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Uni Watch

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Remember Atlantic High, the Florida high school that recently unveiled that two-tone football uni? It looked pretty crazy on that kid standing in a school hallway, but how did it look on the field?

Thanks to John Bennardo, whose video production company shoots Atlantic’s games, we now know. Note that some players wore the mismatched socks, but not all of them did. And nobody seems to have worn the little mismatched shoe sleeves or the mismatched arm sleeves. So the two-tone effect is primarily limited to the jersey and pants.

I’ll say it: I don’t think it’s so awful. Silly? Sure. But not the end of the world. Certainly better than Oregon’s diamondplate look or the Maryland “pride” design (although I realize that’s damning with faint praise), because it’s just color-blocking — no dipshit graphics or gewgaws.

Bennardo’s company will be shooting Atlantic’s next game tonight. “I have instructed my camera guy to get some good pregame shots of the team warming up, stretching, putting the unis on, etc.,” he says. Stay tuned.

Oh, and as long as we’re talking about high school football, remember that school with the illegible uni numbers? They’re about to get somewhat more legible.

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Candela update: Some of you may recall that Kirsten and I produced a museum exhibit about the Candela Structures back in 2009. In the three years since then, I’ve occasionally given updates as additional pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place (the most recent one was back in May).

Now, after some delays and false starts, I’m happy to announce that we’ll be writing an article about the structures for the New York Times Magazine. It won’t run until next spring, but we’re very excited about it. My hope is that it will tie together everything we’ve learned about the structures over the past few years. Yee-haw!

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Show & Tell update: Show & Tell has a new official timer. Details here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: The Panthers wore their blue alts last night — the second time in three weeks that they’ve worn them, which means they can’t wear them again this season — unless the blue jersey is now the primary and the black jersey is now the alternate, which would be news to me. I’ll try to find out today. ”¦ The “ny” chest logo on the Giants’ road jersey is supposed to be red. But Doug Fischer notes that the logo looked blue with a red outline for several players last night. I’ll ask Joe Skiba about it. ”¦ Speaking of Skeebs, he’s featured in this excellent article about NFL helmet standards. ”¦ Latest person to get a glass eye imprinted with the logo of his favorite team is a Kentucky Wildcats fan. … When a home plate ump wears a blazer these days, he usually wears it right over his chest protector. But Angel Hernandez added a windbreaker in between the blazer and the protector the other night. Never seen that before (good spot by Jason Werth). … “With Reebok reintroducing the CCM brand for goalie equipment (much like they did with Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller and the KOHO line), InGoal will be profiling the Lefevre gear shop, which will be making CCM-branded gear,” reports John Muir. … Also from John: New throwback mask for Jonathan Quick (assuming the lockout ever gets settled, that is). … Amazing DIY project: What can you do with 1000 football cards and 50 hours? Here, see for yourself (big thanks to Jon Solomonson). … Notre Dame football is adding a 125th-anniversary decal this weekend. Anyone know why they didn’t wear it from the outset of the season? … Redskins backup QB Kirk Cousins had an overly baggy jersey during the preseason but has now gotten it tailored. … Interesting article on the background of color-out events at Virginia Tech (from Chris Sykes). … Yeesh, check out all the pink NFL gear in the new Eastbay catalog (from Scott Novosel). … In a related item, nothing says breast cancer awareness like a pink trash can (from Joe LaFerla). … After 49ers QB Alex Smith was idiotically reprimanded by the NFL for wearing an SF Giants cap, Giants skipper Bruce Bochy showed some solidarity with him by wearing a Niners cap. Nicely done (thanks, Brinke). … An American speedskater allegedly tampered with a Canadian rival’s skates — on his coach’s orders. ”¦ A Turkish soccer player took off his jersey while celebrating a goal, at which point a fan ran onto the field and took the jersey from him (Brinke again). ”¦ Rare sight last night in Tampa, as B.J. Upton was wearing two-in-ones! (Screen shot by Lou DeGeorge.) ”¦ Two odd things about the uni number on Tyler Cloyd’s batting helmet last night: First, the number was badly askew. And second, Cloyd wears No. 50 (from Kevin Stephan). ”¦ Some good Utah State uniforms from years past in this article about new inductees to the school’s hall of fame (from Aaron Keller). ”¦ Someone used some markers and some creativity to make a black cast look like an Adidas sneaker (from Kurt Esposito). ”¦ A foul ball off the bat of Pirates outfielder Travis Snider broke one of the letters in the “PNC Park” sign behind home plate. ”¦ Timmy Steffes was thrifting in Clinton, Maryland, when he came across a varsity jacket that manages to rip off the Vikings and the Bears simultaneously. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Wouldn’t you think a school would rather have its own logo, instead of poaching someone else’s? ”¦ Coupla great finds from Bruce Menard. First, dig this absolutely awesome P-F Flyers ad. What a beauty! And then dig these 1971 shots of Willie Mays with Dinah Shore. Look closely and you’ll see Willie was wearing a cap with a logo patch, not a standard-issue game cap. But that’s more than made up for by the picture-perfect blousing around the waist area of his sweater.

 
  
 
Comments (91)

    I’m really curious what the NFL would actually do in the event of Carolina deciding to come out in the blue jerseys a 3rd time. It’s such a stupid rule anyway.

    Am I the only one who likes the black home uniform? Granted, I’d take all the makers’ marks off it, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

    Agreed. That set looks so much better than boring black. Do they (stupidly) shy away from wearing the blue so much to keep from turning off fans of schools other than UNC?

    I think the biggest (and probably only) problem with the blue jersey is that it can look a bit Lion-ish. If it had black numbers, it’d be perfect.

    This is something the Panthers do every year – they come out in the blues for early season contests and save the black for November and December games when heat isn’t a factor. I find this practice frustrating as a diehard Panther fan; the silver helmet/white jersey/white pants combo looks terribly unbalanced but sees the field for a large majority of games.

    I may have said it here before, but I’ll say it again: the Panthers will never change uniforms until Jerry Richardson dies. He thinks he’s built a classic when in reality he’s created a tacky tradition that is neither classic nor modern. What a debacle.

    Black vs. Blue vs. White doesn’t matter for night games. Darker colors are only affected by the sun.

    The ingoalmag.com/news/ingoal-in-montreal-carey-price-ccm-canadiens-goalie-coach-lefevre-factory/ hyper link isnt working

    attention comrades…

    don’t forget to sport your friday stirrups proudly (and send me pics)

    that is all…have a good day peeps

    Wouldn’t it make sence for the NFL to allow teams to wear there alternate on the road as many times as they like when the home team decides to wear white ,but still restrict it to twice at home ,so for example if the Giants had the option they could wear there red alternates in Dallas and teams like Carolina could wear there light blue as many times as they liked on the road if the home team opts for white!

    Wouldn’t make sense at all if you shipped three or four times as many primary jerseys to retail as alternate jerseys.

    As usual, the merchandising tail wags the on-field dog. Douchebags.

    That’s the way all sports have gone with merchandising Paul, it started here in Europe During the 90s ,now Nike and Adidas have convinced the North American leagues of the money to be made from merchandise sales but unlike many of the major European teams most of Americas teams have managed to keep tradition while chasing the merchandise $$$!

    It seems like in the long run they’d want to increase demand for all uniforms they sell and therefore would want teams to wear them each equally, to get people to want to buy both of them. If you ship more of one so your intention is to sell more of the primary jersey, that’s fine, but if people already own the primary and they want to go out and buy an alternate because they are wearing it more… those same people aren’t likely to buy a second primary jersey if the alternate isn’t available, are they?

    If merchandising was truly wagging the on-field dog, you’d think more teams would be rotating from year-to-year… like Denver switching from blue primary last year to orange primary this year — that’s gotta sell more jerseys, someone that bought a blue jersey last year is probably going to run out and buy an orange one this year.

    But does what they wear really influence what people buy that much? If people in Carolina like they blue jersey that much more than the black, even if they only wear it twice a year, that’s what people will look for to buy, even if it is harder to find. Especially if there is an element of limited availability.. ‘Oooh, look what I got a blue jersey… it’s hard to find those.’ Is that what they did in Denver, added the orange jersey as the alternate so it had limited availability for a few years (and get everyone wanting it) – plus the nostalgia of they used to wear orange at home from 1962-96 & and then everyone’s going to run out and really want one in 2012 when they make it the primary?

    I think people will buy the jerseys they want to buy. Every time I see a crowd shot of the Seahawks I always see a bunch of the neon green jerseys and they only wore them once in 2009.

    If everyone goes out and snatches up all the Panthers’ blue jerseys, but the 3x more available black ones are not getting sold as quickly as they’d like, if that goes on for too many years, they’d eventually make the blue the primary, no?

    In Europe the constant merchandising ie teams like Manchester Utd and Barcelona change there primary and alternate (home and away) uniforms every year ,the angle being that kids will hassle there parents to buy new jerseys because kids always like to have the latest thing the players are wearing esp if there friends do, of course there are many adults who buy them for themselves to as a lot of alternate designes in soccer in recent years have been aimed at the fashion market and will it look good with jeans ,the best example of this was England’s most recent away shirt which was a ridiculous looking grey/blue number instead of the historically traditional red away shirt!

    “If people in Carolina like they blue jersey that much more than the black,…that’s what people will look for to buy”

    I just hope that a ‘Old Man Pulaski’-type retailer doesn’t set up shop in Charlotte:

    link

    Excelsior, you fathead!

    link

    This video is of the Reagan High School (Greensboro, NC) girls volleyball team. They have tie-dye warm up shirts and the game uniforms have school name on back and a very abstract pattern.

    Because nothing says “Reagan” like tie-dye!

    “We have some hippies in California. For those of you who don’t know what a hippie is, he’s a fellow who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah.” – Ronald Reagan, 1967.

    “Note that same players wore the mismatched socks…”

    Just a heads-up. Back to sleep I go, with link burned into my brain. Okay, it wasn’t that bad. They strangely looked faster; especially that kid who took the opening kick for a score.

    The PF Flyers ad looks like it would be tucked into the shoe–as a stand-up shelf/display ad. Note the cut on the right edge that parellels the shoe in the ad.

    Very cool.

    Until I saw that PF Flyers display, I never knew that the PF was an acronym for “posture foundation.” I love learning.

    I don’t recall if being mentioned here, but I saw in SI that there’s an NBA TV doc coming out about the 1992 Lithuanain basketball team, who famously wore the Grateful Dead sponsored tie dye uniforms.

    Those JU Dolphins’ uniforms were the bees’ knees, right? I like how the lettering is arranged in a smile, instead of the customary frown (or rainbow, if you prefer).

    I like how his wristband is in line with the box on the backboard. Makes it look like he is blocking a shot with a severed hand.

    Why? Because I’m finally going to get to check out Bellevue’s brand new skate plaza (I’m legitimately giddy)? Or because I’ll somehow be inspired by WVU in all gray? Or am I missing something else?

    the prospect of an adidas sneaker cast. haha!

    i wish you nothing but the safest, most enjoyable time you can have on the deck… but if you really do “break a leg” i’ll be over with sharpies in hand!

    Are they really wearing that stupid-ass gray tomorrow? I’m headed up first thing in the morning, I really hope I don’t have to see the Old gold and blue in gray and… Gray.

    Sorry Coleman, it’s gonna be an all-gray day. Personally, I like them. I’d REALLY like to see them go gray helmet/gold jersey/gray pants. But tomorrow will be gray/gray/gray.

    I read the Scout WVU message boards (bluegoldnews.com), and there’s usually a thread each week about what the upcoming combo will be. Most of the time the announcements come from the WVUSports Twitter feed and/or those of the athletes themselves.

    Kinda funny the site you used is bluegoldnews, I didn’t see anything about gray in that domain name. (Not a shot at you, but at the whole gray idea)

    Does anyone else see the irony of creating the dark area of a racially hostile logo using black players faces? I’m half joking but I did find it interesting how many players faces were used to create the dark parts of the Redskins logo.

    The Tulsa World has a section in today’s paper that allows you to print and cut out a paper player of your favorite Prep Star…Wonder if this notoriety will go to their big square heads?

    link

    The cap Willie Mays is wearing in those photos looks like the felt caps with the elastic in the back that were sold at stadiums in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I have an old Milwaukee Brewers one from back then as well as a couple of that style that I picked up for my kids on a recent visit to Cooperstown.

    I haven’t figured out the Uni connection yet, but Happy 100th birthday, Chuck Jones.

    (I checked to see if he directed Baseball Bugs, but that was Friz Freleng.)

    Pretty bush league for Atlantic High to be faking that kick… they must have been up by 30 at that point. If you’re going to fake the kick, throw it to a kid who doesn’t get many touches.. not the guy who ran in FIVE touchdowns before that.

    Doesn’t look like they intentionally faked the kick, the holder didn’t catch the snap cleanly. I’m sure they have some code word for that situation (ours was “Fire”) which tells the eligible receivers to run a route because the snap was mishandled.

    “Rare sight last night in Tampa, as B.J. Upton was wearing two-in-ones!”

    Rays play in St. Petersburg. Sorry for being a stickler, but it is one of those minor things that gets under my skin.

    The NY Times article includes this important commentary on NFL “sponsorship”:
    Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a member of the N.F.L.’s head, neck and spine committee, said that permitting Riddell to be the only brand identified on the field could also be misleading to fans or to parents considering buying helmets for their children.

    “I think we need to get away from ‘the’ helmet of the N.F.L.,” Guskiewicz said. “The fact that only one helmet can be advertised, the perception is there that they don’t have a choice. I think we need to educate them about that choice.”

    As president of a youth football club, I can tell you that Guskiewicz is 100% correct. Parents of our players look to the NFL as the guide for how to outfit their kids. That can lead to a serious delusion about what equipment is safe. Helmet safety is still in the dark ages.

    Paul, forget glass eyes, I think we’ve found another Fan Trend that might be right up your alley: link

    If you don’t think that’s awesome/hilarious, we probably wouldn’t be friends.

    The bottom part of the T is way too thick. To put that much effort into facial hair, and not be accurate, is just sad.

    This man deserves pity, not praise.

    He also has to make a face for the mustache part to look like crossbar…

    Come on, Having some fun with facial hair is why it’s there.

    …but that opinion comes from someone who can’t grow a proper beard and has similar thoughts on head hair, leading to a history of weird haircuts and died hair (frosty tips back in the late 90s? Hell yeah.).

    Other college logo’s I’d like to see made into facial hair:

    Oregon’s O
    Indiana’s Interlocking IU
    Iowa’s Hawkeye
    Syracuse’s block S
    Script Ohio…

    A trailer for the Jackie Robins movie that is coming out next Spring has been posted: link

    Ebbet’s did most of the uniforms in the movie apparently.

    I am guessing someone has already commented on this, but with the Tyler Cloyd uni number on his helmet: the Phillies place their uni numbers on the back of the helmet, not on the brim. So either this was a REALLY huge mistake, or someone in the clubhouse was goofing around.

    link

    Student rendering of Pro Combat style Purdue football uniform drawing interest. Like the helmet design with the railroad tracks (though I love the traditional gold helmet), but that all black uni is hideous.

    But the kids like it. Isn’t that all that matters these days?

    In the same way this qualifies as “art,” I suppose:

    link

    Which I say not to impugn Rothko – well, not mostly, in that I get it but it’s also a schtick that wears real thin real fast yet he stuck with it for like decades – but I don’t see a principled way to exclude the one example but not the other.

    “How does that even qualify as a “design”? It’s just a solid-black uniform.”

    >>>YOU MAY WANT TO RIP YOUR EARS OUT FOR THE FIRST LINK<<<

    The same way that most young people consider link as a musical masterpiece (or at least the de-facto song for Summer, which ends tomorrow), and see link as “weird”, or “devilish”.

    Much like ‘Starship’, the uniform grabs the attention of those who expect something to follow a tired pattern that somehow keeps leading to “success”. In this case, a uniform that they expect to be tough-looking, badass warrior-invoking, and anything that’s associated with being “manly”, because logic forbid that they don’t wear black-heavy uniforms or… *gasp* link! That would be…

    THE

    WORST

    POSSIBLE

    THING!!!

    But I’m sure you already knew all of this.

    Damn, I need to get on Twitter. I mean, if a pathetic modified Oregon uniform can get national attention, some of my concepts should make me a global celebrity.

    I love the helmet. You know, maybe Universities should let their students help (I said help, not just design – some stuff can be crazy, I’m sure) with the design….Gotta be better than leaving it up to the douchebags……

    The older I get, the more conservative I get – but, as I continue to learn, only in some ways. I think the Atlantic High School football uniforms are a bit silly, and personally, I think the Oregon and Maryland uniforms are much better. Regarding last year’s Maryland ‘Pride’ uniforms, I do agree they would have been better if the shoulder images would have the reverse of the helmets – and I know that was discussed ad infinitum here.

    When Nike debuted the new NFL uniforms, I was aghast at the new look of the Seahawks. Then I saw it on the field, and … not so bad. In fact, I really like the dark blue, and I think a dark blue jersey with white pants would be a terrific look.

    The Spurs alternate jersey (yesterday)? Eh – whatever. WVU (my two-time alma mater) in all gray? Eh – whatever. I do like the gold over blue or blue over gold look, but as long as the Mountaineers never go BFBS, I’m good.

    I don’t think the Oregon uniforms are so bad. After all, what’s so bad about florescent green and yellow? I’m a big fan of Florida State (to the point of getting FSU tickets every year at link ) and have you seen theirs? It’s just uniforms.

    A’s pitcher Jarrod Parker had retired the first seven batters, then face Ichiro. Ichiro hits a comebacker to Parker, but the ball slips through the buttons and into his jersey. Parker couldn’t pull the ball out and Ichiro is safe on that hit.

    About the only thing that makes tonight’s Pirates-Astros game watchable is the Colt .45s throwbacks.

    Atlantic High School looks like a bunch of clowns. Literally.

    That’s not a clown comment, bro. Well, it is, but it isn’t.

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