Good morning! After an extreeeeemely tumultuous week here at Uni Watch HQ, I’m happy to report that the Bulletin-to-Substack changeover is now complete, everything is ready to go, and my first Premium article — the NBA Season Preview — has now been published on Substack. You can read the first several paragraphs of it here. In order to read the entire thing, you’ll have to become a paying subscriber to my Substack content.
A few notes on all of this:
- If you were a Bulletin subscriber at any level (annual, monthly, free, email-workaround, UW+-bundled), you should have received an email from me yesterday afternoon, explaining what will happen to your subscription. If you did not receive that email (or if you have any other questions about your subscription to my Premium content), let me know asap and I’ll fill you in. If possible, please indicate whether your subscription was purchased via Facebook or from me.
- My complete archive of Bulletin articles has been imported to Substack and is now available on my Substack home page. The articles that were free are still free; the articles that were paywalled are still paywalled. All the photos and links are still there. The only things that didn’t carry over are the comments that had been posted on the various articles.
- Everything about my Premium content will be staying pretty much the same — same schedule (four feature-length articles per month), same subscription pricing (but with a few new wrinkles, which I’ll get to in a second), same types of content (interviews, rankings, season previews, etc.). Additional info here.
- One change from Bulletin: If you subscribe at the “Free” level, you will receive a partial view of every Premium article. Basically, you’ll be able to read a few paragraphs before the paywall kicks in and gives you one of those “Please subscribe to continue reading” prompts. Maybe this will entice you to subscribe, or maybe not. Either way, though, at least you’ll get a little taste of each Premium article.
- Another change: If you go to my subscription page, you’ll see that there’s an option called “Pay What You Wish” with a listed price of $100. That’s an option that Substack offers for people who want to support their favorite writers by paying more than the standard annual fee. The $100 number is, frankly, arbitrary — you can pay any amount, with no upper limit, as long as it’s more than the standard $35 fee. For example, if you pay $40 — just $5 more than the usual $35 — that would cover the Substack and Stripe fees that will otherwise be deducted from my revenue. But hey, if you want to pay $100, or a whole lot more, I’m not gonna stop you. (Of course, if you’d rather pay the standard $35 annual fee, that’s fine too. Any and all support is appreciated!)
- One result of all this: We can no longer offer the UW+/Premium bundle. UW+ is now just a stand-alone purchase (which is how most people have purchased it anyway).
I think that’s it. Thanks for rolling with all the changes, and of course feel free to hit me up if you have any questions or concerns.
I went to a Sixers Vs. Cavs preseason game and saw the Cavs new uniforms for the first time.
They are horrible. They look like Practice uniforms. Super bland and boring with absolutely zero character.
Cavs might be a good team this season but they definitely will not be looking good on court. 2/10
Paul, I’m a Bulletin subscriber but did not yet do UW+ yet. If I move to your new platform, is there still a bundle deal if I get UW+ at the same time? Sorry if already covered.
No more bundles, unfortunately — sorry about that. I’ll add that info to today’s post.
They were informing me I was watching a bit of an NFL game last night but didn’t really look like it. Doesn’t look like the Bears in all that orange. I am starting to think the only decent uniform for Washington is burgundy over white with burgundy socks. Plain white pants and white socks don’t look great. It’s boring.
I agree last night didn’t look like a NFL game, but it wasn’t because of the uniforms.
The Bears in orange is like a college team. Not bad in itself, but not the Bears. Navy helmet, orange jersey, white pants and navy (or orange) socks is what I would have picked instead. Cavs look horrible but so do a lot of NBA teams with that austere simplicity that is dictating tastes these days. Practice wear everywhere.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I really dislike the Bears’ all orange look. They are certainly not the first team with an orange lid/orange jersey combo. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I think it’s the helmet. Maybe because it lacks a stripe? Although, when they are blue/blue, they don’t have one either. I’m very puzzled why I dislike it so much.
I think it’s because there’s so much of a bright color as well as white, if they wore navy pants with the orange jersey, helmet, and socks I think it would be a much better look
In addition to my initial thought of being 100% pointless, last night’s Bears uniform simply isn’t very attractive.
And the game was also my fist up close look at Washington. WOOF!
Lee
The NBA season preview was received as promised this morning!
Heads up – my gmail routed it to spam (this is a me issue, not a Paul issue). If you didn’t get it in your email, check your filters.
I feel like either the wishbone C on the orange helmet should be white outlined in navy, or the numbers on the orange jersey should be navy outlined in white. Either way, it feels like they should match. I just get a disconnect between the two elements with the configuration as worn.
Funny you say that because the actual *throwback* the Bears wore (link) features the blue hat with the white (no orange at all) wishbone; The regular lid has always been worn with this particular orange alternate jersey (link). The new orange bucket simply swaps the midnight blue elements for the orange elements (link). Since they still wear the Bronko throwback (link), which gives them the maximum allowable four jerseys (home, road, orange alt, throwback), they can’t swap in the orange throwback (link), which would make sense to pair with the new orange helmet, since this would actually be a throw/fauxback to the ’37/’38 unis (except for the pants — and they could fix that without violating any uni rules).
1937: link
1938: link
Of the two, they could remove the “C” from the orange hat and wear the throwback jersey with blue pants (1937) or orange pants (1938). They’d need to change socks too (no big thang) for a *true* throwback.
But as it stands now, the orange helmet will only be worn with the modern orange jersey, which I think we might all agree isn’t perhaps the best look. I’m not sure if the five-year rule on the orange alternate jersey has expired (yet), but once it does, I move the Bears bring back the orange throwback jersey, pair it with the orange hat (remove the “C”), and blue pants/socks for a true 1937 throwback, rather than this overly-orange alternate.
Just my $.02. YMMV
On the broadcast last night, they said that this was the first time ever for the Bears to wear an orange helmet, but those links from the GUD say that they wore orange helmets in 1937 and 1938! It looks like they wore orange helmets in 1933 link too. And in 1934, they wore orange helmets with blue stripes link
I pointed out the other day that while I won’t disagree with the research done by the great folks at the GUD, I’m not 100% certain they wore solid orange hats in either 1933 or 1934. The equally excellent Helmet History site mentions both an orange helmet with blue stripes, and a blue helmet with orange stripes worn in 33/34 (link), but not a solid orange helmet. 37/38 were the first (and until 2022, only) seasons with solid orange hats. So the announcers were wrong, just as an earlier article (which started my debunking) was wrong in saying it would be the “first” time with an orange helmet. I haven’t found any proof of a solid orange helmet in 1933 (as the GUD contends), but regardless, they definitely had one for 37/38.
I was thinking they should use the bear head logo or the bears script mark on these helmets and probably a single navy stripe. It’s too much orange for the bears. Also this should only be paired with navy or white tops. Orange/blue/white, orange/white/blue I think.
Trees That Get It™ is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on UW.
Paul, thanks for the heads up on the LOST OBJECTS book; fascinating subject matter.
It’s a great project — glad you like!
I love the Bears orange jersey and socks, but not with the orange helmet. Would have saved the orange lid for all white or all navy combo, instead.
Under the new NFL rules, they are NOT permitted to wear the alternate helmet with either the designated primary home (blue) or road (white) jersey. So they couldn’t even if they wanted to. The alternate helmets can ONLY be worn with a team’s alternate, CR, or throwback uniform (at least for this season).
Forgot about this rule and it stinks. As I mentioned above this should only be worn with white or navy jerseys. Maybe the throwback? And also as I said above this helmet needs a navy stripe (or a navy/white/navy stripe) and should switch to the bear head or script bears wordmark.
Dude, all due respect, I guess, but I’m not paying to read what you have to say about uniforms and logos. That’s just not happening.
Just got through reading the NBA preview. I feel like it’s a double edged sword now in regards to unis in the NBA. It’s such a free for all, so there’s a ton of content to cover, but at the same time it’s so much overkill that it becomes a bunch of white noise after a while.