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Third Time’s A Charm! Your 2018 Griffins Design Contest

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[Editor’s Note: Paul is on his annual August break from site. Deputy editor Phil Hecken is in charge from now through the end of the month, although Paul is still on the clock over at ESPN and may be popping up here occasionally.]

By Phil Hecken

For the third consecutive year, I’m pleased to announce what has become our annual design contest, once again in partnership with the Grand Rapids Griffins (a professional hockey team in the American Hockey League, whose primary affiliate is the Detroit Red Wings). The original contest began in 2016 (from which I received 85 submissions), and was held again last year, which resulted in 119 submissions.

I had hoped to kick the contest off on August 1st, but due to some personnel shifting in the Griffins organization, we’re getting the contest off the ground today.

In the past two contests, the winner received a personalized jersey, tickets to the game when the jerseys was worn, and public recognition at the game. An awesome “prize” for the winner. The Griffins have graciously offered this as a prize again for this year’s winner.

griffins small logo

This contest will be very similar in set-up to the past two. While last year the team was looking for a “fauxback” design, this year the team is simply looking for a “Third Jersey.” That leaves much to your imagination, designers! As a point of information, back in 2015 the team adopted black, red and white as official colors, with the new logo and unis detailed here. For the contest, the team has NOT specified any particular colors for your jersey design, but the official team colors are (CMYK Colors): Red 12/100/92/3, Gray 31/25/26/0, Gold 43/49/76/21, Black 75/68/67/90, White 0/0/0/0.

Timeline:

• Submissions will be accepted from today through Tuesday, August 21st, 2018 (by 11:00 pm E.D.T.)

• Reader voting will begin Thursday, August 23, and continue on Friday August 24, Monday, August 27 and Tuesday, August 28 (Based on the number of entries in past contests, I will be breaking the submissions into four sets).

• Based on concerns raised in prior contests, rather than breaking the design submissions in to groups alphabetically, I will attempt to do so in a random order. While this will entail more work on my end, this will (hopefully) alleviate the concerns that “the same people always go against each other.” I’m not sure this is any fairer, but I will do my utmost to ensure a totally random spread of submissions.

• The top three vote getters from each set (for a total of 12) will be reviewed by the Griffins on Wednesday, August 29th, and the winner will be announced on Uni Watch and Griffins social media on August 31st.

Design Guidelines/Rules:

• Create a brand new design for a Griffins alternate jersey (remember: you are ONLY designing a jersey, not a full uniform).

• While your design work must be original, you MAY use current or previous Grand Rapids Griffins logos.

• Readers will be allowed to vote once per day during the voting period (you will be permitted to vote for more than one design).

• The top 12 designs as voted by readers will be the finalists.

• The Griffins staff and ownership will choose one winning design, which will be worn on ice on February 15, 2019 UPDATE: December 29, 2018.

• The winning jersey design will become the property of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

• The Griffins reserve the right to make design modifications to the winning design as needed.

• The winner will receive a personalized version of their jersey, tickets to the game that the Griffins will be playing in the jerseys, and public recognition of the winning design.

• LIMIT ONE DESIGN SUBMISSION per reader.

• Designs may be submitted as .jpg, .png or .pdf files.

• E-mail your entry to me (Phil Hecken) as an attachment to: Phil.Hecken@gmail.com; please label your submission “FirstnameLastname-GRGContest”

• It is strongly encouraged that you place your name or some sort of ID on your entry.

• One image ONLY (you may include multiple angles, such as front and back) per submission.

Failure to abide by the rules will result in disqualification. Entries received after the deadline will not be accepted.

griffins small logo

That’s it.

Big thanks to the Griffins for again selecting Uni Watch readers to participate in their alternate jersey process. You should know what to do, so get crackin’ — but if you have any questions either post them in the comments below or e-mail me at the above address (phil[dot]hecken[at]gmail[dot]com). OK? OK!

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You Knew This Was Coming…

MLB Players Weekend Caps & Jerseys Return

And they’re as bad as they were last time around…

Yesterday, MLB released the newest batch of “MLB Players Weekend” jerseys (the caps had already gone on sale earlier this week), and like last season, they’re pretty much all awful. If you don’t remember, MLB introduced this (ultimate sales) gimmick last year, giving teams new, gaudy caps and jerseys, with players (even the Yankees) permitted to wear NickNOBs as part of the “fun.”

I had my say last year about these, and there’s not much change in my thoughts on this whole joke of a promotion. It was — maybe — fun once (I kinda liked it for the “Little League Classic” game), but this is one promotion that should have been one and done. I mean, seriously, this is just one big excuse for MLB to move more merch.

This year, “Players Weekend” is August 24-26, which means every team will be stuck wearing these clown suits for three games. The Mets and Phillies, who this year were selected to play in the Little League Classic on August 19th, will also wear their special PW caps & jerseys for that game.

Our pal Chris Creamer had the scoop on this one, and his writeup is very good. You should give that a read to get the gist of this year’s offerings.

Here’s the bare bones of it all: Except for the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants (why? I have no idea — did the Bay Area luck out???), 28 new caps for the remaining teams were introduced — see last year’s caps here. A couple teams (Brewers & Phillies) have different cap logos from last year.

The new caps aren’t too different from the 2017 versions, the main difference being the contrasting color brim and crown.

You can see them all below (graphic by Chris Creamer):

Only half of the teams this time around will get new jerseys (why? I have no idea — did they pay off someone???). Not that wearing last year’s jersey is a good thing. Does this mean MLB will do this promo again in 2019 and give the other half of the teams new jerseys for that? I shudder at the thought. According to Chris Creamer,

As for the jerseys, one-half of the league is wearing the exact same jersey design as last year, the other half going either with a new design or re-coloured from 2017. Those teams with new jerseys are Baltimore, the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, St Louis, and Washington.

There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for which teams are getting the new jerseys — they’re a mix of NL and AL teams, from all six divisions — but I’m not sure logic would apply to this promotion anyway.

Something else is new for this year (for sale — but I’m not sure if it will be worn on field) is called an MLB Players “Umpire Hat” — and it’s available for each team.

It’s the PW cap only with a different patch. My guess is this is just for retail sale and won’t actually be worn by umpires.

As for the jerseys, they’re mostly really awful, though some aren’t as awful as others.

And I gotta admit, this specific player jersey “NOB” is clever:

As in the past few league-wide jersey gimmicks (Memorial Day, Mom’s Day, etc.) the Indians will not have Chief Wahoo on the uniform:

The Reds have a particularly awful dark gray jersey, but I do like Joey Votto’s chosen NickNOB — it’s way too long and won’t easily be seen, but I like it nonetheless:

You can see all the Players Weekend jerseys here, or in the Creamer graphic below:

You can read more about this promotion (with some additional details) here.

If you’re curious about all the (announced) NickNOB’s, a list is here.

A bunch of sites were busy ranking the best and worst NickNOB’s, a couple of which you can check out here and here.

Last year, following Players Weekend, the boys from the “Hall of Very Good” Podcast interviewed me on the gimmick. If you’re interested in what I had to say, you can give a listen below:

I didn’t like the PW stuff then, and I don’t think I’ll like it again this time around.

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Our First On Field Look…

…At The Titans, Jaguars and Dolphins New Uniforms

As you are aware (or should be), during the off-season, the Titans and Jaguars unveiled completely new uniforms, while the Dolphins “tweaked” theirs. Paul covered all of these:

Here’s the write up on the Titans new unis.

Here’s his ESPN piece on the Jaguars new unis.

And finally, here’s his column on the Dolphins tweaks.

Titans

The Titans totally revamped their unis, with the biggest change being the new navy helmet. Last evening they went navy/white/navy/navy, which produced the dreaded unitard pants look:

A couple folks noticed the Titans were wearing what appeared to be plastic wrap over their helmets:

Images from Sam Graves

Indeed, it was plastic:

Not every player appeared to have the plastic.

I found the two-tone shoulder yoke annoying when shown up close, but it was almost unnoticeable from any distance.

From a distance, the Titans reminded me of the Texans. Like, a lot.

You can see more photos here.

• • •

Jaguars

The Jags improved their uniforms immensely in the off season, and they went with black/teal/white/black last evening. I could get used to seeing this every Sunday:

A non-two-tone helmet, big, legible fonts and numbers, no excess piping…

…except for that little black stripe that doesn’t quite go around the collar:

I love the new helmet and the pants without the ridiculous striping (they have NO striping/piping at all now) just look great:

I’m not in love with the Jaguar patch/logo on the left side of the jersey (and the aforementioned collar piping), but other than that…nice.

It should also be noted that when the Saints go gold/white/gold/black, they look pretty good themselves. You can see more photos here

• • •

Dolphins

The Dolphins went white/aqua/white/aqua last night.

If you read Paul’s article on the Dolphins (or follow NFL uni changes), you’ll notice the difference immediately between last year and this year. If not, here’s the gist of the changes:

The Dolphins have maintained their basic look, with no changes to their logo, their primary shade of aqua, or their number font. But they’ve made two small color adjustments: First, they’ve made their shade of orange deeper and more vibrant. And they’ve removed the blue outlining from their jersey numbers, player nameplates, helmet striping and pants striping.

These changes should now be apparent:

You probably won’t notice much difference from a far, but up close the changes are good. This video gives a good look at the new unis up close:

One thing I hadn’t noticed before (which is really annoying): the team has added a wordmark to the waist above the ass. Ugh:

Embed from Getty Images

You can see more photos here.

So that’s the first look at the new unis — what do you think?

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Old Time Base Ball Photos

Readers will recall I featured Ronnie Bolton (who posts on Twitter as @OTBaseballPhoto and who you should definitely follow) earlier this year with some great football played on baseball field photos and writeups, some MLB Opening Day specials, and more recently with some old baseball stadia (here and here). Most recently, Ron took a look back at past All Star games. As his twitter handle implies, Ronnie’s specialty is old baseball photos.

You guys know I love old scoreboards (and used to run a “GTGFTS” [“Guess The Game From The Scoreboard”] section several years ago). Today, Ron has some looks at some games where the scoreboards feature prominently.

Enjoy. Here’s Ronnie:

• • •

Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, May 22, 1963

Bottom of the ninth inning and Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle leads off facing Kansas City A’s reliever Bill Fischer in a 7-7 game. Mick would work out a walk but would get stranded at second base as the game would go into extra frames. But in the 11th inning, he took it upon himself to send Yankees fans home with his ninth homer of the season giving the Yanks an 8-7 win.

This is one of my favorite photos of the Yankee Stadium scoreboard that was installed in 1959. For years it was wrongly passed as fact that the old scoreboard was moved down to Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia, that rumor was most definitely fueled by the similarities in the design of the old Yankee Stadium scoreboard and the new one down the New Jersey Turnpike, starting with the Ballantine ads both scoreboards displayed.

This new Bronx scoreboard was built in Pardeeville, Wisconsin and installed by nine workers, including the designers of the board. It was 73 feet in width and 34 feet in height and required 200,000 feet of wiring.

++++++++++

Fenway Park, Boston, MA, June 8, 1950

Ted Williams can only stare at the Fenway Park scoreboard in awe of the Red Sox impressive show of bats by leading the pitiful St Louis Browns 29-3 score in the top of the ninth inning.

The Browns would add a meaningless run to top the score at 29-4. At the time the 29 runs scored by Boston on 28 hits was a Major League record topping the 28 scored by the St Louis Cardinals against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 6, 1928. To make things worse for the Browns was this drubbing came after the previous day they lost 20-4 to the Red Sox.

The manually-operated scoreboard seen here was built in 1934 after a fire in the winter destroy most of the outfield walls, and today it’s still operated much like it was back in its first year.

++++++++++

Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia. September 10, 1964

The Phillies slugger Johnny Callison is in full home run trot after hitting his 26th dinger of the year off St Louis Cardinals starter Ray Sadecki to give his team a 5–1 lead. That score would hold for the first-place Phillies, but a collapse of epic proportions was soon forthcoming. Ten days later the Phillies would beat the Dodgers 3-2 in LA to give themselves a 6.5 game lead in the NL with just 12 games remaining, including the next seven at home. Well, they lost those seven at home and three more in St Louis and inconceivably surrendered the pennant to the Cinncinati Reds St. Louis Cardinals.

As for the scoreboard in the distance, it was always mistaken to be from Yankee Stadium, but it was built in 1956 by new owner Bob Carpenter and stood 75 feet high and topped with a Longines clock, similar to the one in Yankee Stadium and leading to many urban legends.

• • •

Thanks, Ronnie. He’ll be back periodically with more wonderful old photos and the backstories that go with them.

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The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: Bosox skipper Alex Cora has been wearing an “AA” cap inscription for at least a week now. It’s a memorial gesture for Ari Arteaga, the son of Cora’s best friend (from Andy Chalifour, Lorne Geller, and Brian Fraser). … With the PGA Championship golf tourney taking place in St. Louis, John Daly was wearing Cardinals pants yesterday (from Noah Kastroll). … Interesting NOB on the back of these LLWS jerseys (from Mike Herrel). … Rochester, NY based Three Heads Brewing has a new beer, Strong Arm IPA. The art on the can features a pitcher wearing a uniform reminiscent of the Astros’ tequila sunrise uniform (from Joe Werner).

NFL/CFL News: Browns coach Hue Jackson, the latest football coach to mistakenly think he’s actually a drill sergeant, announced two months ago that players would have to “earn their stripes,” and he meant that literally, so the Browns went with stripeless helmets for last night’s preseason opener against the Giants. They’ll continue to go stripe-free for the rest of the preseason, and then stripes will be added for the regular season. Doesn’t look terrible (the lack of a helmet logo is arguably less weird-looking when there’s also no striping), and I’m sure the equipment staff appreciates not having to mess with striping tape, although the notion that grown men are going to be motivated by this type of thing is sort of pathetic (screen shots by Bob Moon). … For those who are wondering, there’s plenty of precedent for having a distinct preseason helmet style. In addition to the Steelers, who routinely omit the front helmet number during exhibition games, the Jets didn’t bother with their helmet logos for preseason games throughout much of the 1960s, and a few others teams did likewise. … Dolphins prexy Tom Garfinkel says the team is “working on” having white throwbacks, instead of the longstanding aqua throwbacks, for 2019. … The Vikings have added a memorial decal for recently deceased offensive line coach Tony Sparano (from Mike Chamernik). … Here’s a listing of uni numbers for the Pats’ rookies. … Who was that working out with the Calgary Stampeders in 1990s? None other than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. “They made him wear a used pair of shorts!” says Mike Styczen. … The Packers have diagonal stripes in their end zones this season. “It’s to to commemorate their 100 seasons, just like they did in 2007 during the 50th anniversary of Lambeau Field,” says Ryan Walters. … The Saints are memorializing former owner Tom Benson with a jersey patch and a helmet decal, which seems a bit belt-and-suspenders for my tastes. Trying to think of other examples of NFL teams doing this type of dual memorial and am coming up empty. Anyone..? (From Lenny Vangilder.) … A Naming Wrongs shirt for Mile High Stadium has ended up as part of a very nice Broncos T-shirt quilt (from Aaron Roggensack). … For reasons that aren’t clear, at least to me, some Jags players like to tape currency to their shoulder pads. … Pats DL Danny Shelton had a problem with his nose bumper during last night’s preseason game against Washington. Not sure I’ve ever seen that particular mishap before (from Joey Ellis). … Chiefs’ P Dustin Colquitt had bare ankles last night. I recall Washington RB Clinton Portis doing something similar for a season or two but I can’t find a good photo, and in any case I’m fairly certain Portis never showed as much skin as Colquitt did last night. … Did anyone else notice a ‘noticeably darker’ football last night? (from Fortlandia).

College Football News: Here’s a good look at Rutgers uniforms through the decades (from Starkman55). … New uniforms for Central Arkansas (from Chris Mycoskie). … Instead of an “X” to mark the spot for kickoffs, Air Force is going with a pair of crossed lightning bolts (from Brett Baker).

Hockey News: The Canucks are inviting fans to vote on a throwback uniform for the 2019-20 season. The initiative, which is part of the team’s upcoming 50th-anniversary celebration, inexplicably doesn’t offer the team’s original uniform as a voting option, which can only mean that they already have plans to incorporate that one into the anniversary festivities somehow. … New mask design for Penguins goalie Matt Murray (from Joe Werner).

NBA News: Looks like Carmelo Anthony will wear No. 15 with the Hawks (from Mike Chamernik). … Wow, it turns out that if you sell space on your uniforms to sponsors advertisers, you end up with more revenue. Go figure (thanks, Anthony). … An Oregon man was assaulted by three other men because he was wearing a red Trail Blazers jersey, which his assailants mistakenly thought was a sign that he belonged to a gang.

Soccer News: “Premier League team Burnley are wearing an ad-free shirt for their Europa League qualifier in Turkey against Istanbul Basaksehir,” says our own Jamie Rathjen. “It’s because Turkey is one of a few countries that doesn’t allow alcohol or gambling ads.” … Also from Jamie: “To help colorblind people, Israel’s soccer league now defines green and red as the same color, so they can’t be worn in the same game.” … Louisville City FC has donated a bunch of kits to an orphanage in Guatemala. “All of these appear to be unsold kits from the 2016 season,” says Josh Hinton.

Grab Bag: Adidas is getting a financial boost from its Ultraboost running shoes. … PSG.LGD — that’s an e-sports team — has a new jersey sponsor advertiser. … The National Federation of State High School Associations has named Champion as its official apparel provider. … Cross-listed from the baseball section: With the PGA Championship golf tourney taking place in St. Louis, John Daly was wearing St. Louis Cardinals pants yesterday (from Noah Kastroll). … A Trump campaign PAC is asking supporters to help choose a logo to promote the new prospective Space Force (from Bernie Bernstein and Christopher Hickey). … With the school board in Staunton, Va., considering a name for Robert E. Lee High School — part of the movement against public Confederate symbols and honors — a new report says changing the name would incur costs of $200,000 for new athletic uniforms. … United Airlines is considering a new color scheme. … The Central Ozark Conference — that’s a high school conference in southwestern Missouri — has a new logo.

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Comments (70)

    You do know that Melo was bought out by the Hawks and that jersey was just something he requested, right?

    Came here to say this too. It’s more of a “Carmelo Anthony might have worn” than a “will wear” haha

    The St. Louis Cardinals won the pennant (and World Series) in 1964, not the Reds.

    The Cardinals not the Reds won the 1964 NL Pennant when the Phillies infamously collapsed.

    From yesterday…”And I police the site when I can. I also have a full time job (and it’s not Uni Watch) and it takes up enough of my day and night, especially when I am filling in for a month and I fix shit when I can. I didn’t do today’s ticker and I’m not the only one who can edit things.

    Sorry if that’s not good enough for you.”

    Ticker stuff:

    One of the proposed Space Force logos is actually the NASA logo (minus the text) recolored red.

    “PSG.LGD — that’s an e-sports team”
    You don’t have to change anything, but for e-sports teams we may want to say what game they play, if possible/needed (in this case, Dota 2), because Paris Saint-Germain have a couple of other teams.

    Also, all of the Space Force logos are terrible. Aside from the clipartishness of them all and the NASA ripoff of the one, none of them include “United States” or “US”. Every current logo for an existing branch of the armed forces includes the name of the country.

    I am shocked the Titans were allowed to wear plastic on their helmets. With all of the attention being payed to helmet safety the change in friction could be considered a hazard. It certainly wasn’t studied, right?

    Typical NFL.

    My 8 year old boy and 6 year old daughter love the players weekend jerseys. They think its awesome to see the Yankees dress in similar fashion to there little league teams. They will sit with me and watch parts of the game to see the players with their nick names on the back. They hardly ever sit for very long and watch baseball with me. So if the Yankees dressing up like little league ball players makes that happen then I am all for it.

    Not all promotions are bad.

    Agreed with Jerry, here.

    If MLB wanted to create these things just for the Little League Classic game every year, I’d be fine with it. But to force 30 teams to dress like complete clowns for three straight days — that’s a bad bad promotion.

    It’s clearly a merch grab, but hey, if your pre-teens like it, I guess that’s a benefit.

    Not only is it a bad promotion that is an obvious cash grab, the uniforms themselves are ugly. There is a reason why baseball teams (and most sports teams in general) always fall back to the traditional designs, they are what works for baseball, not this nonsense.

    Member when Little Leaguers wanted to look like big leaguers, and not the other way around? I member.

    The jerseys aren’t to bad, but the hats are awful. Some jerseys need tweaking on the colors, but most of the hats look like highlighters.

    Sorry, but once again the Jags have proven they just can’t get it right with their uniforms.

    I mean, the jerseys look like practice jerseys. All they needed was perhaps a black and/or gold outline on the numbers.

    Instead they have a black helmet with almost no teal and teal jerseys with almost no black.

    Combine that with plain white pants and you certainly will have some fans wondering if they actual game uniforms got stolen from the locker room or something.

    You say all this like it’s a bad thing.

    Remember when the Jags had all that crap you say is missing?

    Right.

    You say that like there is no middle ground. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Lots of the classic NFL uniforms like the Bears, Packers, 49ers, etc. have outlining on their numbers and/or stripes on their sleeves or pants. You can add a little bit of detailing without going overboard like the Falcons.

    Phil, don’t get me wrong, the Jags’ uniforms are better than their last ones.

    But you gotta admit, they went from one extreme to the other.

    Now, if the Jags’ colors were simply teal and white, then the jerseys would probably work, much like the Colts, U of Alabama, and even Penn State.

    But right now, they are wearing helmets that don’t match the jerseys at all. Maybe they will correct this during their next scheduled uniform change in five years.

    The plastic on the Titans helmets are gouge guards. They are used during training camp mainly on the o and d linemen’s helmets to prevent them from getting too banged up before the season starts.

    I know the football field has been posted once. But, the facility is almost done for Marietta College (Ohio – DIII). Their football field is now a grey turf with navy endzones/border. Their soccer field is all navy.

    link

    i am probably the only that thinks that the Jaguars jersey was just fine it was only the previous helmet that needed tweeking

    On the Players Weekend uniforms, I hate how the light blue hats of the Cubs, Royals, Dodgers, and Blue Jays doesn’t match either of the blues in their shirts. It just clashes so bad.

    Dolphins: YESSSSSSSSSS. Not perfect (number font trying desperately to be too unique) but five steps in the right direction.
    Jags: three steps in the right direction. Less gimmicky, stripped down and plain, clearly done for Grandpa Coughlin and his no-frills approach. Would like more gold for trim since the gold is just on the helmet logo but not the jerseys/pants, and the teal is almost completely off the helmets. But better.
    Titans: what they had was meh and needed an update. But this didn’t fix any of the issues the old set had. Weird font is a different kind of weird. Navy helmets for white doesn’t move me. Adding pale silver yokes is almost unseen on TV or live at a game. Leotard look still in effect. A for effort, C+ for execution.

    MLB Players weekend

    Is it my eyes or are there multiple jerseys that are essentially the same.

    Braves – Red Sox

    Dodgers – Royals

    Indians – Nationals – Cardinals

    Pirates – Padres

    Blue Jays – Cubs

    Most of the jerseys have color templates shared among multiple teams. Only about half of teams appear to have jerseys to themselves.

    A few of these jersey/cap combos aren’t terrible, and a few teams will even look at least as good as their normal uniforms. D-Backs and Marlins by default, since almost anything would look better than their regular unis. But props to the A’s and Rays for making Players Weekend unis that are good enough to wear as regular alternates. And the Brewers unis are, well, not great on their own, but they’re a passable proof-of-concept for a navy and yellow color scheme instead of navy and Vegas gold.

    -Cleveland Browns helmets without the helmet stripes look like and remind me of the CJFL’s Okanagan Sun. The Sun, who wear brown and orange, have not worn helmet stripes for as long as anyone can remember.

    link

    -Message to the Titans after seeing the uniform on the field. When it comes to your switch to navy/white/navy in the double blue, Toronto Argonauts just look better.

    link

    The Giants and A’s are the only teams which can use the same caps as last year because they are the only teams that went with contrasting brims this year, and someone (probably looking at sales figures) has decreed that all teams must have contrasting brims this year.

    I hate, hate, hate how many of the caps (Mariners, Angels, Rockies, Rays) have logos with so little contrast to the background that you can barely see them. Just compare the Angels and a cubs hats in the photo above–last year’s versions are much more distinct.

    To rehash about the Vancouver Canucks ticker item. Speculating the original uniform may not be incorporated into the 50th anniversary.

    -It was worn for the 40th season celebration in 2010-11:

    link

    -They likely want something different for the 50th anniversary.

    -May also be a hint that if original not being considered, the new regular third jersey may have stick-in-rink as primary crest again. We will wait and see.

    (PS – Please vote for the Flying V!)

    Phil, the Dolphins had the tamp stamp wordmark on their last uniform too, thought I think that said Dolphins instead of Miami.

    You are correct that they had it last year (and every year since the previous uniform release), but it’s always just been link.

    Yeah, thanks — someone pointed that out to me earlier in a DM. I guess I never noticed it (blissfully). Now I’ll never unsee it.

    Phil, you may already know this, but just in case…

    As a professor, I have to randomize things pretty frequently, and in my experience, the easiest way to do it is to assign each item (in this case each design submission) a number, and then go to Random.org

    Scroll down to the “Sequence Generator” tool. Use “1” as your smallest value and the number of submissions as your largest value. Then just click “Get Sequence”, and it will give you a randomized list of those numbers. Since you’ve already assigned a number to each submission, the submissions are all now randomized.

    Can we please get access to the Griffins logos in vector format for the contest?? It will make like for us that design in Illustrator a million times easier.

    I agree it is silly professionals are motivated by earning a stripe on their helmet. Embarrassing.

    Interesting examples of other teams having different helmets during the preseason.

    People also forget the Seahawks wore plain silver helmets during the 1976 preseason.

    “People also forget the Seahawks wore plain silver helmets during the 1976 preseason.”

    the leader in the clubhouse for COMMENTOFTHEDAY

    I liked the Titans uniforms better on the field than in their revealing. I hope they utilize the light blue elements other than just color rush.

    Also, I really like how the Jags uniforms look on field. I still wish they had gold number outlines to complete the look, but still…big improvement.

    I also really like the slight adjustment to the Dolphins kit. The added orange makes them look more like the Dolphins.

    I actually really like the “Players Weekend” in theory but I would apply it only to the game played in Williamsport which I think it one of MLB’s best ideas in years. The interaction with the kids and the small stadium is a great way to break up the dog days of summer especially when the NFL seasons starts ramping up. I would also add a game in Cooperstown during Hall of Fame weekend to plus up the event destination of that and use throwbacks of fauxbacks for that. Mimic the NHL, the “Stadium Series” uses more fashion forward designs use that for the Williamsport games and the “Winter Classic” throwbacks/fauxbacks for the Cooperstown games but save us from the league wide nonsense. I know it’s a cash grab but it will run out of steam so quick this way

    Re: new NFL uniform sets…

    Jacksonville- better because they couldn’t have been worse. Still too plian, especially the pants (black-teal-black stripes would work here). Black trim on the jersey numbers too.

    Miami- not perfect of course but probably as close to it as were going to get from a contemporary update.

    Tennessee- even worse than I feared. Those pants/socks, egah! And the helmet looks muddled to me, nothing about it seems clear from a distance.
    I know many people didn’t really like the Titans uniforms, but I wasn’t among them, and while not a top 10 for me, I thought they were fine. This update is awful.

    Lee

    It’s such a lost cause I don’t even know why we even let it bother us anymore, but…Titans please use different color socks when you wear the navy pants, it will make your uniform look so much better!

    RE: Miami, I’ll take it, big improvement.

    Jacksonville: I actually like them, way better than before obviously. I don’t LOVE them though, add a little gold to the pants and jersey and we might be on to something.

    Jacksonville is way too plain. If you are a legacy team like the Raiders or Alabama or Penn St, I can see riding with these plain uniforms, but a 90s team like the Jags should have a more contemporary look. These look like fauxbacks to them as a 1950s football team.
    These uniforms look like practice uniforms or cheap discount store replica jerseys. The numbers need trim, the pants need some sort of striping or decoration. Not like the last uniforms, but hell the teal/black helmets from two uniforms ago would have been an interesting wrinkle.

    I think that before an NFL team adopts new uniforms, they should be viewed on field from a TV. The striping on the Titans pants, while up close doesn’t look so bad, on TV is very distracting and horrible. Looks like they have some field paint on them.

    Other than the pants, I dig the new uniforms. Ready to see what the blue jerseys look like on the field with the shoulder design. It was barely noticeable on the white jerseys.

    I’m quite sure that before an NFL team adopts new uniforms, they do view them in field conditions and on video screens. When an NFL team presents a flawed uniform, it’s not because the team is naive. It’s because the team wants its uniform to look like that.

    Less a question of viewing them on the field, you wonder how much input them get from THEIR fans (or from fans in general) before the roll out? Perhaps uni-watch is simply more conservative when it comes to uniforms, but the general response to a lot of these roll outs is bad, or in the case of say the Jags, pretty good, but you missed one obvious thing (gold trim).
    I wonder if the market testing they actually do is towards younger demographics more likely to buy jerseys, who are more likely to be into the nonsense.

    Titans. Blah. Jaguars. Blah. Dolphins. Blah. NFL stands for Nasty Friggin’ Looking.

    Player’s Weekend Hats and Unis are horrid. And while that scoreboard shot is beautiful…how ’bout that yellow KC A’s uni…? Marvelous.

    I guess I didn’t notice so much during the big unveiling (or maybe I already forgot), but Nike did their usual makers mark thing with the Titans now, pretty much no red on the uniform, except for their maker’s mark, so it totally contrasts the uniform and can’t be unseen. Is the contrast of white on dark, and dark on white not enough? Instead they go bright red on there, much like them using the bright orange for the Bucs and Dolphins, or neon green for the Seahawks.
    Sneaky way for them to emphasize their branding on uniforms.

    Baseball used to be my favorite sport for uniforms, but now pretty much blows with stupid things like these weekend uniforms. It’s bad enough with the pajama pants and non-uniformity of uniforms, but this is just a joke.

    Does anyone else find it ridiculous that the Browns didn’t wear stripes besides the goofy motivational aspect of it? I know it’s preseason and all, but do you see any other teams playing without decals? Of course not. Plus, their team logo is an orange helmet with brown and white stripes. If their entire brand image is based on that logo, then they should get it right. Otherwise, they are cheapening the importance of the helmet and their team logo. When the Cowboys had to earn their stars, they still wore the stars during preseason games because that is their image.

    Love the new Jags uniform but the teal really should be the home uni and gold trim on the numbers would be the icing on the cake. Huge improvement on last year’s clown suits – Bucs take notice! Titans took a big step backwards though, at least the old ones looked like an evolution of the Oilers uniforms

    Fenway Park scoreboard pictured was retired after the 1960 season. The AL expanded by two teams and the new 1961 board contained space for 6 out of town games instead of 4.

    Re: Ticker note…the Dolphins started wearing their aqua throwbacks in 2015, doesn’t that mean they have to wait until 2020 to replace them?

    Why the hell would they ever want to replace them? If anything, they should make them their primaries. And add white jerseys to “match”.

    Absolutely agree, but that argument is moot for the next five years. The obvious answer is this way they get to sell new AND throwback gear…if they switched, they’d only be selling the throwback.

    As an A’s fan, I noticed that their Player’s Weekend cap actually IS different from last year, albeit subtly. Last year’s cap had a yellow squatchee, whereas this year’s offering is depicted as having a green squatchee.

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