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Monday Morning Uni Watch

By Paul Lukas, on October 23rd, 2017

Embed from Getty Images

The Rash spread to Sundays yesterday, as the Patriots wore their mono-navy Thursday-night uniforms for last night’s game against the Falcons. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I’m not a fan.

Perhaps the football gods agreed with me, because some fog rolled in during the third quarter that mercifully obscured the proceedings on the field (click to enlarge):

The Rash will continue to spread on Dec. 10, when the Bills wear their Thursday-night uniforms for a Sunday-afternoon game against the Colts. Sigh.

Meanwhile, in other news from around the league yesterday:

• The Browns, who had gone mono-white for all of their previous games this season, reversed course and went mono-turd. Not a good look (click to enlarge; additional photos here):

• The Seahawks went mono-grey, otherwise known as the dirty-laundry look (click to enlarge; additional photos here):

• On the plus side, it’s always a good-looking game when the Chargers wear their powder blue alternates, as they did yesterday against the Broncos (click to enlarge; additional photos here):

• Not sure if we’ve covered this before, but Saints running back Mark Ingram Jr. is now wearing RNOB.

• Two teams wore white at home: the Dophins and Rams.

• Here’s a list of players who protested during the national anthem.

(My thanks to Asher Hoffman for his contribution.)

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XFL contest reminder: In case you missed it on Saturday, Phil announced our latest jersey design contest, this time to reimagine a team from the XFL if the league were still operational today.

The deadline is Oct. 31. Full details here.

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The Ticker
By Jamie Rathjen

Baseball News: Very cool DIY project by reader Michael Enriquez, who made these Astros (tequila sunrise) and Nordiques cornhole boards, using a circular feature in each team’s logo for the holes.

Hockey News: The Kelowna Rockets (WHL) wore Pinktober jerseys, but with their original late-’90s primary logo, on Saturday (from Wade Heidt). … Cross-listed from the baseball section: Michael Enriquez made these Astros (tequila sunrise) and Nordiques cornhole boards, using a circular feature in each team’s logo for the holes. … Here’s a look at the NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters (based in Newark, N.J.), who have a modernized Rosie the Riveter as their jersey crest (from Sean Behan). … New uniforms for the Auburn club team.

Soccer News: FC Barcelona’s membership will vote on potential naming rights for the team’s stadium, Camp Nou, in the first half of next year. … A few things from the final day of the MLS season: Houston Dynamo goalie Tyler Deric was wearing a baseball cap, something occasionally seen when goalies are facing the setting sun (from @g_malcs). … Here’s what the Mets’ stadium looks like when set up for soccer, as New York City FC played there instead of their usual Yankee Stadium due to the MLB playoffs (from Jim Vilk). … Plenty of change kit shenanigans in the UK this weekend: Hibernian and Celtic both changed to mono-black and mono-lime green, respectively, in their Scottish League Cup semi-final. Both teams’ colors are green and white and designated away team Celtic’s two change kits are, for whatever reason, also green, leaving them looking a bit like a Color Rash game. … Three Premier League teams rather bizarrely changed when they didn’t need to: Watford (from yellow to red), Leicester City (from blue to black), and Arsenal (from red to black). … Additionally, Leicester and their opponents, Swansea City, wore warm-up shirts for Show Racism the Red Card in English and Welsh.

Grab Bag: New Pinktober badges for the Los Angeles Police Department’s transit services (thanks, Paul).

83 comments   NFL

Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken, on October 22nd, 2017

By Phil Hecken and the SMUW Uni Crew

The SMUW splash photo is usually reserved for a really special new uniform, an awesome throwback, or some god-awful hideous thing that never deserved to see the gridiron. But yesterday didn’t feature any of those things, so instead, we welcome back the University of Michigan sporting maize pants, for the first time in two seasons, on the road. And it looked glorious.

I have to admit, I was a big fan of the white over white look (a throwback to the 1970s) that Jim Harbaugh introduced over two years ago, and I still do like it. But there’s something that is just so right about Michigan in maize pants — and after two-plus seasons of going white over white, it was a nice return. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of Michigan, maybe busting out the maize pantaloons against Penn State wasn’t the best time to do it (PSU topped UM 42-13), and suspicious uni-types might take this as a bad omen, and possibly shelve the maize trousers with the white jerseys for the remainder of the season. Let’s hope not.

I got a late call yesterday to substitute for Saturday Night Curling, so once again, I missed a huge chunk of games yesterday. Fortunately, Terry D. has you covered. So, without further ado, let’s get this party started. Here’s TJ…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

Now that last week’s festivities are out of the way, let’s get back to business, shall we? Homecoming Week is a-go!

From Thursday:

• Houston did… the anthracite thing, against Memphis, who wore white tiger stripes on a silver lid. Interesting color combo.

From Saturday:

• Northwestern wore throwback helmets against Iowa. They also wore ‘ARA’ decals and patches, in honor of Ara Parseghian, who coached the Wildcats from 1956-1963.

• Stay classy, Vols. Several readers noted that during the Bama/Tennessee tilt, Damien Harris’s helmet stripe was pulling a Mike Gundy (PC: Scott Hord/@Caribou99695).

• Georgia Tech wore decals in celebration of the 100th anniversary of their 1917 national championship on Saturday. They also wore all-white against an all-black Wake Forest team.

• I LOVED Indiana’s look against Michigan State. This helmet is easily my favorite of theirs, and works well with the white-over-crimson.

• Mizzou wore white ‘M’ decals in their Homecoming game against Idaho. The block M makes its first appearance since 2011. Here’s a nifty gif on the history of Mizzou helmets.

• Michigan wore maize pants on the road for the first time since 2014 against Penn State on Saturday. Also, Grant Perry’s numbers seem to be doing their best impression of Sid from Ice Age (PC: Chris Vannini/@ChrisVannini and Kyle Good/@kylejgood, respectively).

• Duke played against the Pitt Panthers while wearing– ah, you know the drill.

• The Minnesota/Illinois game was easily one of my favorite-looking games from Week 8 (alongside Michigan St./Indiana and Cincinnati/SMU), but I must say, the removal of the helmet stripe for the Illini this year never sat right with me. I mean, I can live with it not being on the orange helmet (even though it does look better with the stripe), but WOW, the white helmet SUFFERS without it (here’s how it should look, for comparison). It’s still an *alright*-looking helmet, so I won’t liken it to being chicken with zero seasoning. It’s closer to chicken that DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH seasoning. Also, Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck wore some new Homecoming shoes for the game.

• Here’s a look at Virginia Tech’s Homecoming uni for their game against UNC.

• Arkansas wore anthracite against Auburn.

• Ole Miss wore the light blue helmets (with TV numbers!) against LSU.

• During the Notre Dame/USC matchup, one of the #25s for the Trojans (I’m assuming that’s Jack Jones) was wearing what I can only define as glorified Nike 9″ compression shorts. They might be 7″, who knows (PC: Brendan Orr/@NtTheFakeWhoDey).

That’ll do it for Week 8 of the 2017 college football season! I feel that this week was a little thin, but I also probably missed some key games (and I do apologize if I did). Next Saturday is the last one before Halloween hits full-tilt, so I’m expecting at least a couple of teams to pull out something that is sure to encapsulate the holiday spirit. See you all next week!

Joe Ringham 5 & 1 Joe Ringham’s 5 & 1

Following in the footsteps of the original “5 & 1,” Jim Vilk, and Catherine Ryan after him, Joe Ringham is back again for 2017 to make his “5 & 1” (five good looking and one stinker) uni-vs-uni matchups. Sometimes he’ll have some “honorable mentions” and sometimes there will be more than one “bad” game. You may agree and you may disagree — these are, after all, just opinions and everyone has one. Feel free to let him know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Joe:

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Happy Sunday, everyone! Let’s get to the list for Week 8…

5) Youngstown State at Northern Iowa — Into the FCS (the Missouri Valley Football Conference, to be exact) we go for this one. The Penguins, who I overlooked last week in a fine-looking game against North Dakota State, looked strong in red/white/red on the road, matching up well against the purple/purple/black of UNI. A great-looking match up under the dome in Cedar Falls.

4) Oregon at UCLA — Finally, a uni combo for the Ducks that isn’t too hideous. Loved how the chrome/white/green clashed perfectly against the gold/blue/gold of the Bruins. Made for a really good looking game in the Rose Bowl.

3) Indiana at Michigan State — Homecoming in East Lansing looked quite good. Always a fan of the usual green/green/white home set from Sparty. Indiana looked equally as good in their red/white/red set on the road.

2) Southern Cal at Notre Dame — Two iconic programs, and an iconic rivalry, with iconic uniforms. Enough said…

1) Michigan at Penn State — If you’ve followed this space since I took over, you know how much I love the classic home unis of the Nittany Lions. But, this makes the top spot because of Michigan going back to the maize pants with the white top on the road. Automatic #1 for me, right there. GO BACK TO THIS PERMANENTLY, MICHIGAN!!!

And, finally…

+1) Syracuse at Miami — On a day where there wasn’t a hands-down choice for the +1, this game slides in here because, really, someone has to. The U just doesn’t look right in mono-green, and the ‘Cuse in mono-white just doesn’t look right either.

Have a great rest of your Sunday! I’ll see you all next week.

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Thanks Joe! You can follow Joe on the Twitter and let him know what you think of his choices or make a 5 & 1 suggestion of your own!

NCAA Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the uniform combinations worn by the “Power 5” conferences. All of the 2016 trackers are back!

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII), and Ethan Dimitroff (tracking the B1G AND the SEC). Rex, Dennis, and Kyle and are all returning from 2015, and Ethan is back after joining the NCAA Uni Tracking last season. Ethan has stepped into the dual role of both the B1G and the SEC.

Here are the Uni Trackers for the Power 5 Conferences:

+ + + + + + + + + +

Rex is up first today (ACC):

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ACC

More Here.
Follow Rex on Twitter here.

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And now, here’s Dennis with the PAC-12:

PAC-12

More here.
Follow Dennis on Twitter here.

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And here is Ethan, with the SEC:

SEC

And be sure to check out Ethan’s WVU Mountaineer Tracker.
Follow Ethan on Twitter here.

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And here is Kyle with the Big XII:

Big XII

Follow Kyle on Twitter here.

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And here’s Ethan with the B1G:

B1G

Duck Tracker

Welcome to the 2017 Oregon Ducks Uni Tracker. This little project was originally begun way back in 2008-09 by Michael Princip, who retired after several seasons, whereupon the project was continued by Tim E. O’Brien. He, too, retired from the tracking, but the project has been ably kept up by the man who also tracks the Pac12, Dennis Bolt.

Here’s this week’s Uniform Combo for the Ducks (you can click to enlarge):

You can read about this uniform, and MUCH MORE, by checking out the Duck Tracker here!

Thanks Dennis!


MLB Playoff Uni Tracking

A few years back, reader Alex Rocklein tracked the MLB Playoffs by uniform — you guys may recall this. Here’s what his 2010 Uni Tracking looked like. Alex also tracked the playoffs for Uni Watch last season as well. Here’s how the 2016 World Series looked.

We welcome Alex back this year, having tracked the playoffs through the Division Series and now the Championship Series’. These are now up to date through last night’s Astros victory over the Yanks in Game 7. We’ll have the World Series (either completed or partially completed) next weekend.

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XFL Redesign Contest Reminder

In case you missed it, on Saturday, I announced our latest jersey design contest, this time to reimagine a team from the XFL if the league were still operational in 2017.

All the deets are here.

Deadline for submissions is October 31 at 11:59 EDT.

Good luck!

Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: This happened 42 years ago yesterday: one of the most famous World Series home run shots of all time — a Carlton Fisk time lapse to win Game Six of the 1975 World Series, for the Red Sox over the Reds (from Bruce Menard). … Here’s a fantastic picture of the Polo Grounds in 1962, with Mets pitchers huddling against the cold under Mets logo blankets (from Paul Plaine). … There are tremendous photos from the 70s, and then there are tremendous photos from the 70s, such as this one of Hammerin’ Hank, Brent Musburger and Sadaharu Oh. I’ll bet Brent had money on something between those two (from Douglas Ford). … During last night’s ALCS game 7, Matthew Wilson noticed Marwin Gonzalez’s jersey is missing the inner orange lining on the “R” in the middle of his jersey stuck out like a sore thumb to me. … This was @’ed at me, and without a player ID (my apologies, I didn’t see the game — I was curling), but here’s an old school barehanded & wedding ring’ed player for the Astros (from Benjamin Thomas). … OK, so here’s a “player at an All Star Game wearing a helmet from another team” I don’t think we’ve EVER seen — check out Nolan Ryan wearing a Padres helmet! (from Corey Buck). Paul ID’ed that as from the 1985 ASG.

NFL News: The saga of the Rams and their horrid mismatched unis continues, and I’ve yet to get a definitive “answer” on their ineptitude. However, this ESPN article seems to make the most sense. The pertinent quote: Teams can’t change their jerseys until they go through an entire uniform redesign. Why didn’t the Rams just change their uniforms now? Because it’s at least a two-year process, and, according to the team, they couldn’t start that process until the relocation. They’re currently working with Nike to unveil new uniforms for the 2019 or 2020 season, the latter being the year they move into the new stadium in Inglewood, California. (emphasis mine). … Here’s a great look at a 1962 game in Yankee Stadium between the Giants and the Lions (from Bruce Menard). … Our pal Clint Richardson is no fan of the J’ville Jags unis, but he argues the combo they will wear today is the best they have.

College Football News: A company called Defend Your Head has developed helmet shell add-on, ProTech, to reduce the impact of helmet collisions through the absorption and dissipation of force impacted on the player’s dome. … You know that Texas A&M has a patent on the “12th Man” (for its fans) right? Well, there’s actually a pretty interesting backstory behind the 12th man, including some lawsuits and other shenanigans. Recommended reading. … There are outstanding team programs from the 70s and then there are outstanding team programs from the 70s. Check out this VMI vs. Virginia Tech beaut from 1971 (from Douglas Ford).

Hockey News: The Northern Michigan Wildcats graphics guy (or gal) had a little trouble spelling Wisconsin and Green (good spot from Jerry Nitzh, who admits NMU is his alma mater). … You guys may remember Tyson Kehler (who I interviewed and featured some of his designs back in August) — well, Tyson designed these jerseys for the Steinbach Pistons. These are his first designs to “take the ice” — so congrats! … St. Lawrence men’s ice hockey held their Legends of Appleton night at Appleton Arena on Saturday night. “For the game they wore this jersey patch. Looks like a plastic/non-embroidered patch,” says John Muir. “Not sure if this is becoming the norm in college hockey. Though it makes the jersey a bit busy, it’s a decent looking patch.”

NBA News: “I noticed something watching the Lakers game last night and I’m not sure if anybody has mentioned it before,” says Chris Schifano. “It looks as though their uniforms are inconsistent with where the NOB is placed. Some are higher, some are very low (the ones I noticed being low were Jordan Clarkson, Luol Deng, and Brandon Ingram).” … Paul’s NBA preview was so thorough (and long), I forget if this was mentioned or not: the Lakers #6 switches back to old font. F.K. Yaaj notice it was changed the last two seasons. … Looks like the New Orleans Pelicans will be wearing their blue alternate unis on Fridays this season (from Pipes Guice). … Here’s a very cool PDF of the Hornets uni schedule (from Kenny Saidah). … There are awesome team photos from the 70s, and then there are awesome team photos from the 70s (thanks to Douglas Ford). … Tweeter @NotoriousJLE “saw the new Nike NBA ad again & noticed a ref in the ad has the makers mark covered up.”

Grab Bag: Australia wore new indigenously-themed shirts against New Zealand yesterday. Jamie Rathjen notes, “This is the first such national team-level shirt in Australia.”… Here’s a look at the helmet design for Romain Grosjean for the US Grand Prix, for F1’s only team from the USA (from Chris Foster).

36 comments   Sunday Morning Uni Watch

New Jersey Design Contest! Reimagining The XFL

By Phil Hecken, on October 21st, 2017

Click To Enlarge

By Phil Hecken

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m pleased to announce our next jersey design contest — this time we’ll be tackling the XFL. As in prior contests, Uni Watch will be partnering with Steve Rosenbeck of Garb Athletics, who will grace the winner of the contest with a jersey based on his or her winning design. Before we get into the nitty-gritty…

Here’s Steve:

After the recent 30 for 30 on the XFL, I became really interested in what the XFL would look like today. According to the documentary, the marketing and branding for the XFL was superior at the time to the NFL. If that trend continued, then you would assume that cutting edge marketing would trickle down to uniform design. Garb Athletics is offering a create the winning designer’s uniform that best captures what the XFL uniforms would look like today.

Thanks, Steve — yes, the XFL was innovative (in some good ways and some bad ways), and it will be remembered for having lasted just one single season in the year 2001. I have to say I watched a game or three, but after the first week of hype, it never really impressed me. We look back now at the uniforms (which you’ll see below), and they don’t appear so radical, but at the time, they definitely “weren’t your daddy’s football league.” All the unis were made by Russell, and what always stood out to me were the weird number fonts used by several of the teams. I’m not sure if the big three uni makers today drew their inspiration from those XFL unis (or at least the fonts and patterns), but it’s not hard to see some parallels between those jerseys and what we have going on in a couple NFL and many college programs. For better or for worse.

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Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see the uniforms of the eight teams that comprised the XFL:

Birmingham Thunderbolts (Bolts)

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Chicago Enforcers

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Las Vegas Outlaws

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Los Angeles Xtreme

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Memphis Maniax

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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NY/NJ Hitmen

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Orlando Rage

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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San Francisco Demons

Uniform graphics can be found here or here.

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Your job is to envision how one of those XFL jerseys would look if the league were still in operation today — a “TATC” if you will, but to 2017. Would teams have kept the same color schemes? Would the uniforms have gotten more and more ‘crazy’ over time as the league tried to reinvent itself to stay cutting edge? Would the font faces have gotten even more illegible? That’s for you to decide.

The rules will be very similar to the last contest.

THE RULES:

• Design ONLY a jersey (so, no pants, caps, helmets, etc.). If you wish to include a helmet and/or pants as part of your design, that’s fine, but we’ll only be considering the jersey for this contest.

• Pick ONE jersey only (it can be either a dark or white version).

• ONE GRAPHIC PER ENTRY! If you want to show multiple views (front, back, side, etc.) PLEASE INCLUDE THESE IN ONE IMAGE (in other words, don’t send me three separate images please put them all into one graphic).

• You MAY include a description of 100 words or less (anything over 100 words will not be considered). You must specify which team you’re reimagining (even if you don’t include a description).

• Your designs can be created in any digital or analog medium (Illustrator, Photoshop, crayon, whatever) and can be submitted in any standard digital format (JPG, PDF, TIFF, etc.). Make sure your NAME is somewhere on the design.

• ONE entry per person.

DEADLINE/VOTING/WHERE TO SEND:

DEADLINE IS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31 11:59 pm EDT. This is Hallowe’en, so it’s easy to remember and you should have plenty of time to create something awesome.

Depending upon the number of submissions, I hope to have all voting take place at one time, so all entries are considered simultaneously. It may require separate sets. Also depending on the number of entries, we may break this into two rounds (like with previous contests where the top vote getters in a set move on to the finals). Again, this will depend upon how many submissions I receive.

Send all entries to my usual g-mail address (phil [dot] hecken [at] gmail [dot] com). Please put as the subject line: “XFL JERSEY CONTEST”. ONLY SEND ME ONE GRAPHIC/IMAGE. Remember to put your name somewhere on your design. That’s it.

OK? OK! Now get crackin!

Big thanks again to Steve for providing a great prize to the winner. You can follow Garb and check out their work on Facebook, on Twitter or visit their website here.

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What They’re Wearing Today…

The following is a list of some (though by no means all, obviously) uniforms, patches or helmets teams have announced for their games today.

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MLB Playoff Uni Tracking

A few years back, reader Alex Rocklein tracked the MLB Playoffs by uniform — you guys may recall this. Here’s what his 2010 Uni Tracking looked like. Alex also tracked the playoffs for Uni Watch last season as well. Here’s how the 2016 World Series looked.

We welcome Alex back this year, having tracked the playoffs through the Division Series and most of the Championship Series’. He sent me what’s below before the Astros evened their series with the Yankees up at 3-3 last night (I hope to have the complete package for you guys after today’s Game 7 — click the graphics below to enlarge).

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The Ticker
By Anthony Emerson

Baseball News: Mike Chamernik sends along this article about how the Cubs’ “W” flag became an unmistakable symbol of Cubs fandom. … Todd Radom wrote about the origins of Dodger blue (thanks, Phil). … Here’s a look at the World Series Logo being painted on the field at Dodger Stadium (from Bizbo). … We tend to think only of MLB jerseys having the Majestic logo, but here’s a shot featuring Craig Biggio wearing an Astros uni with a Wilson logo (from Michael J. Miller). … We better hope this fan didn’t pay full price for this Jose Altuve jersey (good spot by Chris Mycoskie). … The inventor of the Little League batting helmet, Creighton Hale, has passed away at the ripe old age of 93 (from Tommy Turner).

Football News: The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport is getting a new carpet design for Super Bowl LII. The article heavily relies on this website devoted to airport carpets (from Michael Blomquist). … An odd 49ers/Buccaneers mashup logo from a high school in Gainseville, Fl., can be spotted in this article about the school’s football coach attempting to convert, for lack of a better word, white supremacists (from Eric Hoey). … After weeks of going all-white, the Browns are going all-brown against the Titans (from Kyle Good, Mike Kavanaugh and Robert Hayes). … The Jaguars will wear their teal alternate uniform on November 5 against the Bengals (from Justin C. Cliburn). The Eagles are going green jerseys over white pants for this Sunday game against Washington (from James Moton). … Jerry Kulig sends along this photo of Wisconsin’s leather helmets. … This is cool: the Patriots had Nike make a sneaker out of game balls from Super Bowl LI, and have unveiled it before this weekend’s game against the Falcons (from Gene Sanny). … We may have seen this before, but just in case: Memphis scholar athletes wear a “Tiger Scholar” patch on their jerseys (from @Serstylz2). … The University of Florida is doing a fan vote for their favorite unis. White helmets have no F on right rather “Gators” on both sides (from @drryanbohannon). … Troy-Athens junior kicker Jeremy Bouford models a pink specialty uni. Each one features @JennaKastBiM on the nameplate (from CandGSports). … Chris Mycoskie points out the 06 on helmet, 6 on the jersey. … In the CFL last evening, the Calgary Stampeders continued pinktober with pink stripes on their pants (from Steve B.). … These are some interesting helmets (I believe for a High School Team). From Ryan Kraemer. … Here’s a sneak peek at the Dwight Clark Day shirts coming to 49ers fans this Sunday (thanks, Brinke).

Hockey News: This is so cool: the San Diego Gulls, AHL affiliate of the Ducks, incorporated their own logo and the Ducks’ logo into the stitching on their jersey crest (thanks, Phil).
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NBA News: Nike is “very concerned” after LeBron’s jersey tore against the Celtics (thanks, Phil). … New Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is “open to suggestions” on changing the Rockets’ uniforms (thanks, Phil). … The Timberwolves released their jersey schedule for home games (thanks to Scott McDonald and everyone else who sent this in). … Speaking of the Wolves, the team made donuts from each player’s jersey. They didn’t forget the Fitbit ad (from Brandon Baumgartner). … The Bucks had retro-inspired shooting shirts for last night’s game. … The Bucks are bringing back their old MECCA court for an October 26 game against the Celtics (thanks, Paul). … Rookie Jonathon Isaac forgot to wear his jersey under his shooting shirt at Wednesday night’s Magic game, his NBA debut (from Mike Chamernik). … … Here’s a good look at the Pelicans’ opening night T-shirt (from James Lee Gilbert). … After starting the season with all white (or gold) vs. color matchups, last evening we had the Pistons and Wizards going color vs. color (from Wm Starr). … Color vs. Color was also the story of the evening with Boston and Philly going blue/green (from Jackie Treehorn). … In addition we had the Hawks & Hornets doing the dark vs. dark uni thing (from Hit The Glass). … The Lakers wore gold on the road last evening (from @EAMarquez87). … The Cavaliers’ JR Smith was caught wearing a Bucks towel (from Mike Chamernik). … The Warriors busted out their throwback uniforms last night in New Orleans.

College Hoops News: Quinnipiac men’s basketball unveiled their new home jerseys (from Logan Reardon). … UMBC men also unveiled their retro-inspired new uniforms. … UMKC added the Kansas City skyline to their new court (from Todd Engle). … New uniforms for the South Alabama Jags (from David Sullivan, Jr.).

Soccer News: German side Fortuna Düsseldorf will wear the anti-racism slogan “Gegen Rechts” (Against Right) instead of their ad for this weekend’s match (from Ed Żelaski‏). … Austria’s 2018 kit features a sublimated mountain design, evoking the Alps.

Grab Bag: Here’s something I didn’t know existed: many countries have a “national racing color.” Cool discovery by @bdh_photos. … Wayne State University has unveiled their new logo set (from Ryan Keberly). … Bryan O’Nolan sends along this piece about medieval fabrics. … North Springs (Ga.) High School’s logo is a modified Michigan State logo with an ‘S’ (from @pwillia). … Cleveland State volleyball went pink for breast cancer awareness (from Ed Żelaski). … Amherst College has a new official logo: the Amherst Mammoth (from @mrmoose12358).

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33 comments   Design Contests, XFL

Behold: The Uni Watch Precision-Fit Helmet

By Paul Lukas, on October 20th, 2017

For all photos, click to enlarge

Back in June I did an ESPN column about Riddell’s Precision-Fit helmet program. As you may recall, the Riddell people showed me how the program works by scanning my head to create a series of 3-D digital images.

Normally, the next step would be to use those scans to create a helmet with custom-fitted interior padding. But as I noted in that ESPN piece, Riddell had a limited Precision-Fit capacity this year, so there were no plans to make a sample helmet based on my head scans, because that would have used up one of their available helmets for this year.

Later on, however, the Riddell people said they could produce a helmet for me after all, so I could feel for myself how good the fit is. They even offered to make it a Uni Watch helmet. It recently arrived here at Uni Watch HQ.

As you can see in the photo at the top of the page, we kept the design simple. Center striping matches the striping we use here on the website, and the side logo is one of the logos that Scott M.X. Turner designed several years ago.

Here are some additional views:

I’m sure everyone will be glad to see that they cut the striping tape as it crossed the helmet’s flex panel:

Precision-Fit helmets all come with a little plate on the back featuring the player’s name and signature. Equipment managers typically remove it, but I’ll be leaving mine in place, at least for now.

There’s also a personalized tag woven into the interior padding, which is pretty cool:

And how does it fit? Granted, I haven’t spent all that much time wearing football helmets in recent decades, so I don’t have much baseline experience to compare it to, but it does seem like a pretty good fit. Interesting to see how it turned out after doing those head scans earlier in the year. Big thanks to Riddell for following through on that.

Now then: What am I going to do with it? For now, I think I’ll just leave it on my desk — a fun and informative souvenir.

• • • • •

Click to enlarge

Friday Morning Uni Watch: Last year, the Raiders’ Thursday-night pants had a black stripe. But last night, as you can see above, they went with a grey/silver stripe. A small upgrade, although I think the best solution would be to go with no striping at all (additional pics here).

As you can also see in that photo, the Raiders added a jersey patch for this game. It was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Oakland’s 1967 AFL championship team. Here’s a closer look:

There’s some interesting info about the patch design here. Also, as you can see, the patch includes the AFL logo, which the Chiefs wear as part of their Lamar Hunt perma-memorial patch. So both teams in last night’s NFL game were wearing the AFL logo.

• • • • •

Uni Watch Show & Tell: Earlier this week I wrote about how I spent last Saturday, including a tour of artists’ studios at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, where I fell in love with an piece by the artist Jung Eun Park — a guide to various types of embroidery stitching. It reminded me of the vintage salesman sample catalogs that I like to collect and also made me think of the chain-stitching that I love to see on old uniforms. She said the stitch guide wasn’t intended as art and wasn’t for sale (it was just a reference guide that she’d made for herself), but I emailed her the next day and convinced her to sell the piece to me.

As it turns out, Jung Eun and I live about a 10-minute walk from each other, so yesterday afternoon she came over to Uni Watch HQ and delivered the stitch guide to me in person. I showed her some of my vintage catalogs and also pulled some vintage jerseys with chain-stitched embroidery out of my closet, so she could get a sense of how the stitch guide fits into my aesthetic/obsessions/etc. As she looked around my apartment and saw some of my other collections on display, she said, “Oh, now I’m starting to see why you were interested in this piece!” It was a really nice visit. (I should have gotten a photo of her holding the stitch guide but didn’t think of it at the time. Dang.)

Here’s a much better photo of the piece than the one I provided earlier this week (for all of these pics, you can click to enlarge):

The piece is about 16″ square. The fabric is cotton, which Jung Eun says she got in Korea, where she grew up. She may not have intended it to be art, but she instinctively did lots of things to make it visually appealing. Look at how she organized everything in neat rows, changed the thread colors, meticulously hand-annotated everything, etc. I love it!

If you look at the middle row of this next photo, you can see that she included 10 different kinds of chain-stitching. I had no idea there were so many variations:

Check out the amazing ribbed spider web stitch, and the very appealing seed stitch just above it:

For the knots in the center of this next shot, I love how she sequenced the knots in seemingly random patterns, creating happy little jumbles of color:

Jung Eun said she made the piece early this year over the course of about two weeks, although she wasn’t working on it full-time during that period. More like a few hours here, a few hours there. I asked her to sign it, which she did on the back:

I plan to get the piece framed. Jung Eun asked me to send her a photo when the framing is done.

• • • • •

The Ticker
By Paul

’Skins Watch: Twenty years ago Miami of Ohio changed its team names from “Redskins” to “RedHawks” at the urging of the Miami “Myaamia” Tribe, which Miami is named after. Now the university is adding a new logo that embraces the culture of that tribe (from K.C. Kless).

Baseball News: A Chicago barber shop called Hatillo’s uses the Astros’ logo on its storefront (from Adam Foxman). … Dodgers 2B Enrique Hernández, who had a historic night in yesterday’s NLCS clincher, is still having his jersey sewn shut, something I first wrote about last year.

NFL News: More and more teams are going without a huddle. … Packers LB Vince Biegle has been trying out the Schutt F7 helmet in practice. … Nike has taken the leather from some Super Bowl LI game balls and turned it into a pair of shoes. Additional photos here (from Brad Tatum and Brett Baker). … Furniture.com now has a collection of NFL product. … New Era apparently has a series of limited-edition Bills caps. Here’s this week’s design (from Eric Juergens).

College Football News: Here’s this week’s uni combos for UNC and Iowa State. … My ESPN pal/colleague Dave Wilson has written a fantastic piece about college football’s relationship with Waffle House. Of particular interest is this diagram showing WH’s byzantine plating system. … New black jersey for Harvard (from María Canales‏). … P Oscar Bradburn will wear No. 25 for Virginia Tech this week (from Andrew Cosentino). … Arkansas State and Houston both went with new helmets last night. … White helmets apparently on top tomorrow for CMU.

Hockey News: The ice rink at the U. of Michigan’s Yost Arena has named after former coach Red Berenson (from Tien Mao). … As we’ve noted here before, Pens star Sidney Crosby had his jersey altered last year to create a straight hemline. He’s still doing it this year with the new Adidas jerseys (from Denny LeeM).

NBA News: The Warriors’ throwback for this season, as had widely been expected, will be the white 1980s design with the California outline. The corporate and the maker’s mark look even worse on the throwback, eh? The jersey will make its on-court debut tonight and will then be worn 12 more times during the season. … The Raptors and Thunder both wore color at home last night, with the Bulls and Knicks wearing white on the road (from @HitTheGlass). … Speaking of the Thunder, they will continue to wear blue for nationally televised home games (from Joel Reagan). … The Hornets have released their uniform schedule for the new season. Wish more teams would do this (thanks, Phil). … The Knicks’ roster includes a large number of unusually tall players. … “The Mavs have a logo for Dirk Nowitzki’s 20th season and will be rolling out a series of bobbleheads throughout the year to commemorate his accomplishments,” says Gary Bates. “So far I’ve only seen the logo on video boards.” … Very cool visual moment in Wednesday night’s Suns/Blazers game, as all five Suns players began running at the exact same moment after a turnover. … The Kings have a cool historical jersey display in their arena (from Jason Gutierrez).

Soccer News: The women’s team at Baldwin Wallace, a D-III school, is wearing warm-up shirts with a heart-shaped “15” chest mark. That’s for teammate Alex Elliott, who suffered a career-ending torn ACL (from Tony Bruno). … New kits for the San Diego Sockers (from Jim Vilk).

Grab Bag: This is so awesome: A French photographer goes to museums and takes photos of people whose clothing matches the artwork they’re looking at. The same photographer has lots of other cool projects. (from my pal/neighbor Carrie Klein). … Also awesome: An artist has turned assorted corporate logos, including Nike’s, into weapons. Seems about right (from my pal Rob Walker). … New logo and can design for Hi Sign Brewing. … New home rugby kit for Wales (from @SerrinneWoW). … New wrestling singlets for Virginia Tech (from Andrew Cosentino). … New athletics logo for Southern Connecticut State. … Daytona International Speedway is letting fans vote for the tri-oval grass design that will be used in 2018 (from Kyle Speicher). … Ever wonder how the color “British racing green” came about? Find out the answer in this short video clip (from R. Scott Rogers). .,. New logo for the Saskatchewan Abilities Council. … Interesting detail on the new Wales rugby jerseys: Every single one — on-field and retail — will have a distinct pattern on the shoulders (from Josh Gordner).

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