New beginning.
New look. pic.twitter.com/qfr9wHzg34
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) June 13, 2023
[This post is part of Uni Watch Positivity Week. You can learn more about that here, and you can see all the UWPW posts here. — PL]
Yesterday afternoon I wrote about how the Panthers were posting a lot of short video clips that showed the new tailoring and new color tone on their blue alternate jersey. Last night they posted another clip, this time showing linebacker Brian Burns pairing the blue jersey with the team’s black alternate helmet — a uni combo that, so far, has never appeared on the field.
In the video, Burns talks about his switch from wearing No. 53 to No. 0, which he describes as a “new beginning,” but the same could be said about the black helmet being paired with the blue jersey.
The Panthers introduced the black helmet last year as part of the NFL’s new program to allow alternate helmets after scrapping the one-shell rule. The black lids appeared on-field just once, as part of a mono-black combo that the team wore against the Falcons:
As for the team’s blue alternate jersey, it too appeared just once last year, for a late-season game against the Bucs, and was paired with the team’s standard silver helmet:
It’s not yet clear whether the team plans to wear the black/blue combo in 2023, or if it was just something they tried out in yesterday’s photo shoot, but it’s an intriguing possibility.
Meanwhile, following up on another aspect of yestserday’s Panthers post: Now that the Panthers have released so many of these video clips, we can see that there’s a fair amount of variation in how the shoulder stripes are being handled. They don’t necessarily taper to a point after all:
Finally: It’s odd that the Panthers are doing all these photo shoots featuring players wearing the blue jersey — a jersey that they wore just once in 2022. Hmmmm.
The black helmet needs some silver.
Nailed it.
You still won’t convince me the black helmet looks good, but the really bad news here is the tapered shoulder striped aren’t consistent. The tapered stripe looked really nice.
Not gonna lie, the black helmet, blue jersey, black pants looks kind of good.
I think so too, but the helmet could use a little bit of silver or white
The black/blue/black reminds me of Jacksonville. Obviously they’re not quite blue, but…
“Finally: It’s odd that the Panthers are doing all these photo shoots featuring players wearing the blue jersey — a jersey that they wore just once in 2022. Hmmmm.”
Paul is trying to stay positive, while I’m guessing that they are overstocked with blue jerseys and it’s just a merch push.
I’d think the blue would outsell the others, but have nothing to base that on but my gut.
I would approve of a silver/blue/silver Panthers home standard, keeping the black helmet/tops/pants as the alt option.
I’ll add that I prefer it when teams which can go white-over-white on the road do so.
Upon further consideration…maybe silver/blue/silver isn’t the way to go:
link
“It’s not yet clear whether the team plans to wear the black/blue combo in 2023, or if it was just something they tried out in yesterday’s photo shoot, but it’s an intriguing possibility.”
Last season the Panthers were permitted to wear their new black helmet with their primary jersey (something NOT permitted under alt-helmet rules) because they deemed the black jersey/black pants to be their alt/CR uniform…so they were playing a bit fast and loose with the new rule. I’m wondering if that’s still permissible or if the NFL changed the alt-helmet rules.
The Cowboys, too, seemed to skirt the rule (in a different way) when they paired their white hats with both their 1960 throwback AND their “icy white” combination.
I would normally think the Panthers would be forbidden from pairing the black hat with anything but the black jersey/pants, but apparently — at least going by the Cowboys example — they can *also* pair the black hat with the Process Blue jersey.
Not a fan of the black helmet paired with anything. I do not like the blue jersey or black pants either for that matter. Teams will do what they think is hip and cool so I wouldn’t be surprised if they wear more of those yucky items this season. In my world they’d stick to the silver helmet, black jerseys and silver pants. It’s quite the combination that could stand the test of time and become a classic like Packers, Bears, Steelers, Cowboys white etc. So of course they’ll screw it up and wear more of this garbage.
“In my world they’d stick to the silver helmet, black jerseys and silver pants. It’s quite the combination that could stand the test of time and become a classic…”
….just like the Raiders ; )
IIRC, they were not at all happy when the Panthers adopted those colors for their uniforms.
For me any combination with the Panthers seem to work. I like their colors, their logo and their freestyle approach: any combination might be made. The black helmet needs a little silver though, I agree. But the white, blue and black jerseys are all fine, as are the different colors of pants. But except for white on white no monochrome please.
Their teeny-tiny little shoulder numbers are still the biggest issue with this uniform, gotta do something about those
I don’t care for the black helmet, but at least the Panthers are one of the few teams in the league who have a legitimate claim to include black as part of their color scheme. So, there’s that.
Not liking that look. The black helmet makes the blue helmet stripe look like a mismatch with the blue on the jersey. I’ve always thought the Ravens have the same issue, with the black helmet making the purple stripe look like a different shade than the jerseys. The helmets also could white or silver trim to mesh more with the jerseys.
I was in favor of the zero, but now thing zeroes look weird. I mean, 3, 6, 8 and 9 are in roughly the same condition and size and shape, but don’t look weird to me, while 0 does.
*think
The Panthers uniforms to me, are the definition of just fine. They aren’t beautiful, they aren’t ugly. They’re just fine. With the way Nike is though, I think the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. The odds of Nike making a truly ugly set when they do go for a full change is way higher than the odds of Nike improving them. So they should stay just fine.
No positivity from me! Always have been a Panthers fan. Love the blue jersey but hate it with black pants. Blue would be ok as a primary look but only with a silver helmet and silver pants. Not a fan of the black helmet as it needs to be gloss and have some silver added to it.
Three players – three different shoulder loop looks. The Panther’s have always had this problem. Maybe someone should have told them.
Perhaps the blue jerseys are just the best way to show that ‘correct’ blue is now being used.
Shoulder numbers are still too small.
The blue jersey with black pants? Not bad. Add the black helmet instead of the silver? Awesome look.
Hahaha. Shortest uni review ever by Paul. I think this week is going to resemble “The Contest” on Seinfeld.
The modern nfl uniform doesn’t fit 4 items on a sleeve. 1) TV number 2) Logo/word mark 3) Nike logo 4) stripe or slash or whatever.
The Panthers have all 4…since the Nike logo has to stay “eye roll” ditch the TV numbers and the Panther logo it would help clean things up a bit. The logo is already on the helmet. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. Doubling up on the helmet logo.
I can go on for hours but just want to focus on this topic.
Can’t help but wonder if Tepper wants to eliminate silver. Raiders own silver & black. Richardson would have never dumped silver, if for no other reason than to not capitulate to the Raiders. Tepper has no such hangup.
Well he’s been a pretty terrible owner so far, so that is exactly something i would expect him to do.
The Panthers are out here promoting their worst jersey combo (blue jerseys/black pants.) The blue jerseys have never looked good, no matter which pants they’re paired with, but matching them with black bottoms is the absolute worst, even more than the color rush mono blue.
The classic black/silver and white/white are by far the best uniform combos they have. Also, there are enough stripes and other colors that no one is remotely confusing them with the raiders (who don’t have a monopoly on black or silver BTW)