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Uni Watch

Monday Morning Uni Watch

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The Browns appear to be trying to outdo themselves with each successive week. And hey, let’s give them credit: They’re succeeding! Their latest uni combo was a shit show in a near-literal sense of the term, as they turned the unitard look into the uniturd look. Didn’t exactly help that they were playing the Raiders, whose timelessly classic look just threw the Browns’ silliness into higher relief. At this point I’d say they’ve probably bottomed out — nowhere to go from here but up.

In most other respects it was a very quiet day around the league, at least from a uni perspective. Here are the few items that came across my radar:

• In Miami, billionaire investor Warren Buffet wore an aqua Ndamukong Suh jersey with pads, even though the Dolphins were wearing white at home.

• Other teams wearing white at home: the Jets (who, as you can see there, accentuated the effect by wearing white shoes, instead of their usual black), Panthers, Titans, and of course the Cowboys.

• The Bengals continue to have problems with their nameplate positioning.

• Have to agree with this sentiment:

• It was Hispanic Heritage Week around the league, with lots of Spanish signage and Hispanic presentations (including this one in Dallas).

• Cowboys, Eagles — eh, what’s the diff:

(My thanks to all contributors, including Chris Flinn, Seth Shaw, and of course Phil.)

•  •  •  •  •  •

T-Shirt Club update: For months now I’ve been dropping hints about a very special Uni Watch T-Shirt Club offering that’s been in the works. It took a long time to get the design and production issues settled, and then we decided to have some samples made, just to be sure we had a finished product that we felt good about. Now that we’ve seen the samples, I can finally show you what we’ve been up to. I think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait:

Not bad, right? This shirt, which will be our November design and will be available for ordering in two weeks, is completely unlike any of the others we’ve done, and there are also several aspects of the design that I want to share with you and some issues I want to address. Please bear with me while I explain:

1. All our other shirts have been screen-printed, but this one is sublimated. Why? Two reasons: First, traditional screen-printing wouldn’t have allowed us to print all the way to the sides and the bottom of the shirt. Second, even if we had stayed within the traditional screen-print boundaries, the stripe coverage would have used so much ink that the shirt would have been extremely stiff and heavy. Using sublimated dyes avoids this problem — the shirt is light and flexible. Sublimation has its drawbacks (it’s not quite as crisp or vibrant), but it was the best approach for this design.

2. Once we decided to go with sublimation, we had no choice but to go with a 100%-polyester shirt, which definitely doesn’t feel as nice as our usual cotton. On the plus side, however, the poly fabric feels a lot more like a real jersey, so there’s that.

3. If you look closely, you’ll see that the back numerals and some of the NOB letters have a faint shadow. That was basically sloppy work on the sample. Shouldn’t happen with the real shirts. Also, the “1” is sitting slightly higher than the “5”; again, that will be corrected.

4. We usually have the sleeve patch graphic centered on the side of the sleeve, so it’s partially visible both from the front and the back. But as you can see in the photos above, the sleeve patch on this shirt is truly on the front of the sleeve and will not be visible from the back — that’s due to a production limitation. I’ve tried on the sample and can honestly say the front/back issue doesn’t seem like a problem when the shirt is being worn. (The patch on the sample is also too close to the sleeve hem, but we’ll fix that for the main production run.)

5. One problem with the sample shirts is that the front and back stripes don’t align. We’ll give more explicit instrux to our supplier to avoid this problem when the actual T-Shirt Club shirts are being made, but it’s possible that the stripe alignment may be slightly imperfect (although it’ll definitely be a lot better than in that photo I just linked to). Just to allay your fears, anyone who orders a shirt and is unhappy with the stripe alignment will be able to get a refund.

6. For now, it’s looking like the size offerings for this shirt will go from S to 2XL. I know some of you (including some “Collect ’Em All”-ers) prefer 3X, and we’re checking to see if there’s any way to make that possible for this shirt. Stay tuned.

7. Because of the design and production issues involved, this will be our most expensive shirt, with a price tag that will probably be around $28 or $29. (You can make all your jokes about this being an “overpriced polyester shirt” now.) Given how awesome it looks, I do think it’s worth it, and I hope you agree, but I understand if you think that’s too much to spend on a T-shirt.

8. The design, obviously, is based on the Astros’ tequila sunrise jerseys from the 1970s. One difference is that we weren’t able to duplicate the rainbow stripes on the sleeves (production limitations), but I don’t think that’s a dealbraker.

9. We tinkered with using the Uni Watch script on the chest, but that didn’t look right. Then we tried using the wordmark shown at the top of this website, but that didn’t look right either. So we ultimately went with a font very similar to what the Astros used, which I think looks great. We went through a similar range of options on the back before ultimately settling on the circus font that the ’Stros used in 1975.

10. The stripes are in Uni Watch colors (duh), but the typography is rendered in the same midnight navy that the Astros used. We tried doing the type in maroon (a Uni Watch color), but it didn’t look right, so we tried the navy, almost as a lark, and were surprised by how good it looked. I’m really happy with that choice.

11. Some of you might be thinking, “The magnifying glass symbol is in dark green, but it should be navy, like the star on the Astros’ jerseys.” We tried it in navy and decided we liked it better in green. So that’s one place where we decided not to be faithful to Houston’s design.

I think that’s everything. Feedback welcome. Special shout-out to my Teespring partner Bryan Molloy, who’s put in a lot of work on this one. In addition to creating the design (and dealing with all my nitpicks regarding same), he also had to find a supplier that was willing to do sublimation (Teespring has never done a sublimated shirt before), arrange to have the samples made, and deal with a lot of other behind-the-scenes hassles. He’s also going to have to create separate front and back sublimation patterns for each size of shirt we offer, which I gather is going to be a shitload of work. Thanks, Bry — I know you’ve put a lot of time and effort into this one, and I’m super-duper-grateful. You da man and all that.

•  •  •  •  •

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PermaRec birthday: It was 19 years ago today — Sept. 28, 1996 — that I attended my friend Gina’s birthday party in the old Stuyvesant High School gymnasium, where I stumbled upon the old Manhattan Trade School report cards that would form the basis of my Permanent Record project and, ultimately, change my life. (If you don’t know the story, it’s spelled out in considerable detail here.)

So happy birthday to Gina, and happy birthday to Permanent Record, both of which are very dear to me.

• • • • •

The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: Good uni-centric Q&A with the Yankees’ equipment manager. ”¦ Looked like the Astros and UVA’s football team wear wearing the same uniform on Friday night. ”¦ Mets OF Yoenis Cespedes wasn’t in the lineup yesterday, so utility man Kelly Johnson wore Cespedes’s neon compression sleeve and his neon necklace! (Screen shot by John Ford.) ”¦ Rookie hazing for two teams that will meet in the NLDS: Mets rookies were forced to roam around Cincinnati in superhero Underoos yesterday (here’s another photo), while Dodgers rookies had to dress up like pro wrestlers (from Mark Coale). ”¦ Pirates OF Andrew McCutchen says he has no plans to re-grow his dreadlocks. ”¦ “My brother-in-law works for a park district here in Illinois and came across some old Little League helmets based on MLB team designs,” says Ryan Lindemann. “He knew they’d be right up my alley, and Uni Watch’s too!” ”¦ Here are some photos of Crosley Field in Cincinnati just before it was demolished in 1972.

Pro Football News: New white helmets yesterday for the Toronto Argonauts (from Wade Heidt). ”¦ Some Giants players wore blank helmets during a 1975 preseason game. ”¦ Pepsi is using a promotional can design that features an outdated Panthers logo. ”¦ Electric football maven Gene Sanny has come out with with latest set of custom-designed player figurines, this time for the USFL’s Arizona Wranglers. “I kicked it up a notch as far as detail goes with these guys, beginning with a more detailed type of figure,” he says. “I molded all the sleeves, horse collar, and wrist and elbow pads myself to replicate that ’80s feel. This is my favorite uniform of all time — not enough copper and flames used today!” ”¦ Chiefs WR De’Anthony Thomas has been channeling former Hank Stram’s old “KC” logo blazer. ”¦ Here’s something I’ve never seen before: an NFL strategy briefcase board game. Hey, Brinke, ever come across this one? (From David Keel.) ”¦ Interesting note from Michael Greenwald, who writes: “Check out this banner ad, which shows the gold NFL shield and the slogan, ‘Not Just For Gameday,’ next to a fan wearing a Raiders jersey. I kind of got a vibe like the league was rubbing it in Oakland’s face with this ad after the Raiders backtracked on their plan not to use gold 50 yard line markers.” ”¦ Here’s a licensed product I can totally get behind: NFL paper drinking straws. They have NCAA versions, too.

College and Youth League Football News: “An interesting development in Saturday’s Virginia Tech/ECU game,” says Andrew Cosentino. “Early on, while the weather was good, the Hokies receivers and tight ends were wearing gloves. But as the game wore on and the rain picked up, almost everyone decided to take them off, as seen here, here, here, and here.” ”¦ The U. of Maine’s live mascot, Bananas the Bear, has received a makeover. ”¦ Navy’s kicker was taking the biker shorts look to new extremes the other day, and a CMU player was missing his NOB. ”¦ Arizona currently has two players surnamed Jackson on the roster, which gives LB Sir Thomas Jackson the excuse to wear this. ”¦ Arkansas LB Josh Williams has FNOB. That’s presumably because the roster also includes RB Jonathan Williams (from Zach McKenzie). ”¦ A youth league team in Michigan has added a memorial decal for a fallen local firefighter (from Chet Miller). ”¦ Here’s a possible leak of Ohio State’s BFBS alternates (from Kyle Shaner).

Soccer News: Puppy-themed kits the Japanese club JEF United (from Matt Solly). ”¦ Check it out: Michael Jackson — yes, that Michael Jackson — wearing a 1979-80 OSG Nice Ligue 1 jersey for a magazine photo shoot (from Graham Clayton). ”¦ Parents in my Brooklyn neighborhood are upset because their kids’ AYSO soccer jerseys now carry corporate advertising for Fox Sports 1 (thanks, Brinke).

Grab Bag: Calgary Flames goalie Jonas Heller may be taking symmetry too far. … Beyoncé and her dancers wore basketball-themed stage outfits for a recent concert appearance (from Robert Hay). … Good look at the design of some old lottery tickets from the 1850s! ”¦ Spectacular early-1970s photos from a Florida roller rink — not to be missed (big thanks to Ben Traxel). ”¦ We may have seen this before, can’t remember, but just in case; Here’s a guy who’s created 50 football helmets based on the 50 state flags (from David Staples).

•  •  •  •  •

What Paul did last night: As you’re probably aware, the moon was on the rag last night, or something like that. That seemed more interesting than watching the Lions and Broncos, so a special person and I grabbed some beers, made some popcorn, fished the binoculars out of that cluttered drawer where they live, and headed up to my roof. My upstairs neighbor and his girlfriend soon joined us, making for a festive little scene. None of us had cameras good enough to do justice to what was unfolding in the sky above us, so here’s a shot taken by one of my fellow Brooklynites:

Looking at the moon for a long stretch got me thinking. I was five years old when Neil Armstrong et al. landed on the moon’s surface in 1969. I don’t remember that event, but I definitely remember several of the subsequent Apollo lunar landings from the early 1970s. At the time it almost seemed routine — like, “Yeah, that moon thing, we do it every few months.”

Now, of course, it’s been decades since humans walked on the moon. I understand the reasons for this (it costs a shit-ton of money, it risks people’s lives, we’re no longer obsessed with proving that our dicks are bigger than the Russians’ dicks, and we can learn just as much these from unmanned probes, or even earth-bound observation, as we can from walking around on a dead rock), but part of me really wishes we’d start doing it again, just because it seems so cool. On the other hand, maybe one reason it seems so cool is that we no longer do it — our retreat from space travel has restored the sense of wonder and amazement that moon landings initially provided before they became fairly common. Like, “Wow, did we really go there? That’s amazing!” That’s what I was thinking about as I watched the blood moon last night.

 
  
 
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Comments (126)

    Soooooo pumped for the Uni-Guts tee this month! So much better than a Pinktober or GIJokevember offering!

    Agreed! A shame the maroon didn’t work out. I have to think that darkening the green stripes would have made it work, but perhaps that would have made the magnifying glass impossible to render.

    I’m really curious exactly how the sublimation process actually works. It doesn’t look like there’s a seam down the side, but if the shirt is colored all at once, how do the front and back colors end up that badly misaligned? Is there a How-It’s-Made video somewhere?

    Plenty of t-shirts don’t have side seams, as I’m wearing one without them right now, but ok then, that basically answers my question. Hope they get they alignment much closer on the real shirts… I might actually buy one.

    Is yours 100% poly? Cotton shirts are often side-seamless. Not so sure abut 100% poly, which is needed for sublimation.

    Good point… although, I don’t see any reason a non-sublimated poly shirt couldn’t be pieced together the same way. Thus…we’re kinda back to me wanting to see how the sublimation process works. I think it’d be an interesting video.

    There’s this thing on the web, Jeff, called YouTube. Amazing website. Has like 100 or videos total, I’ve heard. I think I’ve watched about 80 of them. They have a few on sublimation, it seems. LOL ;P

    I will guess this has to do with the poly shirts and the sublimation method, but the TeqSun shirts looks VERY thin. you can see the back of the front through back. Granted, a person will be in between those layers when it’s worn, but just seems too thin.

    It’s not thin. It’s just that the sublimated dye is IN the fabric, rather than ON the fabric, so it shows thru a bit on the reverse side.

    The so-called Little League helmets with MLB logos look like the souvenir helmets of the 70s and 80s. I cannot imagine any LL allowing batters to go flapless.

    Literally thought the same thing. That said, that yellow A’s helmet is the great white whale of souvenir helmets, I want one.

    Those are indeed replica souvenir helmets. Not Little League. I have one of the Yellow A’s Helmets. My brother got it at a White Sox game in the early 70’s.

    Astros fan here. Excited about the rainbow guts version of the UniWatch t-shirt. Can’t wait to purchase.

    One observation: The number seems a bit high on the back of the UniWatch shirt compared to the way it’s rendered on the ’75 Astros jerseys. The number falls just below the stripes on the real thing. Also seems like there is too much white space at the top. Is that a manufacturing issue or can that be modified?

    link

    The supposed amazing factor of no longer doing a thing is a poor argument for not doing it. Like, exploration of Antarctica used to capture the entire Western world’s attention back when it was rare and hard. Today, Antarctica is home to multiple permanent scientific bases, and every warm season it welcomes even more temporary scientific expeditions and even regular tourists. And unless one is really into watching PBS or reading Greg Rucka, one probably has never thought, “Oh, wow, they’re exploring Antarctica!” We could definitely restore the mystique, and even a healthy sense of respect and mystery, if we shut down all the ice stations, evacuated Antarctica, and stopped going there. On the whole, I’d rather live with the routinizing of the thing even at the expense of the loss of what Antarctica used to offer to the public imagination.

    With space, I’m 41 and in my lifetime, no human has travelled further into space than the distance of a drive from Houston to Dallas, straight up. No disrespect meant to the brave men and women who risk their lives to reach low-earth orbit, but that’s not even really space. That’s within the earth’s atmosphere; anything orbiting at that altitude will eventually be brought to earth by atmospheric drag if not occasionally boosted. I have never lived in a country that is capable of sending humans into real, actual space. That doesn’t fill me with a sense of wonder; if makes me sad. It’s also part of why I approved of the old brick Astros uniforms. The retro look of the team perfectly captured what the idea of space exploration has become in America: A figment of the imagined past, not the experienced present or the hoped-for future.

    Plus, if we had a manned space program worth the risk and sacrifice, then we would have a permanent scientific base on the moon. And for astronauts on the moon, last night would have been one heck of a solar eclipse! Just imagine the pictures of the dark side of the earth, rimmed with red fire as the unseen sun filtered through the thin disk of the lower atmosphere.

    Thing is, if we can’t get to the moon, and at the moment we can’t and we’re not even close to being able to, then we can’t get to Mars either. Any serious manned Mars program would use the establishment of a McMurdo-like moon station as a first step. Sort of like how you con’t get from the first suborbital Mercury flights to a moon landing without doing the Gemini program in-between. Which is how we can tell that NASA’s current Mars program will never get people to Mars, and isn’t actually intended to do so.

    Besides, the moon has sports:

    link

    The supposed amazing factor of no longer doing a thing is a poor argument for not doing it.

    Never said it was. Was simply noting that mental mechanism, not endorsing it as a basis for public policy.

    I work at NASA and I find it very sad people do not get “excited” by space anymore. Oh, it’s just low earth orbit, or it’s just the space station… An International Space Station that WE put together with pieces built by different companies, different countries NEVER FIT CHECK down on Earth. It is an incredible feat of science and engineering. We have a guy up there right now that is halfway through A WHOLE YEAR in space – critical stepping stones to farther exploration. And we are working on really, really cool exploration involving LaGrange points. But we are limited by whatever any given president has in mind for space and whatever the congress wants to spend.

    Imagine if, instead of wasting all that money in Iraq, we could have used it for the peaceful exploration of space.

    When i thought about which baseball uni styles had yet to be explored by the t-shirt club, the obvious answer was tequila sunrise. But I feared the stripes and ink issue would make the cost prohibitive. Congratulations on having figured that one out. So now what’s left?

    Christmas/holiday, vest, futuristic, throwback, neon green, LGBT, pinstripes, ????

    My money is on a throwback, using the original Uni-Watch font. LGBT is my second guess.

    Wait…what? The King of complaining about over-priced polyester shirts is now selling one? I am not surprised.

    Over-priced is over-priced, whether it is a t-shirt or a candy bar. You regularly scorn anyone who buys a jersey, but now that it benefits you, it is now acceptable – at least for this month.

    The Lightning released Ray Emery from his PTO. Glad he didn’t go out and buy all new equipment for his two-week stay in TeeBay.

    “Didn’t exactly help that they were playing the Raiders, whose timelessly classic look just threw the Browns’ silliness into higher relief.”

    THANK YOU. Oh Lord, what an embarrassment that was. Unlike some Browns fans here, I LOVE the fact Paul is calling them out for foisting this unholy shitpile of a design upon us. There is not a soul on earth who can convince me this uniform is an upgrade in any way shape or form.

    “At this point I’d say they’ve probably bottomed out – nowhere to go from here but up.”

    I’m assuming it won’t be nearly as bad as the uniturd, but I’ll reserve full judgement till I see the orange unitard we know is coming.

    I agree entirely. I’ve cheered for many terrible, terrible teams and if you just blindly follow and never call out an organization for their poor decision making you’re only making things worse. If your a Browns fan you should expect more from your team and you won’t get more until you demand it.

    Phil, Paul…you are right. I cannot defend my Browns uni’s any longer. I apologize for my fandom taking over what was blatantly obvious…. The pants are ridiculous. The cross color stitching is hideous. The CLEVELAND is too big on the chest. The orange numbers on the Brown look like crap. I do, however, like the white jersey and the “orangier” orange helmet…but man my team is an embarrassment in style and play

    Uniturd. Classic. I must be rubbing off on my sons. We were at a soccer game Sunday, when one of my boys turned to me and said “hey dad, the Browns are going turd-over-turd today!”

    I prefer the nomenclature my daughter gave her college uniform when they went brown-top over brown-bottom: “poop suit.” (Which, FWIW, they did for all of two games before forever retiring that particular combination).

    Brown/Brown/Brown is never going to be a good look so I will agree as far as this goes.

    Orange/Brown/Orange will look great, I think. Orange/White anything will look good. (I do love the color Orange, so take that into consideration.)

    Most of the white jersey looks are good. Should have had brown socks with the orange pants a few weeks back.

    Brown jersey looks fine to me with anything other than the brown pants. That is absurd. No doubt.

    My point has always been that the uniforms are not as 100% bad as Paul seems to incessantly call them out for being. And FFS in a league that includes the Jacksonville Jaguars dreadful set and particularly helmet you CANNOT really say that ANY uniform/look is truly awful.

    That Jag helmet will someday stand alongside the Bronco vertical socks look as the worst look in NFL history.

    For me, I’d have kept the old set forever. Too bad the franchise has been so abysmal most of my lifetime and unable to reach “untouchable by Nike” status as far as the look.

    the uniforms are not as 100% bad as Paul seems to incessantly call them out for being.

    I have never once said they are 100% bad. I think the helmet is fine; I think the white jersey is OK.

    But there are some elements that are irredeemable. The pants, for example, are a bad joke — all of them. And all of the jerseys, including the vaguely tolerable white one, are saddled with those stripes that wrap around too far toward the chest. And the team has consistently made matters worse by matching the sock color to the pant color instead going with contrasting socks.

    I mean, come on — if you looked at them yesterday and didn’t already know they were an NFL team, you’d have instinctively thought either “Arena league” or “D3.”

    I don’t look at the Browns and say “D3.” I look at them and say, “Jacksonville.” There is, sadly, a place at the NFL table now for this kind of crap. That said, the Browns are still mainly about the details for me. I like the increased use of brown. I don’t even mind the unitard look. Or rather, I do mind it, but only in that I mind it for any football team. Nothing wrong with doing it in brown, if it’s going to be done at all. That’s increasingly a football problem, not a Browns problem. The sleeve stripes aren’t great, but neither are they terrible. They’re a solid C, or C-minus, at worst. Looks better than the Vikes’ jersey side panels, for example. Really, if the Browns would just get rid of the leg text, they’d be an acceptably middling team with a few terrific uni elements.

    And even then, I sort of reserved judgement on the leg text until I could see it in action. I hated it in theory, but some things that seem like ugly ideas work fine in practice. Turns out the team name down the leg really is a bad idea! Still, if I had to choose to inflict one ugly idea on a team I liked, I’d replace the leg stripe with the team name six times a week and twice on Sunday before I’d adopt a Jacksonville-style helmet.

    Not only did the Giants wear logo less helmets in the ’75 preseason I believe they wore their ’74 uniforms and didn’t unveil the logo and revised uniforms until game 1 of the regular season. A lot of teams did that back then.

    Well, in the picture, quarterback Craig Morton (no. 15) is wearing the new 1975 logo on his helmet. So the team evidently wasn’t keeping it a secret.

    But those are the old uniforms, not the 1975 uniforms with the very wide pants stripe and the two-colour numbers.

    The RB for Central Michigan is NOT missing his NOB. #21 was Derrick Nash, a player who died of Leukemia over the summer. The team is honoring him by having one player wear his #21 jersey each week. They are leaving it NOB to move around player to player.

    People should do some research before just putting crap out on twitter. A two second search on their roster would show there is no #21 and the third search on Google of “Central Michigan #21” shows the article of Nash’s passing.

    No problem. Wasn’t trying to come off hostile with the last paragraph, but I’m a bit defensive of the program this year. In a 4 day span in June, head coach diagnosed with throat cancer, the next day the team doctor unexpectedly died and then 2 days later Derrick Nash lost his battle with leukemia. The team has been through a lot. Its really great to see them honoring him each week. Coach is choosing the MVP of each game to be the next to wear the #21 jersey.

    I’m always glad when someone catches one of my (many) Seinfeld references. I find one of the signs of my aging is that fewer and fewer seem to catch them (or find them amusing). Sigh.

    Who the hell is Bozo? Is that a typo for The Bozz? (you know, that guy who got posterized by Bo Jackson, then tried to make a career in Hollywood)

    I suspect that the uni-turd look is the bottom of the barrel for the Browns, but I do not think uni-tard orange will be a step up. Assuming they get the orange jerseys, well…ever.

    I actually kind of like the brown-brown-brown better than brown-orange-brown, although orange socks probably would have been a better choice. A lot of people made fun of the Browns for acting like changing the shade of orange they used was a big deal, but wow this orange is retina searing. It’s just too bright, I get that they probably wanted to create more contrast with the brown in their uniforms but it’s just too much. Let’s hope Nike never figures out their orange jerseys.

    Paul Lukas | September 28, 2015 at 9:39 am |

    “No, I regularly scorn the practice of selling something that is obscenely overpriced. This T-shirt does not fit that description.”

    Says the guy who is selling the t-shirt. But it’s okay Paul, I didn’t have you on a pedestal, I wasn’t expecting you to be any different than the people you scrutinize.

    $29 is obscenely over-priced for a custom t-shirt? Many people pay more than that for dinner or to park their car. Geez, folks will troll over just about anything.

    You have to admit that 30 bucks is a little high for a t-shirt, generally speaking. You can certainly buy licensed shirts with far more detailed graphics for less. Of course, these are much more limited in production, so when you factor that in, it’s not a bad deal… but it’s not hard to see how someone would see them as overpriced if they don’t bother to think about it for a few seconds first.

    You can certainly buy licensed shirts with far more detailed graphics for less.

    You realize that’s apples and oranges due to (a) economies of scale, (b) screening vs. sublimating , and (c) myriad other factors, right?

    Our costs are much higher on this one, so the retail price has to be higher as well. Frankly, if we kept the margins the same as they’ve been for the other shirts, this one would end up costing closer to $35, but I didn’t want to charge that much. Does this make me a hero? Not even close. But trust me, the shirt is not overpriced.

    If you honestly believe there is a realistic price-gouging comparison to be made between this T-shirt and a $250 jersey (despite knowing exactly zero about the T-shirt’s wholesale cost or the time and labor that went into creating it), you’re welcome to think that.

    If you honestly think I’m a hypocrite on the basis of that comparison (ditto), you’re welcome to think that as well.

    If you can honestly look in the mirror and say you’re not simply trolling, good for you.

    We’re done here. Let’s move on. Thanks.

    – In Miami, billionaire investor Warren Buffet wore an aqua Ndamukong Suh jersey with pads, even though the Dolphins was wearing white at home.

    HILARIOUS!

    The tee-shirt is striking. Excellent design!

    But I admit that I am a little suprised to see the stripes in shades of green only. I think of the Uni Watch colours as green, yellow (or gold, which is a kind of yellow), and maroon; so I would have expected to see something of those colours in there. Examples of multiple colours in an Astros-style jersey include the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (as shared on this site back in 2007 by Aaron Peters):

    link

    …and Virginia Tech:

    link
    (The team’s kangaroo court needs to fine no. 5 for improper wearing of the pants.)

    A guy named “PlainsmanParkingLot” did a project in which he redesigned the Auburn baseball uniforms according to each of the teams in the Major Leagues.

    link

    In his Astros-inspired design, he used a two stripes of blue alongside varying shades of orange and yellow:

    link

    Did you consider including stripes of yellow and/or maroon in your shirt?

    And I would have expected the number on the back to be maroon-on-yellow, the way the 7 (sometimes 15) is in the Uni Watch logo. Virginia Tech’s rainbow uniforms have two-colour numbers.

    Still, it was a good choice to go for the Astros aesthetic. A superb design all around.

    Re: Argos new white helmets yesterday — That’s actually the third time they’ve worn the white helmets this season…once in early July vs. Saskatchewan, and a couple of weeks ago with their signature series uniform.

    But were the Argos in all-white before this weekend?

    Saskatchewan was in all-white at least once this year previously, and I think both they and the Argos look sharp that way.

    The only thing missing is getting some good ol’ fashioned dirt and grass stains on the unis, because every CFL field is artificial, Edmonton being the last holdout, changing several years ago.

    Now I’m trying to figure out if any NFL teams who wear a white helmet/jersey/pants combo do it on natural grass. Miami at home, maybe? Indy on the road, of course.

    SD wore the olde helmets (w/ numbers on them)? Good catch; I wasn’t paying attention.

    (I’m one of those who wants SD to go back to those helmets and the powder blue jersey full-time.)

    Other possibility is the Bills. I’m not sure if the Cardinals in their white jerseys count as all white given the shoulder yoking.

    Hmm. I’ll try to pay more attention to AZ.

    I remember the Jim Hart / Roger Wehrli Cards, who looked better than the current ones, even if they never won a playoff game.

    If we’re talking about mirrored logos for the sake of symmetry (Jonas Hiller in the Ticker), then Carey Price counts too.
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    I generally dislike inverted logos. It’s like the team doesn’t care what the goalie wears, even if it’s something that their own style guide completely prohibits. One time, Ilya Bryzgalov had a Flyers mask with a Star Wars motif. Yoda initially had an orange light saber to coordinate with the jerseys. George Lucas sent a C&D because Yoda cannot be on the dark side. But teams don’t sanction their own backwards logos. I don’t get it. But that being said, I love Carey’s “second” I posted. The outer C’s look like horseshoes and we all know Carey is a rodeo cowboy.

    I have to admit, I wasn’t aware that Jedi & Sith had strict rules regarding lightsaber colors. Can Sith only be red or orange? Seems kinda limiting… if I was a Sith, I’d use a Jedi-colored saber for the momentary confusion it would cause in the heat of battle.

    That’s more expensive than most t-shirts, but I’m going to buy one because it’s really cool and thankfully I can afford to do so. I guess that means that I don’t find it to be over-priced, because if it was over-priced I would simply not buy one.

    Does anyone know a font that is close to the one used in the Twins logo (the font used for “Twins” with “win” underlined)? I’m doing a project for my twin sons, and I thought it’d be appropriate to use the Twins font.

    Love the continuing coverage of Gene Sanny’s players – cool project!

    And great work on the new shirt design – it must have been fun working out all of the details on this one.

    Those “Little League” helmets are not for little leagues. Those were worn by everyone. Instead of a cap, you could buy that helmet! Or get it on a free giveaway night. I LOVED those things and I had quite a few of them..Of course, after seeing that pic, I wish I still had them. I had an orange Astros helmet with the H in the blue star..Had a AAA Portland Beaver helmet even. Portland was the AAA team of the Pirates, so I had a yellow Pirates helmet with a black bill.

    1. The cmu player without a nameplate is because a player had died early this year so they are rotating the jersey and honoring him.
    2. I deal with a lot of sublimation for softball and baseball jerseys. Sublimation is great because you can wash the shirt hundreds of times without having numbers start to crack like screen printing

    Couple of housekeeping items – typos in the Ticker:

    … Electric football maven Gene Sanny has come out with with latest set of custom-designed player figurines, this time for the USFL’s Arizona Wranglers. “I kicked it up a notch as far as detail goes with these guys, beginning with ]a more detailed type of figure,” he says. (End bracket)

    … Arizona currently has two players surnamed Jackson on the roast, which gives LB Sir Thomas Jackson the excuse to wear this. (Roast instead of roster)

    I’m not a Browns fan, but I am a brown fan. Therefore, I would like to ask all of you…when something with lots of brown appears less than appealing, please consider skipping the easy reference to poo and stretch your imaginations just a tad.

    Does yesterday’s uniform look like a UPS truck collided at full speed with some Home Depot shopping carts? Sure it does. It’s a mess. No argument there. But as long as people continue to associate brown (and yellow) with the toilet, the less likely we are to see the Padres bring back the brown. Any new sports teams, or those going through a rebranding process, will automatically dismiss using that wonderful color as well.

    There are some large, predominantly brown things in the world that look very nice: my dining room table, the wooden diner Paul visited on his latest trip, etc.. We need more, though. With a little tweaking, Cleveland’s concussionball unis could be one of them.

    Don’t disagree with Mr. Vilk, but on the other hand, the association of brown with turd in this instance seems fitting. That is, “looks like crap”, must be “crap” (or in this case, a big ‘ol turd). By contrast, I like the old Padres’ brown and yellow unis, and would not use the old “poop/pee” reference. Likewise, I wouldn’t say the same about Wyoming’s uniform combo, unless of course they went brown over brown, etc. Again, it’s just asking for it, but I don’t think it makes it any less likely another team might use brown in a more pleasing way.

    Probably another way of saying the same thing, but from now on, I think I’ll refer to the look as “full-on Mr. Hankey”.

    “as long as people continue to associate brown (and yellow) with the toilet, the less likely we are to see the Padres bring back the brown.”

    All the more reason for me to continue.

    Paul; I’m wondering if the tshirt project this year has given you a new appreciation for the difficulty the pro teams seem to have with replicating perfect turn back the clock designs, or when the colors aren’t exactly right, etc.

    Having had to deal with these production issues, does this maybe soften the stance you’ve taken with others?

    Actually, I’m pretty forgiving about most throwback inconsistencies. For starters, the base fabric is different now than it was on the original, and that’s gonna make the garment drape differently, and that’s a huge difference right off the bat.

    Still, pro teams have access to much greater resources than Teespring and I do, including sewn graphics, embroidered patches, a near-limitless range of colors, etc., etc. They can do pretty much anything they want — it’s just a question of whether they want to. I don’t have as many options. I appreciate the hurdles that any design/production project entails, but comparing the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club to a pro team’s uniform project seems a bit apples/oranges to me.

    hey guys…longtime reader and contributer to the ticker here…anyone know what’s going on with the powder blue t-shirt orders? two weeks after i ordered it and the tracking link has been up several days (and it is useless btw)…yet no sign of shirt or any notification of shipping progress.

    it’s being shipped by “newgistics”…and the reviews for this company and their shipping practices are horrible…essentially they emphasize how painfully slow they are.

    does anyone have any information…has anyone received his shirt yet? what’s the deal?

    thanks.

    Not sure. But with the exception of a few shirts that were time-sensitive (like the July 4th shirt), we’ve never aimed to get anything in anyone’s hands before the start of the shirt’s assigned month. It’s not even October yet — patience.

    Paul, I’m not in the market, but I have to say that the tequila sunrise shirt is fantastic. Well done sir. And sorry people, take it from a frequent concert-goer, $29 is not overpriced. It’s a niche branded product, and that’s a more than fair price.

    Once the unusual printing circumstances are figured in, $29 seems a reasonable price. I’ll be putting my order in! Uni Watch colors suggest a shotgun marriage of the Astros with the A’s.

    My God, those are hideous. I’ll never understand the use of grey or black at schools where neither is one of their colors. I blame Oregon…

    Here’s hoping the 3x will become available — I’d hate to go this far collecting them only to lose out at the end due to size unavailability. . . especially when it’s the most creative one yet.

    BTW, whether or not the shirts are overpriced matters not to me — I’ve enjoyed collecting them and wearing them, simple as that.

    Of course it matters to you if the shirts are overpriced or not. Everyone has their limit and yours is above (possibly way above) $29.. So to you the shirt is not overpriced.

    Now you’re mixing two different ideas.

    Something can be reasonably or fairly priced but nonetheless be beyond one’s budgetary means. We all have things on our wish lists that we’d love to purchase but simply can’t afford. That doesn’t necessarily mean those things are overpriced (although some of them may be); it simply means they’re out of our price range.

    I assure you this shirt is reasonably priced. It may be beyond some people’s budgetary means, and it may be more than some other people wish to pay, and I completely understand that, but that doesn’t mean it’s overpriced. It’s not.

    Sorry, I was just trying to hit on basic supply and demand principles. Everyone has their individual limit on what they would pay for the shirt. Budget is part of that, but it’s more a question of value and if they think the shirt is worth $29 or if they’d rather spend their $29 on something else.

    For what it’s worth, I agree that $29 is a reasonable price (even though I won’t be purchasing one).

    Not a whole lot of cleverness involved, but a couple of the more simplistic ones I could see being put in to use, all the while looking a whole lot less garish than Maryland’s… SC, TN, NV, RI, OH, IN, AZ, all look good, but I think NM is probably my favorite.

    I love the new shirt. I love the attention to detail, especially the mid-70s Astros number font and the font on the front. I love the magnifying glass in place of the star. I’ll definitely be buying one.

    I wish (a little) that there was a way to include all the uni-watch colours (gold and red) in the shirt, and not just green.

    Looks a lot like USF Bulls.

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    I’d gt rid of that sleeve patch altogether if it’s off centered. That should be unacceptable to this group! It will drive me crazy.

    Move it to the front inside the mag glass

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    Funny that you say sublimation isn’t crisp or the colors don’t aren’t vibrant. I think the exact opposite – the sublimated Tackla hockey jerseys of the late 1980s/early 1990s were some of the best colored hockey jerseys ever;

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    Yes, these were some of the best hockey jerseys ever made. I have a purple and yellow Dukla Jihlava one that looks great.

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