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Uni Watch

Arizona Unveils New Unis, Trashes Old Ones

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The University of Arizona unveiled a new set of football uniforms yesterday. By far the most interesting thing about this move was the video clip shown above, which was posted to the team’s Instagram account. It shows a player hurling the team’s blue helmet downfield and ripping a red jersey in half — a not-so-subtle way of saying that those uniform elements will no longer be part of the team’s wardrobe.

Has there ever been a team that has treated its outgoing uniform with such a blatant “good riddance!” gesture? If so, I can’t think of one. Anyone..?

As for the new uniforms, the good news is that the gradients are gone. The bad news is that Nike has given them the same shoulder stripe template that they gave the Browns, with the stripes wrapping too far into the chest area, which doesn’t look so hot.

(My thanks to Rob LoGiudice for letting me know about the Instagram video.)

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The Ticker
By Alex Hider

Baseball News:  We already knew the Phillies and the Padres would be wearing throwbacks on July 7, but the Phillies have also announced they’re giving away  Gary Matthews T-shirts on that date (from  Robert Hayes). …  Here’s a story on why Rays OF Mallex Smith wears No. 0 (from  Andrew Cosentino). … The Norfolk Tides wore throwback uniforms yesterday (from Eric  Juergens). … The Western Michigan Whitecaps will wear “Snapchat Selfie” jerseys for Social Media Night on Thursday (from Dennis HommingaJr). … Minor League teams will once again all wear the same cap template on July 4 this year. Here’s what they’ll look like for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the Nashville Sounds, and the New Orleans Baby Cakes (from Robert Hayes, Saxon Brack  and  Jeremy Poursine”). …  Geoffrey  Erhard found some photos of the  1961 Reds uniforms before the black trim was added to  the armholes. As many of you know, the Reds originally added black piping on the left armhole as a tribute to owner Powel Crosley, who died just before the season began. The team eventually decided they liked the look and added it to the other arm. …  This picture of a  1892 Independence Day parade in Des Plaines includes a couple of baseball players in “Des Plaines” uniforms leading the way (from  Jonathon Cain). … This Detroit-style kabob restaurant in Illinois uses a very Tigers-esque logo (from Ken Traisman).

NFL News:  The Packers unveiled a new logo for the “Titletown District,” an entertainment district that is being built next to Lambeau. The goalposts in the negative space are a nice touch (from Jake Copp). …  Vikings RB Letavius Murray  wears No. 25 to honor a friend who passed away (from  Michael McGivern). … Former Giants DT  Matt Mitrione now competes in Bellator MMA. After earning a KO win this weekend in Madison Square Garden, Mitrione threw on a Giants No. 98 road jersey ”” the number he wore with the Giants in his only season in 2002. But  Jamie  Burditt  points out that Mitrione was wearing the team’s new road jerseys, not the style he wore with the team in 2002.

College Football News:  New field design for Cal (from  Robert Hayes). …  The  Coast Guard Academy shared a bunch of photos of their football helmets through the years on Twitter yesterday (from  John FitzGerald). … Nike is apparently “analyzing” Pitt’s brand, which could result in a color scheme change and a possible secondary Panther logo. However, these comments make it seem like “Script Pitt” is here to stay (from  Robert Hayes). … Pepsi is taking over the beverage contract at Utah. But Pepsi’s branding using predominately blue ”” the color of hated rival BYU. So Pepsi has agreed that its logo  can be used on a red background on Utah’s campus (from  Damon Hirschensohn”).

Hockey News:  It had been reported last week that the Vegas Golden Knights might wear gold gloves, instead of the white ones that were shown at the recent unveiling. For now, though, they’re sticking with white — or at least that’s what Vegas players wore when taking the ice yesterday (from  Patrick Thomas). …  New Hurricanes G Scott Darling has struck a deal with C Derek Ryan to wear No. 33 next season, and the team created a  graphic  to break down the details (thanks  Mike). … The MGM Grand reimagined some Vegas casinos as hockey teams (from  Jennifer Hayden). …  Justin A. Cohn  found this  old hockey instructional manual  on display at a hockey rink in California.

NBA News: New Bulls Zach Lavine, Kris Dunn and  Lauri Markkanen have  picked their uni numbers  (from  BP). … Speaking of the Bulls, it’s no secret that many fans are upset that the team traded away Jimmy Butler, one of the league’s rising stars, to the Timberwolves. So a group of fans started their own club, the Minnesota Timberbulls, to commiserate. They even whipped up a logo (from  Brian Brinkman).

College Hoops News:  A Mizzou grad and temporary athletics department employee did $100,000 worth of damage to the school’s basketball court when he drove his car over it last weekend (from  Mike). …  Scott Thomas  hand-painted his own cornhole set  based on the Illinois “Flyin’ Illini” uniforms of the ’80s. Well done!

Soccer News: Here’s Tottenham Hotspur’s new away kit. … Hertha BSC, a German soccer club, will have  sleeve ad patches next season (from  Ed Zelaski). …  You may remember Anthony Emerson’s  piece for Uni Watch in 2014 about bad soccer kit advertisers. Among the most notable was that of Atlético Madrid’s deal with Columbia Pictures, which used the kit to advertise for upcoming films like Hitch, White Chicks and Spider-Man 2. But  Atlético Madrid wasn’t the only club doing business with Columbia Pictures.  Trevor Williams points out that Columbia also advertised with Chievo Verona during the 2003-04 season, and used their kits to promote such flicks as Terminator 3 and Bad Boys 2. … New kit for Dumbarton FC (from @Mike_Will904).

Grab Bag:  Interesting story about how some bike brands go the extra mile to get their sponsored cyclists a  yellow bike  if they take the lead in the Tour de France (from  Jeff Mayer). … The Brewers Association, a non-profit trade union that represents craft breweries across the country, has debuted  a new seal that member brewers can include on their cans and labels (from  Andrew  Cosentino). … Really nice photo essay on the empty railways of America (from Trevor Williams). … New volleyball court for Nevada. … New golf shoes for Oregon.

 
  
 
Comments (54)

    During the event to unveil the new Marlins logos and uniforms in late 2011, Jeffrey Loria tossed one of the ‘F’ Florida hats into the crowd and said something along the lines of “we want people to forget about the Florida Marlins!”. I don’t recall the exact comment he made at the mic but that gesture and remark I found particularly unnecessary and upsetting considering the Florida Marlins were a team that won two World Series titles (also considering how much of a colossal downgrade the rebranding was – both his 2003 reduction of teal and the full blown W Hotels + OKC Thunder Miami conversion). Not as over the top “screw those uniforms!” as this, but a similar sentiment.

    Now, how can you hate a guy like that? Being facetious, of course; I despise Loria with the heat of a thousand suns.

    I’m hoping the new ownership ditches their awful design and reverts back to the classic. Fairly certain if you gave the fans a vote between the current and this:
    link
    They’d vote for a makeover in a landslide.

    Bad move by ‘zona. Their tricolor ‘A’ is one of the best logos in college sports. It loses its panache in twotone. The red and blue jerseys and helmets don’t look like they belong at a major program. If they would (1) eliminate the red helmets, jerseys and pants; (2) eliminate the blue pants and (3) use white or even white-outlined numbers on the blue jerseys, then they’d have something pretty decent.

    Nike lacks any semblance of design talent on their creative team. Nothing about the new uniforms speaks to Arizona, its traditions or aesthetic. The numeral font might be the most off-brand element introduced by a college sports program in recent memory. So off-brand, it rivals the ridiculous Tampa Bay Bucs’ current style for the “terrible” award.

    (From the West Virginia University contingent:)

    “We beg to differ …”

    ;)
    C.

    Easy solution for Arizona Wildcats. Just return to the early 1990s uniforms. The were classic college football beauties.

    I’m with you on the new Arizona unis. they’ve gone from total crap to different total crap! It’s a step down from Arena League garbage.

    The Broncos famously burned their vertically-striped socks. That should qualify as a “good riddance”.

    Interestingly enough, the original Bronco uniforms were purchased from the defunct ‘Copper Bowl’, which was held in Tucson, AZ.

    The Copper Bowl is not so much defunct as it is evolved (devolved?). After a run as the Insight.com Bowl and the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, it’s back to semi-respectability as the Cactus Bowl (with a sponsor).

    Closest thing to a “Good riddance, jerseys” I can think of right now? Many NHL teams do a shirt off the back lottery at the last home game. The Florida Panthers gave away the last of the JetBlue jerseys on that occasion.

    $100,000 of damage was not done to the Mizzou court, the little genius damaged other things including golf carts and a gate that are factored into that number.

    Destroying the old uniform is immature. You can’t anticipate the way individual fans might have embraced the old iconography, and now you’ve alienated them. I feel the same way about monster truck shows and flashy building implosions. What people are sentimental about is entirely beyond their control.

    Also take into account you’ve gone out of your way to insult fans who bought the jersey.

    Detroit Kabob is actually in Niles, IL (and is quite delicious), not Detroit.

    When I saw the headline: “Arizona Unveils New Unis, Trashes Old Ones”, I was shocked, but thrilled. Then I realized it wasn’t the Diamonbacks. Rats!

    and my first thought for a split second was the Coyotes but quickly realized that was extremely unlikely.

    college teams aren’t even on my radar at all.

    Anyone else think about the Suns?

    Honestly, what is it about the state of Arizona and mediocre uniforms?

    I was hoping it was the Cardinals that finally fixed their uniform.

    To me the Arizona uniforms don’t remind me of the browns, the stripes look different. Looks like the state of Arizona flag, with the sun rays. Seems to me that is what they were trying to do

    If you ignore the colors and look at how far into the chest the stripes go, you’ll see it’s very much like the Browns.

    While there are definite similarities, the new Arizona jerseys are the same template that most NFL teams have switched to for this upcoming season. The Browns are as you have reported stuck with your self-dubbed “Nikelace” jerseys. At least Arizona’s stripes don’t as oddly cross over the seam like the Browns, flows a little better in my opinion.
    link

    Reaction to the TT on twitter was very negative. I can’t say I’m very impressed either

    Didn’t the Isles have a player skate out to center ice and rip off the fisherman jersey to reveal the “classic” crest underneath before the last game of the first (and only full) fisherman season? I’m drawing a blank on the story, and a curosrory google search revealed nothing. Can’t really go more in-depth searching, in a deadline.

    The Brewers Association Independent Craft Brewer Seal can be used by all craft brewers who meet their definition, not just dues paying members.

    Paul-

    After a couple days without popups on the first click to the site, it seems they’ve returned.

    Query: the Brewers Association isn’t a “trade union” in the common sense, are they? I.e., they don’t engage in collective bargaining or anything of that sort? I’d just like to confirm.

    “Willy Garcia of the White Sox was wearing a gloss-finish helmet with a conventional logo decal, instead of the team’s current matte/3-D format, when he appeared as a pinch running in the 9th inning of last night’s game.”

    I dunno, looks matte to me.

    link

    I am positive the Uni Watch uniform designers can come up with a much better uniform for my old school Arizona. These new ones look just as silly as the old ones, again with hard to read colored numbers on the dark jerseys not to mention the goofy font. A couple of years ago someone redesigned the Pac 12 uniforms and did a fantastic job on Arizona, they gave them nice UCLA style stripes that looked like the old Patriots, I actually saved the picture on a CD because I liked it so much. I never thought I would like my nephew’s high school uniform better than Arizona’s.

    Watching the Arizona videos made me burst out in laughter – it feels like something out of the movie Idiocracy. We have the “tough man” destroying a jersey in one video and the football equivalent to a fashion show in the other – including the banned crop top version – the crowd gasps!

    I hear what you’re saying, the whole video had a high school made by students for youtube feel to it. What in the name of Chuck Cecil is Arizona doing these days? The video is as silly as the uniforms. I wonder who told the player to remove the A decals and stick them on his jersey before he tosses the helmet? That was so clever! It just made a bad video even more moronic. Arizona really dropped the ball with the video’s and uniforms, Bear Down I guess?

    Let’s face it, the Arizona Wildcats looked best before 2000.

    Though, the 2000-04 and 2010-12 unis are okay. 2005-09, not so much, but not as bad as 2013-16. And I’m not really liking the 2017 stuff.

    I wasn’t kidding when I said Phil could hold a contest and there are many uni watch readers who could design better uniforms than the crap Arizona just came out with. I have several uniforms from the 80’s in a footlocker somewhere that look better than the 2017 ones. I graduated from Arizona almost 30 years ago and it makes no difference in my day to day life what they wear, but if you are going to come out with new uniforms they shouldn’t be just as bad as the ones that you just got rid of.

    I thought Nevada had such an upgrade with the new, clean, classy uniforms they just came out with and was hoping Arizona would go for that type of look too, but instead Arizona likes to go with a circus look

    Too many uniforms Arizona. You’re a college football team, not the rack at Goodwill.

    “As many of you know, the Reds originally added black pipping on the left armhole as a tribute to owner Powel Crosley….”

    Should be piping?

    Re: Pepsi and UU – Mormons don’t drink caffeine, so Pepsi and Mountain Dew are considered taboo by a good fraction of UU (and BYU, natch) students. Seems like a lot of news for a fringe market.

Comments are closed.