Paul’s Substack Is Back!

Hi there. Remember me?

Before I say anything else, let’s have a standing O for the great Phil Hecken, who’s totally been hitting it out of the park in his new role at the Uni Watch helm. And the same goes for weekend editor Jim Vilk — big thanks to both of them for keeping the site running without missing a beat, and even bigger congrats to them on the great job they’re doing.

As for me, I’m happy to report that my new Substack project, Inconspicuous Consumption, has launched. The first installment is available here (it’s not paywalled, so it’s available to everyone), and that post also has plenty of info about how the project will be moving forward. I hope you’ll check it out!

Meanwhile, I’m both happy and sad to report that the Uni Watch membership card program is now complete. As you may recall, the final day to order a card was back on May 26 (my last day at Uni Watch), and we ended up getting deluged by hundreds of orders during that last week or so. But thanks to some seriously diligent work by card designer Scott M.X. Turner, every card has now been designed (including Susan Freeman’s very handsome Astros City Connect card, shown above). You can see final results in the membership card gallery.

There are still about two dozen cards that haven’t yet been printed, laminated, and mailed out, but I’ll be getting to those this week. So if you haven’t yet received your card, don’t worry — it’s coming. Thanks for your patience!

The membership card program, which launched in 2007, was an immensely satisfying creative project for Scott and me. We really enjoyed the back-and-forth with Uni Watch readers regarding their card orders, working to get all the design details Just Right, and the fun of seeing all the designs in the ever-growing card gallery. We’re both a bit sad that the project has come to a close, and we even briefly discussed the idea of keeping it going, but we’ve ultimately agreed that it’s time to stop. We’re super-grateful to the thousands of you who participated in this project over the years and made it such a success. Thank you!!

Finally, I realize you folks may be curious about what I’ve been up over the past seven weeks, so let’s shift into Q&A mode:

What have you been doing since you left Uni Watch at the end of May?

Honestly, I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with all those membership card orders! Also, my girlfriend, E, moved from New Jersey to NYC in late June, so I spent a lot of that month helping her with packing, tossing, donating, yard sale-ing, and so on.

Have you missed Uni Watch?

I’ve missed the sense of comm-uni-ty. But I haven’t missed writing about uniforms at all — like, literally not one little bit. Twenty-five years was enough.

Are you reading the site?

I occasionally check in, but I’m not reading the site regularly. For one thing, I don’t want Phil to feel like I’m always looking over his shoulder. Also, I just needed a break from the uni-verse, and that has felt very healthy. Last month a friend who’s a big Orioles fan texted me to say, “Can you believe this shit?” He was referring to the O’s new sleeve ad, which had just been announced, but I hadn’t heard about it and had no idea what he was talking about. I loved that!

You said you haven’t missed writing about uniforms, but have you just missed writing in general?

Yes, very much. Creating that first Inconspicuous Consumption post felt so good. I’m definitely happier when I’m making things, flexing my creative muscles, and so on.

Will you be doing any other writing, aside from Inconspicuous Consumption?

For now, my priority is to focus on IC. Once that project gets established and grounded, I’ll see whether I want to pursue other work.

How are Biscuit and Waffles?

They’re now about 11 months old, and they’re doing great! And it’s amazing how often they pose together — these photos were all taken on separate days during the past few weeks:

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That’s enough for now. One more time, the launch of Inconspicuous Consumption is available here. Hope everyone’s having a great summer! Peace. — Paul