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Bruins Goalie’s Mask Can Change Colors

Here’s a new one: As you can see in the video shown above the bottom of Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin’s new mask changes colors depending on whether hot or cold liquid is poured over it. It was made with “subzero” paint, which provides the color-shift feature (further info here). Of course, NHL goalie masks don’t usually come into contact with hot liquids during a game, so it’s hard to imagine how this feature will actually come into play, but it’s still pretty interesting.

(My thanks to reader Nick Griffin for letting me know about this one.)

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Click to enlarge

Time to drop the puck: Speaking of the NHL, the regular season begins next Wednesday, which means it’s time for my annual Uni Watch NHL Season Preview, which runs down all of the new uniforms, patches, and related news for 2016-17 (including the Panthers’ new uniforms, shown above). Check it out here.

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Heavy is the head that wears the crown: Like a lot of people, I identify strongly with my initials, PL. So a little button was definitely activated in my head yesterday when I stumbled across the mascot character for Papillion-La Vista High School in Nebraska. The school’s teams are called the Monarchs, and their character (shown at right; click to enlarge) is an agitated-looking king wearing what appears to be a varsity sweater. It’s an entertaining spokescharacter, but what really makes it for me, of course, is the “PL” insignia. And look, he’s even holding his scepter in his left hand!

I can already hear a bunch of you saying, “That’s perfect for Paul, who’s always agitated about something and acts like he thinks he’s king!” Fair enough — go on, I can take it!

Interestingly, if you go to the school’s website, they use that same “PL” logo on their home page and throughout the rest of the site — except for their favicon (the little logo on the browser tab), which uses a slightly different “PL” mark, with the “L” sitting lower. I like that one a lot better, frankly, but I don’t get to see my initials “in the wild” very often, so I’ll take what I can get.

(Update: Commenter Jon Colosimo points out that the Monarchs character is basically a straight rip-off of this Minnesota Golden Gophers mascot rendering. Shame on me for not picking up on that, and bigger shame on the school for poaching Minnesota’s logo instead of coming up with something more original.)

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The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: Three American League teams wore caps with New Era logo creep for the first time last night. Here’s how it looked for the Indians, Rangers, and Red Sox. Also, as you can see in that last photo, the Sox wore their blue road alts — odd, since they normally wear those only on Fridays. … The Chicago Tribune has put together an interactive page showing every Cubs uniform since 1903. A few readers have already found some inaccuracies in it, so feel free to nitpick (thanks, Mike). … A Big Papi tribute that we missed: Last Saturday a bunch of Celtics players showed up at Fenway and wore Celtics jerseys with No. 34 in the Bosox’s McAuliffe font (Mike again). … A retired woodworker has created a scale model of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, where the Orioles used to play (from Andrew Cosentino). … In yesterday’s lede, I noted that Mets 2B T.J. Rivera had “714” written inside his helmet. Turns out most Mets have something written in there — “734,” “738,” or whatever. Apparently refers to hat sizes — 7-1/4, 7-3/8, etc. Thanks to Mike Styczen for cracking the code. … Anthony Rizzo and David Ross of the Cubs swapped jerseys at yesterday’s workout (from Adam Steinberg). … Back in 1967, National League players were fined $25 for wearing their pants down at their ankles — even if they did it during BP! (Great find by Jerry Wolper.)

NFL News: Last night’s Color Rash game featured one of the league’s worst standard uniforms (Cardinals mono-white) vs. one of the league’s worst alternate uniforms (49ers mono-black). Aside from being a brutal-looking matchup, it was also nothing new, except for the socks. Additional photos here, if you dare. … Neglected to mention that when the Vikings hosted the Giants on Monday night — Minnesota’s second home game of the regular season — they did not wear the stadium patch that they’d worn for their home opener two weeks earlier. So although the patch says, “Inaugural Season,” it will apparently be used only for the inaugural game. … This Sunday will mark the final appearance of the Steelers’ bumblebee throwbacks (from Jerry Wolper).

College Football News: Military appreciation uniforms tomorrow for Eastern Washington (from Alex Bruder). … UNC has pink-outlined 20-yard lines this week (from James Gilbert). … Here’s a piece advocating for today’s coaches to follow Barry Switzer’s lead by wearing “Beat Texas” (or whoever) caps (from Jason Hillyer). … Did you know Arnold Palmer was a Wake Forest grad? The Demon Deacons are adding a helmet decal and an on-field logo in his memory. Other Wake sports teams are expected to wear some sort of uniform memorial for Palmer as well (from @kd1914). … Okay, so it’s a few rungs below the college level, but this has gotta be the best sandlot football photo ever. One kid’s wearing a baseball catcher’s shinguards, and another’s using a saucepan for a helmet! Love that there’s a girl playing with the boys, too (from the always awesome BSmile).

Hockey News: The Lightning are going to retire Martin St. Louis’s No. 26 (thanks, Mike). … The Penguins made an “Obama 44” jersey for the President, complete with custom tagging (from Matt Pontoriero).

NBA News: Check this out: a Thunder starting lineup consisting of five players whose uni numbers use a total of only three numerals — 0, 1, and 2 (from Paul Deaver). … We tend to think of color vs. color as a fairly recent phenomenon, but Kris Kolob found video from a 1982 Jazz/Lakers game that was green vs. purple. Turns out it was held on St. Patrick’s Day. … Slight court-design adjustment this season for the Pistons — old version on top, new on bottom (thanks, Mike).

College Hoops News: New uniforms for St. Bonaventure. … Marquette’s new uniforms will be unveiled tonight, but they’ve released a teaser video with lots of hints. … Interesting new uni for Nevada. Not sure what color that script is supposed to be — silver? putty? — but I like it. Doesn’t work quite as well as an outline color on the numbers, though (from John Frémont). … Florida — and, I think, a lot of other Nike-outfitted schools — has a trimmer cut this season. … New home uni for Wichita State (from Drew Bridges). … New light-blue road uniform for Georgetown (thanks, Phil).

Soccer News: “English soccer clubs were allowed to have shirt advertisers beginning in 1977, but they were prevented from displaying them in televised games until 1983,” writes Denis Hurley. “Coventry City’s jersey carried the Talbot logo so prominently that they had to completely alter their kits for televised games.”

Grab Bag: New logo for the city of Las Vegas. … More pink police and sheriff’s badges, this time in Fulton County, Ill. … Pretty sure we’ve linked to this before, but once more won’t hurt: Love these photos of objects matched up to their Pantone color chips (from Jeff Ash). … I’m not a NASCAR fan, but I might start rooting for driver Kasey Kahne — in fact, we should all start rooting for him — if only because of his new car advertiser (from David Firestone). … Great photos and info in this article about the last upstairs bowling lanes in the St. Louis area (big thanks to Mark Smith).

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As Hurricane Matthew bears down on the eastern seaboard, I’m thinking of all the members of the Uni Watch community who live or have loved ones in the storm’s path. That includes Uni Watch webmaster John Ekdahl, who moved his family to safer ground yesterday. It also includes the Tugboat Captain’s parents, who live in Jupiter, Fla., and are trying to ride this one out. Be safe, everyone — my thoughts are with you.

 
  
 
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Comments (81)

    Love the Papillon-La Vista logo! Of course, anyone who follows me on the Twitter knows my own avatar is similar in style…

    It’s all in the hands.

    The general pose could be copied if it were completely redrawn from scratch, and there are elements that were definitely adjusted – the chest and arms have been altered, so that the hands aren’t in the exact same position relative to their size as they are on the Gopher, and the left leg is more upright. However, the hands are drawn exactly the same, with only a slight variance in the line weight, but with the same three fingers.

    Given that there was at least some effort in the other changes, you’d think it’d be a simple enough matter to redraw the hands, right? Apparently not in this case, though.

    I don’t know. I am not great at drawing. However I am horrible at drawing hands. I would have a lot more trouble drawing the hands than any other part of the P-L king.

    That Memorial Stadium model is frakking awesome! I miss the days when ballparks were different from each other. These newfangled parks are, in their own way, as homogenized as the cookie cutters were.

    He didn’t amazing work on the stadium. Went there a lot as a kid – a friend of mine’s father worked for the Orioles and it was a quick trip. One nitpick – the giant plaque on the outside brick wall reads “THE CITY OF BALITIMORE”. That aside, the work is incredible and awesome.

    The city is actually named Papillion, derived from Papillon, the French word for butterfly; hence the nickname Monarchs.

    My parents, brother and sister are in Jupiter, too. They’ve got the shutters up and doing OK. Scary time.

    Is that a Reginald Denny decal on the back of Eastern Washington’s helmets? Has this been discussed here before?

    Good spot — sure looks like that’s what it is. I don’t believe we’ve discussed this here before (or at least I have no memory of it). What’s the Eastern Washington connection there?

    Unless I’m thinking of a different Reginald Denny…that’s a blast from the past (not necessarily in a good way). Without googling, I am just curious how many on here remember that name and why.

    /yes, I’m old

    Oops. Florence & Normandy. I just googled to see if I was right. I knew it started with abandon f.

    When I read that name, all I can see is that poor man getting bludgeoned in the middle of the street. Ironically, given this website, the main assailant who pummeled him during the LA Rodney King Riots was a gangbanger named Damian “Football” Williams. I kid you not. -C.

    So let me get this straight, “subzero” paint is based on the same technology that brought us color changing toy cars in the 1980’s. Furthermore, it took this long for the technology to make it to goalie masks? I’m not really that impressed.

    I’d like to see a mask panted with is Chromalusion paint developed by DuPont in the 1990’s. Chromalusion paint changes visible color depending on where the viewer stands in respect to the painted object. This effect was debuted by Jeff Gordon in the 1997 Busch Clash, and followed up by the 1997 Winston All Star Race.

    Further info here:
    link

    Sounds like the black-teal helmet the Jaguars had before switching to their current ugly as shit mess of a helmet.

    Someone in my town has the colorbending paint on an old Buick Regatta (not sure if Chromalusion or knock-off). Strange when I first saw the purple fade to blue.

    I don’t know if it was specifically Chromalusion paint, but about 10 years ago I saw a Chevy Cobalt at the NY Auto Show that was painted like that, viz., that changed color depending on the viewing angle.

    Xtrafuckinyahoos for the vertical arch in Georgetown’s pastel blue jersey; very old-school. But Nevada’s new uniform leads me to believe the hottest trend in varsity basketball is the “Marshall” style script; used by the Thundering Herd, but actually derived from the lettering on the familiar stack of amplifiers.

    re: PL logo – thoughts about the astronomical symbol for Pluto? “♇” ?

    (In addition to PLuto, it also is the initials for Percival Lowell, who funded the search for a ninth planet.)

    ed

    I toured the Lowell Observatory in 1997 and learned all about the PL connection!

    The Pluto symbol is OK, but I’ve never identified with it. Too compressed/compact/etc. Or maybe I just don’t like the idea of my initials being associated with the god who ruled hell.

    Seems that the Cardinal’s CR is black, so, according to CBS Sports, they were given the option of wearing a special white CR version, or using the regular whites.
    link

    At kickoff, Jim Nance seemed a little agitated by the inability to see the Niner’s numbers from the booth. He was rather snarky about it, which was refreshing given his normally robotic delivery. The commish will probably fine him.

    I’ve grown to not mind the CR thing, but black seems an odd choice for a team with such nice primaries as red and gold.

    The commish will probably fine him.

    Not sure if you’re joking, but just to be clear: The commish does not have the ability to fine a broadcaster.

    It was tongue-in-cheek. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a memo from the CBS brass. He also seemed a little sarcastic while reading one of those insipid promos for one of their new “hit” shows. All of this raised my opinion of him.

    “…black seems an odd choice for a team with such nice primaries as red and gold.”

    ~~~

    Given the general suckitude of the Color Rash (and the fact that swooshie didn’t need to make new pants or jerseys for the Niners, as they wore that black uni last year), I’m not surprised. If any team seemed a natural fit to be either monochromatic red or gold (all red’s been done, and a couple teams already go mono-red on occasion) it’d be the Niners.

    But I’m sure Nike realizes a black 49er fan jersey will sell much better than a gold one.

    But I’m sure Nike realizes a black 49er fan jersey will sell much better than a gold one.

    Given the other Bay Area team’s colors, I wonder if that’s even true.

    And here I thought “Miners” was a clever nickname for the team, since they’re named after the Gold Rush. (Although the popular image is of gold panning, and there was indeed a lot of steam panning and even hand-picking going on, the real money was made by mining.)

    Seems like those 49ers uniforms would be more legible (and slightly less terrible looking) if the numbers were gold, or at least outlined with gold. The whole Color Rush program seems incredibly half-assed. It’s not a good look (literally or figuratively) for the NFL or Nike.
    The Cardinals are in serious need of a redesign.

    I want to like the Niners all-black, but I just can’t- and it’s due to the numerals. Some gold trim around them would make them stand out. That said, the obvious deal here is a red jersey with red pants and gold/white/gold striping on both and gold trim around the numerals. I might actually like that! I read a quote last year where a Niners VP said “Black has been part of the color scheme for years.” He really said that. (He means..the black outline of the SF on the helmet, if you can believe that.)

    But first on their uni agenda should be- fix the sleeve stripes and go back to white shoes.

    I don’t think a gold outline solves the problem. Add an outline, and the Niners jerseys would be exactly as legible as the Atlanta Braves blue-on-blue alts. Which is to say, not very.

    All apologies but I like the Niners’ black unitard. What offends more is the ’70th anniversary’ patch, an eyesore on the all-black kit, and bad math. 1946-2016 makes this their 71st season, not 70th.

    What offends more is the ’70th anniversary’ patch, an eyesore on the all-black kit, and bad math. 1946-2016 makes this their 71st season, not 70th.

    Sigh. We’ve been through this so many times. Yes, it is their 71st season, but it is their 70th anniversary. The use of “years” on the patch is unusual, but it’s not really wrong. They have existed for 70 years. Think of it this way: 2016 is their 70th birthday. They have been on this earth for 70 years.

    Even more profuse apologies, sir! The Niners’ consistency (as referenced by Rob S below) makes it that much less of a lamentable pedantic distinction.

    They’ve actually been consistent about it; they celebrated their 40th anniversary in 1986, 49th in 1995, 50th in 1996, and 60th in 2006. The 2006 log said “60 Seasons”, though, which only works if they’re referring to 60 seasons prior to the 2006 season. The 70th patch doesn’t make that mistake, as it has “70 Years” on it.

    As for the black uni, I’m not fond of the idea in principle for the Niners, but the particular execution of the concept is horrendous due to the red-on-black. The numerals should be gold or white, just so we can actually SEE them.

    I can’t help but notice that the logo for the Martin St. Louis jersey retirement is based on the 2000s version of their original uniforms. It’d be great if they could bring back those unis for at least that night.

    And now that I’ve gone and looked at their jersey schedule (thanks to the NHL preview being up and including that link), I see that they’re wearing their black “Bolts” jersey on that night. That’s disappointing, especially considering he never wore that alternate in a game (having been traded to the Rangers while Tampa Bay still had the blue “Bolts” alternate), and of course because that alternate sucks.

    Speaking of Goldy Gopher, does anyone know why he only has stripes on the right arm of his sweater? This is the case across all sports.

    I would guess that old varsity letter sweaters didn’t have striping on both sleeves, so he was drawn that way. At least when I have searched for varsity letter sweaters on the interwebs, the ones I find are striped only on the right arm.

    In addition to the solid socks worn last night, I believe the Cardinals also had new captaincy patches. White background instead of the usual black.

    I’m glad i checked out that pic linked to the color rash game cuz last night while checking out the game for a few mins to see how atrocious the uni matchup would be, i kept seeing pink on the stripes of the 49ers pants instead of red and was wondering if that was what it was. The pic reassured me that it was just the lighting of watching it on the tv. Did anyone else think that as well?

    My guess on why sox wore blue in game 1…..they prob were gonna wear them tonight in game 2 as they typically do on fridays but I’m assuming the Indians are wearing their blues today in game 2 so the sox are forced to wear greys tonight so they just flipped the uni sked

    That’s funny seeing the king pop up on here…. I used to work in Omaha and designed apparel for PL all the time in the late 90’s early 2000’s :)

    I missed the NHL 100 years logo. I’m disappointed it’s bland and silver/black. I’m expected something more retro.

    Also, how did the NHL begin in 1917 with Canada and USA very much involved in the great war?

    The NHL didn’t have an American team until the Bruins joined in 1924. As for how they came about during WWI, its predecessor, the National Hockey Association, was functioning throughout the war, and even had a Toronto-based team formed from a military unit, the 228th Military Battalion. However, the unit was ordered overseas before the 1916-1917 season was completed, and combined with the politics involving Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone, the other clubs decided to basically say, “Screw it, we’re forming our own league.” Needless to say, lawsuits ensued, and it took a while for the NHA to be legally dissolved, and several years before Livingstone completely went away.

    Interesting. I never realized the US wasn’t involved until the 20s.
    I guess I never really hear much about sports in this era and how the war influenced them.

    The Cardinals’ helmet decals looked different to me; the red had kind of a metallic sheen to it. Has it been that way and I just never noticed it before?

    As a Pens fan in a former life I’m the rare one not thrilled to go back to this look. I’d much prefer keeping this black as an alt and going back to the first hummingbird look. That is still my favorite look. I also wish they did like others and put their 50th patch on the shoulder.
    I’m also one of the rare few that likes Detroit’s preseason names better than the arched.
    It’s about time the Sharks dropped the front numbers. Never looks good. Anybody else using them should as well. Now they just need to put the striping back on the bottom of the sweater.
    I was also hesitant about the Panthers updates although anything is better than thier last look but I do sort of like it. The numbers and arm patch locations should be swapped and I wish the chest stripe went around the back but otherwise I like the look. it’s a nice update.

    At least it’s an anniversary patch, and a correct one at that. I foam at the mouth when NHL teams do “x# seasons” patches due to the season lost to the lockout.

    “This Sunday will mark the final appearance of the Steelers’ bumblebee throwbacks (from Jerry Wolper).”

    The best news I have read all week!

    PL ligature also used as a secondary logo by the athletics program of my alma mater, Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA. Rendered in a green and gold color scheme no less!

    link

    Even though they’re still as dull as dishwater, I much prefer the red Rangers unis to the blue ones. Especially if they’re playing against a “blue” team.

    I disagree with shaming Papillion-La Vista High School for “poaching” the U of M’s Logo. I have lived my whole life in Minnesota and have always been a Gophers fan. I have been to hundreds of games involving at least 10 different teams there, from Football to Volleyball to Gymnastics to Hockey dating back 40+ years. I didn’t pick up on the similarity in the logos. (Good for the person who did). So in my opinion it’s enough different to not be a rip off.

    It is clearly and obviously based on the MN logo. Some parts of it (like the hands) are a direct rip-off of the MN logo. If a student submitted this as an art assignment, it would be considered plagiarism — and rightly so.

    Why do that when you can create something of your own? It’s lazy and unnecessary.

    So many high schools poach their logos from pro or college teams. I honestly don’t understand it. Wouldn’t you rather have your own identity, instead of sharing someone else’s? And poaching intellectual property is terrible example to set for students.

    All of these schools have art departments. Have the art teach run a design contest and let the students come up with something. So much better, on so many levels.

    Everything about the design tells me that it probably was a student work. If so, it’s understandable that it was not caught by the faculty or administrators involved. There are just so many professional sports logos that most people, even sports fans, won’t catch them all. I mean, heck, I grew up in Minnesota watching Gophers games from inside the radio booth, I attended the U of M, and I edited the school newspaper, and I still didn’t see the similarity to Goldy until it was pointed out. Are we really supposed to expect a probable committee of an art teacher, the football coach, and an assistant principal in Nebraska to recognize the Goldy similarity?

    Most of the logo is original work closely inspired by Goldy, with a couple of difficult-to-draw elements straight-up copied. That’s why it looks like student work to me. Whoever did the drawing is a decent but unpracticed draftsman. The sleeve stripes, for example, are nicely drawn, creating a sense of texture and depth absent in the Goldy logo. The level of effort involved is incongruous for a typical school logo ripoff scenario, where minimal effort is put into the work by an adult.

    So is seems likely to me that the school did have a design contest, and a student did come up with something. And it is, in fact, better than a typical high school ripoff. Heck, investigating the origins of this logo could be an interesting hook for a Uni Watch story on how high schools create athletic logos.

    Had I remembered the 69ers were going all black last night, I wouldn’t have taken them in my Survivor pool. Oh well, I should have been out the first week for my longshot of taking the Lions on the road over the Colts…

    Terrible uniforms used last night in the NFL. San Fran’s uni is made even worse since the helmets do nothing to match the black uniforms. They’d be better going with gold unis for an alternate…

    I know what you mean about strongly identifying with your initials. When the Rochester Red Wings came out with a cap that had an “FC” logo (for “Flower City”) in the style of the parent Minnesota Twins’ “TC” logo, I link right away.

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