Good morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Now then: I’ve long been on record as being opposed to high schools poaching logos from college or pro teams. Aside from sometimes being unethical or illegal, I think it’s tremendously lazy and uncreative.
But I have to admit, I love the Bears/Packers mash-up logo being used by the Colonial High School Grenadiers of Orlando, Fla. The two letters nest into each other so nicely, so naturally, it’s hard not to be charmed by it.
If you look closely, you can see that this isn’t exactly the Bears’ wishbone-C or the Packers’ stylized “G,” but they’re both really close. Here’s a side-by-side comparison — Colonial High School logo on the left, an actual mash-up of the two NFL teams’ logos on the right:
The high school’s logo appears throughout the school’s uniform program — most prominently by the football team, which uses the logo on their helmet and at midfield Here are some shots of that:
The logo is also used by a bunch of the school’s other teams. Here’s an assortment of photos showing that:
I still think logo poaching is wrong. But I can’t bring myself to dislike this logo. Can anyone think of any other two team logos that fit together so well?
(Big thanks to Jeff Sharon for bringing this logo to my attention.)
Lonetti Scores Again
Longtime reader and all-around swell guy Jimmy Lonetti, who’s already Uni Watch-famous for his glove-repair work and throwback postal uniforms, has taken things to another level with this “web door” display. As he explains:
Back when I was buying old gloves on eBay, at thrift stores, and at garage sales for making wallets out of the leather in the pocket, I just tossed all these aside after I cut out the palm. I no longer make the wallets (I started feeling guilty about cutting up perfectly good gloves), but I still have a couple tubs of gloves in our “bone yard” that I use to scavenge parts off of for repair jobs — felt padding, replacement webs, cloth wristband patches, etc. I grabbed a few of the more interesting webs for this display.
Love it. Here’s a clearer view of the web doorway:
AMA Reminder
The next quarterly installment of “Ask Me Anything” — the series where you can ask me anything about uniforms, sports, Uni Watch, me, or anything else, and I do my best to answer — will be published on Substack later this week. I plan to make this one available to all, with no paywall. If you’d like to submit a question, feel free to email it here. (Please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch email address.) One question per person, please.
I look forward to seeing your queries. Thanks!
Can of the Day
If you spend some time on the vintage tin can scene, you will encounter a lot of old lard pails. (I use one for one of my houseplants.) This is a particularly nice example — I particularly like how the product is “fine” for various cooking applications. Not awesome, not the best, not exceptional — just “fine.” Seems admirably restrained.
That HS baseball jersey with the camo sleeves may actually be the worst thing I’ve ever seen. But yes, the nestled logo is charming.
Good thing we can’t see the sleeves then :)
Looks more like the reds C to me.
That’s what I was thinking
Agreed. Color aside, it looks more like Cincy’s wishbone C stylistically.
My thoughts, exactly.
Reds and UGa is all I see
Given the historical ubiquity of the wishbone C, I can’t consider any use of it “poaching” unless it exactly matches the shape and proportions of the distinctively asymmetric Bears logo. Which this high school logo does not. The nested G is closer to a poaching instance for me, but if you start with the assignment of nesting a G inside a wishbone C, you’re bound to get something like this. I guess I’d prefer to see a less exact copy. Say, make the bar on the G an inward point, echoing the outward spike of the wishbone C, or something. Still, since the more prominent and logo-defining C is clearly not an instance of pro poaching, I approve of this high school athletic logo.
Fully agree on the wishbone C. It’s pretty common in sports. The (mostly because of the colors and the outlined presentation) strike me more as the UGA logo, which is essentially the packers logo in different colors. I can’t say this ISNT poaching but I wouldn’t go out of my way to say it IS either.
Mr. Lonetti is a Uni Watch All-Star, possibly a 1st ballot HOFer.
The best thing about mashing up the Bears’ and Packers’ logos is that Bears and Packers fans hate each other so much.
It could be Reds/Georgia; University of Chicago/Grambling, etc.
The C and G have been around forever.
However, if you never noticed, the Bears “C” is not symmetrical. The bottom half sticks out farther and more noticeable at midfield.
Those gloves look like some sort of African masks. I really like it.
Crazy to see those glove designs. Honestly, half of those I’d never seen/noticed before!
I appreciate the “Fine For Pastries,” but I also know that Long Ago, people used the word fine with no sarcasm. I have an elderly neighbor who still remarks how fine my children are growing, what fine weather we’re having, and so on. “How fine! Isn’t it good?”
The Thimble Drone Racing Fuel can Paul featured last week also used the word fine. “Not Magic – Just a Fine Fuel.” I really like the lack of superlatives.
It bothers me when an initial for a moscot is included with initials for the school name. That seems counterintuitive to me.