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Auction Action

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As you may have noticed in the left sidebar, our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions are running another catalog auction. This one has an emphasis on basketball items. Here are some of the most interesting items:

• We’ve all seen sideline capes on the football field. Until now, though, I’d never seen a basketball warm-up cape.

• Oscar Robertson was nicknamed “the Big O,” and he lived up to that name with the nickNOB on this warm-up top.

• We’re all used to seeing the 76ers stylized 1970s lettering running horizontally across the chest of a jersey. But I didn’t realize they also used the exact same lettering in a vertical format for their warm-ups. Doesn’t look so good that way, eh?

• Speaking of unusual lettering orientations, check out the script on this old Dallas Chaparrals jersey. Wouldn’t it have been better if the script and numerals were smaller, allowing the script to sit more horizontally?

• Oh baby, how gorgeous are these old San Francisco Dons satin shorts, once worn by Bill Russell? In Uni Watch colors, too! Super-tasty.

• Check out the Hall of Fame blazers — one from the Clemson HoF and one from the South Carolina HoF — that are part of this batch of items from Larry Nance.

• Love this Denver Central Bankers warm-up top, especially the target logo on the front.

• Whoa, look at the crazy stars/stripes warm-ups worn by the Utah Stars for a 1972 promotional tour of Europe.

• This is awesome: In the 1940s, Frank Sinatra personally sponsored a softball team called the Swooners. But that chest lettering sits a bit high, no? Should’ve gone with the pro-style button placement, which would have allowed for a lower positioning on the insignia.

• Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a primitive-looking version of the Tigers’ old English “D” as the one on this 1954 Al Kaline batting helmet. Love the little stenciled “6” on the brim, too.

• Always fun to see one of the Phillies’ burgundy Saturday Night Special uniforms.

Want to see more? You can browse through the entire auction catalog here.

• • • • •

Click to enlarge

Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie

If the NBA Finals are making you a bit nostalgic, here’s a Warriors “The City” throwback for you. Will they go back to this if/when they move back to San Francisco? (I’ll believe it when I see it built, and not until then.)

Incidentally, I never knew that was a cable car on the back until the last few years. I thought it was — wait for it — a car battery. Why, I do not know.

Okay, while you process that nugget of admittedly shameful info, here are the rest of this week’s picks:

• Check out this sign for the 1960s Bart Starr “Jog-Shu” and the best-selling “Mr. Quarterback” shoes.

• Helmet logo looks a bit small on this 1970s KC Chiefs “Button Up Back Pack Nap Sack.” Speaking of the Chiefs, what’s that creature on this decal — a bunny? [Also: Backwards apostrophe. Sigh. ”” PL]

• Classic throwback look to this vintage Dallas Cowboys Starter jacket. Had one of these, a present from Jim Fox, my boss at Q102 in Cincinnati. To this day, he swears the station van and staff jackets just happened to be Cowboys colors, even though Dallas was his favorite team.

• Here’s a 1970s Cincinnati Reds gear bag that was property of Reds great Ted Kluszewski.

• Pete Rose used to love him some Gold Star Chili, and used this glass. (Now me, I was a Skyline guy.)

• Someone put their cherished Chiquita NFL stickers on this 1971 NFL poster. Contrary to what the seller says, this wasn’t a Chiquita display piece.

• Staying with Chiquita, here’s one of those NFL 50th-anniversary pocket radios. Looks to be in excellent shape, but the seller says it will only get one local station. Well, if it gets one, it should get the others. Must live in the boondocks.

• Now, with this 1940s baseball “tube radio,” we know it doesn’t work. Great design, though.

• Who knew there was an Upper Deck “Mini Jersey” set back in 2005? Okay, maybe you did, but I didn’t!

• Bottoms up with this set of 1970s Minnesota North Stars stadium beer cups.

• Nice-looking 1970s L.A. Rams helmet plaque. Prefer the classic white and navy? Sure thing.

• Jose Canseco on the front of this 1980s Starline satin jacket? Uh, no.

Follow Brinke on Twitter: @brinkeguthrie

• • • • •

IMPORTANT ”” T-Shirt Club query: We’ve now completed seven of our 12 monthly campaigns for the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club, so I think this is a good time to check in and see how many of you have kept up with the “Collect ’em all” thing. Getting a sense of how many people are eligible for the year-end prize will help me determine what that prize will be.

So: If you’ve purchased a shirt from all seven months so far, please use this link to shoot me a note. Thanks.

When we finish the December campaign, I will ask the “Collect ’em all”-ers to prove their eligibility by either (a) providing a photo of themselves with all 12 shirts or (b) providing all 12 Teespring confirmation emails (the ones that say, “Congrats on your purchase!,” etc.). But you don’t have to do any of that now. Today I’m just taking a show of hands to get a rough idea of where we stand. Thanks for your help.

Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who got on board for the July shirts. Despite all the “Pandering” brouhaha, the Independence Day shirt was pretty popular, and the Canada Day design did waaaaay better than we expected — a nice surprise.

•  •  •  •  •

The Ticker
By Mike Chamernik

Baseball News: Kohl’s ad for Father’s Day is a homage to the MLB logo (from Chris Koury). … San Diego State will give away caps with the Aztec Calendar on the brim (from Brady Phelps). … The Cubs have this uni style guide in their clubhouse. “There are three conditions which apply to ‘Memorial Alterations,'” says Mike Styczen. “Those three conditions are listed as (1), (B) and (C). A pretty amusing error for what is otherwise a pretty professional sign.” … The Royals will wear 1985 powder blues in St. Louis on Sunday (from Leigh Bellinger). … Inside this piece on over-the-top ballpark food items, it’s shown that the Yankees stamp their cap logo into their chicken and waffle sandwiches. … A Redditor created retro Cubs trading cards for current players. … As you’ve surely heard, the A’s now have an ambidextrous pitcher, but at least one newspaper doesn’t know the difference between ambidextrous and amphibious (from Phil). … The Oakridge Reds, a 21-and-over baseball team in London, Ontario, has some excellent V-neck pullovers with some decent stirrups, too (from Kevin Dugal). … Here’s a good shot of Dave Parker in a flocked helmet (from Rick Porter). ”¦ Here’s a uniform manufacturer’s catalog of themed jersey options. The worst of them are on page 4 (from Rick Cuzzetto).

NFL News: A new HBO show will use NFL team names and logos, legally, without the league’s consent. … A Falcons blog is exploring every uniform number ever worn in the team’s history. … Peyton Manning is trying out the Speed-Flex helmet. … Also in helmet news, Tim Tebow isn’t wearing his usual Riddell Revolution or Revolution Speed, and Nick Foles has a new facemask (from Mike Trautman). … A new Broncos activity book shows their mascot, Miles, without a torso and with arms coming out of the helmet’s earholes (from Michael Starbuck). … NFL rookies participated in a photo shoot with NFLPA uniforms, along with the helmets of a few trading card companies (from Eric Wright). … Joe Montana said that the 49ers offensive linemen used to spray silicone on their jerseys, until the refs caught on.

Hockey News: If the video doesn’t give you a seizure first, you can see a Stanley Cup being 3D-printed (from Brinke). … A Canadiens fan is now rooting for the Blackhawks, according to this jersey (from Phil). … Steve Johnston attended a White Sox game and saw that the statues were wearing Blackhawks jerseys. … Also, Michael Jordan’s statue outside the United Center wore a Jonathan Toews jersey (from Phil). … Jennifer Hayden spotted someone at last night’s Blackhawks/Lightning game wearing the oddest Hawks jersey I’ve seen: BFBS, mirrored nameplate and an upside down T.

Soccer News: Nike is selling men’s versions of the USWNT jersey (from Phil). … New jerseys for Hertha BSC (from Ed Å»elaski). … Luis Suarez wore makeshift stirrups in the Champions League Final. … Mikey Traynor counted down the best uniforms at Copa America 2015. … Barcelona’s Gerard Pique cut down the goal net to celebrate his team’s Champions League Final victory. He started the tradition in 2011 (from Yusuke Toyoda). ”¦ C. Peterson says the Nigerian women’s team is wearing $30 off-the-rack kits. ”¦ USA U-20 goalie Zack Steffen is wearing Under Armour gloves with his Nike uniform.

Basketball News: The Sixers again teased their new uniforms. They will finally reveal them on June 18. … Here’s what it might look like if some major fashion brands redesigned NBA jerseys (from Phil). … A few weeks ago I joked that some teams should adopt blue collars, just to drive home how hard-working and serious they are. Well, the Bucks have done just that. … Here’s a good piece on the NBA Finals’ game balls. … Muslim girls in Minneapolis received form-fitting hijabs so they could play basketball (from Phil).

Grab Bag: New logo for The Late Show (from Brinke). … A group of students at Circleville (Ohio) High School entered a hand-painted shoes contest and are in the running for a $50,000 prize (from Jason Hillyer). … Dean Gemmell sends along some photos of a family curling team from Fort Frances, Ont., playing in the opening spiel at the Raleigh-Durham club. “They said the service station was their father’s and their mother knitted the sweaters herself,” he says. “The crest is my favorite part. We also talked about how clubs in Canada used to have a color for club sweaters and every team from that club would wear those colors. Different era.” … Jaime Galindo found a patriotic soda display at a Walmart in Cedar Park, Texas. … NASCAR created a few pit road uniform changes, and David Firestone broke it down. … A Dallas-area high school mountain bike team is crowdfunding its new bicycle chain-inspired jerseys (from Sean Smith). … Pro golfer Mark Calcavecchia’s pants and belt were bacon-patterned the other day (from Phil). … New rule for Chicago police officers: No baseball caps. … The letter “M” is featured in many different iterations in lots of transit logos (from Louie Sherwood). ”¦ Here’s an article on the jacket worn by cyclist Bradley Wiggins after he broke the hour record (from John Kim).

 
  
 
Comments (89)

    On the second bullet point on the Collector’s Corner, I would say that the “creature” on the decal is a representation of K.C. Wolf. link

    Oh, how I am going to miss the Letterman Late Show logo.
    The Colbert one is pretty plain.

    Agreed. Dull. What irks me is they took the time to line up the “h” in “stephen” with the “b” in “colbert” but left the “T” in “LATE” slightly off from the “H” in “SHOW.”

    I’ve heard lots of silicone, Vaseline, Pam cooking spray stories from former players recently (ever since the Pats deflation controversy) talking about how they tried to “get an advantage.

    btw, I refuse to refer to any scandal (other than the original) and include the suffix “-gate”!

    That is without a doubt, the least fact based, most ridiculous website I have ever seen. Created by NE fans to justify their own team’s misdeeds. It’s kind of sad when you read some of the “scandals” they list.

    Nice. Gotta share that site with some folks.

    And I’m with y’all…the whole “-gate” thing has to end.

    Oh thank God someone is willing to do that. The “-gate” suffix is the most journalistically lazy, scandal-labelling trope around.

    The Broncos logo is from a NFL Rush Zone. An effort from the nfl to reach kids through cartoons. link

    If you rotate something that way, does it not end up upside-down?

    Maybe this guy likes to stand on his head? Is he a relation of Bill “Spaceman” Lee?

    It is a Chinese knockoff jersey. They have terrible QC and I’ve seen plenty of errors with the knockoffs like the wrong name or missing shoulder patches.

    It was completely upside down. I posted it to my facebook page and everyone wanted me to ask him what the hell he was thinking, but I refused. I think he wanted attention.

    CJ – I’m nearly 100% sure it wasn’t a production error…..

    Rob S – yes, I came to the comments to point that out to Paul. Either way, it’s ridiculous.

    Another reason that I didn’t ask him about the nameplate – I was angry as this lady and her escort were not handicapped, yet sat in the seat directly in front of me and blocked my view considerably (truly 1/2 of the ice surface).

    link

    I’m getting a “content not currently available” message, which I think usually means that it’s something posted for friends only rather than to the public.

    Not to split hairs, but that jersey is not BFBS as Paul dubbed it. Black has always been in the Blackhawks’ color scheme, they’ve been wearing that third jersey on-and-off since the mid-90s, and, well, the first word in their team name…

    I’ve seen other knockoff Hawks jerseys with the tomahawks logos backward and/or the Reebok wordmark logo upside-down as well. Never ceases to amaze me.

    I play in three adult baseball leagues, so seeing what the Oakridge Reds are doing with their uniforms is great. I wish more adult teams would take liberties in design, and break outside the box of using replica MLB uniforms.

    I don’t normally wear jerseys…

    The Jeff…Most Interesting Contrarian in the World.

    Then The can be the Most Contrarian Interesting Man in the World.

    That’s Andy Benoit (part of the MMQB staff), not King. Dunno if that affects The’s urge.

    I don’t see the reason for the ageist attack. Is it worth wearing a 300 dollar jersey casually? I don’t think so. But not to wear a football team’s jersey because the guy is half your age? It’s absolute nonsense.

    that doesn’t look like Nick Foles in the Rams uni showing his new facemask. Are you sure?

    “Looks like Cthulhu is making a call to the pen….now pitching for R’lyeh…Barnabas Marsh!”

    ed

    The character on the Sic ‘Em Chiefs sticker is KC Wolf, the mascot which was derived from the KC Wolfpack fan club from the 60s and early 70s. He looked more like Wile E. Coyote back then.

    Re: Swooners….

    See now, to me, that button is in the worst possible spot.
    The second button is the key button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt. Look at it, it’s too high, it’s in no-man’s land.

    Haven’t we had this conversation before?

    Hey Paul… after seeing that Celts cape, it always amazes me that after 15 years of UW, you’re still able to find stuff you haven’t yet seen. Truly indicative of the breadth of the uni-verse. Thanks so much for sharing!

    I always think that same thing when I see something (not necessarily uni-related) in a baseball game that I’ve never seen before.

    Have you ever covered the flap on the tongue of baseball cleats? Low-top baseball cleats have a flap on the tongue, but mids and hi-top cleats do not. Golf cleats traditionally have them, but football cleats do not. Soccer cleats, no tongue flap. I think it’s worthy of inspection if you haven’t done so already.

    Awesomeness of Denver Central Bankers — both name and unis — makes me wonder if there’s a site that features NIBL stuff. Anybody?

    “… Mikey Traynor counted down the best uniforms at Copa America 2015…”

    Some very fine unis in that lineup, which overall leans toward uncluttered classy looks. That your man Mikey picked as his #1 fave the sad debasement by Mexico of a fabulous uni tradition is extremely unfortunate. For the 78th time: the green shirt / white shorts / red socks ensemble is the finest ever.

    I think that Blackhawks jersey has the nameplate upside down, not mirrored with an upside down T. Turn the picture 180 degrees and Keith reads correctly.

    Haha.

    But hold on! “KEITH” mirrored with an upside-down T is the same thing as being rotated 180 degrees. So, I was right! There was just a simpler explanation.

    Zack Steffen wearing the UA gloves with the Nike US kit is not unusual. Almost all professional goalkeepers have an endorsement deal for their gloves (as well as boots), so mixing and matching of manufacturers is normal.

    Steffen is on the University of Maryland soccer team so I am guessing that he is just wearing UA gloves since that is who sponsers his school. If he was doing it for an endorsement then we is no longer an amatuer (at least according to the NCAA), but generally mixing up manufacturers is normal in both kinds of football.

    Though I’ve found that glove endorsement deals often match up with the club or country.

    Tim Howard, Brad Guzan and Nick Rimando all wear Nike, as do David De Gea (Manchester United) and Joe Hart (Manchester City/England), while Iker Casillas wears Adidas (Real Madrid/Spain) and Gigi Buffon wears Puma (Italy).

    BTW, what happened to all the smaller GK equipment brands like Reusch and Uhlsport?

    You know what’s weird? He didn’t wear UA gloves at Maryland. He played amateur ball wearing gloves from the ironically named link.

    re: That super-cool 1971 NFL/AFL poster, funny that the AFL is depicted wearing white home kits and the NFL’s depicted in color unis (nice to see Cowboys’ blue jersey!). Looks like the Saints player has the black helmet too (like the logo on the left border – gold on black).

    Regarding Nigeria’s WWC uniforms. Nigeria only switched to Nike in the last couple of months after their contract with Adidas was terminated because coaches and players were frequently seen wearing non-Adidas gear. At least that was the rationale given, but Adidas has recently stated that they want to focus more on larger clients that will produce more sales, like when they told Southampton before last season that they didn’t have time to produce their kits, but hey Southampton ended up finishing seventh and qualifying to play in Europe and suddenly Adidas found time to make their uniforms for next year. It’s pretty terrible either way IMO, but it left Nigeria scrambling and with the lead time needed to design and produce bespoke kits not available they were left with a Nike teamwear template.

    Nigeria is in the same situation as link.

    Also, Southampton and Adidas had resolved their dispute before the 2014—15 season but not in time to produce the kits. The results of the past season had nothing to do with it.

    The Nigerian Women’s jersey doesn’t surprise me at all. I actually made a mock-up of the jersey late February and I chose what ended up being the right Nike stock model.The colors are inverted because I’d thought they’d be the change.

    link

    The real problem is how needless clunky the uniforms are because of the stripe on the shorts and heavy standard font. Contrast their jerseys to U-20 men’s: no stripes on the shorts, Nike’s San Diego Charger’s font, and a double chevron socks that works with a more recent stock model.

    link|0|editorial198|25|156&s=1

    The women’s team qualified for their tournament long before the u20’s, but Nike and the NFF didn’t show them enough respect to give them matching looks.

    $30 off-the-rack jerseys … that look as good as anything Nigeria has worn in a decade. And apparently are just as good for the athletes as more expensive, custom jerseys would have been, given Nigeria’s strong showing against Sweden yesterday. Ought to be a lesson in there somewhere for national football associations.

    But they were $65 about three years ago. Anyway, the u-20 men have the same top, but a more balanced look.

    Last thing I knew about initial kit outfitting is: the supplier requires a “stock” model for a year or two. This allows the supplier to control the consumer business to sell as many as they can of the models they already have out there.

    Most of the time, it’s this way from what I’ve seen. I know Manchester United will be switching from Nike to adidas in August 2015, so I doubt we’ll see a complete “stock” kit for them since they hold so much value in sales (a similar thing can be said with the USMNT “bomb pop” top; it was theirs then became a stock style).

    Though Adidas knew they were outfitting Manchester United since last July, and were obviously bidding for the business well before that. Way more lead time than Nike had with Nigeria.

    Speaking of the North Stars, last night I went down the rabbit hole on Youtube and found myself watching a broadcast of a 1980 playoff game between Minnesota and Montreal. There were no ads on the boards. There were no ads on the ice. There were no graphics on the screen. There was no music other than the Forum’s organ. The home team was wearing white. It felt like a dream….

    check out the script on this old Dallas Chaparrals jersey. Wouldn’t it have been better if the script and numerals were smaller, allowing the script to sit more horizontally?
    Nope. For once, someone made numerals just the right size. Plus, I kinda like the script that way. Not saying I want every jersey to look like that, but a few teams could try it.

    Whoa, look at the crazy stars/stripes warm-ups worn by the Utah Stars for a 1972 promotional tour of Europe.
    I expected a little stronger reaction than that.

    Nice-looking 1970s L.A. Rams helmet plaque. Prefer the classic white and navy?
    I wouldn’t use the word “classic” there. White & navy was a decade-long-ish diversion from the classic yellow-gold & blue. That would be like calling the Eagles’ white helmet with green wings a classic.

    I am not a big baseball fan so I don’t get the fascination with stirrups. May someone explain it to me please. Thank you.

    Well I think black shirts and britches look cool, but no one really likes that look. So that means nothing.

    Did anyone notice the guy wearing the California Golden Seals jersey behind the glass last night at the Cup Finals??…The Pacific Blue version…dont see that anywhere….loved it !!

    link

    Admittedly, I didn’t pay much attention to the game itself, so I missed that. (It’s kind of hard to be invested when one team is a longtime rival of your favorite team, and the other one is the one that knocked your team out.)

    Some details in the usual Nike press release for the new A.S. Roma kit.

    link

    Nike is claim about the gap in the crew new is a reference to the lorica segmentata worn by legionaries in the early Principate period.

    link

    Only problem is that the gap in plates isn’t really a feature. You see it when the armor is set down and the shoulder plates shift outwards.
    link

    As soon as someone puts their shoulders in it, the plates come together and the gap pretty much vanishes.
    link

    Which makes sense given that Roman sculptures of that armor never show that gap.
    link

    In a further bit of historical annoyance, Nike has the team standing in front of the Arch of Constantine, which happens to be the only triumphal arch in Rome depicting a Roman victory over other Romans (Constantine’s defeat of Maxentius) in a civil war. I don’t know if that’s a subtle dig at Lazio but I get the feeling it was only selected because of its relatively cleared out location. Its also silly because by Constantine’s life, the Roman army had long since ditched the lorica segmentata that Nike has alluded to in favor of more mundane chain mail.

    Not a fan. I liked the past season’s set but the new shirt feels really incomplete.

    I hope they stay sponsor-free, though.

    The Copa America kit ranking is invalid because (SPOILER ALERT) #1 is a BFBS.

    “In the 1940s, Frank Sinatra personally sponsored a softball team called the Swooners.”

    Does Ebbets Field Flannels know about this?

    It’s been about a year, but a seller on Ebay had a Swooners jersey for sale: $5000.00. No one bit.

    Thanks for the shoutout in the baseball ticker for our new Oakridge uniforms. We got lots of compliments over the weekend, and our guys absolutely love them.

    England’s Women’s World Cup uniform is the best US uniform in the whole tournament.

    And the USA home is the best turn-ahead-the-clock uniform to represent our nightmare future of corporate authoritarianism following the collapse of the Westphalian nation-state system in the West. Hard to imagine a uniform that more effectively says “Nike” than what the American women are wearing. A perfect emblem of the Snowcrash-esque dystopia we’re headed for, in which “international” sports will represent companies, not countries.

    Volt is Nike’s national color, obviously. USWNT is soccer’s Oregon football.

    There was a Twitter thread where someone was arguing that the neon stain on the socks were good because it’s an international tournament or some such. I had to close my browser tab and burn my computer.

    Remember the words of Number 2: “And you don’t realize there is no world anymore! It’s only corporations!”
    link

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