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Uni Watch

Monday Morning Uni Watch

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Good morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Yesterday was the third Sunday of the NFL season, and also the first weekend during which we started seeing alternates and throwbacks. Case in point: The Bears broke out their 1936 throwbacks for yesterday’s home game against the Texans. Man, I can’t get enough of that uniform. Lots of additional photos here.

Speaking of which: I assume this is due to different helmet models having different shapes and contours and such, but there were some major inconsistencies in the Bears’ helmet striping:

In other uni news from around the league yesterday:

  • Bizarre situation in Tampa, where one of the goalposts was infested by a swarm of bees (additional info here)!

  • In that same game, there was a weird blemish running across the field at about the six yard line at one end of the field. I assume they were covering up a chalk line from a soccer game or something like that, but I don’t know for sure.
  • The Titans wore their light-blue alternate jerseys:
  • We knew the Broncos would be wearing their navy alternate jerseys last night, but we didn’t know (or at least I didn’t know) that they’d be going full-on mono-navy:
  • The Jets — whose owner’s wife is of Ukrainian descent — added rear-helmet Ukrainian flag decals (just a one-game thing, not intended for the rest of the season):
  • Speaking of the Jets, they inducted former center Nick Mangold into their Ring of Honor. Mangold got to wear a green blazer with a pretty cool logo on the pocket:
  • The Panthers wore white over black. According to the generally reliable Panthers Uniform Tracker, it’s the first time they’ve ever worn this combo at home.
  • Yesterday was the Colts’ first home game, confirming that they’re still using their old wordmark in the end zone, even though they don’t use it anywhere else in their visual program:
  • Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill wore something called a Q-Collar, which looks sort of like a miniature neck roll. It’s supposed to lessen the effect of big hits. (Turns out he also wore this during the team’s first and second games, but I wasn’t aware of it until now.)
  • Bills wideout Gabe Davis wore The Office-themed cleats. Players often wear this type of custom-painted shoe for pregame warm-ups, but Davis wore these in the actual game:
  • Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts once again changed shoes during the game, switching from green to white. He also removed his visor, because it had started raining and he didn’t want the visor to fog up. It’s not clear if the footwear switcheroo was based on turf conditions, since he also changed shoes during the team’s previous two games.
  • We’ve seen this type of thing plenty of times before, but I never get tired of these super-stretchy photos, as seen here with Pats running back Damien Harris:
  • Six teams wore white at home: the aforementioned Panthers and Bears, and also the Jets, Dolphins, Bucs, and Commies. (Tonight’s game will feature the Giants wearing their Color Rush unis at home against Dallas, so that will be a seventh home team wearing white this week.)

(My thanks to all contributors, including Andy Blank, Patrick Bourque, Mike Chamernik, Marcus Hall, Chris Hanson, Omar Jalife, David Raglin, and @drnatation.)

 

 
  
 

ITEM! Uni Watch Soccer Jerseys Now Available

Although I’m not looking to focus so much on merch these days, I’ve been planning since early this year to collaborate on a Uni Watch soccer jersey with longtime reader Austin Chen, who produces uniforms under his Equipt Studios brand. As you can see above, we ultimately decided to do two jersey designs — Striped and Sash — and are taking orders for them over the next two weeks for delivery around the start of the World Cup. I may not know much about soccer, but I know what I like, and I really love how they turned about!

Some notes:

  • Both designs are available with either a plain back ($50) or your choice of number and NOB ($60). Here are the back treatments for each design:
  • Order both designs and you’ll automatically get a $10 discount.
  • For both designs, the inner collar has contrasting neck taping and the Uni Watch mantra:

Those are the basics. We’re taking pre-orders on these from now through Oct. 7 — that’s next Friday — for delivery around the start of the World Cup. Here’s where you can order the Striped design and the Sash design.

My thanks, as always, for your consideration of our products.

(Special thanks to Austin Chen for being so great to work with, and also to our own Jamie Rathjen for consulting on this project.)

 

Uni Watch Plus Reminder

As of this morning, we have 343 Uni Watch Plus enrollees (thank you!). And in case you missed it last week, I’m offering a new incentive: For any day in which at least seven new new people sign up, I will randomly choose one of them to win a Uni Watch prize package consisting of the following (also shown above):

  • Three Uni Watch pins
  • A Uni Watch koozie
  • A Uni Watch trading card
  • A Uni Watch magnet
  • A set of three Uni Watch coasters

I’ll continue to do this for any day in which we receive at least seven new UW+ sign-ups, at least until I run out of prizes. (We already have one sign-up today, so we’re off to a good start.)

Prizes notwithstanding, we’d really like to keep growing the UW+ comm-uni-ty. So if you enjoy Uni Watch and have the means to help support it, I respectfully ask that you please consider joining UW+. (Want to learn more about UW+? Look here.) Thanks!

 

Contest Reminder

We’re in the final days of our contest to design a new USMNT cap. The deadline is this Wednesday, Sept. 28. Full details here.

 

Sign of the Season(s)

Here in NYC, one of the surest signs of autumn’s arrival is, oddly enough, the sight of a snowplow. The Dept. of Sanitation begins sending them out on test runs this time of year, so the drivers can familiarize themselves with the routes and make note of any changes in road conditions since last year. Saw one of them going by yesterday. Incongruous but fun to see.

• • • • •
Happy Rosh Hashanah to all who are celebrating. — Paul

Categories
NFL
Comments (40)

    I’m not aware of any soccer games being held at the Buccaneers’ stadium recently, but in any case one of the lines going all the way across the field probably wouldn’t be at the six yard line.

    Conversely, if anyone watched the Dolphins, there were visible soccer lines because an Argentina/Honduras men’s national team friendly was held there on Friday.

    Does anyone have any experience with Equipt sizing? Does it compare to Nike/Adidas/Hummel, or run smaller like many European and niche kitmakers?

    And no, the across-the-field blemish definitely is not a remnant of soccer markings.

    Our jerseys fit most similarly to Puma, meaning they have an ever-so-slightly more athletic cut than Nike or Adidas replicas.

    Most people will be fine ordering their normal size, but if you’re in between sizes or prefer a roomier fit then I’d recommend you size up!

    Thanks! I’ve also noticed that as I approach 50, every kitmaker is slowly tightening the fit of their shirts. I’ll adjust accordingly when ordering.

    Regarding the Ukrainian flag decal on the Jets’ helmets…while I have no reason to think that any of the Jets players are not on the side of the Ukraine during their struggle with Russia, I do wonder if anybody else here has a general discomfort with teams asking players to make overtly political statements as part of their uniforms? Especially regarding international situations that don’t directly involve the United States. It may not apply so much to the NFL, but leagues with large numbers of international players like MLB or NHL might put players in the position of having to appear to take a stand on an issue that they don’t agree with or would prefer to remain neutral on.

    A flag on the uniform is just as fraught as an ad on the uniform. It places an unnecessary burden on its wearer. And it’s off-topic.

    With this in mind, it’s worth remembering that the *American* flag was first added to the back of NFL helmets as a gesture of support during the first Gulf War.

    Also, that’s not the actual Ukrainian flag, which is just blue over yellow without that center emblem. I’ve never seen that flag, but it seems to combine the Ukraine flag with the emblem of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (thanks Wikipedia!)

    The Bears rear helmet striping mismatch is a longtime conundrum for Michigan football fans as well, for the reasons Paul suggested. It’s hard to get consistent joining at the rear based on the nature of the helmet shapes.

    Is it? I follow Michigan football pretty close and haven’t noticed any issues. And I definitely Get It™…

    Speaking of Michigan, did anyone notice the players (all of them?) wearing yellow tights under their yellow pants this weekend? Looked like total shit. Hope that doesn’t become a regular thing like their stupid all blue look. Yikes. Either no socks or blue people. Let’s have some leg contrast!

    On the subject of the bears striped helmet: I think they should make these the primary helmets. While the navy with the wishbone C has been their look for ages and it’s… fine… it’s nothing worth hanging on to if there’s a better option. Now that the one-shell rule is lifted I’m all for the bears keeping the blue with orange stripes as the main helmet, and using the orange shell with blue C as an alternate.

    So we’ve seen the last of the Rams in dishwater…for just this year or forever?
    It was a nice early-in -the-season treat seeing the Saints in black-over-gold.

    Love the Uni-Watch soccer jersey – any chance you’ll bring back the uni-watch hockey sweater set any time soon? I missed the deadline to order last time and have been bummed ever since!

    RE: Colts wordmark. Seems to indicate that there really was nothing wrong with the Colts old wordmark that would necessitate the change to begin with. In fact I had forgotten they ever made the change and was struggling to remember what the new one looks like.

    Also I’d add my praise for those uni watch soccer shirts, absolutely beautiful.

    The Eagles spelled out Philadelphia in an end zone at their stadium exactly once…on the same occasion for which they wore those blue and yellow throwbacks.
    I liked the appearance of both the field and the uniforms that day. YMMV.

    Excellent point Greg about the Colts wordmark. If it’s so minor/unimportant to update the endzones, why did you even do it? (that was also my issue with the 49ers which thankfully they fixed this offseason)

    Jalen Ramsey once again wore solid yellow socks, this time against the royal blue pants. I thought it looked… interesting. Certainly better than it did with yellow pants last week.

    The Dolphins wore their “Color Rash” uniform yesterday, which not much of a difference from their regular home uniforms, except that the aqua/white socks were replaced with white/white.

    Actually, I don’t believe this is technically correct. In order to get away with wearing two throwbacks (white and aqua), the team has to designate one as their “alternate” and one as CR/throwback; so the white throwback (link) counts as their CR/throwback and the aqua throwback (link) counts as their alternate. The rules are becoming faster and looser each year, especially now that second-color shells are allowed.

    So, even though what the Dolfish wore yesterday *should* be considered CR, it’s technically not. It’s just their white jersey-uni.

    And at least one team (Commanders) will be breaking out their alternate shell next weekend (they’ll go mono-black [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FN_-9IaXEAAS_BI.jpg] against Dallas [https://www.wusa9.com/article/sports/nfl/washington-commanders/dc-commanders-to-unveil-new-black-and-bold-alternate-uniforms-against-dallas-cowboys-on-sunday/65-62e943e3-33d0-48f2-a5b3-e5672c9a1728] this weekend).

    The Bears looked good, too bad about the inconsistent helmet striping but that comes indeed with modern helmets. And I like the black pants on the Panthers. Even liked the Patriots in blue jerseys and pants, the silver helmets top it off nicely. The Titans will never look good in any of their current uni combinations, same for the Broncos and the Falcons.

    That Mangold photo is so sharp. Good reminder of how solid the Jets can look when they’re not, you know, wearing their current nonsense.

    A lot of the premier lacrosse league players wear those Q-collars too. I’ll send in some photos!

    Anyone else notice the Chargers changing their front helmet bumpers from “Chargers” to “LA” this season? I liked the way the bigger wordmark filled up some of the white space on the face of the helmet (I’m also one of the residual San Diego fans so the LA is an unpleasant reminder of what might be the most pointless relocation in sports history). Thoughts?

    Hey Paul, stop me if you’ve covered cases of this recently, but on seeing a clip of Tua Tagovailoa’s Dolphins-Bills postgame presser, my eyes immediately caught the team sticker slapped over his (what appears to be) EvoShield undershirt logo. I presume this was the equipment manager ensuring compliance with league mandates re: the Almighty Nike?

    It seems like that would have been a good time for the Panthers to pull out the black helmets instead of having 3 different colors going on at the same. Black, white, black would have looked so much better over gray, white, black

    Fair point, but they just can’t break out the alt hat whenever. It MUST be worn with BOTH the black jersey and black pants (the “Color Rash” look). I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NFL loosen this ‘restriction’ in the coming years, since they’re already playing pretty fast and loose with the unis, but as it stands now, the alt hat can ONLY be worn with the alternate uni OR the CR/throwback (classic) uni. And since CAR already wears a black jersey as their “primary” jersey, when they go with the black jersey/black pants, *that’s* their designated CR look. So, they can’t even wear the black hat with the black jersey/silver (or white) pants, it can *only* be worn with the black jersey/black pants.

    What a fuckin’ joke. Can’t wait till Goodell approves uni ads.

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