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Uni Watch

The Day After

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vikes dolphs.png

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At about 4pm yesterday I went out for my daily bike ride in Prospect Park. My plan was to get back home by about 5:15pm, which would give me a comfortable amount of time to change out of my sweaty bike gear and grab something to eat before the Vikings’ unveiling at 6:15pm. Once that was over, I’d watch the Dolphins’ unveiling at 7pm. Then I’d summarize my reactions to the new uni sets in a hastily written ESPN piece. I figured it’d be a hectic evening.

But when I got back from my bike ride, I found that fate had handed me a gift: Nike had already posted photos of the new Vikings and Dolphins uniforms, plus the Vikings had posted additional photos in two slideshows of their own (here and here).

This improved my evening in two significant ways: (1) I was able to start writing my ESPN piece right away, before the unveilings even started, which took a lot of pressure off of me. (2) I was able to skip the unveilings altogether, which meant I didn’t have to sit through all the marketingspeak and the embarrassing musical crescendos. By 7pm I had sent in my article and was able to sit down to watch the Yankees/Jays game. Thanks, Nike! Thanks, Vikings!

Anyway: My initial take on the two new sets can be found here. The short version is that I can live with the new Vikings set (especially considering what they’ve been wearing in recent years) and am disappointed by the new Dolphins set. But I’m sure I’ll have additional thoughts on these uniforms once we see them on the field.

I’d like to expand a bit on a point I made in my ESPN piece regarding the Vikings’ new uni number font. As you probably know by now, the first numeral of a two-digit number will have rounded serifs, which creates an interesting nested effect, with the numerals sort of “fitting” into each other. But as I mentioned in my ESPN piece, the nesting effect doesn’t work as well with the rounded serif is bumping up against a pointed part of a numeral instead of a rounded part of a numeral. To see what I mean, look this photo. The “28” pairing works quite well, and so does the upper part of the “52” pairing. But the lower part of the “52” doesn’t work, because the lower-left corner of the “2” comes to a square point instead of a curve. So the success of the desired effect will depend on which numerals are paired together. (One thing’s for certain: Uni numbers with repeating numerals are gonna look seriously weird.)

And what about players with single-digit numbers? Good question. When the Vikes chose Sharrif Floyd in the first round last night, the numbers shown on the big board and on the jersey he held up didn’t match. Hmmmm. (My thanks to reader Jason Greening for those two screen shots.)

Meanwhile, reader Kevin Watterson attended the Minnesota unveiling and took some good photos — look here and here.

As for the Dolphins, about the only positive news to come out of that unveiling is that there will still be aqua pants, although I suspect they won’t be wearing them much, if at all. Everything else about this set feels watered down and cheapened.

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Draft notes: The inconsistent numbering on Sharrif Floyd’s Vikings jersey wasn’t the only uni-notable observation from last night’s NFL Draft. Here are some more:

• Last week I ran a photo of some retail authentics that suggested the Chargers were scrapping the neck roll and going with two-color NOB lettering. Sure enough, that’s what we saw last night.

• Judging by the jersey held up by Buffalo first-rounder E.J. Manuel, it appears that the Bills may be scrapping the neck roll as well. Let’s hope so.

• Several readers noted that Lions first-rounder Ezekiel Ansah appeared to be wearing 3-D movie glasses last night.

•  It apparently takes a small army of Agent Smith clones to transport baseball caps to the draft. And you thought it was a lousy job market out there.

•  In a move of serious douchebaggery, Tide detergent offered each team’s first draftee $1000 to send out some lame-o Tide-scripted tweet about what it’s like to wear the team’s jersey. Further info here, and you can see a bunch of the tweets here. As you might expect, this whole scam led to some other tweets as well. (My thanks to reader Garry Stoelk for bringing all this to my attention.)

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Uni Watch News Ticker: The voting for the College Football Playoff logo was hacked. ”¦ Troy Tulowitzki has a little decal of a baseball on his belt. Anyone know the story behind that one? (From Kevin Dugal.) ”¦ Possible rebranding in the works for the Islanders (thanks, Phil). ”¦ New logos for Northwest Missouri State (from Tyler Moody). … Brand New has reviewed the new UConn identity system (fromScott Lederer). … “Interesting note fro mJoseph Bailey, who writes: “Every so often I get an email from NLFFanHuddle.com to do a survey. Usually it’s about game experiences, watching in person or on TV, etc. But their latest survey was really brief and was about the Dallas Cowboys. They wanted me to describe in a few words what I thought the Cowboys’ ‘brand’ was. I used one word: arrogant. They then gave me a chart with a scale of 1 to 10, with various categories such as innovative, community service-oriented, historic, America’s Team, etc. This was the first time I’ve ever done a survey that was geared specifically to a team.” … David Wright usually goes high-cuffed for day games, but he was pajama pantsed for yesterday afternoon’s Mets/Dodgers game. ”¦ The NASL’s new franchise in Indianapolis will be called the Indy Eleven. … “Here at UConn, it’s our third annual Police State Lockdown to stop us from partying at what used to be ‘Spring Weekend,'” says Gregory Koch. “Basically, no non-students are allowed on campus, entry to any event is strictly monitored, bags are subject to search, and all alcohol will be confiscated on sight. Plus there are police checkpoints all around campus. Crazy. And so some UConn students. including me, have started posting photos of a North Korean flag with the (new) Husky logo on it.” … Speaking of UConn, the excellent Connecticut Public Radio show Where We Live devoted yesterday’s installment to the UConn rebranding. “It features designer Peter Goode, the man behind the iconic Whalers logo — and he’s not happy!” says host John Dankosky. “The show even prompted response from university president Susan Herbst. Some interesting detail in there about the ‘process,’ too.” ”¦ Whoa, check out these NFL helmet chairs from Caesar’s Palace, circa 1986 (nice find by Matt Wilson). … Elliot Bedinghaus wrote an intriguing piece on the branding implications of alternate jerseys. … Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia has been wearing a chest protector design I’ve never seen before. Anyone know what brand that is? ”¦ Someone on the Kolkata Knight Riders — that’s a cricket team — wears No. 999 (from Doug Stringham). ”¦ The Metropolitan Museum of Art here in NYC will soon be opening a new exhibition on punk clothing and fashion. That has prompted a good article about punk clothing as a uniform. Further info here. ”¦ Major FNOB potential last night for the Carolina Hurricanes as Jared Staal made his NHL debut alongside brothers Eric and Jordan. Unfortunately, they all went with FIOB (screen shot by John Muir). ”¦ Christopher Mycoskie spotted a Dallas Morning News box with a Rangers images that’s wrong on several different levels. ”¦ Mets Police honcho Shannon Shark wrote something about the Mets’ social media silliness that should be required reading for every pro sports employee. … Happy birthday, Moose — hope you get everything you wish for when you blow out the candles.

I don’t know about you, but that was one hectic week for a certain uniform columnist. Looking forward to relaxing a bit tomorrow, and then I hope to see some of you on Sunday at the Brooklyn Beefsteak. For everyone else, see you next week.

 
  
 
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Comments (167)

    Baseball on Tulo’s belt is actually a holographic sticker found on all pieces of authentic MLB merchandise (jersey tags, under brim of New Era MLB hats, commemorative patches). I don’t know why he leaves it on–it’s like those who leave on all the stickers for their new New Era caps.

    Some Yankees during the Old Timers Day game also kept the MLB sticker on their belts.

    A-HA!! Those are heat-press type letters.

    Only takes a few seconds to get them on good enough to display on stage.

    Actually these photos lead to pics of his jersey hanging in the Bills locker room! (letter spacing is different than the one he’s holding at the draft)

    Completely different rig, etc. from this pic of the guy doing the Milliner/Jets jersey.

    link

    My wife actually asked me about how they were able to get the names on the back of the jerseys so fast and told her basically what the article covered. Funny thing is, she wasn’t paying any attention to the draft and just happened to look up and ask the uni related question knowing that I would probably know.

    Paul, I thank you for expanding my uni-minutiae knowledge!

    I think the Vikings really messed up on that number font. They should have put the horned serif things on the outside of the numbers, instead of between them.

    The Chargers switching to yellow NOBs really looks a bit weird since they still have white numbers. I know it works for the Steelers, but they have a lot more yellow on the rest of the uniform than San Diego does.

    Poor Miami… definitely the worst of the 3 redesigns. It isn’t bad, but they sorta look like an unlicensed video game version of themselves. It’d be a great uniform for the “Florida Fins”, but it just doesn’t look quite right for the Miami Dolphins. They really need more orange.

    “Poor Miami… they sorta look like an unlicensed video game version of themselves.”

    THAT is the perfect desciption!

    Yeah, that Vikings font is comical. It’s amazing that Nike designers get away with this (in the approval process).

    And who’s idea is it to put the nickname under the collar? That’s so incredibly collegiate. It’s the ‘little things’ like this that blew the Miami uni.

    I’m also surprised at the day-glo aqua … good for them. The reduction in orange doesn’t make sense, though, especially combined with the boost of the darker blue.

    Just weirdly unprofessional work, all around. How do these folks at Nike keep their jobs?

    A case of over thinking and over designing, the Dolphins had to do a “Mets” type of redesign. All they had to do was drop the navy outline from the stipes and numbers!

    The Vikes numbers would have been better if they would have subtly “seriffed” the right side of each number, not just the first. They also should have rounded the top and bottom of the leading edge of the numbers.

    Are the second numbers only non-serifed on the front? This picture, linked to in the ESPN piece yesterday, shows the second “2” on Greenway’s back to be serifed.

    link

    Wow, The Jeff…. I agree that that is a perfect description of the Dolphins new set. And seriously? Where is the orange striped socks that anti-leotard the blue pants? Failboat.

    I am seeing that I am in the minority but I like the Vikings font. Nobody has really mentioned that it gives the appearance of sails of a ship. As in a Viking ship. I agree that they should probably had done both numerals but I actually like the creativity in that

    We’ve seen how many inconsistencies with the Vikings number font already in less than 24 hours?

    Greenway’s reveal jersey had serifed second numbers on the back and shoulders, but non-serifed on the front. As Paul pointed out, on the jersey EJ Manuel held up the 1 was not serifed, but on the graphic it was.

    I don’t care if the negative space created by the horns creates the shape of Mjolnir, which using Nike technology will strike down the Viking’s opponents with the power of Thor. The shear number of potential (and actual) inconsistencies makes this incredibly stupid.

    Vikes is alright, less is more here but the stripes on the arms should have just been stripes, not this curvy thing.

    Fins needed stripes on the sleeves

    That was my thought about the Vikings “sleeve” stripes too, when they were first described. Seeing them, the effect works for me. I guess I’d prefer straight stripes, but the “prow” thing works much better in reality than I expected it to in theory. Especially the white “prow” on the purple jersey, where it echoes the forms on the helmet.

    But. With a new and distinctive stripe pattern on the jersey, it’s an absolute sin not to have mirroring stripes on the pants. No ship’s prow; just run the equal-width pair of stripes down the legs. Not a thick purple stripe with an inset yellow stripe on white, but two equal stripes of purple and gold separated by white, exactly as on the jersey.

    The Real D – 3D glasses are also a highly stolen item from movie theaters too…

    …wonder where he got his for the draft…

    At my local movie theater the glasses are included in the price of a ticket. You are encouraged to “recycle” but if I’m paying $15 for a movie, better believe I’m taking the glasses I paid for….they work on passive 3D technology tvs….so it’s not necessarily for no reason.

    First words out of my wife’s mouth upon seeing the new Dolphins unis: Good Humor Man

    I see Nike flipped the “Swoosh” on the left shoulder, figured they would, it looked awkward last year.

    He may be referring to this picture from the ESPN piece. It’s kind of a weird one because the purple is supposed to get wider towards the back, right? But the arm and the swoosh makes it look like the narrower stripes are at the back.

    link

    [quote]
    The NASL’s new franchise in Indianapolis will be called the Indy Eleven.
    [/quote]

    That’s better than their second choice, the Indy Pendants.

    (I’ll show myself out)

    Yeah, I had to say it out loud to myself before I got it. (D’oh!) I laughed out loud, too, though.

    Did anyone else notice millner’s jets jersey last night? The jersey has a huge black box (looks like a piece of felt to me) with the number one on it that was given to him…how wouldn’t they know that they needed a jersey with a “1”…seems like a pretty standard thing at the draft…

    It’s just the fabric in that light. Look at the collar of the jersey and that fabric in this picture:

    link

    Fall out of using 6 different fabric on every jersey now. I get the performance aspect, but creates weird visual effects in different light. They would almost be better holding up a replica, which probably wouldn’t have all the “performance” panels.

    Nope…a gigantic blank coverup piece of material…like, originally the jersey had a two and en they covered it with a one…

    link

    Chris Kluwe of the Vikings tweeted a pic of his new jersey last night night and it looks like they are not going with the serifs on single digit numbers.

    I wonder if it’s because it’s a single digit. The 2nd number in double digit numbers does not have it so with the single digits the front has it and the back doesn’t Similar to the 1 in Floyds draft jersey.

    The serifs are a bad enough idea to begin with, but hopefully they can get more consistent with the execution by the time the season starts.

    Can’t draw a conclusion from the photo. It might indicate that the Vikes are going horn-less on single-digit numbers. Or it might indicate that the Vikes f’ed up yet another jersey, and it was supposed to have the horns but doesn’t. So far, the Vikings seem to be running about 50/50 in terms of consistent application of their new number style, so any given photo can’t be taken as evidence for or against the team’s intent.

    Great quality control from Nike on the numbers. Just really impressive.

    I get that it’s meant to look like the prow of a ship. But it can only be the prow if the ship is vertical, not horizontal. Like this:

    link

    Which I suppose is a true enough metaphor for the franshise. But that’s not actually how ships are supposed to appear. The stripe on the arm? That’s a ship’s prow. The little dongles on the jersey numbers? They’re just serifs. Or horns, to be generous to the Vikes.

    Might have worked better at the top left and top right of the digits, rather than on the right side of the first digit. Ship’s-prow-wise, anyway.

    What’s the thing that rides under the water on the front of ships?

    link

    That’s what I was thinking. Bow on top, whatever that thing is called on bottom.

    The thing that rides under the water on the front of a ship is usually called “nonexistent,” because for the most part, that’s not actually a thing that ships have.

    Back in ancient days, some ships would have a reinforced pole projecting from the bow with which to smash the hulls of other ships by ramming them. It was called a “ram.” Viking ships did not tend to have rams, but here’s an example from a Greek trireme:

    link

    On a modern ship, as with the destroyer (?) you link to, that’s the sonar pod, or bow-mounted sonar.

    Okay. I’ve seen then on various types of ships, but didn’t know what purpose it had.

    I thought that in 2013, all NFL players will have to wear knee pads? Cameron Wake (#91) is bare-kneed in the picture with half-a-dozen ‘Phins.

    Paul, you know how long I have been waiting for this unveil for Miami. My initial thoughts:

    1. I love the white on white combo. I would have liked to have seen more orange, but I can live with it. The stripe on the pants I could do without. Personally I was hoping we would lose the stripe all together. I have never liked any combo of pants stripe we have had in my 41 years of being a Dolphins fan. I agree there should be orange surrounding the NOTB, but it does match up with the helmet. Which leads me to…

    2. The helmet is beautiful. The stripe colors work and the new logo looks amazing on there. I am glad we went with the white face mask because aqua would have been the ultimate aqua overkill. The new “original” shade of aqua really shines on the helmet. Just a good look. Plus it looks like they went with a flat white and dropped the glitter helmets. That is always a good thing.

    3. I can tolerate the aqua jersey, white pants combo. The aqua pants however with the white jersey looks horrible. It just looks cheap and thrown together. Then again I have never been a fan of this look in any of our uniforms over the years, but now it looks much worse. That said, I would like to see an all aqua combo and that might work better than white top aqua bottom.

    4. I am fine with the word marks and the number fonts. The numbers really didn’t change much font wise, it seems, other than the 1’s and 7’s. The best part is NO DROP SHADOW! I would have rather just seen the numbers outlined in orange, but I can live with it as a trade off for losing the drop shadow. Long overdue. Also the orange and blue combo on the numbers almost makes the outline look black from a distance. Weird.

    5. I am not a fan of the new logo on the sleeves. I love the new logo, but on the sleeves of the white jersey with the white outline…it just doesn’t work. They should have increased the size of the logo and dropped the white outline from it.

    I still don’t understand why 52 has two different style 2’s front and back unless that is our first Vikings numbering error. On unveiling day no less.

    I like the Indy Eleven name, though I could see it getting confusing if there was ever a lopsided score, i.e. “Tampa Bay Rowdies five, Indy Eleven zero”, or if you want to talk about the starting lineup, say, “the Indy Eleven starting XI”.

    Though it could be more confusing if the nickname were “Rock”.

    “What are you doing tonight?”

    “Going to see the Indy Rock.”

    “Huh? What band?”

    “I guess you haven’t heard of them?”

    “Kiss my ass, hipster.”

    That reninds me of how Everton have a club shop in the “liverpool one” shopping center.

    So, the name of the store is “everton two”

    Maing their address “everton 2, liverpool 1”

    Oh, and the best part from the Dolphins unveil was seeing the legends suit up again. Not to mention a good look at all the uniforms side by side through the years. Also lets you see just how much better this uniform is compared to the old one, colors and such.

    link

    Offense: link

    Defense: link

    Griese and JT’s were spot on (I think). Marino’s was incorrect. He had on a 1990 or 1991 jersey (note the “J.R.” on the sleeves for Joe Robbie’s death but pre-1987 pants (note the orange/aqua/orange stripes on the pants). What shocked me was the fact that they were allowed to display the Wilson “W” on the pants. Figured Nike would have found some way to hide that.

    Thank God, they found out that the College Football Playoff logo vote had been hacked. I didn’t have a favorite or anything; all four of the logos suck, but no. 4 was by far the suckiest. It’s good to know that the human race hasn’t fallen quite that far.

    I’ve been a Dolphins fan since 1974 so I was excited to see the unveiling (even after the leak.)
    I’m disappointed. Maybe they’ll grow on me but I don’t think so. The new logo looks better each time I see it, as much as I miss the M helmet on the Dolphin. (Would you redesign the Yankee logo and remove the Uncle Sam hat?).
    If the idea was a return to the past (by going back to the original shade of aqua), why not take the logo off the sleeve and use the original sleeve stripe from 1966. Then put the TV numbers on the shoulder.
    I wish I knew how to use Photoshop because I would love to see how it looks.
    As much as a Miami fan hates to admit it, I love what the Bills did with their new “throwback” jerseys. Miami blew it.
    For the first time since the mid 80s, I won’t be buying a current Dolphins jersey. Guess I’ll wear my Marino jerseys from the 90s.
    BTW, Marino was the only Dolphin player to wear 4 of the 5 past jersey styles.

    No they don’t. Nor do they need to use the ridiculous word “britches” in any description of their uniforms.

    Perhaps it’s an American thing, in that it’s weird in our eyes for a team to seem to make their primary color white. I think of teams like Real Madrid, who in recent years have used black, purple, navy, light blue, red, and dark green as their change kit or warmup color.

    It’s interesting to see a team like the Dolphins try to make white the primary color. I like the minimal striping, and especially the white face mask in this regard. The numbering font and detailing…maybe less of a good thing. Perhaps a return to the 60s or 70s look would have been better. Heck, it’s probably what they’ll go with in about 5 years.

    Paul,

    Chris Gayle, cricketer for both the Windies and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL uses 333 for his number this year as well. I saw a screenshot of it the other day after his unbeaten 175.

    Happy Birthday, Moose! I’m wearing the first stirrups I ever bought from you today since I can’t buy you a beer.

    “Everything else about this set feels watered down…” Brilliant choice of words for the aqua uniform.

    I don’t know why I hate that aqua helmet stripe so much but I do. Would have been a nice place to put a little more orange, like their old helmet. This new helmet really reminds me of the old Sacramento Surge helmet.

    I think the general gist of the new uni’s is that it’s nice…..but it’s not the Dolphins.

    First off, I’m NOT a dolphins fan. But I DO feel bad for them. That being said, here are a few nitpicks about this redesign…

    1. The helmet logo is horrible. Gone is any sense of tradition by creating a logo that looks good on a SeaWorld souvenir t-shirt, but is totally bland on a NFL helmet — ALSO, where is the mini-helmet with the “M” on the fish? That was what WAS cool about the original logo. I’d be really pissed to wear that new logo around Miami and tourists ask where’s SeaWorld.

    2. Oh look… a teal and orange jersey in the National Football League. Can you guess what team has those colors? NO? Okay, let’s spell out “DOLPHINS” in large letters in front so that people know what team we are. Seriously? Can it be any more gaudy?

    3. Speaking of Orange… where is it? It’s one of the three primary colors they use right?

    I have spent over 20+ tears as a creative professional in the marketing world. Sometimes I have no idea what NIKE is thinking. I know, I know… mostly it’s to sell merchandise, but a lot of people forget that most iconic logos and uniforms (think Yankees, Canadiens, Celtics) were NOT designed with the fans wallets in mind. They were to represent the TEAM.

    “Troy Tulowitzki has a little decal of a baseball on his belt. Anyone know the story behind that one?”

    My guess would be he got it because he likes baseball.

    I really like the Vikings new look – way better than the previous uniforms. The only thing I don’t like is the black facemask…why? Did I miss something? Is black now one of their colors? Go back to grey or white! Dolphins isnt horrible but I wish the didn’t de-emphasize the orange as much as they did. Looks like they’ve added more navy in place of the orange.

    Far be it from me to usurp The Jeff’s editorial stance, but really… the black belongs there about as much as the grey does.

    Imagine, a purple helmet with a gold facemask. Would that combo of purple up top, gold in front, in any way fit with any aspect of the link?

    … “Here at UConn, it’s our third annual Police State Lockdown to stop us from partying at what used to be ‘Spring Weekend,’” says Gregory Koch. “Basically, no non-students are allowed on campus, entry to any event is strictly monitored, bags are subject to search, and all alcohol will be confiscated on sight. Plus there are police checkpoints all around campus. Crazy. And so some UConn students. including me, have started posting photos of a North Korean flag with the (new) Husky logo on it.” … Speaking of UConn, the excellent Connecticut Public Radio show Where We Live devoted yesterday’s installment to the UConn rebranding. “It features designer Peter Goode, the man behind the iconic Whalers logo – and he’s not happy!” says host John Dankosky. “The show even prompted response from university president Susan Herbst. Some interesting detail in there about the ‘process,’ too.” …

    Go Gregory! You tell ’em, Peter! As for the president and the other mediocrities in charge of the Storrs operations, it’s just too bad that they won’t be around in 12 years when the next bunch of design consultants advises the new UConn administration that the school needs to appear classier, more highly-regarded — in order to attract all those smart Connecticut high schoolers who tend to go out of state and all those ritzy Connecticut donors who donate the big bucks for eponymous buildings at places that aren’t “UCONN” — and that therefore the school should consider a more prestigious iconology, you know, something like a oak cluster with the grandeur of polysyllables… Let me think… I’ve got it!… The University of Connecticut.

    As someone who grew up in the state of Connecticut (not the state of UConn), I wish we could set the clock 12 years ahead when the new design will have been implemented. It’s really sad that the entire personality of the university has been dictated by a company whose main contribution to society is the spread of plantar fasciitis.

    so some UConn students. including me, have started posting photos of a North Korean flag with the (new) Husky logo on it.

    Not only is this in pretty poor taste, it’s a terrible photoshop.

    Using the nflshop.com “draft pick” jerseys as reference, it looks like no teams have the neck roll anymore: link

    Paul, you’re not kidding about the Dolphins unis looking watered down. It literally looks like they took the old uniforms and sprayed water all over them, causing the orange to come off and the logo to become worse.

    Have you ever seen a poster that’s been exposed to the sun for too long, so all the red and yellow have been bleached out and the only colors remaining are blue, black and white?

    Hmm, looks like a little BFBS going on in the NFL.

    The Vikes have a Black facemask. That Part of the helmet stripe and pants stripe for the Dolphins looks black too (unless it is a dark navy blue; very hard to tell).

    Also, in that picture of the Chargers draft pick jersey, that jersey sure looks black, no? Especially when compared to Goodell’s suit jacket.

    Miami now looks like the Boston Breakers had a baby with the Sacramento Surge. Terrible look.

    Another interesting possible take on the Vikings’ sleeve pattern.

    link

    In addition to resembling a floating Viking Age ship

    link

    It can also be seen as an upside-down Viking axe:

    link

    link

    Look at that longship picture. Then remind yourself, “They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in that.” That’s right, the same stretch of water that sunk the Titanic and the Spanish Armada without even trying. Then look at the picture again.

    Well actually not that ship. That was a warship which was shallower on the draft and better suited to going down rivers. They didn’t use that type to cross the Atlantic, though they did use it to follow the entire course of the Volga river to Black Sea and Constantinople.

    The Vikings used wider vessels for exploration and trade like this one:

    link

    Still impressive that they sailed all the way to Newfoundland in one of those, hauling cattle at the same time.

    While their voyages were impressive, the Vikings didn’t exactly ‘sail the ocean blue’ like later Europeans…their explorations were more like ‘island hopping’ ventures, and they basically hugged the coastlines once they established ports in Iceland and Greenland.
    They did have menacing-looking ships (though the Indians were not very fearful of them or their crews).

    When a Vikings player is injured, I hope he’s sent to the locker room in a burning golf cart.

    As a Vikings fan I pleased with the new uniform set, but it would be hard to get worse than what they had. The negatives are the font, too gimmicky, the black facemask makes no sense would have preffered them sticking to purple and the purple pants make little sense, they only wore the previous purple pants a handful of times in the 7 years they had them.

    Elliot Bedinghaus feels the way I feel. In his Spark piece, he allows that anti-tradition is a canny move for a few schools, but ends up being watered down by the rash of imitators. Does anyone think UNC won’t return navy blue to the palette in a couple of seasons?

    This is less uni-oriented but fits in with a recurring theme here. Did anyone notice that Roger Goodell dropped the Bud Light slogan “Here we go” right before announcing the start of the draft? I can’t find a video (or audio) of it, but it stuck out to me when I heard it. I know there’s sponsorship and product placement all over the draft, but that one seems sneaky, if it was scripted.

    I can’t tell… is that a thin black outline on the Vikings white pants, or is it thin purple, thin gold, thick purple?

    The winner loses all.
    I feel a sudden need to drive a lawnmower to the bar tonight.

    No-Show Jones couldn’t miss this one. What a generation of country men: George, Merle, Johnny, Willie, Waylon, Buck… Others? I also love so many of the guys on the bench: Dave Dudley, Bill Frisell, Porter Waggoner…

    Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine to include a few more. Nobody writes ’em like they did/do.

    On the Dolphins and Vikings I agree with you. The Dolphins screwed everything up and it wasn’t broken to begin with. Their logo was classic and still great. The only screw up they managed to avoid was giving the dolphin caudal fins!

    Hard to tell if the removal of the neck roll for the Bills is due to the removal of the flywire collar, or if somehow nike learned to…you know…make it match the rest of the collar

    The Bills tweeted this picture of EJ’s jersey WITH flywire collar…

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    Hopefully it’s just an old jersey.

    They didn’t mention it, but the “Indy Eleven” could also be an homage to the traditional “Eleven Rows of 3” that make up the starting field for the Indianapolis 500. So happy it’s almost May! Easily my favorite month with hockey playoffs and the Indy 500.

    I didn’t know the Barclays Center were going to be taking over the management of the Islanders when they move in. I didn’t recall seeing that when they announced them moving there in 2015.

    On a related note–rebranding the Islanders? Didn’t they already link Unlike the Nets, Islanders fans are more stubborn to change. The only thing I can think of is that the Islanders and Knicks share the same color scheme.

    It is unbelievable how tone deaf NBA executives and marketing types are when it comes to the aesthetic preferences and unique sense of tradition of the hockey fan.

    If you’re a Vikings fan with OCD, that font set just might force you to cheer for the Packers or Bears.

    I really don’t get the Nike design team. Why would you purposely create a design element for a UNIFORM that can’t be applied UNIFORMLY! Why would you create a design element that at times works cleanly (like the 2 with the 8) but then have other cases where you create visual tension (like that lower portion of the 52).

    As a designer myself it just doesn’t make any sense. There’s also a tendency to overplay a theme (like the ship/horn). Because of this it sometimes feels to me as if Nike puts junior, inexperienced designers on these redesign projects. The design issues really come across as rookie designer mistakes and I don’t understand how they get through the process. And if truely intentional, my head hurts even more.

    You’re assuming that this is a rational design process — i.e., a set of solutions to a set of problems.

    But Nike’s whole approach is based on providing non-solutions to non-problems. That’s how they’re able to provide new designs to college teams every year or two. It’s just a revolving door of gimmickry cloaked in mythology, all geared to (a) sell overpriced merch to gullible children with short attention spans and (b) reinforce the Nike brand at the expense of the team brands. It has nothing to do with functional design, and the process therefore has nothing to do with the usual design parameters.

    So then is Nike hiring just hiring sheep for designers? And who is leading them? Even a non-process is a process. Someone is making the final call on where the design elements end up on a uniform – which makes me think there could be some interesting (and good?) designs that are discarded. I guess I would love to see someone from Nike post here about how this stuff comes about.

    Even a non-process is a process.

    Oh, absolutely. It’s a highly calculated process, and a huge amount of work goes into it. All I’m saying is that it isn’t predicated on the usual parameters of graphic design; it’s predicated on selling mythologized comic book imagery to children.

    Because if you’re designing a number font for the Vikings, you only need to worry about how it looks with 28, because (a) that’s Adrian Peterson’s jersey number, (b) Adrian Peterson is the merchandising cash cow of the team, and (c) he’s the only player who matters. OBVIOUSLY. Fuck the team: Nike is the biggest baddest tail and it’s gonna wag as many dogs as it possibly can.
    {/sarcasm>

    Anyone see the size of hat on Vi-queens draft pick, Cordarrelle Patterson? Terrible. Could be one of the biggest I’ve seen. I understand it has to fit the hair and such…but disgusting looking.

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    Just saw the retail version of the Jags jersey. I can’t wait until some Joe Dirt guy with a mullet and handlebar moustache cuts off those sleeves on gameday:

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    That Dallas Morning News rack card is meant to suggest the Rangers. It likely can’t use images of the actual logos or uniforms without team or MLB permission, or more likely without paying for that right as a media sponsor. We have that same dance with Packers images in Green Bay.

    It’s weird that they go out of their way to mask Rangers imagery, yet still mention the team by name.

    I wonder if “Rangers” by itself is too generic to be trademarked, so only “Texas Rangers” is registered with the USPTO? I’m guessing that if this was Boston, the text would be something like “CATCH ALL THE BASEBALL ACTION”.

    Yes, I was wondering that, too. We often have to dance around using the word “Packers.”

    The fauxroll suits the Bengals rather well.
    I sort of like it on the Rams too.
    Nike could easily redesign the Broncos back to this:

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    Ravens as well, since this is photoshopped. They must mean to get rid of the Dracula collars.

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    No, those neck rolls don’t look good on any team. Nor do these thick collar stripes. Or goofy numbe fonts. Or theme jerseys.

    It’s all just nike’s continuing contribution to the demise of smart design.

    I generally like the Vikings’ new look, but as already mentioned, why the black facemask? While there is some black around the horn, I’d prefer a purple or gray facemask.

    The Dolphins look is clean, but yeah, they could’ve included more orange.

    Sadly, now the Vikes are just another BFBS squad in that regard.
    There’s just about as many teams that use black or gray; the purple was distinctive.
    I’m just glad the Vikings didn’t go with gold.

    The thing that I noticed on the Dolphins, is that the photo of the helmet behind the players does not match the helmets they are wearing. In the photo the outermost stripe is orange, but on the actual helmets it is dark blue.

    If you click on the lede Dolphins photo and zoom in, there IS an orange outer stripe. It is sliver-thin, but it’s there.

    Me no likey.

    I don’t either. The orange and aqua really looked good together but now they are all but eliminating the orange. I just really think the aqua and white is to blah.

    “Tame” doesn’t even begin to cover it. This uniform makes prominent use of one of Oregon’s two school colors! I assume someone at Nike was contractually required to commit ritual suicide after producing an Oregon uniform design that actually uses Oregon school colors.

    Also, the U.S. flag rendered in gold, gold, and gold. Nice touch. You can really feel the patriotism there. “These colors don’t run? Fuck it, I’ll show you colors that run. Try chicken yellow,” said whoever thought that was a good idea before cackling maniacally.

    Yep — the thing you’re supposed to remove before you put the belt on.

    That’s exactly what it is

    E.J. Manuel’s already listed on the Bills roster with #3, whereas Tavon Austin’s on the Rams roster with #1. Could they possible actually issue him #1?

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    NFL hasn’t changed the rules on WR jersey numbers has it (WR can have numbers in the teens or 80s, IIRC).

    Also, any rookie jersey number before opening weekend are subject to change, right?

    I’m thinking he might have #1 until pre-season games start.

    Lane Johnson’s been given #65 by the Eagles.

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    “As for the Dolphins, about the only positive news to come out of that unveiling is that there will still be aqua pants, although I suspect they won’t be wearing them much, if at all. Everything else about this set feels watered down and cheapened.”

    Well, aqua does mean water…

    And why, exactly, is this a good thing? The only “good” thing about the old aqua pants was that they wore them with the striped socks to provide some contrast. Now it looks like they’re going with socks of the same color so most players will just look like they’re wearing tights.

    Aqua-colored tights? Not a good thing.

    The aqua socks paired with the aqua pants appear to have a navy stripe at the top to somewhat alleviate the unitard look. Still not as good a look as dark pants with white striped socks.

    Something about the sparkly black outline on the Viking horns just doesn’t look right.

    I think now it’s time for New York Jets to change their uniform style and go with the type of uniform Styles that the Oregon ducks have For home and away uniforms and helmets styles

    NO!!!!!!!!!!!!
    They’ve screwed up so many things, please, leave the uniforms alone. It’s clean, it’s uncluttered, it’s the one remaining visual link to the glory days of the AFL and that one amazing championship.

    And for what it’s worth, the Dolphins new logo and uniforms are dull and gimmicky. Look at the uniforms of the ’70’s and see how they combined unique colors you could associate with south Florida with solid, classic stripes and fonts to come up with a classy look for a football team. I’m a Jets fan but I liked the way the Dolphins looked.

    PAUL: Next time you get a chance, you need to ask some designers about how the changing “landscape” affects their design choices. The curve of the dolphin’s new dolphin not only looks like a relevant dolphin pose, it also manages to duck and weave all of the venting on newer styled helmets.

    On a similar note, when working with older logos, what tweaks or adjustments are happening? In some cases, it looks like the logo gets rotated a bit to avoid vents. The new Vikings’ helmet looks like they’ve tweaked the horns – clearly they weren’t going to avoid vents, but it looks like the tips of the horns come much closer together, which makes them one piece of sticker to centre on the back of the helmet and give equipment manages a bit of a break.

    SB

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