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As The World Cup Begins the Knockout Stage…

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By Phil Hecken

The World Cup has been progressing swimmingly (OK, perhaps if you’re a fan of Portugal, England, Italy or a dozen or so other teams, maybe not so swimmingly).

We know who won the games played on the pitch — but who won in the uniform department? Some teams wore only one kit during their Round Robin games, while other teams wore three different unis (or combinations). We knew coming in what they’d be wearing, but who wore it best? Who really won the uniform battles?

I won’t rank them from 1-32, but I will give them letter grades as I (and only I) believe they deserve. Now, I’m going to base these SOLELY on what uniform was worn during the World Cup, not what their “expected” or “traditional” look is (seeing Germany, for example in white tops and WHITE pants, instead of black shorts, is anathema to some, or Italy in mono blue instead of blue over white — to name a few). No “points” will be deducted for that (it doesn’t mean, however, the 2014 look is “better” and won’t be graded accordingly). I also prefer collared jerseys to non-collared (and faux-collars are the worst), but I won’t use that in determining grades. It’s much more of a color (and if there are stripes, gradients or other piping/graphics on the jersey/pants) type of thing. Mostly socks are considered as a “solid” color even if there are stripes or other gradients.

After my grades, I’ll be followed by Jim Vilk who will be providing his very own “5 & 1”. He will be picking which uniforms looked best together, not individually. Because, as we know in college football (and basketball), that the best looking uniforms don’t always look best together.

So, going by the original eight groups, here are my grades for the World Cup uniforms:

. . .

GROUP A

Brazil

Brazil:


Brazil wore gold tops in all three matches, and blue pants against Mexico and Croatia. White shorts against Cameroon. That’s a good looking uniform when worn with the blue trou, but the white pants isn’t quite as nice. (Brazil again wore white pants yesterday in their thrilling shoot-out win over Chile.) Grade: B+

Mexico

Mexico:


Mexico wore three different uniforms — green/black/red vs. Croatia, red/black/red vs. Brazil, and green/white/red-white vs. Cameroon. Their best look, red tops over white pants, was good, but the other two? Not so much. I actually like the red tops/black shorts combo, but I wasn’t sure that was Mexico. Grade: C+

Croatia

Croatia:


The checkerboard is such a cool look, and it was worn with white shorts in every match. They wore blue socks versus Brazil and Cameroon (a GREAT look) and white socks against Mexico (a very good look). One of the best looks in the World Cup. Grade: A-

Cameroon

Cameroon:


Two VERY different looks for Cameroon — monochrome gold versus Mexico, and the familiar green over red (with gold socks vs. Croatia and red socks against Brazil). The green over red, with either pair of socks, is great. The mono gold? Not so much. Takes ’em down a grade. Grade: B-

. . .

GROUP B

Netherlands

Netherlands:


Two looks — mono orange and mono blue (almost purple). Ugh. C’mon man, the Dutch are orange over white, and even though I won’t let my *expectations* influence how the kits look…well, they don’t look good. The all-orange is good (not great) but they only wore it ONCE (against Chile). They went all blue versus Spain and Australia. Not. Good. At. All. Very disappointing. Grade: C

Chile

Chile:


Chile wore white/white/white in two matches: versus the Netherlands and Spain, and went red/blue/blue versus Australia. Now, I do like white unis, but not on everyone. And not on Chile. The red/blue/blue is a great look, but we only got to see it once. We needed to see it more. Grade: B

Spain

Spain:


So much potential. Wasted. Three (yes three) unis were needed because either FIFA or Spain didn’t realize that the red uniform wasn’t “light”. So they needed to add the mono white. So Spain had mono white, mono red and mono black. Yes, I won’t subtract from the expected red over blue, but these three kits were all awful. At least we won’t need to worry about seeing any of them again. Huge fail for a nation that should have moved on to the knockout stage, uni and futbol-wise. Grade: D-

Australia

Australia:


Unfortunately, uni-wise, the Aussies won’t be moving on. But we got to see their beautiful gold (with green collar) tops three times, although they only wore the gold over green unis vs. Holland and Spain, having to go gold/gold against Chile. The green/gold is a beautiful color combination — the mono-gold not so much. Gotta drop them a peg for that. Grade: B+

. . .

GROUP C

colombia

Colombia:


Because of the teams in the group, Colombia was able to wear gold tops, white pants and socks all three games. Surprisingly (or not?), Colombia doesn’t have a long or storied World Cup history, (only 5 total tournaments), and they’d never worn this combo as a primary kit before. And while I don’t normally like gold over white, I do here. The stripes on the shirt are subtle enough, and the sash is nice. Good, solid look. Grade: B+

Greece

Greece:


Mono-blue and mono-white for Greece, who have only played in 3 World Cups, always wearing white and blue (with mono-white as their primary the last two). It’s a good, solid (if unspectacular) look, but nothing to really get all that excited about. I’d like to see them mix the top/bottoms up, but it’s just mono through the Group stage. Safe. And good enough to play again. Grade: B

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast:


Another nation with great potential, but relegated to wearing mono-green and mono-orange for the tourney. Shame, because the 1000% Elephants could have looked 1000% better. Still, the two mono unis aren’t awful, just very, very…monochrome. Grade: B-

Japan

Japan:


Like Colombia, Japan only wore one uniform for all three games, and it was mono-blue. For the first time in 5 World Cups, they didn’t have white pants, so this was a different look than we were used to. It’s just not a good look, unfortunately. Grade: C+

. . .

GROUP D

Costa Rica

Costa Rica:


Most nations don’t have very “jazzy” uniforms (with swirls and bumperstickers) but Costa Rica is one — not obnoxious, but present. And the red over blue is far superior to the mono white, but they only wore the red/blue against England. It works, but I would have liked to have seen it more than once. Grade: B

Uruguay

Uruguay:


Two looks — light blue over black/black (a great, classic look) and mono-white (pretty nice too). For some reason, I really like these kits — both sets. And despite that they were worn very tight (almost a size too small on some players), I’m ok with that. McGruff would be proud. Grade: A-

Italy

Italy:


For some reason, Italy wore mono-blue (they really need white pants, but alas…) for all three matches. It just doesn’t seem like them. For a tournament with only 32 teams, there were a few too many mono-blue teams, and Italy was one of them. Just didn’t work for me. Ciao. Grade: C+

England

England:


Like Italy, the English wore only one kit — a solid white one — throughout all three games of the round robin. They should have brought blue pants, because that would have made this a much better tournament, uni-wise. It might have made it a better tourney points-wise too. Who knows. They won’t be moving on. Grade: B-

. . .

GROUP E

France

France:


France went with three different combinations in their three games: white/white/white, white/blue/white, and blue/blue/red. Interestingly, they did not go with their familiar blue/white combo (maybe we’ll eventually see that). Still, each look is pretty good, with the white/blue/white being the best. Not a big fan of the mono-blue, but the red socks help that. Overall, pretty solid, Grade: B+

Switzerland

Switzerland:


The Swiss were able to wear their red top for all matches, and wore red pants and white pants. The red over white is a GREAT look, but the mono red is too much. I hope we see the red/white again. Grade: B

Ecuador

Ecuador:


Now, this is a uni set I didn’t think I’d like, but instead, I LOVE it. Not a fan (usually) of mono-blue, but in this case, it’s great. Both the blue top and the gold top are superb. Best unis of the tourney — sad we won’t see them again. Grade: A

Honduras

Honduras:


And as quickly as I pick the best set of the tourney, we get the worst. There is nothing to like about this (and they wore white/white/white for all three matches. That giant “H” on the chest has bugged me all tournament long. Buh-bye. Grade: D-

. . .

GROUP F

Argentina

Argentina:


Argentina is close to having the best uni in the tourney, and as fate would have it, they wore their classic white/light blue striped shirts throughout the Group Stage. The only thing keeping them from a top grade is the lack of black pants, which they’ve had for every World Cup since forever — and while I won’t count that against them, those look better than the white pants they’ve worn thus far. Grade: A-

Nigeria

Nigeria:


Nigeria has also worn just one outfit so far, and it’s pretty sweet — I’m not usually a fan of two shades of the same color, nor of neony colors, but in this case it works. Looks great out there and you KNOW you’re watching Nigeria when you see this kit. Grade: B+

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia-Herzegovinia


The first-timeers come in with a very basic blue and white set (white mono and blue mono) and there is nothing about these to distinguish them. They’re not bad, they’re just…there. Maybe next time, B&H. Grade: B-

Iran

Iran:


Despite the sublimated cheetah on their uniforms, I really like these (probably because you can’t really see the sublimated cheetah), and the white kit has enough green on it to really make it stand out. I thought I’d hate these, but they’re my surprise of the tourney. Well done! Grade: B+

. . .

GROUP G

Germany

Germany:


I generally like the German kit, although I’m not a big fan of the chevron on their white tops (and they could use black pants, dammit), and I do like their stripes (hoops?) on the black set. Solid effort, but not as good as it could have been. Grade: B+

United States:

United States


Unlike many of you (I’m guessing), I hate the bomb pop unis and LOVE the white kit. I don’t buy jerseys, but I actually strongly considered picking up the USA white. Maybe if it hits the deep discount rack at Marshalls’. And while I did NOT grade unis based on collar (polo) or t-shirt attributes, I strongly prefer collared shirts for soccer. Plus for the US white, minus for the red. Grade: B

Portugal

Portugal:


Portugal only wore their red kit in the Group Stage, and that was a-OK with me! I love the subtle shading on the top, and it was (almost) unique — Russia’s dark red seemed to be very similar — but you knew you were watching Portugal when they played. Great look, bad Cup. Grade: B+

Ghana

Ghana:


Ghana came in with another pair of monochrome unis, and like so many others, I was hoping they’d mix and match it up a little. While I blame FIFA for that, it still affects my view of the unis. Not terrible, not great, but middle-of-the-road. Gold pants would really have bumped them up a full grade. Grade: B-

. . .

GROUP H

Belgium

Belgium:


Belgium sports a pair (mono-red and mono-black) kits that nevertheless pop and have great color — and avoided needing to add a white kit like Spain did, despite having what I think FIFA considers two dark unis. The black one, which I didn’t think I’d like, is really nice, and the red one has plenty of gold via the numbers to make it stand out on its own. Well played, Belgium. Also — those colors pretty much assure the US will be in white when they meet up on Tuesday, so that’s one small added point. Grade: A-

Algeria

Algeria:


Algeria lucked into wearing only their white uniform set, and moved on to the Knockout Round. The good: it’s a nice, albeit plain uni. The bad: Numbers are almost impossible to read at distance. If they’d made that green darker, or put an outline around them, they’d be much better. The bad outweighs the good here. Grade: C

Russia

Russia:


Russia doesn’t have a deep World Cup history, but the unis they have worn in the past were pretty “wild” compared to these two staid kits. And that’s a good thing. They went with a deep red for their dark kit (which is a nice wine-ish color) and it looks great, while their white outfit is prefectly acceptable. Nice job. Grade: B

South Korea

South Korea:


A perfectly acceptable white kit (with just enough color from the shoulder inserts) and a nice red/blue/red dark one. But when I think red over blue, Chile and Costa Rica come to mind before South Korea. Still, I like the combo. They won’t be moving on, but they certainly represented well enough in the uni department, Grade: B

.. .. ..

And there you have it — my grades for all the unis actually worn during the Group Stage. Keep in mind this is just my opinion, and you’re more than welcome to disagree. I’m sure you will. Fire away.

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…and the Mets could be Royal(Giant)s

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Yesterday afternoon, the Mets and Pirates played a Negro League throwback game in Pittsburgh (part of Pittsburgh’s Heritage Weekend Celebration — something they do every year, and they do it well). As they usually do, the Pirates played as the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Let’s just take a look at their unis and see how those looked (and here’s a hint — they looked GREAT). Click on any photo, including the above, to enlarge.

Mets vs. Pirates - 6-28-14 - Negro League Throwback

Mets vs. Pirates - 6-28-14 - Negro League Throwback

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Very nice — All uniforms worn baggier even than today’s styles — indicative of the style of the Negro Leagues. Beautiful red socks (not stirrups, which may have been historically incorrect). Uniforms looked good. I’m not certain exactly what year (or years) the Pirates were throwing back to, but this jersey from 1944 appears to match what they wore yesterday. Mickey’s Place sells a cap similar to the one they wore yesterday, saying it’s a 1935 model. I honestly do not know if they ever wore those jerseys and caps together, or if this was a mash-up. Regardless, it looked beautiful. Only (small) quibble I had was the fact that, although helmets weren’t worn back then, the Pirates wore their black helmets when they came to bat.

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

For a team that plays as the Crawfords (and also as the Grays) as often as they do, you’d think they would get some kind of generic helmet (or at least take the “P” sticker off). Seems like every throwback, as well as they do them, they don’t even attempt to create any ‘period appropriate’ helmets. Other than that, though…the Pirates looked great.

The Mets on the other hand…

Mets vs. Pirates - 6-28-14 - Negro League Throwback


Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Mets vs Pirates - June 28, 2014 - Negro League Throwbacks

Mets vs. Pirates - 6-28-14 - Negro League Throwback

That is a LOT of Royal. A LOT. As soon as I saw the top (about 4 hours before the game), I thought, “wow, I bet they go mono-dark” and sure enough they did. So I did some very cursory digging, and I could not find ANY all-dark uni that approximated what the Mets wore yesterday — I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I’m just saying I couldn’t find any photographic evidence of it. The closest I could find was this. That could be royal in color, but it’s hard to tell from a black and white photo of that vintage.

Ebbets Field did create this Royal Giants cap (and that’s basically the cap worn by the Mets yesterday). So it is entirely possible that that was the color worn by the Royal Giants back in the early years of the 20th Century — certainly the name “Royal” implies the color “royal,” but that’s not always the case.

Interstingly, while the Pirates have (apparently) never created a “throwback” helmet to match the uniforms, the Mets actually not only went the extra mile and added interlocking RG stickers to their helmets, they even used them for the catcher’s flapless helmet.

Interesting team the Mets & Pirates chose to throwback to (previously the Mets have played as the New York Cubans in throwback games). Because of the fact that New York had three professional Major League Franchises, there were not a lot of Negro League teams to call New York home. The most famous would have been the New York Black Yankees, but also the Cubans and the Royal Giants called the area home for a period. The Brooklyn Eagles played for one season before moving to Newark and becoming the Newark Eagles.

There’s not too much history on the “Brooklyn Royal Giants” (I’ve also heard they were the “New York Brooklyn Royal Giants”), but Newsday offered the following:

“The Royal Giants played from 1905 to 1942 as a member of the National Association and the Eastern Colored League. They also played as an independent franchise for some of their history.

“Their best days came during the dead-ball era, when they were considered a top East Coast team. The club once beat Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics in a pair of exhibition matchups.”

Wikipedia’s history isn’t much deeper. The best history of Brooklyn Negro League history is likely found here.

That being said, I was not a fan of the uniforms worn yesterday — it’s not that they weren’t historically accurate (they may very well have been), but they were not attractive. And as someone who has HOPED some team would adopt a full monochrome dark uniform for some time, I’m beginning to rethink my position. There was simply TOO MUCH royal. The helmets (caps), sleeves and socks all were royal blue, and despite the beautiful piping on the shoulders, sleeves, hems and pants, it didn’t help the overall appearance. I have said before (and I’ll say again), monochrome dark isn’t the problem — it just needs to be it does look good. But caps, sleeves and socks should all be at least a slightly different color from the rest of the uniform. Even modern baseball’s two most recent teams to go monodark — the White Sox and the Pirates — did so by having different color caps/socks/sleeves.

I actually watched a bunch of the game yesterday, being as it was a Mets game and hence on my local television. It was enjoyable enough to watch, but after a while the royal became overpowering. I can only imagine if the uniform was worn a bit more snug (although still baggy, because that’s how ballplayers wear it today) and with pajama pants. It would look worse than the Mets did yesterday. And make no mistake, they didn’t look very good. It was great to see (once) and if historically accurate, then I’m pleased it was done. But that sort of uniform should never see the light of day again. Please. Readers? How about you?

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Vilk World Cup 5 & 1

Jim Vilk’s

World Cup 5 & 1

Once every four years or so, Jim seems to come out of the Vilk-cave and bless us with another of his beloved Five and One’s — for those of you not familiar — Jim picks Five good uniform matchups, and One bad matchup. Sometimes he picks more than that, giving us honorable mentions, color palette specials, etc. It’s all in good fun and he’s always wrong and he really does a good job with justifying why he picks what he picks.

Today, he’s back with the first (of two) 5 & 1’s for the World Cup. The selections in this set will cover all of the games of the Group Stage. He’ll be back again when the World Cup is over to give us another 5 & 1 for all the games from the knockout round to the final game.

So…without further ado…here’s Jimmer:

. . .

Let me get this straight: FIFA claims they want as many monochrome matchups as possible because HDTV can’t handle colors as well as good old analog? Well, you know I love a color palette special, so PFFFFT to HDTV and kudos to the teams that said PFFFT to FIFA. As a result, you’ll be lucky to find any mono a mono games in my top five.

Some awards first:

Favorite Uniform: Belgium’s black alternate – Font-tastic, with great diagonal lines.

Least Favorite Uniform: England – Eng-bland.

Uniform I Thought I Wouldn’t Like, But Did: Costa Rica – Those goofy lines grew on me quickly.

Uniform I Thought I Would Like, But Didn’t: Algeria – Red numbers really would have helped.

Honorable Mentions to

Ghana/USA – The bomb pops are WAY better than the USA’s white uniforms.

• …to Ivory Coast/Japan – The Dutch aren’t the only ones who can rock the orange.

• …and to Nigeria/Argentina – I don’t like all green on grass, unless it’s a really bright green.

___________

And now the Top Five matchups:

5. Belgium/Russia – OK, one mono a mono game made it, but at least Russia added a little splash to their whites.

4. Brazil/Mexico – Muy bueno, even though El Tri didn’t wear their green tops.

3. Colombia/Greece – Loving that Colombia jersey!

2. Switzerland/Ecuador – Remember when Superman used to wear blue and red in those shades?

1. Cameroon/Croatia – The Beautiful Game, indeed!

And the &1 goes to…

USA/Portugal – If you could go gradient, Portugal, you could have gone red and green.

See you after the final for the knockout 5&1. Play nice, everyone.

. . .

Thanks, Jim! Always great to have you back in the old 5 & 1 saddle…

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Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: “I saw someone submitted photos of the Rickwood Classic Birmingham Barons throwbacks, but there weren’t pics of both teams so I though I would send some if you wanted to use them,” writes Shane (who also goes by “Dr. Miraculous”) “The Ms. Braves and Barons were both into the uniforms, though they were obviously not wool. Some of the players didn’t know how to blouse their pants, but at least they all wore stirrups or stockings. Even the umpires got into the spirit, >wearing 1920s style ump duds including bow ties, though I felt the sunglasses made the first base ump look like an old cartoon depicting a Blind Umpire. Everyone was in classic uniforms, vendors and newsmen as well as players and fans. I must have seen a dozen guys in seersucker suits! I wore my House of David jersey with flannel pants and stirrups ”“ but you cant see the rups in my pic with The Bambino impersonator. Thanks go out to Comrade Marshall for the stirrups.” … Wow — check out this beautiful photo of Ol’ Blue Eyes and the Iron Horse (that’s Frank Sinatra and Lou Gehrig, for you kids), send in by Douglas Ford. … It was Star Wars Night for the Peoria Chiefs (h/t Tyler Crum). … Not sure of the teams, but a pair of high schools thought it would be fun to hook in a camo-vs.-camo match (via Gary Rasberry). … Also from the “lets try to wear the same tops” department are the Brewers and Rockies (pic via Justin Karweik), who went purple vs. blue yesterday (that pic via CJ Fogler).

NFL News: In recognition of the 15th anniversary of the Super Bowl XXXIV champions, the St. Louis Rams will will wear their blue and yellow throwback jerseys as they host the 49ers, and also when they host the New York Giants on Dec. 21 (thanks to Josh Claywell), who adds, “Not sure how all this will work if the Rams can’t wear more than one helmet.” It seemed to work OK last year when they wore the throwbacks against the Titans.

College Football News: In addition to their new black matte helmet and pants (so now they can go mono-black), Ball State also has new red jerseys from Nike (h/t to Joe Tacosik).

Hockey News: Not much big news went down at Friday night’s NHL draft, but the Buffalo Sabres did liven things up with a bit of an apostrophe catastrophe on their draft sweaters (thanks to Jon Covney for the screenshot). There is also a closer view provided by Jeff Bryniarski.

Soccer News: It seems like everyone, and I do mean everyone, is getting into the World Cup spirit these days, including Brady Phelps, who has done his part by (trying) to make Tim Howard pancakes. Now that’s dedication.

Grab Bag: “Claiming deep ties to Chicago area,” says Warren Junium, Under Armour has opened up its first store in Chicago. … A guy who runs a company named — wait for it — “Shinola,’ a manufacturer of watches, bicycles, leather goods and more — remarks on the beauty of American-made products. The jokes may write themselves. (Thanks to TommyTheCPA for the find). … “I just happened to look at the FIVB World League match between Cuba and China today and saw Chinese men’s volleyball player Yuan Zhi,” says Pacific Rim correspondent Jeremy Brahm. “China has been playing on the road for all of its matches and I saw in the video that his uniform was spelled YNAU Z. I thought that it was only from today’s match, but this was even from a match two weeks ago. Red shot on June 13th, and white shot on June 6th (which is what I saw [yester]day), and then in black on June 15th.” He concludes, “I am guessing that the mistake was made before the team traveled for their matches and as they’ve been on the road for a month, they’ve not had a chance to correct it.” … Here is a closeup of Roger Federer’s shoes (at Wimbledon), from Brinke. Note the “7” and trophy, which is indicative of the fact that Federer has won 7 Gentlemens Singles titles there. … Also from Brinke, are tennis stars bringing too much baggage onto the court with them? … Rugby-dude (also Aussie Rules Footie-dude) Leo Strawn, Jr. notes there were “two nice colour-on-colour matches were played in AFL (so far) this weekend, as the two Sydney teams squared off and the Hawks and Suns also played a beautiful match.”

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Whew! And that’s all for this fine Sunday — hope everyone had a good one and a good past week. I’ll gladly hand the keys back over to Paul now as he returns LIVE on Monday, fresh from his much-deserved vacation to Nova Scotia this past week. Thanks for humoring me all week — and a big thanks to Johnny Ek, Mike and Garrett for their assistance with the tickers in Paul’s stead. Everyone have a great week!

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“Fifa bribes, intimidates, overlooks massive violations of human rights etc. but never mind all that because they really get their kicks from deciding what shorts the teams should wear.”
–Padday

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Comments (61)

    I think the Mets looked pretty good. They could use some white outlining around all of the red text and numbers, and some red stripes on the socks, but aside from that…

    100% agreed. White outlines and something on the socks (or just change their color) and these uniforms are perfect.

    Whether or not the Pirates should do anything about one-off helmets, they’re a franchise that kept their black helmets for the rest of 1970 despite switching to gold caps in July, and then stuck with gold helmets for another couple years after they last wore gold caps in 1984. So I’m never surprised that they make no effort.

    In a perfect world, we would see matching batting helmets all the time with throwback uniforms, especially with a uniform from that specific franchise. The Crawfords only existed for eight years, and despite their talented roster, had the bad luck of debuting during the Depression. The other issue which hurt the Crawfords was playing in an MLB city and the Pirates were successful during the 30s, with four hall of famers in action during that era.

    While I agree it’s a good idea to honor other teams which played in a specific city in the past, it’s a bigger mistake not to use the correct logo with a batting helmet with the current, traditional team.

    When I turned the Mets on in the second inning, I cringed at the sight of those unis. It was a shock. I’m disappointed I missed what the announcers said about them…although I can imagine since, I did hear them say something to the affect of “well the Pirates look good anyway.”

    The font looks like a bootleg. If someone showed me this jersey was very historically accurate, which I doubt it is, it would lessen my scorn. I found a better uni which would have looked great, is in Mets colors and looks like something the Mets could have worn had they been around in 1927:

    link

    Why would the “jokes write themselves” on the Shinola article? I don’t get it…

    Because of the saying…? You know, the guy who doesn’t “know corn from canola”.

    Shinola is a Detroit success story. They’re made right in the Motor City and are extremely high quality.

    Go Shinola!

    People need to stop making jokes about Detroit and come and see it. It’s making a major comeback.

    The joke isn’t Detroit-related. This time.

    You’ve never heard the old saying “You don’t know shit from shinola” before?

    Shinola was a brand of shoe polish.

    From Wikipedia: The management at Bedrock Manufacturing chose the name “Shinola” when the World War II era colloquialism, “You don’t know shit from Shinola,” surfaced in a conversation. Unexpectedly, the joke generated a serious discussion about restoring the Shinola brand

    Of course I have. But if you read the article, that phrase is referred to. It’s not like they don’t know about it, so I don’t see where the “jokes” come into play.

    Under Armour’s new store in Chicago is likely a direct result of it now being Notre Dame’s uniform supplier.

    I was with Phil on just about everything except Nigeria. I have a huge soft spot for African teams in the World Cup, especially Nigeria. Always have. I blame a college professor I had who was really into post-colonial theory. Anyway, for me, Nigeria had unis that worked in theory, but not in practice. On TV, the neon green is just too light. Literally hard to see the players on the grass. It might have worked if the darker green provided enough contrast to define the players, but even the darker green was too light. To my eye, they looked nothing like Nigeria – had I not already known about Nigeria’s uniform, I’d have wondered what jumped-up wannabe African team made the tournament and was trying to copy Nigeria’s look with crappy colors.

    And 100% agreement on USA. The whites were so good they even sold me on the mono look, which I otherwise hate. I’d never thought of it before, but I do sort of regard the collar as an “American” detail. I saw the bomb pop jerseys in the wild on Thursday, and as bad as it looks on TV, it’s even worse in person. If the blue and white had been a true yoke, and continued onto the back, it might at least be tolerable.

    Perhaps it’s a thing where FIFA doesn’t allow the yoke to continue to the back; in other words, the back — from the collar to the end of the numbers — has to be a solid color. Australia had similar uniforms to the Bomb Pops a few years ago, and the backs were solid gold or navy.

    I could see Nigeria just fine in their neon greens. It was Ivory Coast in their dark greens I had a harder time seeing…they reminded me of Boise State on blue turf.

    The USA whites could have been redeemed with two simple fixes: 1) contrasting collar (see Greece & Australia) and 2) contrasting colors for the NOB and numbers. OK, three things. 3) wider number font. The US whites looked too much like Engbland’s. Save the all-whites for Wimbledon…this is futbol!

    Phil, Phil, Phil… Did you just throw that Ecuador grade in there to make sure we were really reading the lede today? Those were one of the worst sets in the entire field!

    The colors aren’t terrible together, but that design? Woof. Too busy and too haphazard. Do you have family from Ecuador? I’m struggling to find a logical reason for such an intelligent man to make such a boneheaded assessment. I’ve got it. You fell and bumped your head! Thoughts and prayers, Phil. Thoughts and prayers.

    Pffft. For once Phil pleasantly surprised me. Since I love Ecuador’s uniforms I thought he’d hate them. Same for Colombia and especially Costa Rica.

    Maybe I’m starting to rub off on him. So you can blame me, Coleman.

    Is there some reason that outlined numbers seem to have completely disappeared from soccer jerseys these days?

    I remember the white outline on the red numerals that the infamous (and by infamous, I mean awesome) 1994 USA “denim” soccer jerseys had. England and Scotland had outlined varsity block numbers too. These days it seems like it’s all exotic number fonts made less readable by the lack of outlining.

    I think the FIFA uniform regulations no longer allow numbers with contrasting trim. Which is unfortunate, for the reasons you mention.

    In the FIFA equipment regulations PDF, one of the examples is an Irish jersey with orange outline around a white number.

    My guess is this is more about the current design trend favoring flatness.

    But you don’t even see the Irish wearing such numbers anymore. This may speak to your point about current design fads; I also think FIFA doesn’t update their technical regulations as thoroughly as they should.

    I didn’t like them when I first saw them pictured (probably on this site), but they have really grown on me. In fact, I just ordered one to wear on Tuesday.

    You’re out of your mind. This year’s Dutch kit is the epitome of class. None of the other kits (maybe the French) even come close to it. You guys are inconsistent as hell in your critiques and I can’t take any of you serious any more. Everything about the Holland kit feels like a thought out, purposeful decision. Sure, its a bit understated, but at least it feels finished, unlike anything the usmnt kit. Its not tacky (like Mexico’s luchalibre inspired kit), it doesn’t have random swoops or stripes (like the majority of Puma’s kits) and it doesn’t feel like the sponsor branding is influencing the kit design (like the rest of the Adidas kits). Y’all complain all day about logo creep but when a designer actually gets something right you don’t know what to do.

    The Netherlands also get points for retaining noted designer Wim Crouwel to design the font for their numbers and letters:

    link

    link

    I LOVE the Dutch blue uniforms. Granted, I am a sucker for blue-and-orange, but they are my favorite kits of the tournament.

    Shame about England – they were supposedly going to submit white/navy/white as the primary set but were basically told they’d be wearing mono-white.

    And too bad we didn’t get to see their red away – it’s about as iconic an away kit as you get in soccer, and Nike did a good job with it this time around.

    If England were going to have submitted navy shorts (not “pants”) as part of their primary uniform, they would probably have to change the color of their numbers to match, as well as the coloring of the three lions on the FA badge.

    Not necessarily – light blue can coexist with navy blue. England’s Euro 96 uni had light blue number outlines, basically making the numbers look light blue from a distance.

    Oh I know the two blue shades can, and do, work well together. And that England has used them in the past. But if you’re going with monochrome numbers (by choice or as required by rules), it seems to me that matching the blue shade across name, number, and logo is more effective.

    The sublimated feline on Iran’s uniforms is a cheetah, not a tiger. The Asiatic cheetah is critically endangered, and tigers don’t live in Iran.

    Shit — you’re absolutely right — I should have remembered it wasn’t a tiger when I did the write-up. Now fixed.

    16 teams wore mono-white during the group stages. 7 teams wore mono red. 6 wore mono blue.

    The Bomb Pops (along with a handful of others) are practically an oasis in the desert that has been probably the most chromatically dull World Cup in the history of the competition.

    I’m guessing I’ll be in the minority but, those Mets throwbacks were absolutely fantastic! Loved the all royal look with a splash of orange. Definitely one of the nicer unis I’ve ever seen.

    Mexico in green/white/white, their fourth different combo in as many matches.

    Netherlands again in the unfortunate mono-orange.

    World Cup:

    In group play who determines which team has to wear the change kit, should the two uniforms not clash?

    In knockout play, the round of 16, does the current round’s group winners all get their primary kit because they’re playing the other groups’ runners-up?

    And how is that grokked out going forward?

    The team that is listed first, or on the left side (look at the official FIFA schedule, or the ESPN bugs and ads) is Team A. They get first choice of kits. The other team had to adapt. FIFA get the final say, as they consider what the referees will wear.

    Consider the Netherlands-Spain group match. The Netherlands were Team A, so you’d think they’d choose orange, forcing Spain into their change kit of black. Ah, but the referees were wearing red shirts (which might contrast with the orange). So both tes went to a change kit; the Netherlands with their blue/purple, and Spain with an emergency all-white kit. Yeah, it makes no sense….

    For the rest of the Rounfld of 16, I’d guess (home team first):

    CRC (red/blue/blue) vs GRE (white). I have read somewhere that CRC is going all white, though.

    FRA (navy/white/red) vs NGA (green)

    GER (white) vs ALG (green)

    ARG (white) vs SUI (red)

    BEL (red) vs USA (white).

    Brazil is designated the home team against Colombia on Friday. I’ll guess they’ll wear yellow/white/white, and Colombia will wear red/navy/red

    I’m thinking FIFA will make Nigeria wear all-white, making France wear navy/navy/red.

    Refs should just wear gray all the time. Although I’d rather some team go gray, but there isn’t much history of that, is there?

    That was a nice one, Padday. Forgot about that.

    Toronto FC wore gray alts in the past.
    link
    The first kit didn’t have a sponsor, though, so that’s a little revisionist history.

    And there were those grey kits worn by Manchester United: link

    The reason why we don’t see grey all too often might have something to do with the complaints that the United players couldn’t see their teammates while wearing them which on one occasion led to them changing kit at half time during a game they were losing.

    I stand corrected…I just saw some video from the inaugural season, and they did have the sponsor.

    They used to sell jerseys and shirts with TORONTO instead of the sponsor.
    link
    I have one of the shirts.

    You’d think the refs shirt colours would be determined after all the teams had their regular and change kits submitted for the tournament. Pick a colour for the refs that is as far away from what is being used and another contrasting colour/pattern in case that colour is too close to one or two shirts being used.

    You’d see some more primary kits in games (which I’d think you would want). You would think the players would get priority over the refs – just based on number of people in each category.

    From the comments here it seems there is a lack of grey generally being used. That could be a primary shirt for refs.

    Too much sense for FIFA or is there some sort of half decent reasoning behind what they do?

    Per FIFA regulations, each match has a Team A and Team B, and Team A (basically, the team listed first) will wear the primary choice, though both teams can be asked to wear different shorts and socks.

    So yeah, in the round of 16, group winners are Team A.

    To elaborate on the above explanations, the “home” and “away” designations were predetermined by a Fifa schedule that was drawn up before the groups were even drawn and which were decided based on seeding. You can see the schedule on p51 of this: link

    Similarly, the designations for the rest of the knockout stages seems to have been predetermined by the Fifa schedule which you can see on the next few pages of the above document. Hence, the US will be designated away for the remainder of the games they’ll be playing, regardless of how far they get, while Brazil for example will be “home” for as long as they stay in it.

    Are they the “Crawford” or the “Crawfords”. Looks like they left the “s” of the jerseys or was that already explained somewhere else?

    They were named for the owner’s (Gus Greenlee) Crawford Grill, so the jerseys said “Crawford” without the “S”.

    The picture you used for Portugal/Ronaldo is not from this World Cup.
    I believe those are the shirts Portugal wore during qualifications.

    Just a heads up.

    It’s good to see Hawthorne got rid of the white panel with black numbers.

    That camo-vs.-camo high school baseball game appears to be Ohio’s Parkway Panthers (in the lighter jerseys) and Fort Recovery Indians (in the darker jerseys), and it looks like Fort Recovery’s camo may be purple:

    link

    Don’t really follow soccer (football) much or often. What is the origin of and/or how far back does calling the horizontal stripes on soccer jerseys (football shirts) ‘hoops’?

    The Sinatra/Gehrig photo was taken during the ’39 World Series. I didn’t realize Lou still traveled with The Yankees after his famous July 4th speech. Awesome discovery!

    Italy should be given a pass on the mono-blue look. They wear it because of one of their kings or something. But they’ve been blue for ever.

    For the U.S. popcicle, Nike is a disgrace. They really need to look up what the United States colors are as that blue is not a dark blue. There are unofficial official Pantone colors for the American flag. This looks like Russia…

    Soccer uniform colors are not always consistent with their flags. France was bright blue with Adidas, now dark with Nike. Russia, normally bright red, is dark red this year. The blue accent in Colombia’s uniforms is a little dark, too.

    It’s standard sports design nonsense, and maybe just for the sake of change.

    Check out the google home page today. It’s an animation of drawing the lines of the field with the French and Nigerian flags.

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