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Uni Watch

Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New

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So what’dja think of the new Oregon uniforms in last night’s Petroleum Bowl? Naturally, I liked the green socks, but I thought the silver feathers across the shoulders were a bit too busy. In any case, get used to this design template, because it’s what they’ll be wearing for the next few seasons. Lots of additional photos here.

Meanwhile, over at the We Don’t Even Have a Football Team but Somehow We’re Sponsoring This Bowl, Texas Tech went GFGS and debuted a new helmet, which had a red raider on horseback (or at least I think that’s what it was) on one side and TV numbers on the other. Their opponent, Arizona State, also showed up with a new helmet — big pitchfork on one side, gigantic TV numbers on the other.

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Trickle up, trickle down: Got an interesting note regarding the Jags’ two-tone helmet from reader David Lassen, as follows:

This helmet is a rare case of a design feature moving up the sports food chain, as it were. Here in southen California, we’ve had a number of high school helmets with that two-tone fade job for several years now. I assume they exist in other parts of the country as well.

Normally, things flow down ”” think of all the team logos “borrowed” from pro and college teams by high schools ”” but not so much the other way. A lot of the Nike/Oregon design excesses have been copied at the high school level but haven’t really moved into the pros.

Can you or your readers can think of other examples of design features moving from the more grass-roots levels to college and/or the pros?

That’s a good question. After searching my mental databases, I haven’t come up with any comparable examples. Anyone..?

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

We’re featuring the NFL playoff teams this week here at Collector’s Corner. Leading off with Seattle Seahawks, who’ll likely be facing the Denver Peytons in the Super Bowl (I’m a Niners fan, but I am also realistic). Here’s their first-season yearbook from 1976. Notice how no one bothered to crop the navy from the negative space within the Seahawks facemask in the center. You say you’re not an NFC fan? Then this Broncos pennant has the old bucking horsey.

Here’s the rest of this week’s eBay roundup:

• Now this is a classic-looking vintage Boston Patriots helmet, my friends.

• Really nice-looking 1960s 49ers bobblehead.

• Does this plain white Chiefs T-shirt look like it’s worth almost a grand? No.

• Er, I think someone was asleep on the manufacturing line when this Chargers helmet plaque came rolling by for decal application.

• For you kids out there, before Boomer Esiason hosted the CBS pregame, he was the Bengals’ QB. Here’s what the first generation of striped Bengals jersey tops looked like.

• Your 1960s New Orleans Saints came marchin’ in to this record album.

• Be a Packer Backer with this 1960s seat cushion. While you’re sitting on your cushion, drape this stadium blanket over the rest of you. (This auction already ended, but take a look at this retro jacket, eh?)

• Ah, 1990s Russell NFL Pro Line hoodie goodness, featuring your Carolina Panthers.

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

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One of the nicest pieces of design I’ve seen lately is the package for these small chocolates (I included the pen to provide scale), which Heather picked up somewhere in Manhattan. There’s something about the design and shape that reminds me of a flash drive — like, are you sure it doesn’t have a built-in USB jack? Plenty tasty, too.

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Tick-Tock: Today’s Ticker was compiled and written by Garrett McGrath.

NFL News: While lamenting the Dolphins loss to Rex’s Jets during the post-game press conference, Ryan Tannehill wore a shirt with the old Dolphins logo. It is really noticeable with the background and microphone new logos and the Elmo off-screen (from Marc Burgess).

College Football News: Here are LSU’s shoes for the Steakhouse Bowl (from Patrick O’Neill). … Missouri’s wearing black-gold-black for the Telecom Bowl, and Baylor’s wearing black for the Tortilla Chip Bowl (thanks, Phil). … Mizzou will wear helmets with an alternate logo for the Telecom Bowl. … No photo but John Barnes says: “Previous UNLV coach Mike Sanford stopped the practice of putting players’ names on the backs of their jerseys, saying he wanted to emphasize team over individuals.”

Soccer News: New kits for Italy, Ghana, and South Korea, plus new third kits for Brazil and Recreativo (scroll down to see the great socks), a new crest for AC Milan, and Plymouth Argyle is having a fan vote on a new jersey (all this from Trevor Williams).

Grab Bag: Yesterday Paul asked about Gemini Athletic Wear. The company does outfit a lot of college and high school hockey teams (from Jeffrey Metzdorff). … Our friends at SportsLogos.net have issued their “Best and Worst New Logos of the Year” awards. … Another awesome bowling uniform: The 1912-1913 Champion Bowlers from Wick Piano Factory of North Saint Paul, Minnesota (from Gary Olson). … “Michael Carberry has been playing with the England Cricket team during their current tour of Australia,” says reader Graham Clayton. “He is the first international player to use the Ayrtek helmet, which looks totally different to all previous helmets.”

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It’s fairly axiomatic that New Year’s Eve is for amateurs. The crowds, the inflated prices, the vomiting douchebags, the assorted nonsense — it’s a nightmare. And yet there’s that instinctive tug to, you know, do something on Dec. 31. Is there any way to resolve these conflicting impulses?

Years ago my friends Karen and Jon came up with an excellent solution. They invited a bunch of friends to join them for a 2pm lunch at an old-school-ish Manhattan eatery (most NYCers either have the day off or have a shortened workday). After lunch, they and their friends would decamp for drinks at a few nearby bars, perhaps detouring along the way for a quick walk through a portion of Central Park. By 6pm, everyone would be on their way home. They called this little routine New Year’s Eve-ternoon, and it was such a hit that they decided to make it an annual ritual.

Today will mark my seventh time participating in New Year’s Eve-ternoon, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ll get to see well over a dozen of my favorite people, have a nice meal, raise a glass (okay, several glasses), ring out the old, ring in the new, and be home before all the bullshit starts. I’ve found it to be a remarkably pleasant way to punch my Dec. 31 ticket, and I heartily recommend it to one and all.

As for the evening, I’m planning on something small and quiet. With luck, I’ll be asleep before midnight, and that suits me just fine. Whatever your plans are for today and tonight, I hope they turn out well. Thanks for a swell 2013, and let’s do even better next year. Peace. ”” Paul

 
  
 
Comments (76)

    Good point…would also include:

    Super Bowl
    Mardi Gras
    Cinco de Mayo
    Memorial Day
    Fourth of July
    Labor Day

    “and Baylor’s wearing black for the Tortilla Chip Bowl (thanks, Phil). … Mizzou will wear helmets with an alternate logo for the”

    the two links in this part are swapped

    I like the shade of green Oregon used on that uni, if the picture is a fairly accurate representation. It needs more yellow, though. Otherwise I’d say that is pretty tame by their recent standards.

    Linkages in the lede are not working. At least for me. I can hover over them and they go green, but clicking leads nowhere.

    I think that Seahawks program cover is interesting in that it kinda shows that facemask colors weren’t really part of team identities yet. There’s multiple teams depicted with the wrong color for the time – the Packers, Seahawks & Bucs with white, the Giants with blue, the Falcons black, and couple others. I wonder when the NFL started actually caring about accuracy on helmet renderings.

    Aside form the Redskins and the Vikings which are depicted with the “3D” type image, all the others are subject/limited to the smallest number of colors the printer thought they could get away with and still make the helmets/pennants look OK.

    Notice they use no more than 3 (but mostly 2) colors for the entire pennant.

    I’m wondering why the other pennants on the program cover are NFC teams. Seattle was a AFC West team when they came into the league. Any reason why that might be, or just an oversight?

    Actually, Seattle played in the NFC in 1976, while Tampa Bay was in the AFC West. The teams swapped conferences the next year. The schedule was also altered so that both expansion teams played every other team in the NFL during those 2 seasons.

    Seattle played its first season in the NFC West and the Bucs in the AFC West, then they switched conferences in ’77 “permanently” (until Seattle had to switch back for realignment in 2002). The idea was for both teams to play every team in the league in their first two years.

    A couple of other oddities stood out to me (a lifelong fan of the team since ’76):

    – The pennant wheel includes all the NFC teams, plus Tampa Bay, who played that inaugural season in the AFC West.

    – The inside ad for kids’ merch at the Bon Marche included a Seahawks “waist basket”.

    – The ad showed a rugby shirt with the number 12, indicating that the ’12 man’ fan honorific may have been a marketing ploy well before they retired the number in ’84. Or they knew what a huge fan favorite future 3rd-string QB Sam Adkins was going to be.

    The ad showed a rugby shirt with the number 12, indicating that the ’12 man’ fan honorific may have been a marketing ploy well before they retired the number in ’84.

    …or 12 was just a popular football number at the time, seeing how it was 1976 and everyone knew Joe Namath, Roger Staubach, Ken Stabler and Terry Bradshaw.

    The teams in the wheel were the teams on the Seahawks’ schedule that year. Though they were officially in the NFC West, they didn’t play a true NFC West schedule. They played each NFC member once, plus the Bucs. After switching conferences for 1977, they did the same kind of schedule in the AFC, and then in 1978 the NFL went to the 16-game schedule and the expansion teams became part of the normal scheduling format.

    It is also interesting to see the helmet illustration with the logo even though the team would wear plain silver helmets during the preseason and first few games of 1976 before the actual stickers arrived.

    Good find!

    Ugh, no DumbGuy, the ’67 Broncos actually *did* wear blank helmets. Seattle’s blank helmets are a myth, Denver’s are not.

    Sports uniform history is hard enough to track without idiots intentionally spreading false information.

    Got my raffle prize in the mail yesterday. Thank you so much for all you do! I really enjoy your site and your insight!

    Unlike Ricko who commented last night – Happy New Year fellow codger! – I liked the new Ducks kit all ’round. Good that the Longhorns looked like the Longhorns too.

    The game from San Diego, though, was no treat for the eyes. Didn’t care for either helmet or the Grey Raiders jerseys. No sir.

    May 2014 bring more good things than 2013 took away!

    The multiple shades of green in the Alamo Bowl were particularly restful. I appreciated that the Oregon endzone contrasted with the FieldTurf. It made me rue the blah green color of the New York Jets’ uniforms, and hope that one day their treatment would be more tequila sunrise-ish.

    Even more egregious was the Texas Tech helmet logo. Without outlines, and the type of decal, and the low contrast between the black helmet & red logo, I had no idea what the logo actually was.
    I had to look it up online to see what is was supposed to be.

    I swear so many designs are created based on how they look if you are the one wearing them, or are up close, but it seems little thought is given how the look from the stands or on TV.

    And since I am ranting, who on earth decided to completely eliminate Sparky from the Arizona State logos? What could the justification for that possibly be??

    Lee

    To be fair, most helmet logos are nothing more than little blips of color from the stands or wide angle TV views anyway, so designing a logo with the close-up/in-person view in mind isn’t really a bad idea. Even a logo as simple as the Dallas Cowboys star is easily lost in the glare from the stadium lights if you’re a decent distance from it.

    Yes you are correct.
    The TT logo though was indecipherable on TV last night, even when using a one shot a player. That’s what I meant when I said “on TV”.

    Lee

    Thanks to third shift and the night off, if I sleep in I may not even be out of bed before midnight. At best I may still be on my first cup of coffee of the “morning”.

    To their credit, news agencies have abstained from using the corporate sponsors (when possible) in their recaps of the college bowl games. You’ll likely be reading reports of The Sun Bowl, not the Hyundai Sun Bowl, all for the better. Can’t do much for the Beef O’Bradys Bowl, though.

    The only thing worse than the name of the restaurant is their tag line: “See you at Beef’s!”

    I like how Adidas has incorporated their three stripes into the bottoms of the sleeves rather than across the shoulder. It is a little more subtle approach. I would be curious how they treat the long-sleeve versions. Would the three strips stay in the location or move all the way down by the hands.

    Has anyone else seen this Adidas template used before?

    link

    I know a lot of people on here do not like all white on football unis, but I really liked the Oregon look. The green socks add a lot to the look. The only thing that I dislike is the Ducks wordmark on the thigh, esp in grey/ silver.

    I know (or at least I think) they look at uniforms under pads and on a player in the prototype stage, but whatever the material that those numbers and graphics on Oregon’s uniform are made of really don’t look very good under stadium lights. I prefer the more even matte surface of fabric v. the shiny, wrinkly, highlight-catching texture of whatever they use.

    The silver feather design on the shoulder looked, at best, like duct tape, and at worst, like crumply aluminum foil.

    Other than the design, though, the actual construction of the jersey was new as well, so I’m sure we’ll see Nike’s other properties slowly migrating over to this new one in the coming years.

    After either bartending or delivering pizzas one NYE, it’s just another day to me. In most places I’ve worked, I’ve usually negotiated to work New Years morning in exchange for having Christmas Eve off. New Year’s-ternoon sounds like amazing fun!

    I think the 2 tone gradient thing is a evolution of the HGI Helmet craze which has made the helmet a canvas for exploration more than ever. As teams try to out do each other, they will arrive at similar solutions even at opposites ends of the spectrum (HS vs. Pros) I doubt whomever did the Jaguars helmet (Nike, Kahn himself) saw a high school team wearing it and decided to copy it. Its more about the evolution of the trend getting to similar points at the same time, for better or worse.

    You see this in other design and fashion trends all the time. Everyone is trying to push a look/trend forward their own way, and sometimes the top and the bottom get to the same result at the same time.

    Plus, San Diego State did the 2 tone helmet thing way before the jaguars or any HS did.

    Just want to wish all the UW family a hearty thank you for all the info and entertainment this year.

    Here’s to an even better year ahead.

    Nice piece over at Slate today on hockey sweaters and the short story “The Hockey Sweater” by Canadian writer Roch Carrier:

    link

    Unintentionally ended up watching a few minutes of the Ole Miss vs. Georgia Tech game yesterday. Perhaps this has been hashed over previously, but have to commend Ole Miss for their nice, long double-shoulder stripes. So much better than the Colts or UCLA’s ugly, vestigial stripes. Even Georgia Tech’s shoulder stripes or the Texans show that the shoulder stripe can be done well with today’s jerseys.

    Watching the US v Canada World Juniors game at the local BW3.

    Im sitting far enough away that on the small TV, it looks like the Rangers are playing the Blackhawks. :)

    2 things about the lack of comments over the “holiday” season:

    1) I enjoy coming home from work and only having to scroll through so few comments as opposed to seeing 200+ to read. Only the hardcore people tend to show up and usually they’re the ones with actual interesting things to say.

    2)It disturbs me to think that so many 9-5 jobbers only come here to read and comment all day while they are at work. Shouldn’t they be, you know, WORKING?!?!

    That old Broncos pennant shows the bucking horsey on a bluehelmet, which I don’t think was ever worn. AFAIK that bucking horsey only appeared on an orange helmet.

    “That old Broncos pennant shows the bucking horsey on a blue helmet, which I don’t think was ever worn. AFAIK that bucking horsey only appeared on an orange helmet.”

    I noticed the same thing. I have never heard of the Broncos wearing the old bucking horse logo on anything but orange helmets. Assuming we can trust the diligent research of our friends at the link and the link, it appears our recollections are correct.

    I wonder if the Broncos were planning on wearing the bucking horse logo on their helmets in 1966 – their first season wearing blue helmets – but decided against it at the last minute and decided to switch their logo. That might explain why they had a logo-less helmet that season as they waited for the new “D” decals to come in.

    It might also explain where this pennant came from. Perhaps it was produced just prior to the 1966 season, when the assumption was that the Broncos would use the bucking horse logo on the new helmets.

    “Perhaps it was produced just prior to the 1966 season, when the assumption was that the Broncos would use the bucking horse logo on the new helmets.”

    Correction: I meant the 1967 season.

    I’m beginning to think my hypothesis on the Broncos helmet featured on the pennant might have some legs. If you link, it features a blue helmet with a white center stripe bordered by an orange stripe (presumably on either side). That’s the same helmet striping pattern the Broncos used on their link. In 1968, when the Broncos debuted the “D” logo with the snorting horse, their helmets featured link.

    If the Broncos were initially planning to wear the old bucking horse logo on blue helmets in 1967, I’m disappointed they changed their minds. I think it would have looked pretty good.

    I know the “Chargers” helmet plaque in Collector’s Corner looks funny, but any possibility it’s really an Akron U helmet (and mislabeled as Chargers)? I seem to recall Akron wearing that exact helmet some time ago.

    I don’t think Akron had a lightning bolt. Air Force has used one for a while.

    The Chargers helmet sort of reminds me of the bad gumball version (but blue).

    link

    The UCLA Bruins: BFBS, clownish numbers….and some guys are wearing undersleeves that look like farkin’ LADIES LINGERIE! This Sun Bowl was a great opportunity for color vs color,either Orange vs powder blue or maroon vs powder blue. Sad.

    Has there ever been a school with a classic uni that has looked worse in BFBS than UCLA? What garbage! They look worse than they tackle.

    I didn’t read through everyone’s responses, but I’d say the current Seattle Seahawks uniform came up from Amateur-Pros with it’s neon green. It was never that neon before with the last uniform, it’s gotten even worse since last year. Also the GFGS uniform they use. That’s a team full of Nike quirks!

    Are we sure this is going to be the full-time Ducks uniform for the next few years? It seems a little early, normally they keep the unis for 3 years before replacing them. The current set has only been in use for 2 seasons.

    Man, the Alumni Games at Comerica are things of beauty. (The second one is just getting underway.)

    The Red Wings alumni in the first game wore the white 2009 Winter Classic design, while the second game has the red versions that were shown off when the current Winter Classic jerseys were unveiled. The Leafs are wearing their 1980s-style jerseys in both games (with the V-neck and NOT the lace-up collar of the 70s!).

    Oh, and both teams are wearing classic CCM 6100-style jerseys! The Wings still have that insert inside the collar, because they’re wearing lace-up collars, though the NHL logo is back on the tail, on the right hemline. (Too bad the CCM logo still has to be just below the back of the collar…)

    Happy New Year, everybody.

    One resolution I’ll propose is for the Browns. They should return Brownie the Elf to the back of their sideline parkas.

    Those may be the most beautiful Oregon uniforms I’ve ever seen, and I typically hate their digs. As a Jags fan, I still can’t stand those helmets, maybe this explains why.

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