Bizarre scene last night in San Antonio, as Spurs guard Manu Ginóbili’s left sneaker gave out (or, in the somewhat hyperbolic parlance of the broadcasters in the video shown above, “exploded”) in the midst of a play. Never seen anything like that before.
The best part: The footwear in question was made by you-know-who. So when Deadspin covered this incident last night, someone immediately posted the following comment: “Somewhere in Bangladesh, Phil Knight is pimp-slapping the shit out of some 11-year-old workers over this.” Well played.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that not so long ago, the only video of this that we’d be able to see would be some shaky camcorder footage that someone took of his TV, and we’d only be able to see it for maybe half a day before the NBA told YouTube to take it down. But the video shown above is actually from the NBA’s own YouTube channel, which just goes to show how uni-related follies have become part of the sports world’s firmament.
Meanwhile: Interesting move yesterday by the White Sox, who announced that last year’s Sunday throwback — the 1983 beach blanket design — has been redesignated as an alternate uni and can be worn anytime, not just on Sundays.
A few notes on this:
• This breaks a small run of Sunday throwbacks that the Sox had worn over the past few years. They went with 1972 throwbacks in 2012 and the ’83 throwbacks in 2013. At first I thought, “Hmmm, guess they couldn’t find a good throwback from a year ending in a ‘4’ for this season,” but then I looked up the designs from 1934 and 1944, either of which would have been an awesome choice for this year’s throwback. Too bad they didn’t go that route.
• Although the Sox are keeping the same ’83 jersey and pants, they’re changing the cap. Instead of the period-appropriate “Sox” cap, which they wore with the throwback last season, they’re going to use the new alternate BP cap (see photo above) that was released a few weeks ago. As several folks have already noted, this effectively transforms the throwback into a fauxback.
• The ’83 design, which actually debuted in ’82, was the product of a design contest in which the Sox invited fans to submit new uniform designs for the team. The winner was a guy named Richard Launius, who went on to become a game designer. (I wrote an ESPN column about all of this a few years ago.) It’s interesting to see a fan-designed uni re-entering the team’s official wardrobe during the same period when other fan-created designs are getting more attention from teams, from video game companies, and so on. I’m sure that timing is just coincidence (in fact, I suspect most members of the Chisox’s current management team have no idea that the ’83 design came about as the result of a fan contest), but it still feels very apropos.
PermaRec update: Did you ever buy a used LP with someone else’s name scribbled on it? Longtime Uni Watch reader Jeff Ash decided it was time to track down the person whose name was written on his copy of a Beatles LP (shown at right), which got me thinking about the larger issue of names written on LPs, all of which forms the basis of the latest entry on the Permanent Record blog.
Also, in case you missed it, Tuesday’s entry was about the most perfect Uni Watch T-shirt idea ever. You don’t want to miss this — check it out here.
Tick-Tock: Today’s Ticker was compiled and written by Mike Chamernik.
Baseball News: Are the Red Sox wearing championship patches this season, or are they just for retail? I contacted the team and I’m waiting for an answer (thanks, Thomas Adjemian). ”¦ Lots of throwback-ish alternate jerseys on tap this season for the Brooklyn Cyclones. ”¦ The Cubs have a wall of their old logos at their spring training stadium (from Tyler Kepner). ”¦ This is pretty amazing: The first fantasy baseball player was, arguably Woodrow Wilson! (Big thanks to David Wilson.) ”¦ Florida Southern College wore new road jerseys in its annual game against the Detroit Tigers on Tueday (from Wayne Koehler). ”¦ Oregon wore softball-esque unis Tuesday night. “They look odd, but that’s something we’ve come to expect in Eugene,” says James Hays. ”¦ Jon Kinneman came across this 1939 photo of the International League’s Baltimore Orioles. ”¦ Adam Weisenburger, a Brewers catcher, has, expectedly, a great NOB (from Phil). ”¦ Also from Phil: “This is 100% real. And it’s why spring training is 100% awesome.” ”¦ The Reds’ St. Patrick’s Day jersey is different than the one they previously unveiled. ”¦ The Dodgers have a pretty clever new Twitter avatar (thanks, Brice Wallace). ”¦ “I work at a group of radio stations in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and we we clearing out the attic of the building today when we found a bunch of old baseball (or softball) uniforms,” says Lukas Hoffland. “Apparently, one of the stations had a team for fun back in what we think were the early 1980s.”
NFL News: Ravens S Matt Elam is considering changing his jersey number to No. 33 in honor of his father (from Phil). ”¦ The Cowboys are the most popular team for women’s merchandise, and it’s partially due to Jerry Jones fighting the NFL Trust almost two decades ago (from Tommy Turner).
Hockey News: The ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers will wear Spiderman jerseys this Saturday. ”¦ Richard Stover found a few old NHL ads for United Airlines. I’ve always dug the California/Oakland Golden Seals/Seals logo. What a franchise. … Alabama-Huntsville is the only D1 hockey team in the South, which can make for some logistically challenging road trips.
Soccer News: Scotland revealed its new kits for 2016 Euro qualifying. ”¦ Adidas will stop selling Brazil World Cup T-shirts that “encourage sexual tourism.” ”¦ Bafana Bafana, the South African national team, has a new all-white away kit (from Yusuke Toyoda). ”¦ A designer is creating different Columbus Crew crests daily for the entire month of February (from Jennifer Schrum). ”¦ Hard Rock Casino will become the NASL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies’ jersey-front sponsor. ”¦ New away kit for France (from Trevor Williams).
NBA News: The Kroll Show has a character called Young Larry Bird and they remixed the Celtics’ logo to promote it on Twitter (from Brian Mazmanian). ”¦ Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde sat courtside at last night’s Clippers game, and Wilde wore a cap with an upside-down Clippers logo on it (from Phil). ”¦ The Bulls will wear sleeved green jerseys for St. Patrick’s Day. ”¦ Heat players received WWE title belts yesterday. Once LeBron got his, special guest referee Triple H Pedigreed him and gave the belt to Randy Orton.
College Hoops News: OSU’s Marcus Smart wore No. 43 Tuesday night (instead of his usual 33) because a team manager left his jersey at home (from Jeff Downe). ”¦ Reese’s will print college basketball designs on its peanut butter cups for the NCAA Tournament (from Phil). ”¦ Testudo, the University of Maryland’s mascot, has a new state flag-themed get-up (from Yusuke Toyoda).
Grab Bag: Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Sam Lam conducted a good interview with that guy who’s doing the “Great moments in Cleveland sports disappointments” coloring book. ”¦ Think you wear a lot of team apparel? Probably not as much as this guy. ”¦ Peter Sgouros’s college was giving away a different kind of “Aesthetic” T-shirt. ”¦ A designer has proposed a new super-simplified logo for Twitter. … Here’s a very nice shot of old tennis ball cans (from Kurt Esposito).
RE: The NHL/United ad, Maybe it’s me, but I never noticed the Pittsburgh Penguin wearing a scarf.
That was the Pens’ inaugural logo, which they used for their 2011-13 navy thirds.
On a side note, the ads are pretty much tied to the latter half of 1967, as it shows the original California Seals logo, rather than the revised Oakland Seals logo the team switched to mid-season.
Also, the B on the Bruins logo is seriously off center.
The Pens logo is turned at an angle in both ads, also. They seem to think one of the triangle points goes up. In reality, these ads have the logo rotated forward 1/6 of a turn (30°, if my math isn’t suffering before my first cup of coffee).
Ah, coffee.
Yes, make that a 60° rotation forward (clockwise). ;)
The top of the triangle should be a side (flat). The Penguin should be leaning forward (which is left side of the logo), with stick flat on the ice, not pointed into the air.
I see someone else caught that same error (about an hour ago, at the bottom of the comments). Good eye, Robb!
Interesting use, though Leo, eh? As I said below, I’m curious who made the decision to show the logo that way United, their agency, the Penguins, the NHL…
It’s to be whoever arranged the photo/graphic as a result of not being aware how the logo should be oriented. There’s also a rotation issue with the Red Wings and Blues logo
I lived through the dark days of terrible Scotland “paint splash” and Salmon Pink away kits in the early to mid 90s (for reference link) but this is just awful…
I don’t know, there’s a certain tequila sunrise element to it. I like.
You could do a lot worse – the salmon pink, for sure, and I’d say it’s miles better than the tartan, also from the mid-90s.
Put me down as a fan. I think the only part that really bothers me is the collar. Makes me especially glad that Ireland got drawn with Scotland for the Euro qualifiers though I suppose it is unlikely that they’ll be wearing them when they come to Dublin.
I had an old pair of canvas shoes blowout on me like that while failing at a skateboard trick. Actually the canvas ripped on mine. His look a glue failure (?).
He’s lucky he didn’t hurt slipping in his socks on that floor.
The wall of Cubs logos is pretty nice looking, but it’s got a mistake. The logo with the date of 1977 (fourth from the right) was actually introduced in 1962.
This may be because I’m still not fully, truly awake this morning, but to me, the head on the 1914 logo looks vaguely like a rat’s head, and the 1927 logo looks like a gummi bear.
’08 Sasquatch
’14 Rat
’27 Dinosaur
’29 Pig/Dog
’34 Monkey
’42 Simpsons bear
’50 Hey, an actual bear cub
’77 Mummenschanz
’79 Wu Tang
’94 Wilfred Brimley
’97 Yay, another bear cub
Awesome.
Matt Bonner had a similar issue with a pair of New Balance shoes in December 2010 I believe.
Digger Phelps outfitted his Notre Dame basketball teams with Pony sneakers, until a player (if memory serves, it might have been Donald Royal) had a similar shoe explosion in a nationally-televised game.
I live in Huntsville and go to UAH games. Hardly anyone goes anymore because the team is so bad now. They used to be a top tier program at Division 2 level. Hopefully, over the next few seasons they can improve and compete again. Huntsville has a LOT of transplants from all over the country and hockey is quite big here. The youth leagues and adult amateur leagues are flourishing. The fans would turn out once the product on the ice gets better. Sad what a past president did to them after listening to idiot consultants. For the record, I have donated to the program every year to help keep it afloat. Many of the high tech firms here also donate. We are hoping UAH hockey returns to past greatness.
“… … This is pretty amazing: The first fantasy baseball player was, arguably Woodrow Wilson! (Big thanks to David Wilson.) … ”
Wonderful item. Wonderful wonderful item. Any relation, David?
I’m not that David, but…
Since this site seems to be very careful about what we call things, I wouldn’t call what Wilson did “Fantasy Baseball”.
Strat, APBA and the like are baseball simulation table games. What Wilson seemed to do was write a very detailed baseball fantasy, which is really cool, but is not fantasy baseball.
Fantasy Baseball should be reserved for the typical online competition where fake teams are generated amongst competitors who use real statistics to determine an outcome.
When I was a kid, we used to play wiffle ball, and keep a scorebook of the game, pretending to be our favorite players, and using the lineups of the day. that’s not fantasy baseball… that’s just fun fan fiction.
Actually, the beach blanket unis of the White Sox debuted in 1982, not ’81.
link
Right — the contest was in ’81, which is what I was mistakenly thinking of. Will fix.
“…Scotland revealed its new kits for 2016 Euro qualifying. … ”
Hmmm. I don’t hate it as much as Phil does. Red-and-yellow hoop stripes (of steadily diminishing size) on a white shirt. Could be a fine look, actually, for a country near the Equator. The royal lion seal of Scotland is red-and-yellow, of course, but the dark-blue-and-white saltire surely is the predominate Scottish chromatic motif… Hard to imagine the Scots wearing that tropical confection for the Six Nations rugby matches..
“… New away kit for France (from Trevor Williams)…”
Good looking unis, both home and away. Classy. And gotta love the Gallic rooster.
I call the Scottish away kit Glenlivet Sunrise.
Also, I appreciate that Nike is moving France away from the mono-bleu and back to the traditional tricolore.
It’s not red and yellow; it’s pink and yellow. The livery of Lord Rosebery, an early patron of Scottish football.
link
The Scotland kit in its entirety, as pictured in DJ’s link? Glorious.
The best part, though, is that when you type “Lord Rosebery” into the Google search box it automatically populates the search to say “Lord Rosebery homosexual.” So in honor of that I think the kit deserves a nickname tat singles out a fruitier single malt than Glenlivet, perhaps a Glenrothes or a Bruichladdich Sunrise.
I wondered if I that was the case as soon as I saw the pictures of new kit.This article mentions it including pics
link
Somehow related to the Earl of Rosebery, The family added a second r at some point I found out about the Rosebery colors a while back went to see what they looked like, was able to buy one at Toffs
link
This shirt gets noticed when worn, some good some bad but always something.Also notice the colors are Primrose and pink.
“I don’t hate it as much as Phil does.”
~~~
Um. Where do I say I hate it? Unless there’s another Phil to whom you’re referring. I simply tweeted about an article — now if the author of that article hates it, that’s another thing.
I have no opinion on it whatsoever.
Anyhoo…carry on.
About the White Sox – I haven’t seen this discussed anywhere, but does anybody know what helmets they will wear with these? They’ve worn throwback helmets the last two years, so I assume they’ll do either a “batterman” helmet or the same 1983 helmet they used last year.
It also seems worth discussing the fact that they’re still including the 1983 ASG patch on the uniform, which strikes me as strange. It’s one thing to include it if they’re really commemorating 1983, but now that they’ve changed the hat and it’s just a normal uniform, why bother?
On a more general note, can anybody think of another example of a team (in MLB, at least) doing this – having an entirely different identity (uniform, logo, colors) that isn’t a special one-off thing or a “retro day” thing but a normal uniform choice that they can choose on any day?
The Mets had link that they wore multiple times a few years ago.
I liked their simplicity, but as with a lot of throwbacks from an era when there were no numbers on the jerseys, the default block font just didn’t look right.
That Mets uniform still had a normal looking Mets hat, the same colors, and (according to wiki, since you can’t see it on the picture) a Mr. Met patch on the sleeve. The White Sox have none of that. It’s like a completely different team.
Even though the Brewers wear their 1982 fauxbacks on “Retro Fridays” (when is it now, the last Friday of the month? it keeps changing), I do believe they “technically” can be worn as a regular alternate, and were on one occasion within the past couple of years. Weak example, but it’s close to one.
On last night’s (this morning’s?) Late Night, Seth Meyers had a brief uniform related segment. Go to 10:15 mark of the show video.
link
Any other College Hockey fans notice that the NYT made up a conference for UAH to have previously played in. I know typos happen, but there’s no such thing as “College Hockey America” in the NCAA.
I can’t tell if I’m missing a joke, but there is (and was) a link.
I’m fine with White Sox uniform addition, but think they should be in team colors. Black for Navy Silver for Red
Triple H Pedigreed Lebron and gave the title to Randy Orton?! NO! NO! NO! NO!
I have no idea what that means (I’m assuming it’s a wrestling move?), but I’ve always been a fan of mainstream athletes with wrestling belts, mostly because for whatever reason, pro wrestles tend to bring out the kid in professional athletes.
It was best for business.
But yeah I like the title belt crossover for the same reason. I just hope that, if the Heat lose in the playoffs, they hand their belts over to the NBA Champions.
A wrestling fan WORKING for this site? Perfect.
As a kid, I had some of those United posters back in the late 60’s early 70’s. I was probably told by one of my Dad’s friends, an advertising exec, that you could write United and they would send the posters. One of the best packages I ever receieved in the mail. As I recall, I had NHL, NFL and MLB posters maybe NBA too.
Those Oregon baseball duds shown in the thread are, without question, one of the ugliest sets I’ve seen on a diamond . . . ever. It just amazes me that the head coach of that program would allow his players to take the field in such crap!! Seriously . . . if there is one sport where some form of tradition usually maintains a measure of decorum of what players wear, it’s baseball. But these things . . UGH!!
We saw the link from a couple days ago showing the wonderful throwbacks that Texas wore recently . . those were great. If “the swoosh” wants to create a million different options for the baseball Ducks, there are countless ways to do it and still be tasteful. But that uni harkens back to those tragic Tucson Toros sets from days gone by.
Brutal . . .
I’m going to be controversial and give Oregon a big round of applause. Not necessarily for execution (just as in football, the wretched leotard effect has no place in baseball) but for making a good go at doing something new with a baseball uniform. The tyranny of the neoclassical aesthetic has enjoyed too long a dominance in the sport, producing sanitized Ebbets field facsimiles for stadiums and an endless line of pristine white uniforms with a navy (or similarly uninspired colour choice) script with naught but a headspoon for ornament (if you were “out there” enough). At last we have some innovation, some recognition that baseball once upon a time saw the future and embraced it with an infinite colour wheel and the boundless potentiality of double knit. Unfortunately, it was a period which inevitably suffered the vandalism of snobs and cultural Luddites. But is it any wonder that ‘tequila sunrise’ and ‘beach towel’ are concepts repopulating the diamond? Of course it’s one thing to imitate those styles – it’s done ironically of course, with tongue in cheek and the winks and nods of the hindsight elitist – but quite another to take that ideal of aesthetic radicalism seriously, to proudly proclaim that “roots are for vegetables” before promptly severing them.
Give them a participation ribbon for trying, but the execution is horrible. It’s a poorly designed, busy, hard to look at mish-mash of different colored panels.
Between the “Aesthetics” t-shirt and the fact that that Cleveland Sports Disappointments coloring book has raised 18k, it’s a banner week for head-slapping, “why didn’t I think of that!?!” moments.
Re the United NHL ads:
The first thing I noticed was that the Penguins logo was slightly askew. In all (modern) iterations of the logo the “Golden Triangle” is flat on the top and the Penguin’s front foot is flat on the ice.
Then I considered it a second time and realized it actually works the way it’s shown in the ads as well. So the question is: was this done in error by United -or- was this a correct way of displaying the logo? The Triangle is simply shown with the bottom flat and the Penguin in a bit of a “hop” The Blues and Red Wings pucks are slightly askew as well (although, again, the blue note “works” the way it’s shown).
I suppose we can assume United’s agency graphics team didn’t know hockey and set them up that way and the branding arm of the league probably wasn’t very strong back then, can’t we? Or is there more to the story?
Yes! I noticed that with the Penguins, too. My guess is that the graphics designer was unfamiliar with hockey logos and set it up so the two feet were flat. There was no wordmark or anything to guide him/her otherwise.
The twitter logo re-brand reminds me of Reginold the bird from this link.
Reginald*
I’ve never head of that comic before but I’ve been reading them for the last half hour. They’re great.
Love the Permanent Record piece. I collect Motown/soul 45s, and if I’m digging through bins and find two copies of a record I want, I go for the one with the name-scribble or address label every time. After years of shopping in the same stores, I’m finding I have good chunks of certain peoples’ collections, which gives you a small glimpse into someone else’s life. Half of my Beatles mono LPs came from the same collection, a girl who had Peanuts name labels with Schroeder and Snoopy, whose little sister apparently had a habit of coloring in the boys’ faces on the front covers with a blue marker.
I like the idea of spinning a record with a name attached to it. The thought some teenager thought enough of their records to put their address label on it gives me a kick.
Has this been mentioned yet as a uni change?
I’m watching Pittsburgh v Yanks, and Pirates caps have a white outline around the gold “P”. (Not on batting helmets, just caps.)
This: link
(Sorry if this isn’t new. I don’t watch MLB very often.)
That’s their alt (well one of ’em). Usually worn with the black jerseys.
Does Launius receive any compensation for all of the Adidas White Sox-like college uniforms?
Nope. And neither do the Sox.
Drink enough Budweiser, you start thinking link.
That’s a really nitpicky article. Reverse those two images and DC is east of Baltimore which isn’t right either. Not something worth critiquing.
Or you could just put the Nationals just below the Orioles and be geographically correct. I’m not seeing a particularly good reason to put DC in West Virginia/Kentucky-ish area.
The same criticism could be had for Dodgers/Angels. The Angels are shown to be northeast of the Dodgers. In fact, Angel Stadium is southeast of Dodger Stadium. They could have lined up LA, Anaheim, and SD all in a row to keep them in geographic order while just pushing LA up the coast a bit.
So I’m going to be interning with a collegiate summer league baseball team. Want to know which one? Here’s a hint: they wear the most gorgeous striped stirrups in the NECBL.
link
I’m excited, not only am I interning for a collegiate summer league team, but I’m interning for the best dressed collegiate summer league team.
As opposed to the alternative:
link
The SOX also wore 1917 throwbacks on Sundays a few years ago….
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