By Phil Hecken, with “Bootheel Ben” Traxel
At Uni Watch, we’re all about uniforms. The Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics. Even those of us who are more conservative in our uniform views may have a “secret” team or uniform we really like, for whatever reason. As much as I am a fan of say, Penn State and Alabama — strong on tradition, staid and resiliant to whimsical trends — I have to tip my cap to the Oregon Ducks for providing a tremendous amount of fodder for not only this fine blog, but the universe in general. Hell, college recruits are no longer enticed by the coach, the program, the academics, the social life of a school — kids today want to go to a certain school because of the uniform(s) they wear. And in the case of Oregon, that means a different combination every weekend.
I kinda like that. It’s unique. No one else does it. They basically take tradition and say, “We don’t need no stinkin’ tradition!”. Sure, it’s Nike and it’s alumnus Phil Knight and all that — most of us know that Oregon’s school colors are green and gold (right?), but how often do they even actually wear them? Or at least, both at the same time.
It wasn’t always like that of course. Not that long ago, Oregon had a “normal” uniform and didn’t mix and match at will. But somewhere over the past half-decade, Oregon has tried to wear every possible combination known under the sun. And it’s great — some of you hate it, but I started sipping the kool aid a few years ago and I’ve gradually just come to love it. But…
like all good things…Oregon needs to own it. Once you start getting a lot of teams trying to pull the “Oregon uni shuffle,” it not only doesn’t make it unique anymore — it even kind of ruins it for Oregon.
But what if there were other teams like that? What if you had one team in each BCS conference who wore a new uniform combination for each game? It’s something that was briefly talked about on the boards a while back — led chiefly by Bootheel Ben Traxel. Now, I don’t agree very often with Ben — he’s a great guy and all…dude would lie down in traffic for ya — but his idea of athletic aesthetics and mine aren’t even remotely close. Ben thought it might be a great idea if one team in each BCS conference copied the Ducks and their uniform machinations. Frankly, I think that’s a bad idea, but I wanted to let Ben have his say and to come up with some “mockups.”
He did a fantastic job. Again, I don’t agree with him, but you have to hand it to the guy — he selected probably the five teams (from conferences other than the Pac 10, where the Ducks play) with the least “tradition” uniform-wise of any team, and went to town. Here, then, is Ben to explain:
Duck Mocks
by Ben Traxel
A few weeks ago I got in a discussion with a few of the regulars around here about teams in all sports doing permanent one-offs. Every game getting a different uniform design. A couple of the more “progressive” or “avant-garde” folks were intrigued while the “undaring” and “fearful” were completely opposed. We talked about baseball having 162 options, but obviously football made the most sense. The Duck Tracker (Thanks Princip!) does a wonderful job of keeping up with Oregon, the originator of this phenomenon. And I think most of us are willing to admit that the Ducks uni variations are surprisingly attractive, well received, and have been a serious attention getter. So what generally happens in an instance such as this? Well, I hear imitation is the highest form of flattery. Well, I decided to take a look at having one school in each BCS conference do some Duck Mocking.
I figured out that the best schools for Duck Mocking are ones that have at least two distinct colors of which none are white, gray, or black. BFBS is a big part of Duck Mocking as well as GFGS, and the newly fashionable WFWS. If two colors are combined with those three it leads to five different monochrome combos, and a whopping (first to figure it out wins a date with Phil) different options available for gameday by just mixing and matching pants, jersey, and helmet. The actual uniform designs are all concepts for conversation sake. I tried to keep them somewhat reasonable and not overly detailed, but still follow the school’s general direction. Shown for each chosen school are the basic monochromes of each color, and another batch of mix/match options. No rhyme or reason for those chosen. Let’s have a look:
Big 12: I started with Kansas State but chose them before I figured out the whole color thing. They have no second color to go with Purple. The White, Gray, and Black are set and that leads to fewer possibilities. Of course as long as Bill Snyder is there no changes will be made. He’s already dusted off the unis of three years ago when he first left. Well, here is the future of the Wildcats. Monochrome and Mix & Match.
ACC: After panning the options, I chose the bright colors of Miami. Va. Tech already seems to be doing the Duck Mocking thing or they’d be a good candidate. Also, with the volatile personalities that seem to represent the Hurricane program, they seem to be a good fit for volatile uniforms. So, here’s what blew in for the ”˜Canes. Monochrome and Mix & Match.
SEC: Staying in the state of Florida, the colors of the Gators worked perfectly for Mocking. The vibrant blue and orange stand out vivaciously on black and also jump out on the gray. I switched to the F on the helmet because it was easier for me, but also because I just like it better. Take a bite out of the new look Alligators. Monochrome and Mix & Match.
Big 10: There wasn’t much of an option here but Minnesota fits right in. They’ve done the WFWS thing recently and always seem to be changing their templates anyway. The colors are good and gaudy and offer lots of garish options. So the Golden Gophers made the cut. Monochrome and Mix & Match.
Big East: And lastly, we have West Virginia. People have praised their current modern style but I’ve never liked it. The color swatch stripes just seem to be arbitrarily placed, kind of like stripes going both ways. I tried to fix that on this concept, you tell me. The black and dark blue are definitely too close to put together, but what the hey. Here are the Mountaineers. Monochrome and Mix & Match.
Well, what have we learned? Definitely that there are MANY combinations that need to be removed from circulation. But is this seriously the future of the football uniform? The permanent one-off? Could be. White, Gray, and Black now appear to be trim colors available to anyone. Use as much as you want.
What do you think?
I know what I think, Ben. I think you did a wonderful job. I even liked a few of your concepts. Putting every team in black and gray/silver borders on the ridiculous (but hey, it’s your concept), but I don’t mind any team sporting the all-whites. That’s almost always a good look for any team. Great job — I disagree with your premise, of course — but a tremendous execution.
OK, dear readers — what say YOU?
Uni Tweaks
Catching up with the tweaks, but they keep coming in (which is good), so lots to get to today. If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.
You guys have been pretty great keeping to the ~50 word limit per team tweak, and it’s greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Now, on to today’s tweaks:
Starting off the show is George1234 (George didn’t share his last name, but if you’re reading and would like to take credit, please do), and George has done a Tampa Rays tweak:
Stuck in the house on a rainy Saturday afternoon and came up with a ALT uni For the Tampa Bay Rays
Next up is Jody Beamer with some Minnesota Vikings fixes:
Hey Phil,
Back Again.
This time it’s the Vikings. We all agree they look stupid.
So here’s a classic-contemporary set of unis:
One … Two … Three … Four … Five
Jody Beamer
Moving along, we have Alec Pappas, with a Colorado Rockies remake:
The old seventies hockey team had a much more stylish logo so I re purposed it for baseball. I tried the wedding cake hat to look like the state flag after a fashion.
Alec Pappas
In today’s four-hole is Brad Kruizenga, an Illini tweaker:
Hey Phil!
As an Illini, I was disappointed in our showing a couple weeks ago (though much deserved). I revamped Illinois’ unis with a more traditional look. For the helmet, basically the 1960’s throwback with the white/blue/white line across the top. I ditched the terrible slant Illinois for a classic Block I. As for the pants, I’d mimic Washington Redskins pants with just a single stripe of each color (Blue/White on home. Orange/White on the road).
I so tried to keep it to 50 words!
Keep up the good work. Uni Watch is my favorite blog on the internets, by far.
Brad Kruizenga
OK everyone, thanks for sending in your submissions. Back with more next weekend.
2010 Season Uni Tracking
Now that the 2010 Season has concluded it’s time for all of you who have tracked your team through the entire season to send me your final tweaks. When I have a few spare hours, I plan on compiling them and adding them to the Uni Watch Archives, to be a part of the permanent record.
So, if you’ve been doing your due diligence with your team, send me your end-of-season tracking reports, and I’ll post them as a “sub article” on the weekends. OK? OK! And I promise they’ll make it into the UW archives before the year is out. Please feel free to accompany your tracking with a write up, especially if your team had any interesting trends or patterns.
Today, we have Eric Smallman, who tracked the Mariners this season:
Hi Phil,
Here are the updated uniform stats for the Mariners for this season (also here).
Cheers,
Eric Smallman
Thanks Eric. Anyone else out there tracking? If you have, please send them in.
Tracking The Playoffs
Last weekend, Alex Rocklein showed off a really neat playoff tracker, in which he tracked playoff teams wins & losses, not only by their wins and losses, but also by uniform!
Since then, the NLCS and ALCS concluded this week, with last year’s World Series combatants both falling to relative playoff newbies — The Phillies fell in six games to the Giants, and the Yankees went down in six against the Rangers. Because the National League finally won the All-Star Game earlier this summer, for the first time since 2001, the National League rep, the Giants, will have the “home field.”
Congrats to the Giants and Rangers.
Alex has updated the Playoff Tracker for the World Series.
Thanks Alex!
5 & 1
And now, the part of the post you’ve all been waiting for: The 5 & 1. After yesterday’s main article explaining what goes through the Mothervilker’s head, at least now we know why he picks what he picks — even if we’re still left scratching our heads when he’s done. Here’s what’s on tap for today:
Honorable Mention to Rutgers/Pitt — Not so much for the matchup, which was quite good, but for the classy tribute to Rutgers’ Eric LeGrand. Get well soon!
5. Syracuse/West Virginia — Yesterday’s color palette special.
4. Duke/Va. Tech — Shoulder-stripe-apalooza!
3. Wisconsin/Iowa — All-whites look much better on an overcast day, eh?
2. Iowa State/Texas — A good showing for the Corn Belt this week.
1. LSU/Auburn — Picking this game was as easy as saying, “The Tigers are going to win” yesterday morning.
And my worst pick: Air Force/TCU — Lots of bad ones this week, but the Frogs’ BFBS look made for too much contrast.
Interesting. Very interesting. Thanks Jim. I guess I’ll keep you around another week.
That concludes today’s offerings. Everyone have a great Sunday.
If it’s wrong to wear a picture of Juan Williams rationalizing some nonesense on my Sarasota Clowns dodgeball jersey then I don’t want to be right. — Nangodi Phobian
I don’t think we need to have that many teams imitating Oregon. I like the mixing & match as a concept, but I don’t really like adding in the extra white, gray & black options.
My vision would involve each team having the option to pick between 2 different helmets, 3 jerseys and 3 pants. (and I’d eliminate the mandatory white jersey rules) I think that provides enough possible combinations to stay “fresh” while still having a relatively identifiable look.
I agree. Mix and match is fine if you stick to school colors.
I like what Oregon has been doing. The helmet “O” and the number fonts remain constants, throwbacks notwithstanding.
I think Navy would be a good place to experiment with different unis; they could easily have 10. There’s the school colors (navy and gold) but they can also do tribute uniforms based on Navy and Marine Corps uniforms: All white with navy trim; all navy with white and red trim; “Marine dress” may have white helmets, navy shirs and the blue pants with red stripe; and a camouflage set.
I know they’ve dabbled with these. They could easily and tastefully take it to the next level.
I’m going to say this, and I don’t care if it’s unpopular, unpatriotic or blasphemy: camouflage on any sports jersey or uniform is ass-ugly. Just… “no”. IMO sports and military should not be mixed in a way that one reflects the other. They’re their own thing. I don’t know who started this trend (maybe the Padres), but sorry, I know you want to salute the Navy in San Diego, but on a sports uniform it looks like absolute total shit. They’re the San Diego Padres, not the San Diego U.S. Military. It’s just a gimmick that’s gone wrong. Imagine if the concept was reversed.
Agreeance. Life-long (since 1969) Padre fan, and supporter of the military. Have ALWAYS hated the camoflauge uniforms.
Want to support/salute the military? Make 500 tickets to each game free to active members of the military.
I can’t disagree with anything you said. And I grant that the San Diego Padres aren’t military — but the guys playing football for the United States Naval Academy are.
As far as crappy-looking uniforms, I can only say that if anyone were to describe what TCU wore for their first game, I’d have shuddered in horror. But they looked awesome.
All I’m saying is I think the experimentation is great. After all, some good ideas came out of the freak show that was the 1995-96 NHL season.
I wish Navy would have worn last year’s alt
link
yesterday when they played Notre Dame.
Last year I said ND/Navy was the worst matchup because it looked like a spring practice game. But even though ND’s new jerseys are the pits,
link
there were too many bad matchups to nominate them for today’s bad one.
Navy’s one of the few schools that’s trotted out an alternate that should be adopted as standard fare.
link
Army not so much.
Oregon IMO, had one of the best looks in kelly green & Athletic Gold. It astounds me that sharp combo basically doesn’t exist in any pro sport (sans the old SuperSonics). What is so wrong with it?
Personally I think football teams only need 1 home & 1 road jersey, 1 helmet, and no more than 2 pants. Less is more. If teams have too many options, it looks like they have an identity crisis. When people look back on the season, what look are they going to remember?
Whether or not Oregon’s designs are necessary or have merit (keep it on the catwalk, Right Said Fred) but just because you can come up with completely ridiculous football uni’s doesn’t mean you have to. The most dangerous part of all of it, is some people actually will think it looks good. A football jersey just needs numbers and a few colors. No need to make mountains out of molehills.
When Ben link, I posted a comment with my choices. I don’t necessarily agree with the addition of the Black and silver/gray for the full Oregon effect, but here’s what I said at the time.
I stand by these choices, with one possible exception. Maybe WVU would be a better Big East representative than USF. Maybe.
Would anyone outside of here even notice if Indiana wore a “cream” uniform instead of white?
Do people notice when the Mets, Phillies and Indians do it?
Hmmm… I posted this already but it seems to have disappeared into space. (Or maybe it went into the spam queue?)
Does anyone outside of here notice when the Mets, Twins, Phillies and Indians do it?
I agree with all of these…except Iowa State. They don’t look like USC, they look better than USC. Use Baylor instead.
Baylor could work, but then we’d have multiple teams whose school colors are green and gold, which is one of the reasons I was agreeing with Ben about using WVU instead of USF.
Good point, but ISU’s too nice to mess with. Texas Tech?
Texas Tech could work.
Wait. I’ve got it. — Colorado: interchangeable silver/gold/black/white components!
Dang. No. They won’t be in the Big 12 much longer.
Texas Tech it is.
Well, cream does provide yet another possible combination of Duck Mocking that even they haven’t gotten into yet. Princip, let’s see some cream mockups of the Ducks. That makes 4 possible non-school colors that are available for use.
IU & UK: Kinda like Kansas State, need one more color for the full effect. Not to say they can’t do a scaled down version.
USF & Maryland: Yep, they’d work.
Iowa State: Yes, see Minnesota. I think KU would have been the right school for the Big 12 but I can’t bring myself to do anything for that dreadful place.
Five pants, jerseys, and helmets equals 125 possible combinations. Phil can keep his date.
But that date was the only reason Phil agreed to run this post!
Without looking it up going back to 1903 in Dressed to the Nines, wondering that when Texas hosts game three of the World Series, and especially if they wear white jerseys as opposed to red or blue, will they be the first, or one of the only teams to host a WS game wearing the city (state) name at home as opposed to the nickname or initials like “TR?”
It would be the first time in a long time, but not time a home team has displayed their city name on their jersey. The Boston Americans displayed “Boston” on both their home and away uniforms in the first Series in 1903.
My memory only goes back so far so I had to go to the DTT9 database. The 1935 Cubs had Chicago on one of their homes but not sure if they wore it in the WS.
link
Hmm, that 1935 Cubs might be a road, can’t really tell the way that page is set up.
From Okkonen’s book: “The 1935-36 alternate road uniform displayed CHICAGO across the chest in horizontal fancy capital letters (not the usual “arc” alignment).
Cardinals, 1931
link
Ben’s Golden Gophers set is some sick shit. Nice job!
Oh yeah!
And Mike, I know I give your school a lot of grief, but that’s only because I liked these link and these link so much.
If they did 2,456 combinations of those unis, I might be drinking from the Kool-Aid myself. But adding the diamondplate (which actually would work on the Steelers) and the horrible font were just too much for me. The wings aren’t that bad.
I guess I’m the only one who LIKES the diamondplate. I took a picture of the one in the College Football HOF last year and the diamonds glowed like a firefly.
The diamond plate would be AWESOME for the Steelers. On the Ducks… it was stupid as hell.
I’ll be honest, I was never a fan of the diamond plate. The wings however set me off. So much so, I started the Duck Tracker. When they wear their green jerseys, oh man something I could see the Seahawks wearing. Add to that, the matte gray pants, awesome.
aren’t both the diamondplate and the wings more than just design for design sake? weren’t they incorporated into the uni to make it stronger for its lighter weight?
like the “flywire” shoulder design — i believe the duck feathers are just a different variation of that
of course, i don’t buy into the “40% lighter” bullshit, but i do think the diamondplate and feathers are actually form following function
add me to the list of hating the diamondplate but loving the feathers
From the previous generation Ducks unis, I thought the white ones were decent-looking. But that’s probably because link.
Although I ritually despise everything that “Nike U” has done to ruin the college football uniform over the years, I do concede that the standard official Oregon colors didn’t give them much to work with, so I can see why they went for it. That being said, although I loathe the concept and actually like the standard unis of most of the schools in Ben’s mock-up, if you leave out the grey and BFBS and use the standard color schemes, most of them look pretty good.
Ben, my friend, I love KSU’s unis as they are, but if they went with your version I wouldn’t complain. I’d wear those.
Miami? Something tells me they would never stray from the BFBS uni and the white one.
I LOVE your Gophers!
I like WVU’s unis, but your versions are actually a slight improvement. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers would probably mix the dark blue and black the way the hoops team did.
link
Great work, buddy.
Some Rangers fans in Dallas have designed a T-shirt honoring Ron Washington and one of his favorite sayings:
link,!hoEyrpzTU10BMw7pwnyW!~~0_3.JPG
Try again…
link
He refers to it as base ball because he’s just that old-school.
Blowing a pink whistle can get you in trouble, at least in Washington:
link
I want one of those.
That was meant for the Wash T-shirt, not the pink whistle. But I’d take one of them too.
Wash shirt:
link
Interesting idea about the college uniforms today. College football is my favorite sport. And I love the history and tradition of it. So I do not always comment on the uni tweaks for baseball or NFL. I check them out some but today I really checked them out.
I am another one who has said many times here the Oregon combos have grown on me. And I too think if only Oregon does it I can live with that. But Ben’s duck mocks is a kind of fun idea.
I do not know how you guys do these uni tweaks though. Seems like quite a few people do it and obviously know how to to it.
Is there any place or site or program to use for it. I really have no clue.
Any thought for a quick tutorial on how to do it?
For Jim’s 5&1 today. No problem with the choices. Just wanted to say that I like that Virginia Tech uniform. Iowa State too. And I do not like Penn State’s plain blue and white at all. But Auburn with blue and white and the added orange and the overall Tiger uniform look good to me.
Since I love the uniform history so much for college teams I wish teams would wear actual throwbacks more than some new fangled concepts. I have found or have been looking at many teams old uniforms and pictures. There are so many old ones that many fans do not or would not know a certain team even wore them.
The other day I saw a guy say he had never seen the Wisconsin W helmet and uniform from the late to early 60’s.
Many younger fans would be surprised to see some uniforms of the past.
I will be the voice of dissent here, I CANNOT stand what Oregon has done. I think the NCAA should step in and say “Enough!”. Tradition in college is everything. The Ducks have become a uniform laughing stock.
Agreed. Phil is having a momentary bout of insanity with his love affair with the Ducks. :) The school colors are GREEN AND YELLOW. Oregon is the definition of black for black’s sake, and where did that silver come in? I do love the “O” design, but everything else is nuts.
Then again, given with has happened to traditionally great uniforms like UCLA’s, I guess anything goes these days. (By the way, why not call them LSU stripes instead of UCLA stripes since UCLA has given up on them with those new jerseys?)
no…not temporary
just like you fell in love with the pirates mix and match — it was UNIQUE to the bucs…
maybe one day oregon will return to a kelly & athletic gold uni (yeah, right)…and we’ll look back upon their 2000’s flirtation with a new combo every week the same way you now look back on the bucs
but we won’t look back and say “what were those teams who did all the mixing and matching?” because it’s only one team
part of oregon’s appeal is they are the ONLY ones to do it — if four or five teams in MLB did what the bucs did, not only would it have not made it memorable, it would have ruined it for the bucs too
just like the astros with the rainbow guts…we’ll always remember THEM…if you had a few teams doing something similar, it wouldn’t have been as fun
let the ducks have their little run…and only the ducks…no one wants to see miama in black, orange, green, gray and white…except maybe trax
Fair enough. By the way, their school color is actually yellow, so at least when they wore the neon jerseys the other night, they were being true to the school, though I like the older uniforms that were more gold.
I think a lot of teams are trying to do something similiar to Oregon. Clemson (purple and orange), UVa. (blue and orange), Arizona (red and blue), Wake Forest (old gold and black). and others — all are mixing and matching like the Pirates. I just hope we don’t see the day that North Carolina comes out looking like the Tennessee Titans in light and dark blue.
Oregon Ducks, the Pittsburgh Pirates of college football.
They really are. I remind myself that as a 10-year-old I loved those uniforms, and that is why I realize that they’re awful now.
Wouldn’t mind it so much if, in fact, they were like the Pirates and stuck to their traditional color palette. Buccos never ventured beyond their traditional black and yellow. If Oregon would stick to its green and yellow, fine, but this charcoal, silver and black stuff have screwed it all up.
Oregon has some nice options if it’d stick to its traditional school colors.
part of the “problem” is the nc2a decree that the road team MUST wear white (unless given permission by the home team to wear some other color)
while i’m opposed to color vs color in general, teams like WVA, oregon and others who have a yellow or gold top (you could also make an argument for gray/silver and cream, if they exist — or any of the powder/pastel teams) could wear those as the “road” team…
that would allow oregon leeway to wear 13 different combinations without repeating one — if they’re “stuck” with white on the road full time…they need to mix in different helmets and pants in order to come up with different unis for each game
some color vs. color are just not good
other color vs. color is good
let the ducks wear their yellow tops against, say, the beav’s in black in corvallis
then the ducks could keep to just white, thunder green and lightning yellow
Just woke up and I am so spent from last night’s NLCS- I don’t know how I can take this torture.
But I will.
GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Ducks did more than just toy with colors though; diamondplating, wordmarks, and the shoulder wings also add to what makes the Oregon unis unique. Given the schools you chose, consider these, both plausible and ridiculous:
Miami: Incorporation of hurricane warning flags, or feathers (for Sebastian the Ibis)
Florida: Use of a gator skin textured pattern
West Virginia: Some sort of a coonskin cap representation on the helmet, or a jersey designed to emulate a buckskin jacket
Miami did use the hurricane warning flags in the 50’s
link
link
link
well…if you buy into the Pro Combat nonsense…that’s already what’s happening:
according to swooshie:
florida “The Gator mascot served as a significant influence on uniform design. As apex predators, alligators are masters of the surprise attack. Nike designers found parallels between the animal’s ruthlessness and Florida’s swift, aggressive game. A bold gator-skin pattern used throughout the uniform issues a subtle warning to opponents.”
texas christian: “Nike designers found rich inspiration in the horned frog, a desert-dweller that repels encroaching foes by shooting blood straight from its eyes, the horned frog’s scaly body armor served as a key aesthetic detail–the distinctive pattern is repeated throughout the uniform, on the base layer, jersey numbers, pants, gloves, helmet and cleats.”
~~~
there are eight more like that…and at some point, i’ll probably be doing a weekend piece on the ridiculous hyperbole
like i said in the opening today, if the ducks want to do this, i’m all for it…but once everyone (or even some) start doing it…then it isn’t unique anymore
that being said, if every team wants to do ONE one-off, once…because it’s cool and the kids like it, fine
pulling an oregon and wearing a different uniform every week?
NO
Phil, Where did you find those 2 and where can I see the others. I have seen the Ohio State one with the WW2 background that caused controversy. Kind of like to see what the others look like. I was just searching but so far no luck.
check your email
Send em to me too. Please?
I kind of liked the look of the Michigan State/Northwestern game – did they come close to top 5. I recognize that both are currently dressed in somewhat non-traditional look – but from a chromatic standpoint – quite eye appealing.
Color was the only thing that matchup had going for it, but points off there for NW’s BFBS as well.
Alec Pappas has finally solved the problem that is the Colorado Rockies!
What a great look. Honestly, that’s one of the smartest concepts I’ve seen in a while. Forget about tweaking, that club needs an overhaul and Mr. Pappas’ idea is just the ticket.
Thanks a lot, but it’d probably never happen as the NHL owns the rights to the logo.
I did an alt softball style jersey, here’s a link to the revised setup:
link
Which begs the question: What does the NHL do with a defunt logo that it owns from a team whose merchandise does not sell well (if, it all, I don’t know…), unlike say, the North Stars and the Whalers.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell the rights, make a little profit, rather than just sit on it for all eternity?
Unless the Avalanche adopt that logo. Is there potential in that?
er…DEFUNCT logo…
Good point, since I see the NHL’s “vintage shop” (link) only sells one Rockies item, a puck. A Google search reveals some other items on other sites, such as a hat or shirt, and those could either be or not be officially licensed.
My guess is that the NHL holds onto the logo rights so they can keep their “collection” of defunct teams complete. I think my friend has a shirt with all the defunct team logos on it. I don’t know if it’s licensed.
Interesting aspect of trademark law – trademarks lapse into the public domain if they aren’t used in commercial use for a period of time. I have six years in my head but that might not be right.
Does the NHL sell any Colorado Rockies pucks? Or Atlanta Flames pucks? Or Cleveland Barons pucks? Or Kansas City Scouts pucks? My guess is “no”. But it doesn’t matter, because it keeps the trademark alive.
So, say in the course of ten years, the NHL sells, what?, 4 Rockies pucks, while keeping the trademark alive. Pocket change.
Wouldn’t they be better off striking some kind of deal with, say, the baseball Rockies or some other Colorado franchise (assuming there is an interest): You can buy the rights to this trademark, just let us keep the image in our historical records/let us continue to sell 4 pucks over the course of 10 years?
Yes, I’m sure they’d be better off selling the rights to use the trademark. If the baseball Rockies were actually offering to buy it.
Selling 4 pucks a year is only preferable to letting it lapse.
McMullen only gave up the rights to the logo after selling the team, did nothing with it during that time after they left Denver.
And BCS #1 Oklahoma went down because Mizzou wore link beauties! (When your school colors are Black and Old Gold, ya oughtta wear Black and Gold, dangit!)
Well…goofy pants stripes, whacked side panel things, piping on the shoulder, wordmark above the number. But, yeah, they were wearing team colors, at least.
Does anybody else realize the Steelers are about to play their 6th game this season without wearing their white jerseys?
yup
and miama — when they wear white jerseys at home, they wear white pants…but on the road they wear the aqua trou? it that the deal?
/still not getting FOX, btw…eff rupert murdoch and news corp
so you can’t watch the Series??
i’ve been watching the NLCS on the computer en espagnol (the only feed that works, for some reason)…so, i can see it
but i’d rather watch it on the television
one would think some kind of agreement will be in place before the series starts…but cable has lucked out this weekend in the NY area because the g-men play monday night on espn, so that’s not an issue…and of course, the yankees (no loss there) didn’t make the show; so there is much less pressure (sports-wise) for either side to come to an agreement now, however
Yes. They’ve always worn white jerseys at home during the day because of the hot weather, so it makes sense to wear white pants too.
I think Dierforf mentioned how Tony Sparano was hoping the Steelers would wear down as the game went on because of having to wear dark uniforms in the Miami heat.
Last night, the Arizona Wildcats wore white-red-red for the third time this season. It should suffice to say there’s a link in Tucson.
(hopefully the hyperlink worked, I’m not as technologically literate as I’d like to be)
Useful info. Big thanks for that.
all this talk is ducking quackers!
as for the 5&1+1-1…unc-miami deserved some love, for colour alone.
And only color, but navy for navy’s sake pants? I love double blue, but more so when those are your actual school colors.
those pants didn’t bother me in this game. they do sometimes, but it was a nice colour in this instance. i also hate the idea of a navy jersey more so then navy pants on carolina. also, even though they are carolina blue(obvi) and they have worn navy if you go in the way back machine…
link
i don’t know, i like the two schools with abstract state stripes…
link
Dig the texture on those horns!
Great job with the mock-ups. Lots of good ideas there.
Stray NFL observations:
– It looks like the NFL is still running the pink (magenta) promotion, but this week the pink garb is dwindling. Didn’t see any during the WSH/CHI game, but there’s still some I see in the NE/SD game airing now. (Don’t think I saw any during the SF/CAR game of which I saw the tail end, either.)
– If it were any other year, this would have been the game in which the Bears wore their orange jerseys. I’m sure a lot of people are glad they’re gone (for now).
Not me. The orange jerseys would have been the only thing about that game that was palatable.
Let me preface this: I’m a Florida fan. That said, those Duckified Gators mockups are gutwrenching. Ugh. Please NEVER let them show up on the field!!!
here’s an example of a gold versus white that looks ridiculous:
oregon vs. cal
because of the rule, oregon is forced to wear white…but anyone of these (Q&D) is much better visually:
lightning/thunder/lighting (yellow/green/yellow)
white/green/yellow
or
white/green/white
assuming that, by default, white is an “official” color, any one of those combos keeps oregon in school colors
now…to turn it around — if you allowed oregon to wear their lightning top instead of the “mandatory” white — they could have enough “road” combos to wear a different one for each road game, and they wouldn’t need to introduce gray/silver (carbon) and black into the scheme
that being said…nobody does BFBS better than UO
Was the Browns-Saints game the weirdest one anyone else has ever seen? Two special teams trick plays for a combined 137 yards, a halfback option pass that actually worked, the punter being the game’s rushing leader until well into the fourth quarter, a 33-year-old, gray-haired linebacker getting his first two touchdowns of his career – one off his own foot on an intentionally grounded throw – and not having a second TD celebration planned so he visibly stopped and thought about what to do before going in, a member of the chain gang carted off on a backboard, and a first down that was reversed, only for a late penalty to be assessed giving the Browns the first down anyway.
Seems like it’s been a long time since the Vikings went with purple pants and white jerseys since the uniforms were redesigned. Also, some time since Minnesota went monochrome as well.
Also, some time since Minnesota looked good on a football field.
Which reminds me, where’s Ricko been this weekend?
Geeman | October 24, 2010 at 3:27 pm |
“I just hope we don’t see the day that North Carolina comes out looking like the Tennessee Titans in light and dark blue.”
Like yesterday?
link
By the way, saw that the Ducks and the Broncos were #1 and #2 in the AP poll. Earlier today I told a friend of mine, “It would be the ugliest game I’ve ever seen, but I’d love to see those two in the BCS game.”
He replied, “You mean ugly as in no defense?” I said, “No, the uniforms.”
To which he replied, “I don’t care about that…that’s just fluff.”
Sigh….
that would be awesome
of course, you’ll get some people on here (who shall remain nameless) who don’t feel teams like tcu or boise are deserving of a bcs title shot
despite the fact that they’d probably whoopass on any conference except possibly the sec…and even that’s debatable…but certainly the big 11
Those same people don’t believe in a playoff, so what do they know? ;)
At least, beginning next season, they will be in the same conference and play each other every year.
That reminds me, have they figured out new conference names yet, seeing as how the Big Ten will have 12 teams and the Big 12 will have ten?
Boise deserves it.
Maybe they’ll both wear throwbacks?
OK, I think I’ve seen her before,
link
but not this guy:
link
Silly cheeseheads…
Oh, and you Lambeauheads are silly, too:
link
have you been sexting her too?
Too?
I love Jim Volk’s 5 & 1, and his recent column on how he makes his selections was great.
That said, I have to wonder how ‘Bama-Tennessee in Tennessee failed to make the list.
(I hate the black piping on the Tennessee road jerseys, but the home ones are great.)
Is it because crimson and orange do not go together well? Is it because there were too many white pants?
Mike
You got it, Mike. Alabama/Tenn. was just like when Oklahoma wears the all whites against Texas. That’s a lotta white.
Crimson and orange work, but I like it better when Tennessee’s at Alabama. The crimson stands out more there with the helmet and the jersey.
And thanks!