are there any other teams who have worn the same “event” patch over 2 different sets of uniforms?
Only example I can think of that is somewhat similar is when some NFL teams wore the league’s 75th anniversary patch on both their regular jerseys and throwback jerseys during the 1994 season.
Montreal Canadiens wore their centennial patch on 6 different uniforms over 2 seasons.
Unis:link
In fact, they used 2 different patches
Patch 1:link
Patch 2: link
From Monday night in Boston: I don’t know if it was the yellow logo on black background on top of a black jacket, but the yellow Wilson “W” on Joe West’s umpire mask dangly thing seemed just ENORMOUS as I watched the game.
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He helps to design the BEST gear on the market for Wilson.
I wear his doeskin mask and chest protector. I have the WV shinguards but don’t wear them because I feel like Herman Munster clomping around!
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I love the logo on the Wilson gear he wears with the W
(West Vest)
Getting all my thoughts out at once now …
ESPN is touting Sunday Night Baseball as visiting “the iconic ballparks of America”, with Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Busch Stadium, and Dodger Stadium highlighted.
You can’t argue with Fenway or Dodger Stadium, and I have no problem with YSIII, considering the way they tried to replicate so much of the old parks and the history of the team. However, I want to know what makes St. Louis’ park “iconic”. To me, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta all tried really hard to leave the cookie cutter stadium and build something unique … and they all ended up with ballparks that look more or less like one another.
Yes, as much as it pains me to say, the birds are an iconic team, but their stadium? I don’t get it.
I think if you’re going to count the new Yankee Stadium as iconic, it’s hard to criticize the inclusion of Busch II.
You mean Busch III.
Yankee Stadium was iconic. So the argument can be made that the baton was passed to the new one and call it iconic. I don’t — not yet at least, but I’ll accept it if others do.
I don’t buy it with Busch III, because Busch II wasn’t an iconic park, so there was no baton to pass. Sure, it was arguably the best of the cookie-cutters, but that’s one of those “tallest midget” things.
I was never in the pre-renovated Yankee Stadium, but post-renovation (I attended a game in 2000) I didn’t find anything iconic about it. To me, any perceived iconic quality came purely from the history of the franchise, not the ballpark, and that would be equally true in the case of Busch.
Well, it was renovated, but it was still largely the same building. Besides, Monument Park was enough to justify considering it iconic.
Busch III actually…
Busch I was old Sportsman’s Park, Busch II was the cookie-cutter park.
They seemed to have trouble with the fact that just because a ballpark has the same name as an old, iconic ballpark, it isn’t always in fact the same iconic ballpark.
maybe we are focusing more on the term “park” rather than meaning they city, or franchises they are visiting, and that those teams just happen to play in a park.
While you certainly have an argument that Busch III isn’t “iconic” on the level of the others, you should have left Pittsburgh off your complaint list. PNC is drop-dead gorgeous and deserves to be on any best-of venue list.
(That the Pirates have been “iconic” for all the wrong reasons over the last 20 years doesn’t take away from the fact that the park itself is an unqualified success.)
Agreed. My favorite of all the new parks.
I am officially looking forward to finding this out for myself this Summer!
Let’s not confuse “iconic” with “nice”.
NY Daily News Sports Cartoonist passed away yesterday. His work as a part of my daily routine for 30 years. I still remember my Dad and my older brother crying and holding the cartoon he drew for Thurman Munson’s passing. RIP Bill Gallo….thanks for years of good memories…
R.I.P. Bill Gallo.
Besides 2011, the Wizards may have gone with number 11 on those uniforms because the number 1 requires the least amount of stitchery…
-Jet
“These go to 11…”
They went with “11” and “12” because these uniforms will appear on the court during the 2011-2012 season.
Am I the only one who suspects they made red the predominant color rather than blue because it more closely echoes the link?
Nope, I’m with you. I thought they’d actually incorporate more of the flag elements into it. Wonder if they tried to work in a 3rd star instead of only 2 on the shorts, or tried the upper-most panel as white?
I smell a mock-up coming…
I don’t hate that Wizards font, but it’s too “70’s”…
I agree about the “CL” problem, they could make that little adjustment and close the “d”. But overall, those unis look surprisingly good.
-Jet
In all seriousness, Leonsis does look at emails people send him every day. He may give you a short response, but he will respond. Send your suggestions for the clc issue and see what he says….I will….who’s with me!?
A nice little town in Central Wisconsin could be cause for the end of the world:
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Ugh — from my favorite state, to boot.
Absolutely unacceptable. Our civic institutions should NOT be for sale.
Our civic institutions should NOT be for sale.
They already are, and have been for years now. But that’s a topic for another blog.
I believe it was Will Rogers who said…
“Many a politican went to Washington to do good, and ended up doing very, very well.”
Tell That to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Didn’t Basinger and Baldwin already try that?
I’ve already sent alot of money to that town in my lifetime…it is where Eastbay is located!
Wanna start a club, Matt?
Hmmm…”East Bay, Wisconsin”?
Could be a lot worse.
Wizards uniforms are a nice callback, but feel a little busy.
Did I miss the Bills reveal? If not, what exactly is the hold up?
Apologies if this has already been discussed, but I just noticed that the Brewers Navy Alt, at home, still says “Brewers” I thought they had changed it, because on Sunday of opening weekend on the road at Cincinnati it said “Milwaukee.” (I assume that was new this year, for all I know that may have debuted last year) Weird that they have two different Navy Alts, one for on the road and one at home.
Odd thing is their road gray still says “Brewers”; you’d think that using that logic all their jerseys would say “Milwaukee” on the road and “Brewers” at home.
yup…2 alt dark jerseys, one for home (“brewers”) one for road (“milwaukee”) — debuted them last season
and yes, you’d think they’d have one dark alt which says “brewers” and then the road grays, which, obviously can only be worn on the road, would say “milwaukee”
but that’s not what they did —
and im pretty sure they encountered a “mets” situation last season, where one player had the wrong (either road or home, forget, but his was different) jersey from his teammates — probably was a home game and he had on the road jersey, since they’d be hanging in his locker…they probably don’t take the dark “brewers” jerseys on the road anymmore
The new Washington Wizards identity falls short for me. If you are going to mimic the old Washington Bullets identity then follow through on every detail. Ultimately it looks like an NBA All-Star jersey from the last few years to me. Meh.
Paul was right on the Wizards Merlin mark. Very, very underrated sports logo:
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And the old (now) dc secondary mark was really again a very underrated sports mark:
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Lack of imagination haunts this new identity.
If there’s one team in the NBA that should be wearing red, white, and blue, it’s Washington. Good look that ties in well with the Caps and Nats. I love when one city can be represented with one consistent look (Pittsburgh, for example).
But, Wizards? They’ve got to do something about that name. I know it was too much to ask right now to switch to something more DC-centric or patriotic, but that team needs it. When there is a city that is so identifiable with certain characteristics like that, it needs to be embraced!
Eagles? Capitols? Founders? Colonials? Centennials? Patriots? Rebels? Anyone?
Senators, Diplomats, Commandos and Warthogs have all been used before…..there was going to be an Arena Football team at one point which was to feature the old Redskins “Arrow” helmet (Snyder would own the team) and was to be called the Warriors.
I had put a little thought into this before, I thought “Representatives” aka Reps would’ve been acceptable.
I still think “Diplomats” would be great. It’s not like DC United is using it.
**Ladies and Gentlemen….introducing YOURRRRRR DIPS!
**”Hey you busy later? We’re going to catch the Dips
and the Mavs”
**Headline: “LeBron James traded to Dips”
Diplomats it is!!!
I still like “Dum Dums”.
Dips it is (was):
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Nice Hans Stuck shoutout by Mr. Robinson.
Nice specs on Sean Avery. Now all he needs is a stationary fixie to keep limber during his trips to the penalty box.
Also, while I agree the new word mark has too much going on, it’s much better than the link which always made me think it was a rip-off of link
If you look really closely at the Wizards new jerseys, you’ll see they put the first 1 second, and the second 1 first.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this… (I only skimmed through the comments, maybe they have) Has anyone noticed that these jerseys look an awful lot like the Washington Capitals jerseys, who are also owned by Ted Leonsis? the “dc” on the shorts looks just like the lettering in the Caps jerseys and the fronts of the Wizards jerseys look just like it as well.
Compare:
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Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the 70s, but I LIKE when one identity covers multiple teams in a city. It worked for the Pirates/Steelers, for the Cardinals/Cardinals, ok, maybe it wasn’t well executed in various forms in LA, but you get the picture …
I like it too, not for EVERY city… but a few cities is cool.
LA Lakers and Kings with the purple and gold.
-Jet
Owners seem to do that. The Patriots and the Revs are pretty similar looking, uniformwise.
And the Red Sox? Liverpool wear red socks as well! (hurr)
On the Arena League site where you can vote on the ArenaBowl logo, the logo displayed furthest to the right looks pretty similar to the Super Bowl XXXIV logo…
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Here is the link to the latest on the Charlie Samuels:
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Now all we need is for someone to arrest the Wilpons.
Perhaps they needed an assistant to the traveling secretary!
For an non-athelete in the professional sports industry I assume that is a great job he had and he pissed it and his life away.
For anyone, it was a great job! Imagine the reverance that any one of UWers would treat a job like that!
Just to summerize he allegedly stole items which have been valued at $2.3 million, included 507 jerseys, 828 bats and 304 hats from the Mets.
NOBODY NOTICED????
“Never steal anything small.”
(unless you steal a whole lot of them)
He ordered them and then kept them. He was the fox guarding the henhouse.
Did he steal game warn stuff or mearly team issued stuff? Did he rotate the jerseys in, get them worn once then kept them?
Here is the other question, did he register the stuff in MLB’s authentication dbase? It was MLB who tipped the Mets off on this issue and told them to take inventory.
As to your fox/hen house analogy, I would liken it to a thief stealing from thieves.
Exactly… he ordered them himself. They were *extra* uniforms, bats, and the like that no one requested and therefore wouldn’t notice they were missing.
I guess if there was a request for 3 Jason Bay uniforms, he’d order 20 and keep 17 or whatever.
Now… I’m curious how the vendors didn’t notice something was funky… one team ordering 50 times the amount of supplies?
This photo was taken after Southern Arkansas University won the Gulf South tournament yesterday. The first thing you notice are the stirrups. But, if you look closely, at least two of the players have their pant legs tucked into their stirrups. I don’t think I have seen that style before.
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Wierd but I love the Dillon panthers color scheme:
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Can anyone help me out with who makes the coaches tops?
BTW…I just realized that FNL is now aired on Friday nights at 8PM.
RS mentioned the NBA being the worst dressed of the 4 major leagues, and I would be inclined to agree (although the NFL is doing their best to catch up). There are a few teams with outstanding uni’s…
Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, Thunder and Jazz
(ok, one of those is a joke)
After that, there are some good uniforms with slight flaws…
Pistons, Warriors, Heat, Sixers, Blazers. This is the group where I’d add the new Wizards. If they’d fix the font (which is really awful for both lettering and numbers), add the waistband striping, and swap out red for blue on the away, I think they joing that first group.
I just came across a Fridge Horror regarding the Wizards’ “monument ball” logo. Look carefully at the placement of the Washington Monument in relation to that star…
… is it just me? Am I the pervert?
Ah, yes, the Sam Malone School of Logo Interpretation.
“A DIAL TONE turns you on.”
–Diane Chambers to said Mr. Malone
:)
My initial criticism of the Wizards’ new uniforms has softened a bit. I really couldn’t put my finger on it but now that Paul called it out, I have to agree with him — it’s that horrible back neckline. I also agree that a contrasting waistband would definitely be an improvement.
Never mind the new Wizards unis…
How did they find two NBA ballplayers WITH NO TATTOOS?!?!?!?!
-Jet
Ha! Good one.
Seriously: That’s probably part of why those two guys were chosen, right?
My question is why hasn’t Jordan Crawford smiled since he was at Indiana?
Oh right, because my buddy leaned out of my car’s window and insulted him when the program was falling apart. Two days later he left for Xavier.
link on the Wizards new unis in bullet form (get it?! – sorry, I hate myself haha).
Also, there’s a sneak peak at a new major project I’ve been working on for this weekend that might make many a uni tweaker very happy…
I asked Sean how he could afford all the trips to the penalty box. He told me his parents paid for them–a damn trust fund kid.
Yeah, it’s easy to think that for all the players who make it to the top of their game, it’s their entry to income levels they’d never have therwise known.
Not always so. Former Canadien Jeff Nyrop, for example. His father was President/CEO of Northwest Airlines. True story: When Jeff was a kid, the largest plane ever to land at Bemidji’s airport was a Northwest charter jet carrying his Edina pee wee hockey team.
Bill Nyrop. Won 3 cups, quit to practice law, and died at 43 from cancer.
Absolutely.
Where’d I’d get Jeff?
Wonder if Bill had a brother who played in Edina, too.
(Now that’s gonna bug me all night).
I absolutely hated the Wizards old uniforms. They were an ugly reminder of an era of design gone bad. I don’t know how you can like the Wizard guy logo Paul. It’s just plain hideous. It totally reminds me of something from te early 90’s and it wasn’t even designed then so it was dated the first time they introduced it. The recolored version looks even worse. You’re right they’re probably going to phase it out because it’s nowhere to be found on the new unis. The Wizards were near the top of my NBA teams list that needed a complete redesign. Teams left on that list Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings(will happen if they move anyway, my conspiracy theory is that they used Anaheim as leverage and if a stadium doesn’t get built this gives a developer in Las Vegas a chance to get things together. Las Vegas Kings would sound pretty good and you could use playing cards as part of your overall design motif-ok sorry for the conspiracy theory interruption to my list), Minnesota Timberwolves. I thInk there are a few other teams who don’t need complete redesigns but some tweaks are in order. Portland needs to drop the silver lining, Atlanta needs to go back to red as your primary away color and make the ATL unis the navy ones. It’d require you to swap the red and navy uni elements on the home uni as well. You could switch the navy out for black or yellow but that’s not necessary. Charlotte needs to drop the pinstripes and fill in the side paneling with a contrasting color. They should also go back to orange as the primary away color and keep the navy as an alternate. I know this is getting long but their are several teams that should add an alternate. Now I don’t think it’s always necessay for an alt uni to exist, but they’re generally pretty cool. So Golden State-yellow alt, San Antonio-silver alt, Dallas-green alt, New York-orange alt, Cleveland-yellow alt. Anyways that’s my NBA uni thoughts I’m not good at putting designs in my head on paper or computer otherwise I’d have offered some tweaks up for the weekend posts.
Can someone please point out to me the “W” on the bottom of the shorts?
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yeah … what he said.
Go about 1/4 down this page … the far right of the W is cut off, but it should be pretty obvious on the close-up of the shorts:
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Thanks
Greetings from the NYU Skirball Center, where we’re about to start rehearsing tonight’s Pop-Up Magazine event.
Story here:
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Okay, I understand that logos/uniforms need to be “updated” from time to time, although I still contend that most of the “updating” is done to infuse fan dollars into the merchandise sales. However, how many times has a professional team in North America changed the team colors?
When the Bullets went to the Wizards, they changed, and now they’ve changed back. Just curious of other professional teams that have changed the team colors.
Like, most of them…
for example, the White Sox used to change uniform color schemes every few year. blue and white, black and white, red and white, red white and blue, black white and gray etc…
‘Iconic’ teams who have changed colors significantly: Lakers, Packers, Penguins, just to name a few
the pens?
iconic?
I put it in parentheses…
The number is high, especially in the NBA. I would think the NHL has the next highest number of color changes, followed by MLB/NFL.
Charlie Samuels: Not high-cuffed or low-cuffed — just cuffed:
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couldn’t happen to a nicer
FAT BASTIDguySomething that I whipped up last night:
(link)
Took away the generic-looking monument/ball logo from the back of the collar and gave ’em some striped socks. By the way, isn’t it time that striped socks returned to the NBA?
With the magic of Paint, and using the template Moono used above, made a couple of tweaks to the link
Removed the silver outline from the numbers
Added waistband striping
Made “Wizarcls” look more like “Wizards”
Simplified the number font a bit
Thumbs up!
nice job patrick
feel free to submit that for uni tweaks
did you want to see how *bad* those would look with blue pants?
Thanks Phil.
Re: Louisville baseball…kinda hard to “desecrate the flag” when there isn’t a flag to desecrate on the uniform. The Cardinals used the stars/stripes motif for their logo and numbers, that’s all.
Thany you for your sharing,I like it very much!
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