Skip to content
 

Auction Action, Basketball Edition

Screen shot 2012-08-20 at 12.12.04 PM.png

The final installment of the Uni Watch Power Rankings is now up and running. Thanks for a fun week, everyone.

Meanwhile: Our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions are running their annual Basketball Hall of Fame auction, and there’s lots of primo stuff. Let’s take a look:

• Man, the NBA sure had some garish all-star jerseys in 1991. (You can see the full auction listings for these jerseys here and here.)

• Speaking of all-star gear, did you know the Warriors’ classic “The City” jersey was the basis for the 1967 all-star design? Check it out (full listing).

• Speaking of the Warriors from that era, check out this killer warm-up jacket (full listing).

• One more Warriors item: a retired number banner shaped like a jersey (full listing).

• Oh man, look at this gorgeous baby blue Lakers shooting shirt. Kinda wish they’d included a comma for “10,000,” though (full listing).

• Speaking of shooting shirts, I really like this old Florida State piece, which was worn by Dave Cowens (full listing).

• Old Harlem Globetrotters jerseys that show up for auction are usually blue, but here’s one that’s white (full listing).

• Here’s something I’ve never seen in an auction before (or maybe I just never noticed): an old NCAA championship net (full listing).

• Yeesh, what a mess of a warm-up jacket (full listing).

• And here’s a classy one to go out on: Look at this gorgeous Jerry West jersey (full listing).

Want to see more? You can browse the entire auction catalog here.

+ + + + +

Web chat reminder: I’ll be doing a live web chat on ESPN today at 3pm Eastern. It will take place here.

+ + + + +

Uni Watch News Ticker: New logo for New York City taxis. ”¦ New logo for Microsoft, too. … Good article about Nike’s role in college football (from Steve Valdez). … Kyle Mackie, citing a source he identified to me privately, says USC’s shoes and socks will likely be changing from black on black to gray on white. I asked USC’s info department for confirmation and got “We can neither confirm nor refute.” Draw your own conclusions. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: If you’ve always been wanting to see an infinite regression on the Dolphins’ helmets, look here (and if you end up having a seizure, send the bill to Scott Jamison). ”¦ Yorvit Torrealba, newly acquired by the Blue Jays, was still wearing his Rangers gear the other day. Note the red trim on the chest protector and the Rangers font on his helmet number (good spot by Kevin Kennaley). ”¦ Yesterday I mentioned that sex columnist Dan Savage had worn a T-shirt featuring a football helmet with a unicorn logo during a debate about gay marriage. That prompted Buzz Brazelton to inform me that there’s a high school team in Texas called the Unicorns. “They are very touchy about it, too!” he says. … Here’s a quiz on English soccer kits (from Anthony Nuccio). … New logo set for Chico State (from Joshua Knudson). … Here’s a slideshow of the 10 weirdest retired numbers in the NBA (from Duncan Wilson). … The Eagles will wear their BFBS alts on Oct. 28 against the Falcons (from Matt Dubroff). … Here’s the best sports illustration you’ll see today. That’s a Minnesota football illo — from the 1890s! (Great find by Jay Sullivan.) ”¦ Interesting video from Utah athletic director Chris Hill about the school’s Native American iconography (from Trent Knaphus). ”¦ Kevin Malarkey and his wife are expecting their first child. “Since I’m from Philadelphia and both my wife and I are Phillies fans, this baby blanket seemed like a natural,” he says. “Check out the stirrups — this bear Gets Itâ„¢!” ”¦ “Just sat down to watch this week’s episode of Hard Knocks and there was a Reebok sighting during the coach’s press conference,” notes Steven Wojtowicz. ”¦ A-Rod has worn Nikes for years. So what was he doing in an Adidas track suit? (From James Samel.) ”¦ Whoa, check out the uniforms worn by the 1976 San Diego Breakers! That’s a volleyball team, incidentally (nice find by Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Has anyone else noticed this? Now that the NFL’s sponsorship deal with Motorola has expired, NFL headsets are unbranded. A rare victory over logo creep, at least until they find a new sponsor. ”¦ Speaking of logo creep, here’s a puzzler for you: Last night it occurred to me that Ray Lewis has now worn four different makers’ marks while playing for the same team. Can any other NFL player, past or present, match that? (And no, I don’t know the answer — I’m just putting it out there.) ”¦ Good DIY project by Tom M., who made himself a 1967 Danny Abramowicz Saints jersey. “It is a recycled vintage durene jersey with twill numbers and stripes from Eastern Lettering,” he says. “The numbers needed considerable trimming to get the skinny look of the 1967 Southland Athletic typeface. This will be added to my equipment room along with the 1967 Jim Taylor (fat numbers) and the Kilmer (skinny numbers).”

+ + + + +

Phil is taking a breather this weekend, so webmaster Johnny Ek will once again handle Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be back on Monday. See you then.

 
  
 
Comments (363)

    #NoUniAds Campaign… Day 36: I doubt the NBA has done anything to change its stance at this point. But let’s keep the tweets/op-eds/e-mails/letters/etc. going!

    I’ll get back to that on Monday. Been a little berserk this week with the Power Rankings, the return to blogging, working on next week’s college football column, etc.

    Nice to see a DIY project again. That’s always been an intriguing element here..
    link

    Great job on those, Tom M.

    Agreed, and brilliant work by Tom. When you see how great some simple stripes make a jersey, when you look at some of the nonsense in the NFL today, you have to shake your head and say, “how freakin’ hard is this?!”

    -Jet

    I enjoyed the DIYs when people shared them. The Saints DIYs look so darn good. I love both of them.
    Great job Tom M.

    Tom M. rules. Once I have the cash, I’m gonna get a custom snare drum made with a vintage white pearl wrap with vintage black (3) and Old Gold (2) stripes in the middle. And I agree with LarryB in saying that both DIY jerseys are sweet.

    Got to say Eastern Lettering did right on this one and the vintage durene is the gorgeous for jersey heads like me

    i’ll probably be very wrong…but these are my predictions for paul’s top 5:

    #1 Pack
    #2 Cards
    #3 Canadiens
    #4 Yankees
    #5 Bears

    If there’s a wild card, I’d say Blue Jays (or were they already listed and I missed them?). Also, Celtics?

    I doubt the Yanks will be that high. Maybe the Tigers instead. Guessing a hoops squad will also included in lieu of Bears, but haven’t followed that since early 90s, so no idea which one.

    why? because paul detests them, or you truly don’t think he’ll acknowledge them as having (arguably) the most iconic uniforms of all-time

    if this were my list, only one of those 5 (maybe 2) would be in the top 5, but i’m trying to get inside paul’s head

    like i said, though — i’ll probably be way off

    Is “iconography” one of the things he was basing part of his “scoring” on? Sure it’s historical and iconic and all, but in one persons scheme of things, it could be looked at as a drab and uninspiring uniform.

    “in one persons scheme of things, it could be looked at as a drab and uninspiring uniform”

    ~~~

    and in another’s it could be looked at a beautiful and timeless

    not every uniform has to look like it was designed yesterday — because most of those will be dated in a decade

    i’m NOT a yankee fan, so it’s certainly not homerism that is at work here — but if you don’t think that the yanks are one of the most timeless, iconic (and imho beautiful, at least the homes) unis in sports, then we simply have very different opinions on what makes a good uniform

    some uniforms so hold a power beyond the design, and that sort of thing should be considered. the yankees, canadians, and raiders spring to mind. but i just want to scrape the grey matter that contains this week out of my brain-pan’s memory centre.

    I’ll go with

    1. New York Yankees
    2. Los Angeles Lakers (although it will kill Paul to stick a team so high in the rankings that uses purple so prominently – but it’s a very iconic look)
    3. Montreal Canadiens
    4. Green Bay Packers
    5. Oakland Raiders (2nd choicefor 5th: LA Dodgers)

    If I did my calcs correctly last night, really surprised to see the Utah Jazz in the top 25?

    I won’t speculate who will be in the top five, but I am curious to see the sports that hold those spots. As some above me in the comments have made some convincing lists, it looks like a good possibility that basketball will not have a top five’r (fiver? Five’er?) Can’t wait to see!

    if the celts didn’t have that gadawful alt, they’re top 5 for sure…and i just don’t see the lake show making it to the top 5 with all that forum blue

    Why do teams insist on wearing a black alt against teams that use black as a main color? I mostly like the Eagles black jersey, but they should be wearing it against the Cowboys or Giants, not the Falcons.

    To be honest, the first time I saw the Eagles’ black jerseys I couldn’t tell if it was actually black or just the dark green jersey in bad lighting at the Linc.

    They should just stick with the green.

    So I guess this…
    link
    …will mean Michigan is the only major college football team that has never worn anything but black shoes?

    Penn State wore white one time, vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama…
    link

    Didn’t do final proofread on that.
    Well, it’ll just get more UW hits for “Alabama” on a google search, maybe.

    “Last night it occurred to me that Ray Lewis has now worn four different makers’ marks while playing for the same team.”

    If you want to get technical and make it more impressive you can re-phrase it to say he has been there for 5 supplier changes:
    Russell – Starter – Nike – Reebok – Nike #2

    He may also be one of the few that has worn the Nike jersey twice!

    I was wondering who came after Starter. I know a lot of teams went from Starter to Puma, so I was wondering if it could have been 5.

    Emmitt Smith has at least three with Dallas (Nike, Reebok and Apex) and I still feel like I may be missing one.

    Being pedantic it’s actually 4 changes :)

    How do you console a pedant? – “there, they’re, their”.

    More intriguing, to me anyway, are Ray’s incredibly shrinking pads. What were his shoulderpads on the juice? They went from huge to barely there

    Its amazing how much everyone’s pads have shrunk since the late 90s. It makes me feel old so see something I remember so clearly look dated.

    The North Carolina School of Math and Science (public boarding school for 11-12th grades) is also the Unicorns, though they don’t have football.
    link

    I went to the New Braunfels website because I wanted to see an actual helmet with a unicorn. I didn’t surf too long. But it looks like the Unicorns play in a dark blue helmet with an “NB” on it.

    Anyone else find a pic of a unicorn?

    link

    A-Rod has worn Nikes for years. So what was he doing in an Adidas track suit?

    From the looks of things, I’d say he’s preparing himself for a link.

    Trefoil up top, modern logo on the bottom?! What a dickhead.

    The all-star warmup jacket looks wonderful. Wish I could afford it.

    Back in the old days, the host city for the All-Star game often tailored the jerseys on the home team’s designs. When the game came to LA in the early ’70s, the teams wore gold and purple with the Laker font and number fonts. In 1975, the Phoenix game features the Suns’ fonts and a sun on the shorts.

    Yes that jacket is too sweet! I thought about bidding, then I saw the opening bid yikes! If M&N ever does a replica sign me up.

    That happened right up to 1980 (with a couple of years where the teams wore unique designs) – the ’77 game in Milwaukee was patterened after the Bucks’ unis, and the 1980 game in Landover used the Bullets’ stars-and-stripes uniforms. It was a nice touch that I’d like to see come back…

    I was thinking I missed that one too though I do remember seeing some clips of Dr. J receiving a cold reception for winning the MYP trophy on the MECCA hardwood floor.

    Ronde Barber should be able to tie Ray Lewis. His rookie year in 1997, the Buccaneers wore Wilson, then 98-01 adidas, 02-11 Reebok, ’12 Nike.

    Wilson:
    link

    adidas:
    link

    Reebok:
    link

    With just two pre-season games in I’m having a hard time finding Nike

    Good find! I’ve got 4 for Darrell Green:

    Wilson: link

    Reebok: link

    Adidas: link

    Starter: link

    I think Paul has mentioned it here before, but the 1990’s were kind of the wild west for NFL uniform manufacturers: Nike, Starter, Reebok, Russell, Wilson, Puma, Champion, and even Mcgregor all had at least a few teams at one time or another…

    Troy Brown also did it with the Patriots:
    1993-94: Apex
    95-99: Starter
    00-01: Adidas
    02-07: Reebok

    If the Chicago Blackhawks uni-set aren’t on the TOP of the UniWatch rankings then Paul should go work for the BCS.

    The Mets are still alive for a high spot in the rankings…wonder if Paul will deem the number one uni set as “perfect”…or will he suggest a way to even improve the best (in his eyes).

    The Mets have to be docked as long as the BFBS is still in the rotation, even though it’s being phased out. Without it, the Mets have one of the best looks — and the best road uniform — in MLB.

    Personally, I think the Mets also lose points for the off-white pinstriped home unis. They look fine from a distance, but next to the whites they frankly look pee-stained. I’m not a fan of using off-white fabric to mimic “old” jerseys, that in reality where white when new but yellow with age, leaving the mistaken impression that they were off-white in the “old days.”

    Now, given that, I think if the pinstriped unis were white, and the non-pinstriped alternates were off-white, that would work a lot better.

    I attended my one Met game a year (until Wilponz sell) 2 weeks ago…the Mets were wearing Snow Whites at night…with my binoculars, I noticed that the cool base jersey tops had a slightly different shade of white than the jersey pants. Don’t know if it is apparent in photos and video. I guess the pants are not cool base and won’t match perfectly.

    Mrs. Blandings: “Now, for the bathroom, I want white. But not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. Something warmer, more cheerful. But still, not to suggest any color other than white!”

    I’m quoting that from memory (and am sure I got some bits wrong). Full scene here:
    link

    Great scene Paul…anyway, linkshows what I mean…pants clearly brighter white than tops…for the criminally obssessed only. Bill Henderson writes about the very same thing in his latest edition. He says unless they start making coll base pants, we’ll have to live with it.

    Wild = Wilderness? Hello? The negative space in the Wild bear head profile is a silhouette of timber trees and a trail/stream? Never disappointed in the lack of design and fashion taste on this blog. Never.

    Here are my IWW stirrups that I wear on Friday. When I first saw them, I thought they looked like a cross between the Cardinals and 59 White Sox. I also really liked that they represented the Industrial Workers of the World, because when I taught American history I spent a lot of time covering the labor movement. I didn’t purchase them until the day after Scott Walker won his recall election in Wisconsin. I thought this was a subtle way to both reflect on American history and show my continued support for unions and union workers everywhere.

    link

    Regarding Paul’s question yesterday about Mike McHugh’s McNOB, it looks like link had a superscript “c” as well. Looks like link, link and Brian McRae did too. But, check this out: link with superscript “c” in ’98, and with <a href="linkbaseline “c” in ’97.

    (I couldn’t find an NOB pic for Jeff McKnight.)

    I think Ronde Barber’s another one with 4 marks and still playing:

    Wilson (rookie year)
    Adidas
    Reebok
    Nike

    Nice work, Paul. Thanks. And I’ll still take credit for “True Mets = Blue Mets” :)

    Terrific, while I did not think you would pick the Canadiens, I’m sure glad you did.

    Of course we all have different opinions on the power rankings. I must say the Canadiens is a legit choice. I think the Cubs and Steelers are too high.

    But fun to look at the list and a lot of good work by Paul.

    Memo to Theo Epstein: please change what they wear. (Ricko can supply some very nice photos to use as inspiration.)

    Top 5? Jason Bernard said it best. It’s OK to do drugs on vacation. It’s not okay to do ALL the drugs on vacation.

    I gave my non-biased synopsis on the Cubs set. I’ll admit I watch my share of Cubs games (mind you, I’ll watch any baseball game) on TV but that alt bugs the hell out of me.

    I’m curious on how a road & alt with no stripes got ranked so high. I know you really like that road pants logo, Paul. I just don’t see the point of it or the registered trademark on the home jersey.

    I know you really like that road pants logo, Paul.

    No, I don’t — I’ve never said that. I just like pointing out that it’s unique. I actually think it’s pointless, but it’s also so small that it’s innocuous.

    That’s just it. It’s… nice… as in nothing special, especially when you compare it to what they were wearing 50 or so years ago.

    The only things I’d change about the Cubs uniforms is to make the circle on the crest thinner (it’s way too bold) and, of course, get rid of the (expletive deleted) TM.

    JTH – an idea I’ve had if the Cubs ever bring back their old cub head with a touch of realism.

    link

    Or not.

    My initial reaction was complete revulsion. But I think I’d like to see that in the context of the full uniform.

    Or not.

    I have a few ideas, but the problem is, the current uniform is so embedded into the fan base that anything I come up with will be heinous, bad/weak or considered too old school (I don’t do modern).

    One thing I would do is tone down the blue & the extremely thick red C & blue ring on the jersey. It’s just so damn thick. They vastly reduced the girth of the U-B-S on the uniform from the primary logo, but it’s like they over compensated with the C & ring.

    Honestly I find their 1908-40 looks the most interesting. If you’re willing to wait awhile for them to show up in weekend concepts when I can come up with something a little more original (especially with the cub head sleeve patch) but I can’t guarantee you’ll like them at all.

    But I realize things are just too deep in Cub blue v Cardinal red. But I guess that’s why we concept in the first place, because it’s fun.

    I’m definitely satisfied with the top 5. It’s hard to get better than the Canadiens, Bears, and Cubs. Good job on the list Paul.

    Yes, I think those are on the money. But for the Bruins to be truly a top 5 in my list, their unis would have to look like THIS
    link

    Just not crazy about the current changes to the B and spoked wheel. The early 70’s set had it right

    -Jet

    For that matter, the Steelers are way too high, what with their “iconic” sleeve stripes literally NOT FITTING ON THE JERSEY anymore.

    Speaking of that, a 28th ranking & then they reward Paul with the unveiling of the black alternate schedule of 2012, the very worst thing about the Eagles set.

    Me thinks these lists almost need to be updated on a daily basis.

    I’ll take the Steelers at number 7–coincidentally, the same ranking as the NFL.com list.

    And you’re not going to hear me complain about Les Habitants getting the top spot. :)

    I don’t follow football so wasn’t aware of the Steelers’numbers change – WOOF! That number 7 looks like an inverted “check” mark!!!

    link

    -Jet

    Totally agree with your Packers critique. Put the sock stripes back on and shrink those gargantuan tv numbers and I’d say top 5, easy. Damn fine job with the list, Paul.

    The Bears over the Packers definitely caught me by surprise. I will say, however, that you make a convincing argument about the Bears looking equally great on the road as they do at home. Their road unis aren’t just re-colors of their home ones unis either. They use a different set of stripes on the road (which incidentally pre-date their home stripes) yet still manage to give everything grace and continuity. Of course stripes on the packers socks would probably render any of this moot.

    Stripes on the Packers socks needa to be UW’s next campaign. I can’t believe they’ve dropped those. Too bad I’m not a shareholder, I might have a tiny bit of influence then!

    I’d be very glad to join that campaign (and I am a shareholder), so long as it meant removing the stripes from the neckline.

    Much as I love the Braisher stripes, the uniform is dangerously close to being too busy. Add stripes on the socks, absolutely. But there’s a reason that Lombardi didn’t put them on the neck in 1959.

    Stripes on the collar and socks would be WAY too much.

    How would you feel about a contrasting (green) collar on the white jersey, either with solid or striped socks?

    I think that could be a good look.

    JTH,
    For me it just has to be striped socks and no stripes on the collar for either uniform. Stripes on the collar just make the jersey way too busy for me, especially with those tv numbers being so big, as someone pointed out earlier.

    Bring back sock stripes, drop the collar ones, and shrink those tv #’s. Perfection.

    I’ve always enjoyed the stripes on the neckline. It’s even rarer to see legitimate striping on the collar. Still I’d strongly consider giving them the heave-ho if it meant putting stripes on the socks.

    The question is what type of stripes? The old Packers socks were the five-stripped variety which matched the sleeves. The current jerseys only have three stripes.

    The 5 stripes, for sure. Even with the 3 striped sleeves, which I wish were still 5 as well. And take ’em off the collar.

    Hey Chance, any way you could find me a connection to get a share??? ;) I know they sold some recently, but I was unemployed at the time so it wasn’t feasible.

    Wish I could, Coleman. I wanted to buy shares for my kids, but wasn’t in much of a position to do so (largely because I have kids).

    They can’t be transferred except within families, so unless you are related to someone who already has one, you’ll have to wait fifteen or twenty years. Whenever they next want to expand Lambeau Field.

    And 5 stripes, absolutely.

    And time to move the stripes to compression sleeves, so we can have all 5 back on the arms as well. My own windmill for the past several years.

    Diggin’ the fact that none of the NFL teams, in the top 25, adopted Nike’s ridiculous collar scheme.

    No, I think he means the two tone collar. The Bears adopted the collar structurally, but they’ve never (i think…) had a contrasting color for a collar so that trend continued.

    They had blue collars on the white and orange jerseys back in the olde days, but to my knowledge they’ve never had contrasting collars on the blue jerseys.

    Holy moley! All that Warriors swag is amazing.

    But that link? Yikes.

    I mean, come on. Everyone knows what part of the warmup outfit you’re supposed to link.

    Much I love the ABA, that thing is as ugly as anything that has ever “graced” the hardcourt. IF it ever did (it’s the first I’ve ever seen it.)

    Yikes. I have a hard time putting the Detroit Tigers at 9th best dressed MLB team. I would have them top three. The belt loops alone are phenomenal.

    Like I wrote, the cap logos have always bugged me, esp. on the road cap. It’s a major fly in the ointment, at least for me. I realize others probably won’t see it that way.

    That is an interesting take. I don’t think that I have ever heard that critique of the Detroit caps. Maybe it is because that is how it has always been with them, but I don’t think it is really a major flaw.

    In fact, I would rather teams have smaller cap logos than overly large ones. An unfortunate trend has been oversized cap logos for whatever reason. Look at the new Jays’ cap.

    link

    It is ridiculously oversized to compensate for how busy it is. I think that is a much worse look than the Tigers’ cap.

    Like I said, I don’t expect many (or maybe any) other people to agree, but that cap logo has bugged me for ages, so it’s a bit of a pet peeve. I’m surprised I haven’t written about it before, actually….

    At least for the Tigers, the two different D’s make sense for their respective mediums and sizes. The cap D with the curlicue dragon tail would look terrible scaled up to jersey size. And the simplified-for-fabric-cutting jersey J loses a lot of character and impact when scaled down to cap size.

    This compares favorably to the Yankees, whose jersey NY logo works great at pretty much any scale, and whose cap NY logo would look just fine rendered in tackle twill on a jersey chest.

    Should read “jersey D”. Don’t even know how that typo is possible; J is about as far from D on the keyboard as can be.

    I actually prefer the cap logo to the jersey logo, and I like the size on the cap. But your mileage obviously varies..

    I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about this before, but that beautiful Warriors warm-up brings it back again. How many teams in other sports co-opted baseball logos?

    Knicks used to use the Yankee NY, Warriors used the Giants SF. Does the wishbone C count? Packers G is all over college, any major leagues use it?

    I don’t think the Wishbone C counts due to its ubiquity. But that’s an interesting question. So many football teams were named after the local baseball franchise, but how many actually adopted that team’s logo?

    I’m guessing not many, since most pro football teams didn’t seem to regularly use logos until the late 1950s, when the sport no longer felt the need to borrow the credibility of the National Pastime.

    Dont remember his name but last night during the Jaguars vs the Ravens preseason game number 32 or 34, who returned a kick off in the 3rd quarter for the Jaguars, looked to have a blue-ish face mask on. Did anyone else notice this or have proof?

    Uniwatch should stick to ranking bad blogger jersey submissions and King Louie Bowliing Shirt designs. No Blackhawks in Top 25? Seriously the first thing any hockey player says when the’ve been traded to the Indianheads is “Wow. it’s great to get a a chance to wear the best uniform in sports!” Ridiculous.

    Has any player in the history of the game ever referred to the Blackhawks (or Black Hawks) as “the Indianheads”? Furthermore, does anyone anywhere other than you call the team “Indianheads”?

    And since Paul made the list based on his feelings, who the hell cares what anyone else says? It’s HIS list. Not some random player’s list.

    Gotta agree with Teebz….I’ve never heard anyone call them the Indianheads……Savvy said “Commit to the Indian”, but that’s about as far as it goes…..

    “Indian head sweater” I’ve heard many, many times but never have I heard the team referred to as the Indianheads.

    Paul’s final rankings confirm what I’ve always thought: Bruins vs. Canadiens games are absolutely beautiful. Not only are their jerseys fantastic and iconic, they contrast wonderfully. As a Bruins fan, it’s one of the reasons I look forward to playing the Canadiens.

    Rangers! That’s what the Seahawks horizontal shoulder stripes remind me of. That’s the one “different” element I really like from the redesign.

    Hockey should NOT wear white at home! It’s so boring to see all the home teams wear white. It’s fun to rock the team’s colors (Rock the Red!) at home. Look at the Miami Heat! The NBA has to have those White Out nights (if they still do them). BORING!

    Actually, the boring thing for a team’s fan base is for every home game to be blue vs. white (if you’re the Rangers) or red vs. white (if you’re the Blackhawks), etc.

    If you wear white at home, every home game is different: white vs. red, white vs. blue, white vs. green, etc. Much better.

    Boredom doesn’t enter into the picture if what you wear speaks to the traditions of your club so perfectly, such as the Canadiens’ red jerseys. Ask a fan to describe the Sainte flanelle, and they will assuredly not describe a white jersey.

    Every team has a white jersey, DJ. They describe the red jersey because of its history and because it is different than 29 other teams.

    I never really cared for home whites in hockey, but I have to admit, Paul, that is very sound reasoning.

    Can’t believe I never looked at it that way before.

    I think that’s the reason why the Cowboys originally chose to wear white at home in their expansion year.

    White at home should be up to the individual team – in hockey and every other sport. There is absolutely no reason for any sports league to be that specific about what colors its teams can or can’t wear.

    There is absolutely no reason…

    Actually, there’s a very good reason: The road team needs to know what to pack. So you can’t just be making this stuff up on the fly.

    But if you mean there’s no reason a team can’t set up its own established protocol ahead of time, as long as they stick to it, then yeah, that’s a point worth discussing.

    In addition, it saves money for the road team in basketball/hockey if it only has to carry one color of jersey on a road trip, instead of two. Football is different because each trip is separate, so it doesn’t matter what jerseys they have to bring.

    I’ll jump on this since Jeff makes an idiotic point with no regard for logistics, travel, or workloads.

    If you allow that to happen and teams are on a road trip, they need to bring multiple sets of uniforms with them that require cleaning before each game. If you think the equipment guys want the added weight of hauling additional uniforms with them as well as the responsibility for looking after multiple uniform sets on the road, I suggest you spend a day with an equipment manager and see how easy it is.

    White at home only started in the NHL in the 1969-70 season. Once the alternate jersey craze began in the 1990s, the NHL saw an opportunity to capitalize on selling more dark and alternate jerseys as fans could by two different uniforms for home games, but decided against the switch. With half the NHL teams having alternates at the turn of the millenium, the league made the switch to ease the burden of teams requiring multiple sets of uniforms on the road as most alternate uniforms were dark and were being worn on the road. With only 16 sates per year to wear them, roadtrips became a nightmare for equipment managers.

    So hire more freakin equipment people. Fuck, man, if you can pay the players millions of dollars, you can fork out a another extra couple hundred thousand for more lower level employees.

    …and in response to Paul:
    Yes, obviously you need to allow for a certain amount of advanced warning for the road team to pack accordingly – but that does not mean anyone should be forced into white. If the Red Wings want to wear white at home, that should be their choice, not a league mandate. If they choose to wear red at home, that should also be their choice – and if the Maple Leafs choose to go into Detroit, knowing that the Wings will be in red, and bring their blue jerseys, that should also be acceptable.

    I’d like to see white at home, dark on the road. But, with the advent of third’s and trying to sell more jerseys, etc, I don’t have a problem defining at the beginning of the season what each team will be wearing at each game.

    I understand the extra work that equipment managers have to do, but I doubt it’s anywhere near the nightmare you describe. It’s their job for crying out loud, I’m sure if they don’t want to do it there’s plenty of folks willing to take it over.

    Jeff, do you use your brain at all?

    Roadtrips are bloody EXPENSIVE. Bringing more people means more weight in the plane, more hotel rooms, more per diems, more costs for the team. The CBA negotiations right now are stuck on the amount of money teams are paying players right now, so why the hell would they add more non-playing staff to a roadtrip?

    Owners aren’t excited about paying higher costs when there are viable options for paying less. Otherwise, why not just charge the fans more for tickets? I mean, in the long run, we essentially pay for the road trip anyway.

    Give your head a shake.

    Tom, there are logistical nightmares that go into roadtrips that we, as fans, don’t consider.

    Home teams get to use their own washers and dryers before the road teams do unless pre-arranged. The road team equipment managers will stay late into the nights in order to prepare for the next game by laundering the uniforms so that they are ready for the next game. They also disinfect and dry equipment for the players, and make repairs if necessary.

    Practice uniforms are cleaned after practice in the morning or early afternoon, and the clean game uniforms are placed into the lockers during the day. The equipment manager will work on problems – cuts, rips, loose namebars, etc. – during the day to have the uniform ready for gametime. They again have to wait for the home team’s equipment manager to offer up the sewing machine unless, of course, they’re lucky enough to have one with them as some teams do.

    Once the uniforms and equipment are in the lockers, they begin prepping sticks and sharpening skates. Again, the visitors are limited by the available equipment at the rink they are visiting.

    If a team plays on back-to-back nights, visiting equipment managers will often throw wet and dirty unifroms and equipment into whatever transportation they can obtain (minivan, cube truck, etc.), and go ahead of the team to get to the next rink. Once there, they again work through the night or rise at the crack of dawn to have everything clean and in lockers for the players by the afternoon. In the afternoon, they begin the repair process for uniforms damaged the night before, and the cycle continues.

    If a team is on a six-city, ten-night roadtrip, the equipment manager and, if lucky, one assistant literally works their asses off for ten straight days and nights until the team gets home. It’s not some walk in the park. They literally put their noses to the grindstone so the players can look their best when they suit up on the road.

    You know, it sounds like simply having multiple sets of the same uniform would greatly cut down on most of those problems.

    But, of course, that would cost more money, so we can’t do that.

    I know, I don’t “get it(TM)”, but it’s just baffling to me that in the multi-billion dollar industry that we call Professional Sports, the teams aren’t capable of hiring enough people and ordering enough uniforms to make laundry a non-issue.

    Jeff, have you ever known an athlete that wasn’t superstitious? Have you ever gone on a roadtrip on your own?

    Space is limited. Costs will be much higher if you want to take an additional 30 uniforms with you since you have to ship them, store them, manage them, and carry them with you for however long you’re gone.

    Why is this so difficult for you to grasp? Owners, who like money, don’t like spending on frivolous things such as taking multiple uniforms sets with them on the road. Equipment managers, who are responsible for such things, have a bazillion things to do outside of managing multiple uniform sets.

    If the owner won’t pay to send multiple sets of uniforms, he won’t send additional staff. And the lone equipment manager most teams send on the road won’t manage multiple sets which is why NHL teams wear the alternates on the road only when they play one-game roadtrips.

    These are simple steps to follow, and you’re making wild leaps to conclusions that are simply stupid, Jeff. The bubble you live in is far different than the reality you participate in.

    I understand perfectly, Teebz, I just think that it’s bullshit. Multi-million dollar franchises, and ONE equipment guy? C’mon. Just because “that’s the way it is” doesn’t mean that’s how it should be.

    Greed is not a positive attribute, ok?

    jesus…i can’t believe im actually going to side with both THE and tom and against teebz on something

    but i am

    don’t have goddam multiple uniforms — white for home, color for road

    problem solved

    You’re not exactly siding with me there, Phil. (Which is probably a good thing, actually)

    My side was no league mandates and team choice, backed up by owners not being so damn stingy and hiring enough people to actually do the job when it comes to equipment management and dealing with said team choices.

    There’s a difference between greed and not wanting to throw money out the window, The.

    Plus, I’m sure you’d want college and high school teams to pack all their unis and hire another equipment guy, too…where are they gonna get the money…from you?

    Plus, I’m sure you’d want college and high school teams to pack all their unis and hire another equipment guy, too…where are they gonna get the money?

    Nike, obviously. ;)

    It has NOTHING to do with GREED and everything to do with SPACE AND COST. You do realize that there isn’t an infinite amount of money that owners can use, right? They operate within a budget in order to make money.

    Are you aware of this concept? It’s how EVERY BUSINESS OPERATES.

    Nice comeback…

    Still taking Teebz’ side on this, but at least you got a chuckle out of me.

    For God’s sake, Teebz, are you seriously telling me that professional teams are so poorly ran that they wouldn’t make a profit if they had to hire an extra equipment guy or charter a slightly larger plane to carry an extra 30 jerseys & pants?

    I guess the NBA really DOES need those jersey ads.

    Jeff, I can’t do this any longer.

    Please continue being a fan. Your understanding of the operations side of a hockey franchise where they lug more than just a jersey and a pair of shorts for 12 players like they do in the NBA should be the standard for all business models regardless of the business. After all, capitalism is greed at the most empirical form – entirely upon what the pro sports business is founded.

    Oblivion is bliss, I suppose.

    “You’re not exactly siding with me there, Phil. “

    ~~~

    actually, THE, i was agreeing with this gem (and i mean it)

    “I forgot to factor human greed into the equation.”

    you just summed up pretty much everything that’s ruining sports and uni watching right there

    no no…

    on most teams (ok, maybe not your canadiens and a couple others) the white looks a LOT better

    Chiming in…..I am in the camp that believes that the home team should wear their colors and the visiting team should wear their white/bland/boring jerseys while on the road. I understand the camp that says you get to see a different looking game every time, but I really like that the visitors all look the same….one enemy/one look…. (No, I didn’t mean to invoke any military references as Hockey is, decidedly, not war. Those comparisons bug the hell out of me.)

    I am in the camp that believes that the home team should wear their colors and the visiting team should wear their white/bland/boring jerseys while on the road.

    Except in hockey, I actually think the colored uniforms are more often the bland ones. I think the white uniforms usually have more visual interest, more contrast, and the crests tend to stand out better on the white background.

    “White uniforms usually have more visual interest, more contrast, and the crests tend to stand out better on the white background.” Spot on, Paul. I would much rather see a team in white-over-white than color-over-color (including black).

    Side note: As a Browns fan, the best part of last season was the dearth of brown jerseys.

    Bettman should have at least given the “Original Six” teams the ability to choose what to wear at home. The Red Wings’ whites should ALWAYS be worn at home. The red ones look like Santa Claus uniforms and should only be worn on the road against teams who also wear white at home.

    I honestly believe that the Red Wings, as long they wore their red socks, could get away with wearing their white jerseys against almost any other team in white.

    It wouldn’t work against the Rangers, Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, Caps in their throwback alts and probably the Coyotes. Montreal and Florida would definitely be pushing it.

    Ultimately, the correct resolution to the problem is to allow teams to play color vs. color. If a team wants to wear white, then fine (Cowboys). But if color vs. color is fine with soccer, then it should be fine with all other sports, too, now that the number of black and white tvs in existence is very small.

    Hear hear! Highlight today for me was A’s ahead of Yankees, and for exactly the right reasons. I’m surprised it’s Habs over Cardinals, but only because it defied my expectations of Paul’s preferences on a few key uni points, not because I can really argue against that ordering.

    yeah doesn’t make sense to anyone but the Miami Heat front office.

    i get Jordan revitalized the game, but in no way does he warrant his number to be retired by any other team than the Bulls.

    Bingo! I think symbolic number retirement (for the owner, a coach, “the fans”, someone who played on another team (sorry, Jackie Robinson, not sorry Wayne Gretzky), etc. should be banned, by Constitutional Amendment if necessary. If you didn’t wear it, it shouldn’t be retired for you.

    Just curious, you said the Bears’ logo seems a bit dated, but how would suggest updating it?

    I agree. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s no more dated than the Packers “G for Greatness” logo. Both are perfect the way they are.

    Hey Paul, the Maple Leafs are represented twice on the NHL rankings, and the Caps (sad face, even if you don’t like their kit that much) are nowhere to be found.

    I mean on the individual sport links. Where it says “Rankings by sport”, if you click on NHL, the Caps are nowhere to be found.

    Really enjoyed the rankings…thanks Paul. I must admit, I religiously diverted my eyes, scrolled to the bottom of each quintile, and read my way up the lists…especially for the top quintile. If my vote counts at all, I prefer the list to be revealed that way…once revealed, you can point to links that go top to bottom or bottom to top, based on viewer preference. Don’t forget to put a previous rank column when you update.

    A lot of reebok shirts are being worn by the coaching staff in every episode this year. It is very common when they are in meetings, not so much when they are on the practice field or at games.

    I don’t have a screenshot, but in the last episode Ryan Tannehill was wearing an addidas shirt, with addidas written right across his chest.

    Good one!

    Hanson debuted with the Lions in 1992. According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, the team’s uniforms during his tenure have been made by Wison (1992-93), Apex (1994), Reebok (1995-98), Puma (1999-2000), Reebok again (2001-2011), and now Nike (2012).

    So Hanson has worn five different makers’ marks — or six, if you count Reebok twice.

    Paul, you just lost credibility with all Packer fans for ranking the Bears above the Packers for ANYTHING!! Especially considering they still occasionally don that disgusting orange alternate with “bleeped”-up numbers (November 13, last season, vs. DET).

    This is one Packer fan who has to give those FIBs their due. Sure, the orange jersey is suitably atrocious. But their regular uniforms, the classic blues, are my-T-fine. As are their road whites.

    It’s great to be able to look at link and see reflections of today. You have to give the Bears that.

    It’s great to be able to look at game photos from the 1940s and see reflections of today.

    Yes! I love that about the Bears — a sense of visual continuity across eras, which is really rare in football.

    Agreed. It’s nice to see “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” here. I love tuning in to see the Pack take on the Bears every year, knowing what I’m going to see. If the game’s in Green Bay, I know what uni’s I’ll see, same for Chicago. Granted, there’s that terrible orange jersey the Bears wear sometimes, or the “okay” throwback the Pack may wear, but year in and year out that is one of the best uni matchups in the NFL.

    Agreed here. Man, those oranges are awful. The Broncos pull it off because it’s a classic look for them. Not the Bears. (spit up in mouth).

    Nice FIB reference. +1

    They’re not wearing the orange jerseys anymore (well, not this season, at least) so they didn’t factor into the decision.

    But the Bears were wearing orange jerseys long before the Broncos even existed, so whatever.

    Question: why do you Packers fans have such a collective hard-on for the uniforms to be ranked higher than the Bears? Not saying that the Bears have achieved uni-perfection (they’re my favorite team, but not my favorite unis). However, there are more glaringly obvious flaws in the Packers’ set.

    But frankly, if the order had been reversed and it was Pack at #2 and Bears at #6, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Conversely, I’m not going to dislocate my shoulder patting myself and every Bears fan I see on the back over this “victory.”

    (Yes, I’m aware of some potential hypocrisy due to the anti-Cubs lobbying that I’ve been doing all week)

    Yeah, who cares who gets ranked higher than who (…says the guy who openly lobbied for the Bears to rank higher than the pack in yesterdays comments.)?

    ME! I CARE! IF PAUL DOESN’T CHANGE THE RANKINGS, THEN MY ENTIRE SEASON IS RUINED! (sarcasm)

    …says the guy who brought it up in the first place.

    JTH,
    I just absolutely love the Packers’ uniform, minus the changes with the collar and socks. I’m okay with where Paul put them and I’m even okay that the Bears are ranked higher.

    Come on, those orange jerseys are a bit bright, but in the Bears’ defense, it is one of their primary colors. In previous years, the orange wasn’t as fluorescent and I think it looked a bit better.

    Thanks for the backhanded compliment, Chance….throwing the FIB in there while you’re giving the Bears props on the unis.

    Please….stay behind the cheddar curtain. :-)

    I question the legality of someone who no longer lives behind the Cheddar Curtain using the term “FIB”.

    Used to be a Bears fan…then I was a Packers fan…now I’m not an NFL fan at all, so consider this a neutral opinion:

    To me, it’s the Bears logo that looks timeless and the Packers logo that looks dated. Notice I didn’t say “outdated,” just “dated.” I wouldn’t change either teams’ unis, but if both teams were 2013 expansion franchises, I could still see a designer coming up with the Bears C.

    About the only thing I’d change is the Packers road unis. There’s something that’s always bugged me about the yellow helmet, yellow pants, and white top. It wasn’t until now that I realized what it is.

    I ask, what are the Packers colors? GREEN and Gold (yellow). Where do they play their home games? (basically) GREEN Bay, WI. What was the main color on their old John Deere tool shed of a stadium? GREEN. What is the least-dominant color on their away uniforms? GREEN. It’s like green an afterthought. Keep the yellow helmet. Put green on the pants and go with either white or yellow leggings for road.

    Jim, excellent. Just put the Packers top on that and old-school class up the pants. I think you’ve got something.

    Yeah, he’s got something alright, but it isn’t good. Leave the Pack in gold pants, k? Thanks.

    If anything, that pic should show you why its a TERRIBLE idea.

    It’s not perfect, but the gridiron uniform database has something that’s close to what I’m talking about. Look at the white tops on green pants from 1953. And JTH, you’ll be glad to see the comment at the very bottom of this link:

    link

    you don’t want the pack in green pants because they might be tempted to do this

    or they’d need to change up the socks — ya know — to avoid the tights look…

    and then you’d have this

    This was the uniform I was thinking of:
    link
    Then I remembered they had “upgraded” to the above uni.

    This one’s better than both of them:
    link

    Phil and Jim, knock it off, you’re fuckin’ killing me. And get those atrocities of uni-tweaks off the internet before you give Nike ideas.

    OK, so I went to a Build a Bear Factory the other day -don’t ask- and while waiting for the bear to be stuffed I noticed some baseball unis. However, it was good to see that they come with stirrups link

    Was surprised to see the Warriors ranked so high. I mean, I give them points for trying. But they missed the mark.

    How to improve that outfit: Fix the awful collar stripe and get rid of all wordmark. That’s right, just the bridge with the number.

    All three Oakland teams in the top 25!

    Going to wear my East Bay Tuxedo to celebrate (A’s cap, Raiders track jacket and Warriors t-shirt.)

    Love Uni Watch from day one, but Paul, why stoop to yet another (let’s get cute) subjective LIST? That’s NOT what Uni Watch represents, at least to these eyes.

    Read the last ranked franchise of part one and stopped right there, read no more.

    It’s like Bleacher Report on steroids made worse by the fact that it was an ESPN (Evil Sports Programming Network – corporate douchebaggery in Disney) editor’s idea.

    Uni Watch IS better than that.

    I hear where you are coming from and had similar feelings at first…but then it was fun in the end, so what is so bad? You have the option not to read it, which you exercised. I might feel better if it were named “Paul Lukas’ Favorite Uniform List” or some such…but it is what it is. I doubt I will refer to it again until next update.

    Yeah, it cuts into the articles on grilled meat! ;)

    It’s a blog devoted to uniforms, why not a ranking of stuff uniform related? It’s not like it’s a list of the ugliest players or anything.

    (cough Lebron James cough).

    NE bias in Power Rankings?

    Let’s examine that.

    If the person doing the ranking has a preference for more traditional unis (which we know is true), aren’t the teams that have been around the longest more likely to have the longest-running traditions?

    And aren’t the teams in the Northeast, generally speaking, the teams that have been around the longest?

    For more than half a century, MLB never played a regular-season game west of St. Louis. Didn’t happen until 1958. Before NHL expansion, Chicago and Detroit were the league’s western frontier. Before Cooke bought the Lakers, the NBA was in a similar NE geographic cluster.

    Ergo, why should we be surprised, or ready to cry “geographic prejudice”, when so many older teams are from that part of the country?

    I actually don’t think there is any East Coast favoritism. Just looking at Paul’s top 10: 3 teams are from the East Coast US, 5 are from the Mid-West US, 1 is from Canada, 1 is from the Western US. I don’t count Montreal as East coast, despite its longitude, because I would never consider Quebec to be New England. In the top five: 3 Mid-West, 1 East Coast, 1 Canada.

    My only serious objection is that the Reds are way too low — easily top 10 within MLB, IMO.

    Something called the “Iowa Tug of War Club” used the Purdue train logo for theirs, with a slight modification.

    link

    I called the Habs yesterday – not surprised at all by that choice, and hard to argue they don’t belong at number 1.

    The only 2 bits of weirdness today (as opposed to yesterdays alternate universe-level weirdness) were Golden State and the Phillies in the top 25. The Warriors have a much better look than their last uniforms, but it still needs significant tweaking with that font. The Phils are a constant reminder that red pinstripes tend to look pinkish. And that number font is awful.

    I can’t help but think the Steelers would be top 3 if they’d go back to block numerals.

    It’s nice to see the Jazz and Blue Jays get top 25 credit!

    The Bears helmet logo is absolutely perfect and every bit as iconic as the CH of Montreal.

    Great job, Paul! I think everyone has really enjoyed this project.

    And I’ll add that the only team I’d rank above the Canadiens is….

    the Blackhawks. And the more I think about it, the more I think they’d be number 1.

    Do you think if I buy this for Paul for the Holidays, he will put my Packers ahead of the Bears in the Uni Rank list next year?

    link

    My HS colors were green and gold, been looking for a letterman sweater to throw my old varsity letter on. Anybody have a good link for letterman apparel?

    Ronde Barber on the buccanners can match Ray Lewis with 4 uni makers, Wilson, Adidas, Reebok and now Nike.

    As I mentioned to Paul in an e-mail, Isaac Bruce wore 5 different logos with the Rams (Russell, Wilson, Logo Athletic, Puma, and Reebok).

    That English football kits quiz is good, but difficult. The time goes very quickly.

    I think I’m pretty well up on them, but only got 44 out of the 92.

    New logo for New York City taxis

    Interesting. They considered that a couple years ago (when they first went with the Blade Runner livery), but rejected it since the new 2nd Avenue subway line is going to be designated the T. Guess they’ve decided that it won’t be too confusing after all.

    Huge omission. The Invaders were not ranked! I think at least an honorary 13.5th place or higher is in order.

    What, a red alt now? Switching sports to baseball or something? Besides, you’ve got a simple circular emblem, old-fashioned lace collar, and conservative stripes on the sleeves. Pretty sure it’s federal law in both Canada and the U.S. that a hockey alt with those three attributes must be blue.

    Kidding! That is a thing of beauty right there.

    phil is right… thought it was royal blue! lol. kidding

    i wanted to make a really simple jersey, with a color that was totally different. i was also kind of jealous that the Invaders didn’t have a simple logo, so i used the shoulder logo from the navy jersey. here is a quickie post i made for that jersey:

    link

    Why is the Eagles a BFBS? Black has been a consistent part of their logos, uniforms, and entire image since the mid 1990’s.

    Or their secondary color.

    Please — stop trying to make a case for black as a team color just because there’s some black outlining on a stripe or some such. By that logic, the Cowboys could wear a black alt and it wouldn’t be BFBS. Get real.

    I agree, but I still think that it’s possible for a team to add black as a main team color and not be regarded as BFBS. The Reds, for example. They’re not BFBS, they’re a team that wears red and black. It’s a perfectly fine color scheme, and makes even more sense for a team called the Reds than most, since black can actually make red pop nicely as a color. (Not saying the Reds necessarily pull this off well, but in theory they could.) The Reds have usually been a red-and-something team, and nowadays they’re red-and-black.

    Whereas I know that the Mets tried to shoehorn black in as a third coequal team color. For that not to be a case of BFBS, more comprehensive change would have been required. Significantly demoting either blue or orange, for example. Mets were more like, “Hey, look, we have black jerseys and caps now. And, um, that means black is a Mets team color! Yeah, that’s the ticket, a team color.”

    Well the current Eagles have used black a lot more consistently since the early 2000’s. From being just a minor bit of trim on the Randle Cunningham uniforms, they really expanded it. Black collars, black sleeve stripes on both jerseys, black stripes on the pants, black facemasks, and black dropshaddow on the numerals. By contrast silver has been relegated to accents on the pants stripes, numerals, and the logos. Even if the addition of black in the late 90s was BFBS, its clear that they Eagles today consider black their #2 color. Personally I want that Cunningham kelly green back.

    Carolingian Steamroller:

    That’s where the “for black’s sake” part comes in.

    “God, the Eagles are a messed up lot.

    Burn that rubbish they wear and bring this back:

    link

    ~~~

    good luck with that jim…where are you gonna put those gorgeous sleeve stripes?

    If I was Roger Goodell, here’s what I would set up for black being used:

    Only the Steelers, Raiders, and Saints can use it as a primary jersey color. The Saints usually wear white at home anyways, while the other two have the intimidation factor in wearing black. Plus, all three teams have their other main color being something that can’t really be used for a jersey color.

    For historical reasons, the Falcons can keep their throwbacks, and the Bengals can wear their original uniform as a throwback under the condition that the orange jersey (which, BTW, they will wear against the Steelers this year) becomes their primary jersey. The Panthers have to drop their black jersey and use their highly-underrated blue jersey as their main jersey. Maybe adopt a silver one as an alt?

    The rest of the league? Not allowed to wear black as a jersey color. To be honest, though, most of the BFBS jerseys in the NFL haven’t been too bad. The one exception has to be Detroit.

    I know, Phil. These days only the shoulder stripes would survive the brutal cut. But I would take it over the current dark-days-are-upon-us outfit.

    Thanks, Wheels.

    Joseph Gerard, I see where you’re going and I approve, but, man, the Bengals entered the AFL in 1968 with a black jersey and wear (desicrated) a black jersey to this day. That orange thing that you speak of is an abomination. If you’re compiling a list of black clad clubs, the Bengals have to be in it.

    Where the Eagles’ unis are concerned, I remember that after the untimely death of DE Jerome Brown in 1992, Eagles players put a strip of black tape on the wings on their helmets. A few years later, the Eagles unveiled their new unis, which used black as a tertiary color, but I don’t know whether Jerome Brown or the tape on the wings had anything to do with that.

    Personally, I want the Ron Jaworski kelly green back.

    From here:

    link

    “The Eagles wore a piece of black tape across their wing helmet decals during the last three games of the 1989 regular season and during a playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams. This was done as a tribute to the team’s quarterbacks coach, Doug Scovil, who died on December 9, 1989.”

    Black was also used as a # outliner color on the uni’s from before that (IIRC, the multi-stripe sleeves were ditched when Marion Campbell was still the coach):

    link

    Good list Paul.

    Thanks for accepting my undisclosed bribe for the Bears over the Pack. Gotta love having a PayPal account.

    ;)

    I gotta say, as a fan of that rivalry, it’s good to hear from outsiders that the two teams in the border war ARE the best dressed teams in the NFL. I always thought that, but it’s good to have independent verification. And it matches the intensity and quality of the Greatest rivalry in football and the second greatest professional rivalry.

    Thanks for accepting my undisclosed bribe for the Bears over the Pack. Gotta love having a PayPal account.

    And now you’ve just exposed yourself as a faker, cuz everyone knows I can’t use PayPal!

    Good head fake, though….

    CITY RANKINGS

    I threw together a spreadsheet to figure out which city averages out to have the best uniforms based on Paul’s rankings. The last time Paul tackled link, he stipulated that a city had to be represented in at least 3 of the 4 major sports. So, with that in mind, link. Cities that are grayed out qualify with at least 3/4 teams. Using this criteria, Oakland is Number 1.

    Note: I gave the Warriors to both Oakland (because they play there) and San Fran (because they plan to move there). If/when they move to San Fran, Oakland will be eliminated (only 2 teams) and Pittsburgh will be Number 1 (by a comfortable margin, I might add.)

    What, Milwaukee doesn’t get credit for the Packers? Cream City fans have their own season ticket package and everything.

    Milwaukee’s average needs the help.

    1) The Carolina Hurricanes play in Raleigh, approximately three hours from Charlotte.
    2) The Florida Panthers play in Sunrise, FL. If they are considered Miami, then the Devils should be part of NYC.

    You might be more accurate if you did this by markets. For example, a Northern California market, NY market, LA market, etc. You’d avoid controversies that way.

    I’m really surprised that as of 1:27 EST, there hasn’t been a comment yet about the infinite Dolphins helmet animation. I loved it, but those who don’t understand suspension of disbelief are gonna say…

    link

    Awesome work Paul. I think you ranked the White Sox way, way too low… but I’ve been a fan of the team since 1981 and therefore completely biased.

    And thanks for not ranking the Yankees #1… which would be an indication of complete laziness. They totally deserve to be in the top 10, natch. But the fact that you put them #9 very much validates that you did your homework, and spent a lot of energy on the list.

    Forget about east coast bias. Its an ursus bias!

    3 of the top 5 – Bruins, Cubs, Bears!!!

    Somewhere in the fourth quintile, the Grizzlies are wondering where they went wrong.

    My cousin plays for the Schawbisch Hall Unicorns, a professional american football team in Germany.

    link

    I rather like their helmets, you know, once you get over all the ads

    Forget that thing I said about “ursus bias” – I might be onto something here – the logos of the top FOUR uniforms feature a predominant capital “C”.

    What do I win?

    Great list Paul. You did a bang up job. Again for people to complain about one person’s opinion not being their own opinion is just plain stupid. So what if you don’t agree with him it’s his opinion and that’s yours. That being said, here is my opinion. I included MLS teams so I will give you numbers 26 and 27 as well since two MLS teams made my top 25.

    27 Philadelphia Eagles-I’m actually a fan of the darker green
    26 Philadelphia Flyers
    25 St. Louis Cardinals-Navy away cap moves them further back for me
    24 Philadelphia Phillies-Love the red pinstripes
    23 Montreal Canadiens-Not as gaga as Paul is over them but a classic look nonetheless
    22 Vancouver Whitecaps FC-First MLS team on my list. I really like the striping on their home kits. The brown and sky blue alternate is both unique and classy at the same time.
    link
    link
    link
    21 Indianapolis Colts
    20 Buffalo Bills
    19 Denver Broncos-I know that I could potentially get a lot of hate for this one, but hey it’s my opinion and I like them.
    18 Portland Trail Blazers-The diagonal stripe is unique and bold.
    17 Portland Timbers-The best MLS uni set in my opinion. Yes this is my team, but they just look really good. The half and half contrasting front panels with the minor intricate details of chevrons on the home kit and thorns on the Rose City Red kit providing the break in contrast, to their beautiful alts. They look great.
    link
    link
    link
    16 Toronto Blu Jays
    15 Chicago Bears
    14 Detroit Tigers
    13 Golden State Warriors
    12 Boston Bruins
    11 Boston Celtics
    10 Green Bay Packers
    9 Oakland Athletics
    8 Washington Redskins-Love the color scheme and with the yellow pants they look amazing.
    7 San Diego Chargers-If they went to the powder blue as their primary they would prob move to the top of my list.
    6 San Francisco Giants
    5 New York Jets
    4 Los Angeles Lakers-I hate the Lakers but the Yellow and Purple is just too darn pretty.
    3 Chicago Blackhawks
    2 San Francisco 49ers-What about the truncated stripes? Yeah they’re not good but the red and gold color scheme and the beautiful contrast of the red and white stripes on the gold pants and helmet is just too much to overlook for me. If they could go to what Alex Smith has had this year for everyone then that would be perfect.
    link
    1 Chicago Cubs-I’m a sucker for brightly colored pinstipes. The Cubs look is both classic and bold and in my opinion the best look in North American pro sports.

    None of my questions are getting through, perhaps it’s because my “name” on there is “Every ESPN Commenter” and my “location” is “stupid”.

    OH, and I’ve been ripping on the idiot people who are getting their questions through.

    Somebody mentioned in the chat about the Colts & 49ers never having alts & Paul mentioned “Browns?”

    I’m still trying to forget that awful orange thing from 2002-04
    link

    Not really a chat-type question at all, tho.

    I liked those in a nutshell, but those things didn’t feel like the ethos of the Cleveland Browns.
    Actually, those jerseys are kind of interesting. Generally, all NFL third jerseys (as opposed to throwbacks) have to be simple color swaps. Technically, those orange Browns jerseys go an extra mile–only the oranges have dropshadows, whereas the standard whites and browns do not. Good thing, because those things would be unreadable otherwise.

    Been meaning to make this Uni Watching point for a while, but never got around to it.
    For a brief while, in the MLB, exactly TWO players had, for lack of a better term, NOB shenanigans. FiNOB’s don’t count–I’m thinking of Ichiro (Suzuki), who had special permission to go 1stNOB, and Russell Martin, whose “J. Martin” is clearly NOT a FiNOB. Now, the number is zero, because the Yankees don’t do NOB’s.

    On the latest episode of the Logocast, we delve into the Power Rankings, talk new Oregon uniforms, and then talk to FC Dallas Creative Director Erik Davila.

    link

    For those interested, I calculate the final league averages from Uni-Watch Power Rankings as follows:

    1. MLB 47.0
    2. NHL 63.9
    3. NFL 64.8
    4. NBA 70.2

    Now if only Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers and St Louis Blues were rated somewhat higher (saying that I was surprise how high the Penguins and Panthers rated)

    Apologies if this has been repeated above (too many comments to read), but I believe that Darrell Reed ties Jason Hanson with five maker’s marks. Playing with the Redskins from 1983-2002, he wore a ‘Skins uni bearing the logos of:

    link
    link
    link
    link
    link

    I’m not counting repeat companies, so I excluded their switch-back to Starter in ’98 after their one-time deal with Wilson in ’97.

    Forgive me if this has already been discussed. I searched the past few days’ posts to see if it has been mentioned.

    These articles are from Wednesday, among other articles, and describe an episode of Pawn Stars that includes the sale of a ’61 Willie Mays SF Giants jersey and pants. I think the tagging is off, and I immediately thought it to be a fake.

    content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/08/video-willie-mays-uniform-fetches-31000/1#.UDgL0qOouyI

    and

    link

    I looked on line to find a properly tagged jersey, but instead found this episode of Antiques Roadshow with the same jersey, but with a different seller (actor?):

    link

    This is likely to be properly tagged:

    link

    Whatever enjoyment I had watching Pawn Stars is gone. Sort of like how I used to enjoy the Red Sox.

    The NY Giants are wearing their “road pants” at home with their blue jerseys. I believe Paul mentioned something about this development for the upcoming season but I can’t remember exactly what it was.

    i remember that too — i think he said they are going with just the one pair of pants (instead of two separate grays) for the whole season…but i may have misremembered that

    goddam the bears look good, but they really need to ditch the blue bicycle pants

    and rob — why is this game on CBS? aren’t these both nfc teams? fox still has the nfc, right?

    Got me, Fox still has the NFC as far as I know. Maybe they really had their heart set on airing a 2-hour “Bones” repeat tonight instead.

    Preseason is different. Waaay back when Summerall and Madden were still doing NFC games on CBS, they called a preseason Jets/Bengals game.

    heh

    cbs had the nfc before you were born, son…

    and jerseys still had sleeves

    Man, I miss the NFL Today on CBS so much, with Madden and Summerall calling big NFC. Remember this opening? (I was only 8 years old at the time): link

    oh man, rob — i remember that — i was ..ahem … 17

    brent…jimmy the greek…wow…who would have thought then how fast their careers with the eye would end

    and what the hell ever happened to phyllis george — my pop absolutely loved her

    Giants vs. Bears: pretty good-looking game with the new Nike uniforms. No more super-stretchy muscle shirts, and no more misplaced sleeve stripes. Now if the Giants can just put the numbers on the “sleeves”, where they belong. And before anyone says that the sleeves are too small for that, look link.

    Agreed; those jerseys look terrible with the number on the shoulder and nothing on the sleeve. IMHO, numbers should be on the sleeves whenever possible, unless striping, logo patch or some other large design pushes them to the shoulders.

    Watching a bit of Seattle at Kansas City – pretty sharp looking game to be honest. The Seahawks’s white jersey, grey pants look is not terrible. Yeah, I’m not normally annoyed by the Nike logo, but that patience is being pushed by the Seahawks design. Saying that, I really think Seattle has made a step change improvement from what they wore last year. (which admittedly is not saying much)

    Maybe, but I’m a big fan of Kansas City Chiefs red uniform, and Seattle’s unis contrast nicely.

    I’m in the camp that views neon green, more or less as similar to orange and powder blue (although admittedly behind both). In small doses they can work. The neon green is in a small enough dose tonight, that it’s OK. They actually look more like the old Seahawks than the last reiteration.

    It was a bloddbath for Lukas on the ESPN Page 2 blog. Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! It was refreshing to seethe status quo not censoring or deleting posts. It was also rewarding to see astute sports fans weigh in on championships don’t matter when it comes to ranking uniforms. And obviously a recounthas already been put in motion with the Blackhawks travesty and the Jazz and Warriors rankings? Was Paul high on meat?

    It’s pretty amazing that the NY Giants don’t hire a design firmto revise their uniforms? They suck.

    I have only 2 problems with the Giants’ uniforms: the metallic paint treatment on the helmet, and the TV numbers on the home blues being on the shoulders instead of the sleeves. Other than that, they’re great.

    Grey pamts and royal blue tops make them look like the Chicago Cubs of football in their alternates and that’s not a good look. I could see the Gianta in an all blue look like these unis:

    link

    Great job with the list, but just a simple question I’m sure won’t be answered since this West-Coaster is late to the conversation:

    While many other teams were fleeced for having softball-esque alt jerseys, the Dodgers (alt-less except for a year or two in the late 90’s) rank below the Cubs because their patch is logo-shaped instead of circle-shaped?

    I’d accept the ranking otherwise, my personal top 2 MLB jerseys would be between LA and Chicago, but when the Cubs wear that alt-jersey, it looks like the Bleacher Creatures are taking the field for Beer League Night, regardless of what patch is on their chest (the same goes for the Dodgers when they wear their BP jerseys for games, but they mostly save it for Spring Training.)

    The current Bruins jersey should not be ranked very high. The old Bobby Orr 70-71 look was exceptional.

    HMMMMMmm…..

    Just a Rockies Update: They seem to be winning all of a sudden in nothing but the PURPLE. But it always looks like blue is the thing. We best fix our identity and fast.

    ~~~

    I have been horsing around with some purple jersey material. That is all.

    ~~~~~

    Also, The RRRRUPS are finally in my hands! ALL 23 of them, the 24th is somewhere in the pioneer league.

    link

    Stay Classy,

    Jake

    I would have the Yankees ranked behind the Phillies. All 3 Phillies unis look great but for me only the Yankees home unis look great and iconic. Those road unis are bland. Just pretend its not THE Yankees and all of their history and World Series… in a vacuum, is that a great uni??

    -Jet

    Also I would say the same thing about the Tigers – home uni – classic and iconic… road uni – not bad, but too generic. Not much to distinguish it from other teams with a similar script look.

    -Jet

    Detroit Redwings would have been in my top 10. Always loved their unis, especially the whites with those reversed sleeves and “ghost” shoulder yoke.

    -Jet

Comments are closed.