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Tim E. Takes on the NHL

By
Tim E. NHL

By Phil Hecken

If you read the weekend posts, you’re very familiar with today’s featured Uni Watcher, Tim E. O’Brien. Tim has contributed to a few lede columns, and he’s quite a talented graphic artist. You may have seen his work creating college, NFL and NBA uniforms, and together, Tim and I came up with a MLB uniform template (by together, I mean Tim did all the work, but I found the photo from which he created the template).

More recently, however, Tim entered (and came in second in), Paul’s design-the-Winnipeg hockey team contest. Like the MLB template, there previously existed no “NHL” 3-D template, so it was up to him to create one. And a marvelous job he did. So today he’ll share with us how he came up with that and we’ll see a few of his new hockey concepts using the template. Here’s Tim:

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Tim E. O’B takes on the NHL
By Tim E. O’Brien

When news broke that the Atlanta Thrashers were officially moving to Winnipeg, I knew what had to be done:

An NHL ‘3D’ Template.

What I didn’t know, however, was that Paul was about to unleash a uniform design contest upon the Uni Watch world.

As many of you know, not only did I come up with a submission (actually, I submitted two designs), but I was chosen as one of the top five finalists by Paul and fellow ESPN Page 2er Kurt Snibble and was voted number two by the Uni Watch followers.

But enough about the contest, what’s really got me here today is the template I used.

Of course, as with my MLB template, I started off with a nice image of a player in his element. This time it was (my boy) Jonathan Toews on the ice. Of course, I didn’t want all that dead space – yeah, I’m talking about you Brian Campbell – so I cropped the picture to just show what I needed.

The next step was to remove the rest of “Soupy”, the boards logos and all of the design elements of the uniform. Finally, I formatted the individual uniform elements so they could edited individually and added my own boards logo to make sure people knew who created this template (T.E.O’B.).

And that’s the final template (note the BFBS AND purple – Paul loves me) which can be downloaded here. Happy tweaking.

But since I created the template, I figured I would show off some of the unis I’ve already created:

Blackhawks – Home, Road, Third, Old Third — Just for comparison sake, I used my ‘Hawks to see the possibilities of Before and After with the template. I also included the ‘Hawks old Third jersey (even though it should be based on the Home jersey, not the Road one) because I love it when the BLACKhawks have a black jersey but I’m also growing tired of the current throwback.

Falcons (of Manitoba) – Home, Road — This is my first and Top Five selected Thrasher Redesign Contest submission. I came up with a main falcon logo and a flying puck secondary logo both based on Haida artwork – although perhaps that was a mistake (the Haida aren’t from Manitoba).

Jets – Home, Road — This was my second submission based on the undeniable popularity of the name Winnipeg Jets. Nothing groundbreaking here but very nice faux-backs, if I do say so myself…

Penguins – Home, Road — One of my best bros from college was from “the ‘Sburgh” and we quickly bonded over the EA Sports NHL series and the love of our home town hockey teams. While I love the Pens, I would love them even more if they went back to the early 90s look with more YELLOW and less gold.

Predators — Home, Road — The Preds tried to rework their image a few weeks back and boy did they screw the pooch (or, rather, the big cat). Not only did I fix the yellow on the main logo so that it looks like a tiger’s colorization rather than a racing stripe, but I also simplified (the ‘N’) and corrected (the stars) the guitar pick logo. I also made the unis much less cluttered and “modern” (although I could go even simpler) while keeping the yellow Home jersey.

Senators – Third — I’ve only done the Sens’ Third jersey because, frankly, it’s the only one I care about. As a Greek and Roman history buff, I took the garb of a Roman General and took this uniform design to it’s illogical conclusion. If the Sens really want a black third jersey, this looks a lot better than their current Third but way worse than the barber pole.

St. Louis Blues – Home, Road – As a ‘Hawks fan, I hate the Blues. But even setting that bad blood aside (at least I respect the Wings), I still think the Blues are one of the worst dressed teams in the league. I clean them up by ridding the Bettman bib and going back to a more classic look with their two-blue one yellow color scheme.

Well, that’s it for me this time. I’m glad to see so many people using my MLB ‘3D’ Template and I just hope people start to use this template too. I’ll make sure a post these – and other new designs – on my site, TimEOBrien.com.

Until next time, happy tweaking.

~~~

Thanks, Tim. Tremendous job in creating that 3-D template, as you did with the MLB one. OK, Uni Watchers, now that you’ve seen some of Tim’s work, how’d he do?

~~~~~~~~~~

faux placket

Say It Isn’t Faux…

Reader Casey Nelson noticed something “amiss” with the jersey worn by Red Sox first sacker Adrián González, and he wrote in with his obvservations and questions.

First off, I love the site and it comforts me that I’m not alone. I’m a longtime reader, first time emailer.

I’m emailing to ask if you’ve noticed that Adrian Gonzalez appears to be wearing a faux-front road uniform. I noticed it just before the all star break and again in the all star game on his gray uniform. It has buttons the full length of the jersey but there appears to be a seam just below the 2nd button. The rest of the jersey below the 2nd button is stitched together making the jersey a pullover that looks traditional.

I only really know about the faux-front look because I coach softball in TX and that look is becoming pretty popular for softball and baseball. Both Russel and Under Armour make faux-front or faux placket uniforms.

I couldn’t find a decent image online. I attached the best 2 I could find anyway (here and here). If you already knew this or had already posted info about this and I missed it, my bad.

Thanks for doing what you do.

Casey Nelson

Thanks for that observation, Casey. Johnny Ek and I both looked at some pics of Adrián González and it’s tough to tell, but in some photos, it does seem he might have a faux placket. Some more than others. Even if it’s not a faux placket, there’s no question you hardly ever see any separation where the two pieces of fabric are if it is a button-down.

Readers? Thoughts?

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Benchies Beginning logo

Benchies from the Beginning
By Rick Pearson

For nearly three years, “Benchies” has been appearing most weekends at Uni Watch. While Bench Coach Phil fills in for Paul Monday through Friday during August, we present a retrospective. New strips will continue to appear on weekends. For further background, here’s the “Benchies” backstory and bios on the regular Boys of “Benchies.” Enjoy.

7-19-11 d-first OF

And here is the full-size version.

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guthrie.png

Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

• Couple terrific finds from PL; a SB VIII media bag, and an ’80’s baseball jersey that resembles a certain infamous MLB design.

• The Orioles great OF Paul Blair apparently gave someone the shirt off his back- and now they’re selling it.

• Love this old MLB logo pin– why don’t they use this?

• I know the Cowboy colors have been perpetually mixed up—but this 60’s bobble guy is flat-out powder blue.

• Great 70’s Expos poster. And I still can’t figure out that team logo.

• Really nice 80’s Bengals Cliff Engle coaches sweater.

• Mariner fans, please dig this retro look fridge magnet.

• I would gargle ground glass before I’d wear this, but I grudgingly admit this is a classic 70’s Dodger satin jacket.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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ticker 2

Uni Watch News Ticker: (mostly compiled by John Ekdahl) Brandon Gomes was flashing some Under Armour logo creep on the field Sunday (Grant Goldman). … Sam asked the Detroit Tigers marketing department about this picture of Jhonny Peralta with his number on the inside of the collar. The Tigers confirmed they add numbers to all jackets and windbreakers. … It’s not very often you see a military uniform that misspells the country’s own name, but that’s what happened to the Australian Navy (Paul). … A little DIY project from Marc-Louis Paprzyca’s girlfriend Kristina, who made a dress out of a Blackhawks jersey. … Ottawa goaltender Mike McKenna is asking fans to pick out his new pad scheme (John Muir). … Here is a gallery from the 50th Annual Congressional Baseball Game at the Nationals Park in D.C., and most of the uniforms look pretty good (Patrick Runge). … Maya Moore was this years top pick in the WNBA draft and her jersey has already become the most popular (Kevin Brown). … David Beckham celebrated the birth of his daughter by wearing pink cleats with the names of all four of his children stitched into them (Nick Orban). … It appears Adidas is planning on blatantly ripping off Nike’s football gloves next year (Brad Griffin). … Pick one shade of gold and be done with it, Colorado (Matthew Robins). … Here’s a great video on the design of the upcoming Rugby World Cup ball (Caleb Borchers). … Most of the news surrounding Rick Perry these days is about his possible Presidential run, but he has managed to land a position in the NCAA 12 video game in the mean time (Greg Stamps). … Jose Reyes has been wearing his Mets batting helmet during his rehab assignment (Robert Silverman). … The MLS All-Star game jerseys are now being sold on their website (Mark Emge). … Interesting “recycling” went on between the Indians and the Twins yesterday afternoon, as both teams wore green caps when they made up their rained-out Earth Day game from earlier this year. … Ribbons aplenty were spotted at Candlestick PacBell SBC AT&T Park last night, when the Giants and Dodgers (more photos here) played in the 18th Annual “Until There’s A Cure” Game to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS (hat tip to Mike Styczen for the link). … Unfortunately, no photos/video, but Thomas Mallard notes “During tonight’s (7/18) Braves @ Rockies game, Brian McCann had his catching facemask break. He sports the old school-style mask. He has currently replaced the mask, with David Ross’s hockey-style mask/helmet (complete with Ross’s number 8 on the chin). He is also wearing Ross’s cap backwards under the new mask as he doesn’t keep a hat close by on nights he catches.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“You know those half-assed partial stripes on the shoulders of football jerseys, that are meant to sort of remind us of the sleeve stripes football jerseys used to have, back when football jerseys used to have sleeves? And how pretty much everyone hates those half-assed partial stripes and everything they stand for? 2-in-1s are the exact baseball equivalent of that.” — R. Scott Rogers

 
  
 
Comments (176)

    When MLB gets together for the inevitable immature posturing that will take place during their new CBA talks, somebody need to bring a dictionary. One in which the word “uniform” is defined in easy words. This way photos such as that Twins green cap bunch won’t exist. It is the opposite of uniform – one player wearing socks the others in their big brother’s hand me downs. BTW the green clashes too. . ..

    I think one player going high-cuffed and another going low-cuffed on the field at the same time is the same thing as one player wearing a jersey and another wearing a vest.

    Sure some players prefer the pajama pants, while others prefer to look like ballplayers. These players are on a team, and their uniforms should be “uniform”. (Only thing is that might backfire and then we’d only see pajama pants.)

    No, it’s the same thing as one player wearing long sleeves and one player wearing short sleeves. Or are you telling me that should be standardized, too?

    The point is they are both wearing sleeves, or t-shirts of some sort, that are visible. Wear your socks anyway you like — high, low, medium, with sanis or not — but wear them and show them. Simple, simple rule. The NFL seems to get it.

    you mean short sleeve or long sleeved undershirts? I think the length of the undershirt is synonymous with the length of the sock. But the pants are part of the uniform itself, hence the length of the pant is synonymous with the length of the uniform top, whether it be a vest or jersey…

    Jersey/vest = uniform top
    Pants = uniform bottom

    I could be wrong but I believe those pants being worn by Colorado are the ones that go with their previous design (you tend to wear the ones that will no longer be used on gameday in practice).

    The MLS jerseys for the all-star game are less suck than the original picture, which seemed to indicate that there would be actual or sublimated glitter/sequin/lame on the shoulders. Thank heavens for sanity.

    That is a helluva find by Casey. Those Gonzalez jerseys absolutely look like faux fronts. If pullovers are never to return and no one will man up and use zippers, then THIS is what teams should be sporting. No more Philllies, no more Raays and no more D’Baacks. I know faux fronts have been mentioned here before, but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out a downside to them. Come ON MLB!!!

    Consider your motion seconded, Craig. Any team with a wordmark that crosses the Rubicon would do well to use this option. Yankees, Tigers, Cubbies et al may be excused.

    Another possibility is that Gonzalez has velcro under the rubicon, as many teams used to have but few wear anymore, and that plus the buttons are just working as intended to keep the jersey front together.

    Usually you can spot the stitches when there’s a velcro patch. The seam seems unnaturally tight for a button-up, I’m inclined to go with “pullover”.

    Great catch.

    That was exactly my first though. I’ve thought about doing the same with my Yaz Cooperstown Collection jersey so it doesn’t say “BOSSTON”.

    If I wanted a Mighty Mighty Bosstones shirt, I’d just get one.

    I like your line of thinking, RS, though I think it might even be a simpler than velcro; I think the clubhouse tailor just might have sewn it closed, in effect making it a pullover. A really simple edgestitch up the panel would close all the gaps and be pretty much undetectable in all those photos.

    Who asked the manufacturers to start using double letters? They didn’t used to. A slight gap between letters looks better than double letters. Then the button jersey gets blamed and T-shirts make a comback. The world’s gone crazy!

    Depends. When the whole letter appears atop the placket, then yes, absolutely. But when a letter breaks across the placket, the doubled-stroke effect is often less jarring than the sliced-letter effect.

    Can I just reply to a post yesterday about football (“soccer”) and Germany?

    It was said “Their change kit while in recent years has been flag colors, traditionally is green and white. They are going back to this. From what I gather it’s supposed to match the color of the pitch was the reasoning.”

    Germany wore green as change strip because after the War Ireland were the first country willing to play them, and in gratitude the DFB (the German FA) chose to wear green as their change strip.

    Urban myth.

    Excerpt from Tim Tuomey’s Today FM Total Football book:

    The reason the German away strip is green (and white)
    is actually because they were the colours of the federal
    state of Saxony (Dresden and Leipzig), the second most
    powerful in pre-War Germany. The home colours of white
    and black represent the state of Prussia (Berlin and
    Brandenburg), which was economically, politically and in
    footballing terms, the powerhouse in Germany before World
    War II.

    Ireland were in fact the fifth team to play the Germans
    after 1945. Switzerland were first (twice), then Turkey,
    Austria and then Ireland – in Dublin in October 1951, a
    match the Irish won 3-2.

    Interesting story in today’s Washington Post about an official “Red Sox Camp” (for kids) that is taking place here in Bethesda, Maryland. The uni-related angle? “And thus, the Bethesda campers all receive a ‘soup to nuts’ Red Sox uniform, complete with stirrups and pants, belts and jersey. The coaches – about half of whom came down from the Boston area for the week – all wear Red Sox apparel.”

    Here’s a link to the whole column:
    link

    Setting aside the hockey sweater dress (unfair competition), when it comes to hockey, at any level, I’m still waiting for any team to displace this classic sweater, courtesy of USAFA. link

    Hats off to Tim O’B, with his hard work and initiative. I wish there were a way to diminish the appearance of that clear visor; it’s much too obvious in the final renderings. Also, the helmet needs to be shiny. The Blackhawks have a very conspicuous serif on their “1”; they use that font for the Islanders and used to use it for the Kings.

    Way digging the Expos’ poster and the Mariners’ magnet on Ebay. The artist didn’t catch the funny numeral font on Montreal’s jerseys, but more than made up for it in joie de vivre.

    The visor is how it is for two reasons.

    1. Toewser’s making that ridiculous face and I’m trying to hide it.

    and 2. I wanted to shroud the face a bit more so people noticed the uniform first rather than the player – something that doesn’t always happen on my MLB/Strasburg template.

    My pet peeve is the inaccurate shoulder patch that Tim uses on his Blackhawk home and away uniform. The proper shoulder patch for the Blackhawks — in all three uniforms — has a serif font for the “C.” Moreover, it also has a thick black outline. The ultimate blame, though, doesn’t go to Tim — it goes to the Blackhawks. They themselves push an inaccurate logo on their websites, printed material, etc.

    I love how Tim created his template with a picture of full strength Toews Face!

    How can anyone say that the St. Louis Blues are one of the worst dressed teams in the NHL? This one of the craziest things I’ve read on this blog in a long time. While they are not one of the original 8 NHL teams, the Blues’ look is classic (while they did do some unneccesary additions when the new templates came out a couple years back).

    There are a lot of really bad looks in the NHL, but St. Louis is not one of them. They have to be considered in the top 10-15 uniform designs in the league.

    Am I wrong here?

    bettman stripes, NCAA horns front and back, reebok patch in the back, for starters… bad, bad jersey combo IMO. especially compared to the classics they had (up until 95)

    All that is true, but they make it work. They look good. In addition, when they wear their third jersey, they look FANTASTIC.

    That’s an opinion – one many people disagree with.

    I like the blues logos and colors (when they had red it looked turrible) but the modern stripping does nothing for me other than make me cry tears.

    And while the third looks way better than the home or road, the crest is unnecessary when you have such a great logo that’s perfect for the chest.

    I would agree. The blues do not make it work. Nice colors, but the template is a hot mess, and as a result, they have one of the worst unis in the NHL.

    If they go back to their pre edge layout, they would be one of the best. But until then, the only people considering the blues to have even a moderately workable uniform will be blues homers.

    And I have no bias against the blues.

    Meh. The Blues have been paddling in mediocrity, as far as looks are concerned, since they discontinued the cool, flashy threads of the late ’70s.

    Agree, MG12. While I also do concur with Walter that they’ve tampered with their original design enough times to diminish their look down to mediocrity, there’s no way their current uni is BAD.

    I much prefer the original designs of the late 60’s/early 70’s. I loved the fact that the white home unis had the shoulder stripes… and the road blues didn’t. I like when teams don’t feel the need to make the home and road unis mirror-image symmetrical. The Rangers do the same thing.

    About the only time the St Looey uni was hideous was when they had Gretzky and those ridiculous diagonal stripes.

    -Jet

    Even worse during the brief Gretzky era was horrible decision to add red to the jersey. The color red should never appear on a Blues, Penguins, Bruins, or Lightning jersey, etc.

    Thanks Jet. Something that gets overlooked is the paradigm shift in hockey design when dark became the home uniform: The home uniform should always have an “extra”, a figurative shout-out to the fans. As a consequence, that amenity is subtracted from the road uniform. The white St. Louis sweater we liked had those distinctive shoulder stripes, like the Rangers. When the NHL switched to white on the road, the formula for all design that followed was to merely suck all the bright stuff off the colored uniforms, the way the NFL and soccer have always done.

    I love the Blues, and I think they have one of the best logos in hockey.
    I hate their uniforms.
    I hate the two shades of blue (pick one, preferably the lighter), the Bettman Stripes, and the ridiculous piping on their breezers.
    The ensemble is grody to the max.

    Yeah, the Blues found a way to make what SHOULD be one of the best into something very mediocre. I much prefer the white roadies to the drab blue homies they wear today too. Tim, your concept would be a much deserved upgrade, I like it a lot. While there is still much to be desired about the current sets, they have been “modernized” beyond acceptable, I wouldn’t say they are terrible though. Just too much goodness about the Blue Note. Terrible is what Bill Laurie did to the team.

    The alt, while popular, is just trendy and a waste. The note gets lost as a tiny speck on the medallion with nothing else stepping up to capture the eye. Also, I HATE all dark unis. Black jerseys with black breezers, same with all midnight blue. Throw some color in there. The lighter blue is unique to the team and would be a fantastic rework of a wonderful look.

    I personally like the 2 tones of blue (though I know the name has very little (if anything) to do with the color, but having 2 blues works with a name like blues).

    I don’t find their current uniforms bad (I actually like them) but their prior uniforms also looked good, and didn’t have the betman stripes/bib (or whatever its called) so it does get a nod. For awhile I thought that it worked for the Blues (and the blues only) because it reminded me of the Arch, but that wasn’t their intention (as they have been implemented similarly on other uniforms), and prolonged exposure to the design makes it clear that it doesn’t really resemble the structure.

    One of my friends growing up has family from St. Louis, and he had a Blue jersey hanging up in his closet it was the away one from circa 2000 (so basically it was the home prior to the switch to reebok). It was one of the coolest jerseys I had ever seen (the 2 blues, white and gold (is it athletic gold? or do they call it yellow?), just work so well with each other).

    George is incorrect. The first nation to play (then) West Germany in a post-WW II international was not Ireland, but Switzerland.

    link

    Green and white are two of the colors of the DFB’s logo (along with a black-red-gold band at the bottom), representing the green grass and white lines of a soccer field. The green and white of the change kit comes from the logo.

    I was about to post the same thing. One of the worst and most perpetuated myths in soccer. Luckily, it’s a fact-based myth (not a he said/she said myth like the Packers’ G for Greatness). An easy search tells you that Switzerland was the first team to play the German National Team after the war, instantly debunking the myth. It’s just mind boggling that so many people take it at face value without checking the facts, as easy as they are to check.

    I’m just watching the Murdoch’s being cross-examined, so…

    …never let the facts get in the way of a good story. I think the Ireland story is more entertaining. :)

    It may be more “entertaining” to you, but it is not true. If you value entertainment over truth, I pity you.

    Hey DJ.

    Lighten up. We’re talking here about a story of how a team chose a particular coloured shirt or not. Not something that’s worth getting abusive about.

    I certainly don’t need your pity. There are many things in the world where truth is very important. But many where it’s not. This is one of the latter.

    Mrs Murdoch has a fine left hook.

    Typically British though. Do we try to shoot this powerful man? Do we threaten with a knife? No – a paper plate with shaving foam.

    Makes me quite proud of my country. :)

    Tim’s “concepts” are some of the least original stuff I’ve ever seen. Yawn. On the other hand, I’m a huge Blues fan, so I might just be a bit ticked by his comments.

    Yeah I thought the idea was VERY original. I actually went “ooohh neat!” when you mentioned that you got the inspiration from the breastplate. But I don’t think it translated well over to the uniform though. The shoulders look weird and the front is a little too plain. And as Paul loves to say, that would be “playing soldier dress up”.

    Keep working on the concepts though. It looks like a fun hobby.

    The Sens jersey was out there I grant you that. Looks like a court jester. JT just needs some bells on his lid. The rest though are just very traditional and familiar looking.

    Of course he hates the Blues. He’s a Blackhawks fan. Do you like the Blackhawks?
    It’s the way of the road, Bubbles.

    Of course he hates the Blues, and I hate the Blackhawks. That wasn’t my point. Just pointing out that his comments about the Blues changed the way I look at his stuff. I think when you are trying to impress people with your work, you should keep your bias out of it.

    I don’t like to hide bias. If I have some, I’ll let you know and then you can make an educated decision knowing my position.

    However, I’m anti-modern stripes (for the most part) so that’s the only bias that went into creating the new unis. And if you don’t like what I did, blame the Blues – I basically just added the dark blue to their early 80s uniforms link

    Tim, I love the Blues, don’t hate the Blackhawks, don’t care for the current Blues unis, and love your Blues concepts. There. Take that you Chicago Classicist you.

    Now would you please fix the all black Sharks? And any other all black team? Your Penguins concept works because there is a lot of yellow brightly standing out. On TV, those all black teams all look like the same black blobs. There is nothing that stands out. I can’t even figure out who is playing a lot of the time without looking at the score.

    Glad you like it traxel.

    I just think the sharks, coyotes and stars need to drop the black unis and they’ll all look a lot better (although, i guess Dallas would need a new green uni).

    Can we get a short primer on how to use Tim E’s template? I’m embarassed to say that I’m a sign designer and have a design program as well as Photoshop (which I really don’t know how to use), but I don’t know how to use the template.

    -Jet

    I’ll get on that today.

    I’ve helped out a few folks learn how to do some tweaking and I’ve posted some videos online with tips so I’ll wrangle those up soon and linky here and maybe do a new vid.

    How to edit logos on photoshop and place them on a template – link

    How to change colors in the uni templates – link

    Not mine but a great tutorial I used to learn the Pen tool, a uni tweaker’s best friend – link

    if you have other specific questions, let me know and I’ll try to get explanations/videos up later today

    thanks Tim, probably won’t get a chance to mess around with this today but I’ll keep everything bookmarked

    -jet

    During last night’s Giants / Dodgers game, Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong was not wearing the AIDS ribbon, creating a stir on some fans’ twitter accounts. Apparently, in 1996, former Giant pitcher Mark Dewey created controversy by refusing to support the ribbon because of his anti-gay stance and religious beliefs. Some wondered if Vogelsong was taking a similar stance.
    It turned out that the Vogelsong had the ribbon on his cool-base jersey, but wears his double-knit jersey for night games, so the stir was much ado about nothing.

    Details here: link

    This is why I hate all the junk on the uniform peripheral to the game itself. If there had been no ribbon, there would have been no dust-up. Get rid of the charity/flag/do-gooder nonsense and stick to baseball.

    If baseball (or any other sport for that matter) do away with ribbons and pinkness and all the other “charity” gimmicks, how will they manage to pat themselves on the back while simultaneously counting their money??? Please, I beg of you…think of the owners!

    The Expos logo, for the last time, for Americains stupides. The overall shape is a stylized letter M for “Montreal.” The red script lowercase “e” and blue script lowercase “b” should be self explanatory.

    I love the old Expos logo and all, but the explanation highlights a real problem with it: The red E and the blue B create a negative-space lowercase L. So it becomes ELB within the M. I suppose we could retcon that to “Les Expos,” but it’s a stretch.

    That logo had to be a nod to the Canadiens’ logo, wherein the H actually stands for “hockey.”

    I know it’s easy to get sick of explaining it, but the logo does not look like an M, it looks like “elb”. It’s not necessarily ugly, but who, starting at nothing, looks at that form and think’s an “M”? If you squint a little, sure it’s there, but it takes a little imagination.

    The L could be for “Le Baseball” but that was never featured in the team’s official explanation.

    “It’s not necessarily ugly, but who, starting at nothing, looks at that form and think’s an “M”? ”

    Me. I always saw an M.

    When I stared, that’s when I saw the elb. I’m sure I’m not alone here.

    I don’t understand how anyone is seeing an “L” in the negative white space of the Expos’ logo. The “e” and the “b” are very obvious, but a lowercase “L”? Nope…

    I had an Expos cap when I was a kid (6 or 7 years old) and I could not for the life of me figure out why there was an “elb” on it instead of an M or just an E.

    I distinctly recall asking my dad about it and when he told me it was a “stylized M” I thought he was drunk, insane, just messing with my mind or any combination thereof.

    I saw the ELB first, too, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, everyone knew it was supposed to be an M, in that way that “everyone knows” a bunch of folk wisdom, most of which is never actually true. Anyway, point is, back in the day, people didn’t see the M because the M was obvious, they saw the M because it was generally accepted that it was an M. “Why does the Expos cap say ELB” was a reasonably common topic of little league dugout conversation circa 1981.

    But I might be an unreliable witness here; it took me something like a decade to realize there was an M and a B in the old Brewers logo – I thought it was just a glove! – and to this day, I can only see the Easter Bunny, not a face, in the moon.

    I began to see the “M” when I thought of the “M” from the front of the Mets’ jersey (that’s not a mistake; it’s to distinguish it from the type of cursive “M” that graces the Twins’ grey uniform) with a very fat outline, as though it were drawn with toothpaste.

    From link:

    What’s the Expos’ logo supposed to be?

    Actually, there are two separate interpretations – one in English and one in French. English version: The overall outline of the logo is a stylized “M” for “Montreal” (you kinda have to squint to see this). The red “e” on the left is for “Expos,” and the blue “b” on the right is for “baseball.” Add it all up and you’ve got “Montreal Expos baseball.” The strip of white next to the “e” is essentially just wasted space – it’s not an “l” or anything like that. French version: The red symbol on the left is a “c,” which combines with the white strip to form a “d.” Toss in the “b” on the right and outlined “m” and you’ve got c-d-b-m, for Club de Baseball Montreal.

    As to Gonzalez’s jersey, it appears to be a standard Majestic COOLBASE jersey.

    If you go to MLB.com’s page fro Adrian, you see pretty clearly that he was wearing a button-up on Opening Day in TX and previously in SD. In other photos online it “looks” thick in the middle, like a regular button-up jersey.

    Anyone given thought to the idea the staff sewed his jersey together? That way a button-up becomes a pullover.

    Paul here, surfacing just long enough to say that the Uni Watch Membership Program, which had been on summer hiatus, is once again open for business:
    link

    Paul, I happened to hover my mouse over your name and saw that your name links to the old uniwatchblog url. Small bit of housekeeping should take care of that.

    I think it’s been sewn shut. That would be a new alteration I’ve never seen before.

    South Park has a “Fan Prix” at this year’s comic con where you can wear one of four helmets that are stripped (from left to right) like how the boys dress (shoes to head) link

    More info: link

    i wanted to hate that comment because i can’t stand south park… but that’s actually pretty cool, and a damn clever idea!

    Is this another reason for LI Phil to hate colored ‘softball’ jerseys in baseball?

    Last night I was watching the Brewers/DBacks game. AZ had a runner on first, and the AZ pitcher laid down a sac bunt. The Milw pitcher charged, picked up the ball and rapidly spun to throw the ball… 10-15ft to the first base side of the bag… and right at the the second base umpire (who ducked out of the way).

    It was obvious that the pitcher in a split second as he spun and threw saw the umpire’s black shirt and thought it was his second baseman (the Brewers were wearing their very dark blue jersey). Mark Grace (AZ color guy) immediately said the pitcher got confused by the jump color being so close the the Milw color.

    This got me to thinking. In the NBA the officials wear grey, which no team does. In the NFL/NHL the refs wear black/white stripes which no team does. Soccer refs always wear a contrasting color. However, baseball umps wear black, which as we know teams do as well. Should the umps wear something that no teams do. I suggest pink, or seahawk green. :)

    I think AG’s presumed (at this point) sewn up front is actually a natural evolution of the baseball uniform for 2011.

    I DO NOT LIKE pullover jerseys that look like beer league softball tops. I also do not like oversized uniforms that make it painfully obvious that there are two layers of the same letters that are *supposed* to never be seen at the same time. AG provides a classic, “professional” baseball look, with a consistent, professional lack of double lettering. Everybody wins … and I said above, I’m calling it Gone-Ze-Holes.

    I keep hoping that it’s just a case of the buttons on his jersey working as intended, because to me the fake-button thing is the Stupidest Thing In The History of Ever. And while I get that inauthentic fakery is just sort of a bugaboo of mine, and lord knows the rest of modern American culture loves the shit out of anything that’s fake, to the point that authenticity is so devalued that the word “reality” now literally means “fake” when spoken of media or entertainment. But putting aside my own personal mental tics, are we seriously endorsing decorative buttons here? Really? That’s useful, or attractive, or in any way evidence of thoughtful, competent design, how exactly? Rhetorical question: It’s not any of those things. Fake decorative buttons are, objectively, bad design. They add no functionality, but do pose a very minor impediment to player safety and comfort. Stripped of their functional role in keeping the jersey closed, purely decorative buttons are all con, no pro.

    The buttons on a shirt should extend no further than necessary to close two sides of the placket. If the placket goes all the way down, so should the buttons. If the placket extends only part of the way down, then so should the buttons. There’s a reason link and link have different names. If you’re going to wear a henley, wear a henley. Don’t sew a bunch of decorative buttons down the shirt; that’s the baseball equivalent of link.

    If someone created a nice-looking template with the henley buttons, I could get behind it.

    “We are thrilled that our partner adidas was able to come up with such a classic look while still using state-of-the-art technology.”

    THEY’RE NOT YOU PARTNERS, THEY’RE YOUR EMPLOYEES!!!! If they don’t do exactly what you want, FIRE THEM!

    (srry double)

    do you know how naive you sound, tim? presidents and senators don’t have men killed…

    This raises the question: Who is paying whom? In at least some cases, it’s the manufacturer paying the school, in which case the power dynamic you assume is exactly reversed.

    “We are thrilled that our partner adidas was able to come up with such a classic look while still using state-of-the-art technology.”

    Wow! How on earth did the design team at Adidas find a way around all that state of the art technology to place some simple pants striping? Is there nothing they can’t do?

    Seriously, the way that quote is worded makes it sound like all the swoopy striping bullshit is an actual part of the “technology”, while simplifying the design is some kind of difficult feat.

    adidas creates products that bring in revenue for the school, and the school allows adidas to put its logo on the product, which makes it easier to sell. Sounds like a partnership to me, never mind the fact that Indiana actually pays adidas about $0. If my employer paid me $0, instead relying on my ability to sell things to get paid, I wouldn’t be very happy. Once again, get out of concept dreamland and into the real world, Tim.

    IU employed adidas by the very definition of the word. They selected adidas over other companies to do their uni program. And adidas pays money for the proveledge of showing their logo on all 24 teams unis. That’s a lot of publicity they SHOULD pay IU for.

    Really, just that sentence made me mad.

    You hired them to create uniforms you want, don’t make it sound like they have all the power.

    “Two years ago we had good uniforms now we’ve gone from too modern to too simple. weak.”

    ~~~

    yes, tim, we all know what you want for IU

    Too modern to too simple?

    The pants stripes last year were godawful. Good riddance. I hated the jerseys at first but they grew on me. (I think they’d look OK paired with these new/old pants.)

    Looks to me they’ve just gone back to pretty what they had two years ago. And there was nothing wrong with those.

    But naturally, they couldn’t leave well enough alone.

    “…a classic white face mask will replace the red face mask that has been featured on IU helmets since 2005”

    Why? Why? WHY? And what makes it a “classic” anyway?

    Oh, well, at least they didn’t make it black.

    I just wanted something closer to this link . the helmet without stripes doesn’t look as good IMO and I like the white facemask better as contrast (I hate color matching facemasks and helmets) and the history thing is B.S. The hoosiers, since 1983, have worn black FMs more (11 seasons) than white FMs (10 seasons) and wore white FMs for only 7 years total prior to 1983.

    …but I still think they look better.

    The Hoosiers are gonna look too much like Oklahoma now. I HATE it when two colleges look too much alike *coughwisconsinandnebraska*. Where the frick is the school identity at???

    And to top it off, Adidas (as mentioned before) is the devil, so it’s not even a good Oklahoma repo, given that they might wear those stupid stretchy glorified compression shirts for jerseys.

    “We are thrilled that our partner adidas was able to come up with such a classic look while still using state-of-the-art technology.”

    THEY’RE NOT YOU PARTNERS, THEY’RE YOUR EMPLOYEES!!!! If they don’t do exactly what you want, FIRE THEM!

    The Blackhawks dress reminds me of the classic Ashley Judd Kentucky hockey sweater picture. (you know the one)

    OK, so I MAY have overreacted a bit to the Hoosier Unis.

    Actually, except for the numbers on the compression sleeves, and the canystripped pants, the new IU unis look a lot like my concept (down to the overly fat uni numbers).

    Compare: 2011 link vs. O’B. Candystripe link

    I like the white facemask but the jerseys are too boring. maybe add some stripes to the bottom of the sleeves link

    Or maybe go with sleeve numbers rather than pad numbers link

    Or go for what we (IU fans) really want, double stripe theme all over link

    We were shoulder stripes from that two years ago and a pair of pants (and that stoopid side blotch on the jersey) from having that last season.

    Two steps forward, one step back. Overall: B- (vast improvement from D- last year)

    link

    Take off that stoopid collar and you got yourself a uniform. What happened to that? I thought THOSE were the new unis!

    Even with the collar those are an A (no collar, A+)

    IU’s not a black shoe team. Switch them to white (along with the socks, natch) and it’s an A/A+.

    Indiana now looks like Oklahoma, they should have kept the double stripe on the helmet, and done something different with the pants, like a single stripe.

    The Indiana coach was on the OU staff last year, and this must have played a role in this poor copy. Disappointing result for the Hoosiers.

    Thumbs down to those stupid black warm up jackets they’re wearing for their appearances. Thanks again, Nike.

    Dumb question for you Tim….is the final template the one that has Toews in the blank white uni or in the black and purple uni?

    Thanks. Great work by the way!

    -Steve

    OK, so when the comment gets released, I’m going to look like even more of an idiot. Thanks, you jackhole.

    I’ve also notice something about McCann’s usual old style face mask, but have no pictures: he wears Mizuno gear but the face mask is apparently made by Nike. If the camera catches him at the right moment with his back turned, you can see that he has blacked out the Swoosh on the back of the strap but leaves the little baseball diamond part around it.

    DAMMIT! I totally missed that part about them removing the helmet stripes until now.

    I just sent an e-mail to Fred Glass, the IU athletic director, telling him how bad of a move this is.

    Seriously, our football program is a total fucking joke as it is. This only makes things worse.

    you could do worse than look like (and play like) oklahoma

    /just sayin’

    What comes as a shocker, Phil, is how universally loved the two stripe helmet was. It was originally a one game throwback (with a block I) that was so popular it was the new standard uniform helmet THE NEXT GAME and then continued to be for the next 3 seasons.

    At least we’re the only red cap in the BigTen but we could at least continue having a unique red lid while we’re at it.

    The two stripes was a distinctive look. How many Division 1A schools have a dark shell with two light-colored stripes now? Are there any? I don’t think there are.

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