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Uni Watch

Whole Lot of Nothin’ Goin’ On?

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nike-nfl

By Phil Hecken

So…

this was what I stayed up all evening for:

Seahawks???

And this? (Notice there are only 31 teams). Yup. There was absolutely nothing to be found surrounding the Seahawks.

UPDATE: Looks like the Seahawks Draft Caps have been released. And it looks like “gray/silver” (or maybe that’s STILL the “suicide blue”) will be in the new scheme. Tough to tell if it’s a new color (like this) or the same color as before.

UPDATE #2: Take this with a grain of salt, but this is a supposed leak of the Seahawks’ draft cap showing the gray-ish bottom section of the seabird’s neck. If this is indeed correct, can we expect the gray/silver to be featured in the new unis? Guess we’ll know Tuesday.

Oh…there was plenty of “unveiling” going on last night.

Check out the Nike NFL stuff. And new New Era caps. Lots of it. And there were a couple of things we already knew, like the Panthers new logo. Lots of rumors had surrounded the Panthers, including what once was thought could be the new Panthers helmet. This shows that only the logo is changing — not the helmet color.

There will be plenty of speculation, of course, on the new NFL togs. A couple teams are featuring tees in alternate colors. Does that mean the Texans will make the red jersey the primary?

Will the Broncos change the helmet stripe? George Scordo wonders if the Broncs are “going with a more traditional mid-helmet stripe or if this is a result of lazy screen tinting or just poor design. I tend to think its just lazy design.”

So…

unless something earth shattering happened while I was asleep, it looks like today is pretty disappointing for those of us who expected any word on the Seahawks, or any looks at the new jerseys. Those will be kept under pretty good wraps until Tuesday’s official unveiling. At least we know Paul will have a front row seat and I’d expect he’ll be tweeting away and writing a column for ESPN that day.

If any uni news breaks during the day, we’ll update this page — and if you hear/see anything…post it in the comments below or send it to the usual email addresses.

~~~

Sorry for the lack of news — of course, if you’re into NFL gear that isn’t new uniforms — well, then you’re probably happier than a pig in shit. But most of us want to see the unis — even if nothing is changing from what Reebok was producing.

Thanks to Paul, as well as Terry Duroncelet and Tim E. O’Brien for staying up late trying to find out any breaking news. Needless to say, we’re all pretty disappointed. Absolutely NOTHING (of any kind) to be found on the Seahawks sites. Looks like that will be the only surprise come Tuesday.

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

~~~

A visit to “Swingers” constitutes spring training…

4-1-12 s-Cage

Click to enlarge

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with Matt Armstrong, with a new look for the Falcons:

Phil,

I love the Atlanta Falcons’ throwback unis. I’ve never really been satisfied with the new logo since they rebranded. I’ve turned the clock back on this uniform concept, and tweaked the old logo to make the falcon a little more agressive. I think it’s a good hybrid of old school and new.

Matt Armstrong

~~~

Next up is Michael Schlossberg, with some new gear for the Cats:

Phil:

This year the Arizona Wildcats basketball team debuted an alternate gray uniform. I thought to create a gray one to wear on the football field, except I thought the all gray was too much for basketball so I kept the helmet blue and made blue pants to go along.

When the basketball jersey’s came out, I found out that entire rest of the country refers to Arizona as just “Zona”, so I created a black jersey to be worn for prime time games. Despite black not being a Wildcats color, black sells to high school kids.

Bear Down,
Michael S.

~~~

We close with a new logo concept for the Marlins by Jeff Worthington:

Phil

I began this logo concept as soon as the new Marlins logo was announced, because I couldn’t stand it.

One computer crash and lost hard drive later, I had to start from scratch, and during a 2 day seminar I completed this in Illustrator as a “hand drawn” concept.

It’s crude, but I figured I’d send it to you.

Thanks for all you guys do!

Jeff Worthington

~~~

And that will do it for this week. Check back next week for more.

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Mike Engle

Mike Engle’s Request…

As reported yesterday, Uni Watch reader, commenter, vibraphonist and occasional MoVi-wannabe-concepter has a simple request of you fine readers.

This was posted in Friday’s comments, and also on yesterday’s main article. But some of you may not have seen it, so here it is again:

~~~

Calling all Uni Watchers!

Yes, the St. Louis Cardinals’ striped stirrups are glorious, the Oakland A’s’ yellow sanis and white cleats are quintessentially “swingin’,” and the Miami Marlins’ new home run thing-a-ma-whatzee in right field is a truly epic tour-de-what-the-fuck, but surely, the concession stands beckon every once in a while. With Opening Day upon us, I am writing a piece for the Marcus Samuelsson blog (here’s my repertoire) showcasing the best and most unique MLB food items.

I’m not interested in garden-variety Dodger Dogs or Fenway Franks; for that matter, I can’t really do much with “I swear, Stadium X has the best pepperoni pizza” either, and I’m DEFINITELY NOT looking to list chain restaurants at Yankee Supercenter Shopping Mall Stadium. I’m looking for unique food items that you can only get in one place. If it’s regionally awesome, unique, or just completely Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives-style “out of bounds,” I want to hear about it.

Here’s a short sample list of what I *already* have:

• The 24-inch hot dog coming to Arlington
• Curly-W pretzels at the Nats Park
• A hilarious pulled pork parfait from Miller Park
• The Schmitter at Citizens Bank Park

With that in mind, any further information would be greatly appreciated. I’ll do my best to scan the comments for your input, but I’d prefer that you email me at engle at samuelssongroup dot com. If you happen to have an article and/or a picture to go with it, that would be even better, but if you send a picture, please include a photo credit as well.

From each according his stirrvp, To each according his strype,
From each according appetite, To each and every bite,

MIKE ENGLE

~~~

Thanks Mike. OK readers, if you’d rather post your suggestions in the comments below, that’s fine too. MMMMMMM…I’m hungry now.

~~~~~~~~~

6845317852_3088909205_o

Contest reminder… I’m currently running a contest to redesign and rename the Cleveland baseball and Washington football teams. Full details here. I’ve already received at least a dozen submissions, with a few coming in yesterday as well. Contest is open until April 15th, so you have still have some time.

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OK. That’s all folks. Sorry about the lack of uni news but that’s just the breaks — it’ll just make Tuesday’s even all the sweeter, right? RIGHT!

Have a great Sunday — no foolin!

~~~

“Why schedule a big unveiling event for Tuesday if you’re gonna leak the jerseys on Saturday night (or Sunday, or whatever)? I think we’ll see plenty of new merch between now and 11am Tuesday, but not much ”” if anything ”” in the way of jerseys.” — Paul Lukas (at 1:05 am, Sunday morning).

 
  
 
Categories
NFL
Comments (138)

    It definitely is a much more modern look. Their current silver helmet screams 90’s to me

    Yeah, the silver helmet TOTALLY screams 90’s. I never liked those weird helmet stripes. Have we ever discussed if those are supposed to represent anything or are they just abstract decorations? The only thing I think they’re kinda reminiscent of is eyebrow whiskers on a cat, I guess:

    link

    link

    link

    link

    20 years ago, I would have killed for New Era to be making NFL hats. I wouldn’t be caught dead in that crap

    I surprised not to see Tha Shield emblazoned prominently on the Nike tees.

    Overall, meh and splllllllllllllllllbbbbb.

    Yeah, the caps suck. Tacky as all hell. I was hoping for a new hat supplier so I could get a fairly basic, fitted cap with a team logo, but it’s looking like that’s not gonna be possible, at least not yet.

    Let Twins 47 have a crack at ’em…

    looks to me like it was made with basic vinyl cut stickers. Would be a nice look but it reminds me of the Boise State Pro Combat helmet.

    Nike has screwed up already. Went on the Ravens site and found that according to Nike, Ray Lewis has changed his number from 52 to 89.
    link

    You mean link Didn’tcha hear? Ray Lewis is gonna play Tight End this year, and Tarelle Suggs is gonna play fullback.

    Someone should snap it up. It might be worth something some day.

    I’ve always been a big fan of NFL hats (I usually get the new draft cap or on field cap each year) but I have to say those New Era caps are horrible. The font is terribly tacky, some of the hats look mis-colored, and the elements of the hat do not mix together at all. With that being said I like the new features of including the team logo on the left side of the hat and the conference logo on the inner brim.

    I did notice in the draft caps, all the teams name arch THROUGH the logo behind it, except Oakland. Their wordmark arches over the logo for some reason.

    In response to Phil’s remark about the Texans potentially switching to red jerseys as their primary this shirt lists red as the teams alternate color, which would point to the team sticking with their current set up

    link

    Don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but images of the Seahawks New Era hats with their current logo were released

    link

    thanks alex — added that to the main entry … tough to tell if that is gray/silver or still the old suicide blue…

    If we’re keeping track of April Fools Day uni-related items, I saw someone posted a gray away kit for Manchester United next year.

    Even as an April Fools joke, screw that. They tried it in the 90s and it lasted for about one match.

    I really dig the current blue/black ones. Or even better, the solid blues they wore in 2008.

    Why is the primary color of the new Denver Nike stuff blue, when the Broncos are switching back to Orange?

    If I had to make a guess, I’d say it was because the logo was designed to appear on a navy background. Y’know, the mane is meant to be orange.

    As I said, just a guess.

    Because this way everyone buys blue Nike stuff now, then in August or September, they bring out orange Nike stuff and hope people buy that too.

    Does the “average” fan actually know about the jersey switch yet?

    Indeed. That, too.
    And, of course, they probably determined that navy sells better than orange.
    Until orange becomes “in,” of course (as you mentioned). Then, by god, they’ll be ready.

    Jeff’s Marlins logo is about 10,000 times better than the real one. What wrong with these American designers?

    Yeah I was going to say. That logo is MUCH more interesting & traditional than the current blah one. I’d remove the baseball or at least lower & shrink it.

    And yet, the Marlins actually “went back” to blue & orange, yet it just doesn’t feel like it & it’s so poorly executed.

    Assuming those are actually accurate (LOL), it’d mean a different sleeve stripe pattern on the orange alt than what they’ve used before. The old orange alt had 3 white-trimmed blue stripes.

    i’d be VERY wary of any chinese sites — and i won’t post them as the *REAL* deal unless there is independent confirmation from the actual NFL sites

    Indeed we are. But at least it’s something to calm our hype. Anyways, I’d you what you’re going to do. It’s gonna be better to wait until the confirmation.

    GSH stands for George Stanley Halas. His initials have been on the jersey since at least the 1984 season (he died in 1983).

    believe me when I tell you—do NOT do any business with any of these ‘NFLjerseys.com’or like that.

    fake, fake, fake scams. I deal with it all the time.

    “Oh, the site LOOKED real, it said ‘NFL’ on it…”

    Truly.

    I realize that’s a Chinese site…but where’d they get such an outrageous design to try to foist off as the real deal…unless it’s based on something?

    Just, y’know, sayin’.

    That sleeve treatment didn’t come out of nowhere and, sadly, it looks like something Nike would think was great. Really cool up close, a worthless blob beyond Row 30. Those sleeves look like one of my Aunt Christine’s throw pillows.

    Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

    Hmmmm let me doubt about that Seahawks jersey because they have a lot of different not-real-world models out there. So it’s maybe a weird jersey made by them (the chinese performers) without any official counterpart.

    Um, actually the only thing really wrong with it is the second thin green stripe at the very edge. Other than that it’s pretty close, shininess and exact shades of blue notwithstanding.

    For comparison: link

    Yeah, the shininess threw me.
    Thought it was a pattern in the fabric at first.
    Y’know, some kind of lovely batik print, perhaps.

    But, the vector shows it’s nuthin’.

    The only question I have for the Panthers hat is that New Era has released images of there new draft caps but they have the old logo on them, so I don’t know how true that cap with the old helmet with the new logo is.

    Call me crazy, but I like all the Bears new Nike/New Era stuff. The only problem is that they come with the Nike/New Era price tag.

    I wonder if these can be customized. I’d like the words “In The Woods” to appear below the phrase “Bears Just Do It” on my T shirt.

    I have to agree with Phil, that should be today’s headline. Can we find a way to import Facebook’s like button?

    “Can we find a way to import Facebook’s like button?”

    I’ve been thinking the Uni Watch comments need a “like” button (or something similar) for a while now. I posted the idea a few months ago but it was rather rudely shot down by someone. It doesn’t have to be called a “like” button. I actually think it would make more sense to call it a “high five” button since this is a sports related site.

    There have been SO MANY comments that I’ve wanted to “high five” over the years because I don’t always feel like putting the effort into clicking “reply”, typing out “I agree wholeheartedly with this comment and I give it my utmost approval”, and then clicking “Submit Comment”. Plus, replying to replies only goes so far; the “reply” button disappears eventually.

    Having a “high five” button would make the comments feel more interactive and would probably get more people to read the comments and subsequently submit comments.

    Sounds pretty gimmicky to me. Honestly I don’t think it fits Uni Watch’s style.

    Or maybe it reminds me of Seinfeld with Puddy’s chronic overindulgence of the high-five.

    There’s nothing wrong with a gimmick, especially if it ends up getting you the results you want.

    According to Wikipedia, “In marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something ‘stand out’ from its contemporaries.” Um, how many websites have their own version of a comment “like” button now? YouTube lets you “vote up” comments, Yahoo lets you “rate” comments. These are just a couple examples of major sites and it all came about because of the Facebook “like” button. How would Uni Watch’s version of a “like” button make it a unique special feature when almost every major website on the internet has it? Therefore it wouldn’t be a gimmick; it would be keeping up with advancements in technology.

    Maybe some people are fascinated with Facebook tendencies because Facebook offers features that people enjoy? It’s not an accident that Facebook is so successful.

    Yeah, but there’s only like 25 of us that actually post comments on a regular basis so a Like button is rather pointless, don’t you think?

    There’s nothing wrong with a gimmick, especially if it ends up getting you the results you want.

    True enough. But the results you want may not be the results I want.

    I’ve never been interested one little bit in the quantity of comments on the site; I’m interested in the quality of the comments on the site. I don’t think a Facebook “Like” button will add to that (indeed, I think it would detract from it), so we won’t be doing it.

    And if we did do you can be sure it would NOT be called a “High Five” button. Crikey….

    Let’s now move on. Thanks.

    “What’s “Facebook?” Is that on the Interwebs?”

    I don’t know. Some crap like MySpace that nobody will remember or use in 5 years.

    Meanwhile, I heard something about the Seahawks. They’re bringing back the lime green alternate.

    So I call up the Packers page of the NFL Shoppe and what is the FIRST thing I see?

    A women’s t-shirt with the words “Green Bay Packers Est. 1921.”

    Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

    The team was founded in 1919. It didn’t join the NFL until 1921. Even the Packers’ own web site used to make this mistake, and it drives me up the wall to keep seeing it on official stuff.

    Didn’t take the Swooshies but two minutes to piss me off. Doesn’t look good for the future.

    This is very problematic for myself and many other Cheesheads. It is very frustrating to see a team like the Packers (deep in tradition, and rich in history) to make these blatant errors. I have personally sent many inquiring e-mails to the Packers asking why they do this, and I have received zero response.

    On a different, but same note, Packers.com has a small write up about the change in the Packers Pro Shop:
    link

    Maybe they’re only counting the NFL date, not the prior two years, because that’s when they were officially established as an NFL team, as opposed to an independent team.

    I get that they are using the NFL established date, but that doesn’t change the fact that the team was actually established in 1919. I get it, and don’t get it at the same time… if that makes sense.

    It’s just frustrating to see Packers.com use one date, and then the merchandise use something else.

    As noted elsewhere, if that’s the case, why do all the original 8 AFL team shirts say 1960? It should be 1970, or at least 1966, by that logic.

    Doesn’t a team have one established date? Every team should use that in my opinion. Do away with the AFL and NFL dates, and just use the franchise’s first established date for everything.

    Aside from the AFL problem… are there any other times that have the same “issue” as the Packers?

    just be glad they don’t say “Est. 1905” like the warshington nationals do…

    “Aside from the AFL problem… are there any other times that have the same “issue” as the Packers?”

    The Arizona Cardinals would, but in the past they haven’t had enough merchandise for us to know how they are treated.

    The bears have a similar shirt from Nike that lists the year they joined the NFL (1920) and not the year they were founded (1919).

    The Cardinals don’t have a shirt like that available, at least not yet (this likely has something to do with the fact that they are in their 3rd city, and 4th location name: Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Arizona).

    A New Era hat prominently featuring the new Seahawks logo has been leaked. There is in fact gray/silver in the bottom left hand of the logo.

    link

    As long as Seattle does away with the all-blue, I’m fine with it.

    PS- this one’s for PL;

    Why did the NFL go with New Era for caps? Why not just have Swoosh do the entire thing?

    Seems as though they learned from the last contract.

    Besides, why not? Nike paid plenty for their contract, and the NFL could also ink deals with New Er and ’47.

    What the hell is the new fascination with snap-backs? I get vintage looks, but I don’t get going back to an incredibly outdated, ugly looking way to fit a cap.

    I prefer fitted, because there’s something about going through the process of getting it to fit your specific dome that just gives it that special “it’s mine” feel, but we also have figured out how to make stretch-fits. Why in the hell would we go back to plastic straps that look and feel terrible? What’s the next big “new” trend: velcro shoes?

    My problem with New Era fitted hats is that I can’t seem to find any place in town that carries the lower profile version. All they have are the ones slightly smaller than a pony keg.

    The adjustable New Eras, however, seem to have a lower crown.

    (Can’t speak to these draft hats, of course, just MLB hats).

    It’s a fashion thing and a cost thing, it used to be that your only option was to wear an old hat for that 70s/80s/90s design where they were only snap backs. I’m surprised no one took advantage of that type of hat’s popularity and cashed in by making new versions sooner.

    You no longer have to wear and old hat, and you have the ability to choose from any team rather than whatever ones you may be able to find. Heck, it has caused snappier dressers around my campus, no longer is color-coordination limited to those with different color fashion Braves/Yankees/Dodgers cap, you want to wear purple now you can rock a Charlotte Hornets cap. It’s genius really, as they are going for about the same price fitted hats were 10 years ago but they are selling like hotcakes. It’s also cool seeing old designs/team names/Color schemes etc. getting some exposure.

    I’m definitely with you, I’ll take a fitted cap over a snap-back any day, but this recent trend has introduced several new looks and given a platform to old teams/designs/color schemes etc. that would otherwise be forgotten in favor of the same 3 hats in different colors.

    The big problem with the old snapbacks was the plastic stubs would eventually break off the strap, leaving athletic or bandage tape as the only way to close up the strap.

    I wear a 7 3/8 fitted cap (normally) but most of the L/XL flexfits are waaaaay too big. I liked Reeboks low profile cotton caps with the cloth strap and buckle or alpha sizing. They look the best of any in my collection.

    It’s adjustable or nothing for me. Yeah, sometimes the snaps broke, but now they also make Velcro(tm) backs. Those are pretty good.

    As long as there’s a whole lot of nothing going on and we’re talking about the Seahawks, might as well reminisce about an April Fools joke that turned out to be less of a joke than we thought.

    link

    @Ray Barrington, the 1921 is ony semi-correct. The NFL only puts established dates relevant to their league. I don’t see too much 1898 Cardinals stuff, do you? And I say “semi-correct” because they should put a asterisk or something by 1921 because they had to boot the Packers out of the league once. : )

    If that’s the case, the shirts for all of the old AFL teams should say Est. 1970. Or at least 1966 when the merger was announced. I didn’t see any Oakland Raider games in the NFL in 1963, did you?

    That is a little different though, the AFL and the NFL merged, its not like they all left the AFL and joined the NFL. Also the Packers weren’t in a league prior to joining the NFL.

    RIP Giorgio Chinaglia.

    Interesting the hold the Cosmos name still has amongst us middle aged US futbol fans.

    We children of the late ’70s and early ’80s feel a bit older today, don’t we? R.I.P.

    Life has a way of doing that do us.
    And you’ll find the rate of it accelerates every year.

    The rate of people not being in the world that you kinda figured would always be in the world, I meant.

    That was actually a bit before my time though, but I remember the name Giorgio Chinaglia from when I was a real little kid. Him and Pele.

    As an Arizona Wildcat alum, I say NO to those concepts. The real gray uniforms looked like shit, so if it’s not all cardinal red, navy blue and white, give it to another school. Don’t outfit my Wildcats in that.

    As Nike enters in, I must say that if Reebok did one thing right when it comes to apparel. And that was apparel with throwback logos. I know certain teams(like the Chicago Bears) print a lot of their own throwback tees, but Reebok also did hats and jackets. Which by the way were a lot better looking than what Mitchell and Ness is throwing at consumers at ridiculous prices.

    The CBS Sunday Morning News had segment about Wrigley gum. The clip showed Wrigley Field and then had a team shot of the Cubs with a uniform I was not aware of. They did not say the year. I looked quickly at the Dressed to the Nine site and did not see them.

    Did anybody see those unis? If not I can try and find the clip online.

    Yep, that is the uniform in the team shot CBS showed this morning.

    What year was that and what else is known about them?

    From 1930-1936, the Cubs experimented with a series of alternate uniform designs for both home and road. The 1930-31 home alternates revived pin stripes and another variation of the C-UBS emblem on the front. The 1932-33 alternates continued to pin striping but in place of the usual insignia on the jersey a slanted script treatment of CUBS was displayed in navy and red. The red wishbone C on the cap was replaced by a white fancy capital C. The alternate road counterpart for these years had a slanted script CHICAGO across the chest and a smaller script CUBS on the left sleeve (once again the full team name spelled out).

    The use of the same font and slogan for all 32 teams on the hats and tees is irresponsible and lazy. It’s the kind of thing I’d have expected from Sears in 1978, not New Era and Nike in 2012. Come on guys, there’s PEOPLE here!

    Tom Crabtree (Packers TE and avid tweeter) caused a minor firestorm on Twitter today saying:

    “Not sure if I like the “G” being taken off our helmets on the new Nike uniforms. Maybe it’ll grow on me.”

    He then started the slogan #KeepTheG and had a plethora of people fooled. He even tweeted that he saw the stuff with his own eyes. He recently put an end to this saying that Nike heard everyone’s outcry and decided to keep the “G”.

    Why are the caps on Facebook? Is New Era too cheap to spring for some extra server space?

    I was clicking through the draft caps, when I noticed that the ones for the Carolina Panthers use their previous logo – link

    @Ray-because the AFL and NFL agreed to merge with one another. The Cardinals, Bears(Staleys) and Packers, all established before the NFL(APFA), were accepted in as individual football clubs, not an entire league. Da Bears were est. in 1920. They were the Decatur Staleys in 1919, one year before the NFL was founded.

    No, they weren’t. That’s a Wikipedia “concensus” falsehood, based on a mis-reading of Papa Bear’s biography.

    Halas founded the Decateur Staleys in 1920.

    @Chance, the authorized 75th anniversary book of the Chicago Bears credited AE Staley for founding the Bears(Staleys). The first game played were Staley employees against a team from Arcola, IL in 1919.

    So all that new stuff with the NE and Swoosh logos and stupid Swoosh company slogans but I have yet to see anything at all that has an NFL logo pictured on it. NOTHING. Maybe it’s in a place that’s not pictured but it’s surprising to me that league that’s “all about the shield” doesn’t have it visible on anything yet.

    Thank you, I’ve just been searching for info approximately this subject for a while and yours is the best I’ve found out so far. But, what about the conclusion? Are you certain concerning the source?|What i do not realize is actually how you’re now not really a lot more neatly-favored than you might be now. You are very intelligent.

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