Color-on-color fans — a group in which I include myself — enjoyed a rare NBA/NCAA daily double last night. On the pro level, in the final game before the all-star break, the Cavs and Bulls went gold vs. red. And in the college ranks, Michigan and Illinois went navy vs. orange. The home teams here were Illinois (which was having an “orange-out”) and the Bulls (who wore red because, uh, beats me).
We appear to be rapidly reaching the point where the concepts of home and road uniforms will essentially be fungible, at least on the basketball court, and that’s fine by me. Why not scrap those constructs and just let the teams wear whatever they want, as long as there’s enough contrast? A lot of teams seem to be doing that anyway, but they still have to get “permission” from higher-ups to wear colors at home. I say scrap that system and let those colors run.
And speaking of color-on-color, there was an interesting NHL game last night in L.A., where the Kings wore 1960s gold throwbacks:
Nowadays, of course, it’s normal for NHL teams to wear colors at home. This gold uni, however was worn back in the days when teams wore white at home — but the Kings didn’t have a white uni back then. They wore gold at home and purple on the road (just like the Lakers, with whom they shared an arena and an owner). So all of their home games were color-on-color. Therefore, it would have been appropriate for their opponents last night, the Flames, to wear red. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.
As an aside: People forget this now (or at least I think they do), but for most of the 1970s the Kings wore gold pants with the gold jerseys/socks, creating a solid-gold look. Even though I hate purple, I’m glad they went with the purple pants last night — hockey unis are always better when the pants provide an element of contrast.
ESPN reminder: In case you missed it yesterday afternoon, my latest ESPN column is about the state of MLB memorial patches in general, and the Cardinals’ patch for Oscar Taveras in particular. Check it out here.
Membership update: Four new designs have been added to the membership card gallery (including Blake Pass’s card, shown at right, which is based on NASCAR drive Ryan Newman’s “Ghost Flames” car design). We’re now fully caught up on membership orders and have four slots open in the current batch, which will go to the printer once we get four more orders.
As always, you can order your own custom-designed membership card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see how we make the cards here.
Click to enlarge
My favorite city scores again: As if I needed another reason to love Milwaukee, check this out. Are they gorgeous or what? They’re from a set of over 100 vintage Milwaukee bus passes that reader Hugh McBride found on Flickr. Check out the full set — great stuff.
A new raffle ”¦ and the prize is me, sort of: For the past 40 years, the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has periodically invited professionals from the design world to give presentations at their New York offices. They recently invited me to do one of these presentations (“Your website has been the cause of many midday tangents in our office,” read their introductory email), and I’ve happily accepted. The presentation will take place next Thursday, Feb. 19, at 5:30pm. The topic will be (of course) “A Brief Overview of Athletic Hosiery.”
I’m allowed to bring a guest, and that guest will also be invited to join us for a post-presentation dinner. I could invite one of my friends, but most of them don’t give a shit about uniforms, and it occurs to me that some of you folks might enjoy seeing the inside of a big-time architecture office.
So here’s what we’ll do: If you want to be my plus-one (and if you’re available to be in downtown Manhattan next Thursday by, say, 5:15pm), send an email to the raffle address. One entry per person. I’ll pick a random winner and announce it on Tuesday morning. Cool? Cool.
One additional note: In light of the topic, I may ask the guest to don some stirrups and function as a visual aid.
PermaRec update: The student shown at right was described by her own father as having a “peculiar disposition.” She ended up dying very young, from a disease that we now vaccinate against. Plus, a DNA test provides an unhappy ending to an earlier story. Get the full scoop over on Permanent Record.
’Skins Watch: Distressing note from Gregory Koch, who writes: “The Oneida Indian Tribe, one of the leading campaigners to change the Redskins’ name, is opening a casino in Chittenango, New York. It will be called the Yellow Brick Road Casino, to pay homage to Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, who was born in Chittenango. Just one problem: Before Baum wrote that novel, he wrote several editorials advocating genocide of Native Americans, and sometimes referred to them as ‘Redskins.’ Of course, this doesn’t make the tribe any less right about the Redskins’ name, but it does seem a bit hypocritical to me for them to use this name for their casino.” Agreed. ”¦ A contentious meeting was held last night to discuss the high school team names in West Hartford, Connecticut, where the two schools have been using “Warriors” and “Chieftains” for decades. The local board of education has already moved to remove the names from team jerseys. Further info here.
Baseball News: We’ve mentioned many times that the Padres supply Little League uniforms to San Diego youth, which is awesome. Disappointing, however, to see that this year’s unis have Clorox ad patches (from Mark Scelfo). ”¦ In a related item, here’s a good story about the Rays providing uniforms to Tampa Little Leaguers. ”¦ Hartford is getting a new baseball team, and you can help name it (from John Dankosky). ”¦ Spider-Man once went to a Mets game (from Gordon Blau). … NYU has a new baseball team this year, and here are their inaugural uniforms (from Andrew Nesci). ”¦ Some Red Sox players are being photographed in red cleats. Could that signal a footwear color change for this year? ”¦ New logos for the Sussex Miners (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Some ballpark improvements for the Bakersfield Blaze. ”¦ The Rangers will add a memorial patch during spring training for equipment manager Joe Macko. No word yet on what the patch will look like, or whether it’ll be worn during the regular season (from Mike Klug). ”¦ Lots of new uniforms and gear for USC. ”¦ Here’s what Mississippi will be wearing for the season-opening series against William & Mary. ”¦ San Diego State will retire Tony Gwynn’s number today. ”¦ New uniforms for Oklahoma State.
NFL News: “Joe Ruback (aka License Plate Guy) created a custom NY Giants ‘Pride’ jersey with all of their different helmets and Super Bowl patches,” writes Chris Flinn. “He should update the NFL shield, though!” ”¦ How did the Jaguars’ logo end up being used by a Russian youth hockey team? (Good find by David Dyte.) ”¦ Back in 1978, Bills WR Frank Lewis played at least one game without an NOB. “That was his third game with the team,” notes Johnny Garfield, so it’s not as though they didn’t have enough time to get his nameplate set up.
Hockey News: The recent Chicago Auto Show featured a Blackhawks-themed Camaro. ”¦ Matt Martin of the Islanders was at the mall and took a photo of himself standing next to an unsuspecting guy who was wearing a Martin jersey (rare non-Rangers-related contribution from Alan Kreit).
NBA News: Reader Lammert Wijnsma has created a personal logo for Celtics G Marcus Smart. ”¦ CNBC showed James Harden in a Thunder uni yesterday. ”¦ Nike has created an LED basketball court for All-Star weekend here in NYC. ”¦ In a related item, here’s an interesting tidbit: According to this article, “Tickets for the All-Star Game (on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden) and for the slam-dunk contest and other competitions (on Saturday evening at Barclays Center) were not made available for public sale for the fifth straight year. Only a small percentage of the seats were even offered for purchase by season-ticket holders of the two host teams, the Knicks and the Nets.” ”¦ Here’s a new one: The Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League will be wearing corn-themed uniforms later this year. ”¦ Here are some views of the All-Star Game court. The lanes will have a sublimated secondary logo. ”¦ Warriors G Klay Thompson has a new sneaker deal with Anta, a brand that I’d never even heard of before, although I’m sure that says more about me than it does about them (from Andrew Rader). ”¦ The NBA likes nicknames.
College Hoops News: No photo, but Georgia Regents (D2) and Lander will wear “military-themed” uniforms when they face each other this Saturday. ”¦ Nothing could be finer than to be in Caroolina. That’s from the 2005 national championship (screen shot by Drew Mastin). ”¦ Grey-out on tap this Sunday for Washington State (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Wofford College alum Geoffrey Thomas was appalled to discover that his alma mater is wearing sleeves this season. ”¦ Pink-trimmed jerseys next weekend for New Mexico.
Soccer News: Interesting story on the USL’s new adaptable logo system. ”¦ FC Dallas let fans vote on the field pattern for tonight’s game against DC United. ”¦ Key quote from this article about the old MISL’s Tacoma Stars: “This size of the uniforms were a bit soft-pornish. They gave us shorts where half your ass was hanging out, and some of the tightest shirts you’ve ever seen.”
Grab Bag: Awesome story about a California artist who noticed that a freeway exit wasn’t properly marked on a sign, so he fixed the sign himself — and got away with it (big thanks to Tim Bugbee). ”¦ What does it mean if only one house on the block doesn’t have snow on its roof? It may mean that the people inside are growing weed. ”¦ Australia’s oldest man has a fun hobby: knitting jerseys for penguins. ”¦ The New Mexico volleyball team is selling a bunch of jerseys, shoes, and other gear this weekend. ”¦ You may have heard that there’s a new report documenting the history of lynching in America. Here’s a detail I hadn’t previously known: According to this story, blacks could be lynched for, among other things, “wearing their military uniforms after World War I.” ”¦ Bit of a kerfuffle in the lacrosse world about an Ohio State player’s helmet that got destroyed by a close-range shot. ”¦ Not uni-related, but fun: Dan Eldridge has started a blog about vending machines. ”¦ A Belgian newspaper has ranked the best and worst pro cycling kits (from Sean Clancy). ”¦ A Minnesota man is questioning the appropriateness of a local high school’s Confederate-style “Rebel” mascot (from Joshua Johnson). ”¦ After JetBlue introduced new uniforms, they managed to recycle the old ones. ”¦ Staples is now offering to design logos for small businesses. ”¦ “Finally,” says Sean Clancy, “a comprehensive video on cycling sock height and color!” ”¦ You’ve heard about flag football, but did you know there’s also flag rugby? There is! And a flag rugby league in Niagara Falls, N.Y., has a new logo. ”¦ New helmet for funny car drive Matt Hagan (from David Firestone). ”¦ During the 1977 Centenary Test Cricket match between Australia and England, Australian player Rick McCosker had his jaw broken while batting in the Australian 1st innings. He came out to bat in the 2nd innings with his head wrapped in bandages (from Graham Clayton). ”¦ John Daly’s caddie/fiancé Anna Cladakis was sporting nice argyle socks during the opening round at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. “No comment on Daly’s get-up,” says Dave Rakowski. ”¦ Who’s that playing soccer for William & Mary? None other than The Daily Show host Jon Stewart (from Todd Gaines). ”¦ New lacrosse uniforms for Maryland (from @jmjacobs05). ”¦ Terrible news in the journalism world last night, as New York Times media critic David Carr — a super-skilled, super-insightful writer who’s a hero to many journalists, myself included — collapsed in the newsroom and died at the age of 58. I never got to meet him, but I do know one of his daughters. Very, very sad. RIP.
Ok… so, Paul and I are in complete agreement on something. I’m not in the wrong universe again, am I?
Also… Back in 1978, Bills WR played at least one game without an NOB. Either you’re missing a name, or it should say “a Bills WR”.
Ok… so, Paul and I are in complete agreement on something. I’m not in the wrong universe again, am I?
This isn’t news, you know. Remember this ESPN column from just a few months ago?
link
Thanks for the Bills WR catch — will fix.
I remember attending a Purdue-Michigan baskteball game at Mackey Arena where my Boilers wore their “Old Gold” uniforms against Michigan’s navy uniforms. That was pleasant color-on-color game to watch.
Another sad thing about the Padres’ little league uni: that letter D seems to be misaligned.
That Giants Pride jersey would be perfect… EXCEPT the “1976” Giants helmet actually debuted in 1980. The Giants had the white-red-white stripe combo with the “GIANTS” wordmark from 1976 through 1979.
link
First 3 minutes of that video is kind of NBA nickname related
If memory doesn’t fail me, the Bulls often wear red at home if they are playing at home on or very near to Valentine’s Day
Sounds familiar. That might be the ticket.
Since our 9/11 wars began, America has gone mad for calling the people we used to call “soldiers” “warriors” instead. Which I find objectionable, but whatever. Point is, it seems basically in-American for a school team to call itself the “Warriors” and have a mascot or logo that’s not a USMC or Army fighter. Plus, I bet that not one American who’s all hot and bothered against the effort to change Indian team names would be willing to object to honoring the troops instead.
“Chieftans” also seems ripe for a mascot switch. It barely makes sense with Indian imagery anyway. We don’t talk about “Indian Chieftans” or like “the great chieftan, Powhattan.” Tribes have chiefs. Clans have chieftans.
Chief and Chieftain appear to have the same definition, that being the leader of a tribe. So I don’t think it would be incorrect to call the leader of a Native American tribe a ‘chieftain.’ Yes, you’re right, we usually use the word ‘chief’ in that context.
Technically, ‘chief’ and ‘chieftain’ don’t have to be exclusive terms for Native American leaders, but in the United States, ‘chief’ is most often connoted as the leader of a Native American tribe.
I don’t see why everyone wants to change the word ‘warrior.’ All you have to do is replace the Native American logos and iconography with a knight or Spartan or something.
The Syracuse Chiefs hit a home run a decade or so ago by replacing their Indian mascot with a locomotive.
Whoops… More recent than I thought.
Was this related to the Santa Fe Super Chief?
As to chief and chieftain, if we are to believe Sir Walter Scott, then a chieftain is in charge of a branch of a clan while the chief is in charge of the whole clan.
Jason, you’re right about the dictionary definition. But in common use, you basically never hear “chieftan” used to describe a Native American leader, past or present. (Well, you do if you read seventeenth century documents by English settlers, but pretty much never since then.) In spoken American English, “chieftan” usually refers to the leader of tribe-like group that’s called a “clan” instead of a “tribe.” As in, you’d call the leader of a Scottish Highlander group a chieftan, or the headman of a New Guinean band.
Alternative for Chieftans: A haggis, “chieftan o’ the puddin’ race.”
I’m going to assume the Bulls wore red because they just look better in red.
(I’m not a fan of home whites. Boring.)
Congrats on the Skidmore, Owens, & Merrill invite. If I lived in NYC (or within a reasonable distance), I’d enter that raffle repeatedly.
The Kings looked great last night! When is the last time an NHL team wore gold helmets? Remember how cool the Penguins looked back in the day when they paired yellow helmets with their home whites?
“When is the last time an NHL team wore gold helmets?”
Might have been Vancouver, back when they wore yellow at home (pre-1990’s?)?
For a few games in the late ’80s the Canucks wore black helmets with their yellow jerseys. By that time the ’70s were long over and everyone hated the yellow home jerseys as they weren’t “tough” enough.
I attended a game like this vs. the Whalers, so I guess that was a colour helmet vs. colour helmet game.
Those unis bring back some GREAT memories of taking the 217 bus down La Brea to Inglewood, then walking from the adult movie theater to the Forum.
That Penguins look was great. I think it worked so well because of the matching gold upper portion of the sleeves (like the Red Wings white jersey). It seemed to balance out the colour of the helmet.
Kings looked great last night, but playing against the Flames in white looked horrible.
The Illini did a clever job of working Chief Illiniwek’s headdress into the stripe that runs down the side of their uniform.
I would not have even noticed it until you pointed it out.
Really, is there any reason to have uniform matchups (in any sport) be color vs. white? The only reason that started was so teams would contrast on black and white broadcasts, and that hasn’t been something to consider for at least 40 years.
There’s something to be said for having a standard. It makes it easy for teams to know what uniform to bring on road games, and also for fans if they want to dress up in the colors of the home team.
Because it’s just sooooo hard in this day & age to give the road team notice of what uniform they need to bring. For that matter, it’s not like an extra set of uniforms takes up so much space that a team couldn’t bring both, especially with basketball. We’re talking about multimillion dollar professional teams here, not your local low-budget rec league where every player has to bring their own gear.
…and the fans matching the team is just not an issue to even worry about. No one freaking cares if you wear your blue jersey to the game and the team is wearing their black alternate instead.
What does everyone have against white uniforms? I think teams in most sports look much better in white.
I find them boring, usually. What’s the point of even having “team colors” if you’re just going to wear white all the time? A white uniform can look fine, like the Indianapolis Colts, since they use white as a primary color, but there’s just no reason for the “purple and gold” Lakers or “silver & black” Raiders to need a white jersey/uniform.
I disagree. White serves as the perfect contrast color and makes sporting events so much easier on the eyes. If games became color vs. color free-for-alls, it would make them unbearable to watch.
Certain teams’ color schemes warrant the inclusion of a white uniform. I couldn’t imagine the Colts, Celtics, Red Wings or Maple Leafs without them. But on other teams, like the Predators, Lakers, Steelers or Cavaliers, the white jersey is an arbitrary construct; an imposition.
Bulls were in red for Valentines Day
It’s inappropriate (and nonsensical) to say a black person “could be” lynched for wearing their military uniforms post-WWI. Lynching by definition was an extrajudicial punishment, and not subject to such qualification.
Now, no doubt that was the putative reason given in the case of a black person who actually WAS lynched. And just as certainly that “reason” was but pretext. But saying a black person “could be” lynched for, well, anything in particular, cheapens the word, which derives much of its horrific power precisely from the sheer arbitrariness with which lynchings occurred.
Or, stated simply: link
Thanks for the link to the story about the Tacoma Stars. I grew up in the shadow of the Richfield Coliseum as a huge fan of the Cleveland Force, and I instantly recognized Keith Furphy (and, of course, Zungul and Preki) in that team photo.
The sex-appeal angle must have been a real thing, because two of my aunts were the ones who took me to most of the games. It went WAY over my adolescent head, however. Makes more sense now about why Tatu would always take his jersey off and throw it into the crowd after he scored a goal. At the time, I just thought it was an over-the-top goal celebration, particularly from a guy who scored so often.
I grew up near Tacoma, and watched many Stars games. I really wish indoor soccer was a big-time pro sport in the USA. I think it could catch on here. Those games were nuts.
Alas, Stars are now a background character in one of the link.
Your two aunts and MANY other females went to those Force games, Bryan. And a lot of them wore those yellow jerseys.
Back in the early days of the league, Sports Illustrated ran an article titled Show, Sex and Suburbs.
link
The MISL athletes don’t appear to be the least bit disturbed that they are being exploited as so much meat. In fact, some enjoy the Ken-doll treatment so much that they coat their legs with baby oil before a game to make them glisten. The females who enjoy indoor soccer tend to be leg women. And there are a lot of them. In most pro sports crowds, the proportion of females rarely rises above one-third and is usually closer to one-fourth, but MISL crowds are around 40% female and can go as high as 50% in places like Kansas City, where the most has been gotten out of the sex angle.
What the Stars article didn’t touch on was that competition from the rival AISA led to a salary war. A lot of the owners, including Cleveland’s, couldn’t keep up with expenses and had to fold. If there were no AISA, we’d probably be celebrating Season 36 of the original MISL.
Andy Chapman used to do that, or else his legs were naturally glisteny…
link
link
If I knew about the leg thing I woud have asked my boss if I could wear shorts while selling food and souvenirs in the seats. You walk as many steps as I did and you end up with a pretty decent pair of legs.
Makes me wonder why I wasn’t dating then…picking up some female companionship at a Force game should have been like shooting fish in a barrel.
Anat shoes logo is clearly based on the Nike logo.
going on font choice and look of the jumper being worn.
The LA Kings gold jerseys are absolutely beautiful. Dump that gang banger black and silver junk already and return to your Fabulous LA Forum Jack Kent Cooke roots.
I absolutely love those Kings throwbacks; it’s how I remember them from my youth. I agree, they should keep ’em.
Did you miss something Paul with the screen grab of the “Caroolina” warm-ups from the 2005 NC game? Those are hoodies!
From the ESPN piece:
When former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith died last weekend, for example, the news was barely an hour old when I started receiving emails from people asking what sort of patch I thought UNC would wear. Some people sent in their own proposed patch designs and asked what I thought.
That’s kinda fucked up.
From the comments:
I do not think that a deceased player should be memorialized if they died because of alcohol or drugs.
Also fucked up. I mean, we probably shouldn’t honor anyone who dies from heart disease, since that’s likely caused by poor health habits. Definitely don’t honor people who die from lung cancer, because cigarettes *are* recreational drugs.
Regarding the Kings in yellow last night: since this was their “light” uniform from the past, and because Calgary also wore their light uniforms, would this game be a separate classification of light vs. light as opposed to colour vs. colour games (which this of course wasn’t).
“How did the Jaguars’ logo end up being used by a Russian youth hockey team?”
we all know how.
I’m kind of mixed on the idea of color-on-color in basketball. On one hand, I really like being able to instantly tell who the home team is just by looking at the uniforms. But I do have to say, c vs c looks pretty sweet, if there is enough contrast. My concern would be that “enough contrast” is kind of up to individual interpretation, and I would expect to see red/orange or black/navy matchups pretty soon if this became a widespread thing. But I definitely think that if yellow/gold is one of the colors used, teams should go yellow vs color and not yellow vs white. The latter never looks good to me.
I would expect to see red/orange or black/navy matchups pretty soon
link, actually.
Also, maybe my eyes are deceiving me, but the Cavs’ gold looks close enough to orange that it could be considered a clash with red. Maybe the NBA should make like UEFA and use a spectrophotometer to ensure sufficient contrast.
Exactly. I remember seeing photos of that game. I would expect it to happen a lot more often, especially in college. I expect the pro organizations will police that pretty well after the aforementioned eyesore game.
It won’t, or at least link.
Aren’t the Predators home uni’s gold? Meaning all of their home games are yellow/gold vs white?
Yes and yes. Meanwhile, Nashville has navy helmets which would contrast with the other team’s white helmets. In context, that matters. Which is why I think LA had too much gold compared to Calgary in white.
Before the widespread use of helmets in hockey, I used to think the Flyers road uniforms weren’t different enough from their home uniforms to warrant having two sets. The orange and white in either case seemed evenly dispersed over the entire suit. The onset of the black helmet “fixed” the orange sweater as the darker of the two. This means Nashville could wear gold helmets with the yellow sweaters to make a passable “light” uniform, in my opinion.
Married to an Oz superfan I’m pretty familiar with Chittenango even though it’s hundreds of miles from me.
I don’t know if it needs a casino–what market there is to be yet served–but I’m pretty sure “Yellow Brick Road” isn’t the name it needs.
Hopefully the Red Sox wearing red shoes signals also the move from blue socks to red. I realize you can’t usually see them, but the Red Sox should fucking wear red socks, not blue!
Huh? The Red Sox *do* wear red socks:
link
Oh shit, when did that happen? I would swear they used to wear blue socks, not red. Is that fairly recent? Call me Captain Observant, why don’t you!
Oh, they absolutely did wear blue socks, the season they introduced the Sox patch on the left sleeve. Not enough red for the fans, so they went to red sleeves and stirrups at midyear.
I was thinking of this look
link
Seems they once had an away where they wore blue undersleeves and socks. Perhaps it was short-lived? I swear I’ve seen it more than once, but as you might be able to tell, I don’t watch much baseball.
I hadn’t previously been aware of Baum’s negative views on Native Americans, but I can’t say that it surprises me. He’s a fairly perplexing figure, ideologically.
For example, while he is described to have been “campaigning for women’s rights,” the occupying army of General Jinjur described in the series’ second book seems an absurd parody of women’s rights advocates.
I’m from an era when the Kings’ gold uniforms (with the “Forum Blue” pants — I won’t use the “P” word, Paul) were used on the road.
Remember, the franchise started operation in the fall of 1967. The switch to white/light at home in the NHL didn’t occur until the fall of 1970.
For those us of who “grew up” with hockey in the 1960s, the “home:dark, road:white” application is exactly where it should be! :)
Nah. I still would prefer seeing the visitors in color so they’re more distinct from one another.
The Calgary Flames used to look great until they tried to make their uni’s look “hip”.
They have the worst looking uniform in the NHL and perhaps all leagues, next to the Bengals and Falcons of course.
I don’t know if its the same guy, but maybe a month or so ago, I came across a guy selling old Milwaukee Transit Passes at a rummage sale/flea market. Dude had quite a few, probably a shoe-box worth of passes. I was gonna make an offer on all of them, but I was running low on cash by the time I saw him.
I guess we’ll have to wait until tonight to see Oklahoma State’s new uniforms.
Joe Ruback, aka Giants LPG(License Plate Guy), was my JV football and baseball coach and still a good friend of mine.
He was actually a bigger sneaker collector than I was and kind of inspired me to be one.
While I usually agree with Paul’s tastes, it always strikes me as strange that he is such a fan of “color-on-color” games when so many of these games are giant moving eyesores because the teams’ uniforms clash with one another.
For example, in the two photos at the top of this entry you’re forced to watch the yellow/maroon of Cleveland right against the red and black of Chicago. Even worse: the orange of blue of Illinois juxtaposed against the navy and maize of Michigan.
Ouch. You would never design a uniform with these four colors together so why do people want to see all four together in a game?
White uniforms may be “boring” but at least they won’t give you a headache.