Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the New York Football Giants released their 2024 Uniform Schedule, and I was genuinely surprised at the number of comments pertaining to the Giants road uniform. In that piece, it was noted that the Giants, in order to accommodate their new “Legacy Red” uniform, will be ditching their designated “Color Rush” uniform, which is basically a throwback to their 1980s/1990s road uniforms.
Except for the white socks (and a couple other very minor tweaks), that’s pretty much what they wore on the road during their Super Bowl XXI and XXV winning seasons. Nostalgia aside, I think most of us can agree that’s a pretty good looking uniform. And I think many of us would argue it’s a superior uniform, from the neck down, than their current road uniform.
The current roadie features a white jersey and pants, and the jersey has red Northwestern stripes on the sleeve caps, along with block red numbers; the pants also have the Northwestern stripe. Socks are red. So, the team has a blue helmet with a thin red stripe, but not a single blue element from the neck down. How, you may ask, does a team whose nickname is “Big Blue” not have any blue anywhere on their uniform except for the helmet? And why does the road uniform look so different from the home?
Aside from the helmet, these are basically two completely different uniforms. The home jersey is solid blue with white block numbers. Pants are white with a blue/gray/red/gray/blue striping pattern, and socks are blue. As mentioned above, the road jersey and pants both have a Northwestern striping pattern and nary a speck of blue.
But it wasn’t always this way.
In order to properly assess the current road uniform, we need to go back in time many many decades. From their birth in 1925 through 1936, the Giants were predominantly a red team; it wasn’t until 1937 when they introduced their first solid blue jersey, and that was paired with both gray and tan pants. In fact, the 1937 uniform with the blue jersey looked very much like what the Giants wore as recently as 2018! For games when the opposition wore blue (or similar dark shades), the team wore a red jersey. Aside from minor changes to the helmet, the Giants continued to wear their blue/gray uniforms — except against similarly attired teams, when they would wear their red jerseys — from 1937 through 1952. With the advent of games being broadcast in black and white TV, teams began adding white alternate jerseys (mandated in 1956) in order to provide contrast for the TV audience. The Giants first added a white jersey in 1953. They would add Northwestern stripes to the white jersey in 1954. While the red jersey remained until 1956, it was rendered superfluous by the white jersey, and in 1957, the Giants would adopt a familiar look, adding the red/gray/blue/gray/red striping pattern to the gray pants.
They would keep this look into the 1960s, with the first small change taking place in 1961. They added the classic “ny” to their helmets, and changed the striping pattern on the pants. They kept that basic look until 1965. Finally, in 1966, the Giants made major changes (for them) to the uniform, ditching the gray pants for white, and adding a blue/red/blue stripe to the white jersey and pants. Save for the helmet logo reading “ny” these uniforms were very similar to the 1980s/1990s uniforms. I happen to think 1966-1974 was their finest look; one which they have come close to, but have never quite replicated, since then. I mean, c’mon, how great is this:
Things went off the rails a bit after that, as the team underwent a major overhaul, briefly introducing the “Disco” NY logo, and blue pants, and redesigning the jerseys and pants. The following season, with their move to the Meadowlands, the team introduced the “GIANTS” helmet, and by 1979, finally ditched the blue pants. In 1980, the team would debut the uniform in which (in a few years) they would win their first two Super Bowls, and to which they had been throwing back the past several seasons. They would wear that look, with very few changes, until 1999.
Beginning with the 2000 season, the team redesigned to “throw back” to their uniform set from the early 1960s for the home uniform. However, their road jersey didn’t quite match up with the more red-heavy look and Northwestern striping from the past. The new road jersey had red numbers outlined in blue, and a blue collar, and no stripes on the sleeves. It wasn’t until 2005 that the team tweaked the road uniform to return the Northwestern stripes and changed up the striping pattern for the road pants. In 2009, the team would ditch the home gray pants and wore gray pants with the red/gray/blue/gray/red striping pattern for both home and road.
The next season, they wore both the old (blue/red/blue) and new (red/gray/blue/gray/red) pants with the home jerseys. Finally in 2012, they returned to one set of gray pants for both home and road. But they weren’t finished yet. The very next year, the team began wearing white pants with the red/gray/blue/gray/red striping pattern for some home games. They’d continue to wear both colors of pants with the blue jerseys over the next several seasons, wearing white pants for home games, and gray pants for road games (with both the white and blue jerseys).
For all these years, the white road jersey remained unchanged. In 2017, the team debuted their “Color Rush” uniform (the one which was just eliminated for this year); again the regular road (white) jersey remained unchanged. Finally, in 2021, the team introduced white pants to be worn with the white jerseys. Those pants were like nothing they’d ever worn before: they had a red Northwestern stripe. They’ve kept this as their road uniform since then.
Personally, I’d love for them to go back to the Fran Tarkenton look, which is their current helmet, a solid blue home jersey, and white pants with a blue/red/blue striping pattern (which matches their helmets). And the road look, with the blue/red/blue jersey stripe (matching the helmets and pants) with solid blue numbers, was as good as it ever was. And that look wasn’t that far off from their 1980s/1990s/Color Rush uniform. The key differences there were the blue numbers outlined in red and “GIANTS” on the helmets.
Over the years I’ve seen a few concepts for changes to the Giants road uniforms. Let’s take a look at a few of the more realistic ones.
Most of these involve adding blue back to the white jersey. Here’s one that does so by taking the current road jersey and making the numbers blue, and tweaking the Northwestern stripe.
Others simply change the current red numbers/stripes to blue (ignore the white helmet):
Still others are variations on the 1980s/1990s/CR look:
Here’s one that creates a new helmet striping pattern and adds a blue pants option, using a modified Northwestern striping pattern on the sleeves:
Others blend the 1980s/1990s/CR jersey with the current helmet and pants:
And then there are some that want to take the (lack of) Color Rush to the extreme:
While none of these concepts feels just right (to me, anyway), they’re almost all better than what the Giants currently wear. I think we can all agree the road uniform (especially the jersey) needs some blue on it, whether that’s simply something like the early 2000s where the collar was blue and the red numbers were outlined in blue, or the Fran Tarkenton era, when there was some red, but mostly blue. I know some of you liked the gray pants and would just like the “old” road uniform (current jersey but with gray pants) to return.
Where do you fall? Would you like to see the Giants redesign their road uniform (again) to include more blue? Or do you like it as it is? And if you’d like a change, what kind of tweaks would you like? What about adding blue pants? There was a five year period when the team wore blue pants with their white jerseys — would that be something to explore?
Love to hear your thoughts. The floor is yours…
I like the Eli Super Bowl look best even though the red, but no blue jerseysl shouldn’t work.
The Parcells Era uniforms are solid. I go back and forth on whether I prefer the ny or GIANTS helmets on account of them being located in Jersey.
The current road pants and their similar striping to the white jersey just don’t work for me. Put in some blue!
The face mask should match thr color of the road pants, whatever they are – the gray with white pants looks bad.
They should always wear black shoes too.
My problem isn’t the uni, it’s that stupid logo. They’re the GIANTS, but they have a lower-case ny for a logo? WTF?
They have GIANTS as their wordmark. The wordmark and the primary logo shouldn’t be the same (sadly the Jets went back to that laziness). The NY logo looks good on the helmet, and a small Giants wordmark below the collar would be fine.
They’re the New York Giants, so ny makes sense as a logo. The 49ers do exactly the same thing. Heck, the Packers just use a G.
It’s not that it’s “NY.” That makes sense. But why do they use lower-case letters for a team called the Giants?
Because everyone looks enormous standing next to the little logo!
As a non-Giants fan, I really like the Giants’ current road uniform.
I agree. I don’t mind the current jersey at all, despite the lack of blue. What I don’t like are the white pants. I preferred the gray pants, for both the road and home uniforms.
This is the way.
White helmet and blue stripes, not in my opinion. Looks like Penn State.
The 1980s / “Color Rush” looks best, in my opinion. :-)
Have a great day!
Just go back to what they wore in their last two Super Bowl wins. Those were fine.
For the home uniform, move the TV numerals down to the sleeves, and take the gray out of the pants stripes.
I’m personally a huge fan of the red-dominant Giants road uniform. One of those quirks that totally works and looks great. Only change I’d make us bringing back gray pants with a blue-red-blue stripe, which better matches the helmet. And I’ll also point out that there is *some* blue on the current road uniform—the Nike logo on the pants is blue.
You pointed out the biggest pet peeve I have with the current roads. The swoosh on the pants is blue, but on the jersey it’s red. That little lack of consistency kills it. Pick one or the other.
As a 40-something Giants fan, I grew up with the Parcells-era road whites. I never liked them. They just seemed so incredibly generic. I’ve come to appreciate them more in adulthood, but I think that may be more nostalgia than aesthetic enthusiasm.
What I’ve always appreciated about the current road set is the way the entire uniform — helmet, jersey and pants — function as a whole. (The blue helmet, in particular, just POPS!) While some may argue, and I certainly would agree, that the three elements don’t tie together in the “academic” sense favored by uniform classicists by linking discrete elements (like striping patterns), somehow they just seem to work as a visually appealing, complete set. In fact, I’d wager to guess that most people who don’t pay as much attention to uniforms don’t even necessarily notice that the jersey and pants are completely devoid of blue. Because of how well the WHOLE uniform functions. I agree with Phil that the Tarkenton-era uniform is both attractive and is more “rational,” but, to me, it just isn’t as visually pleasing.
The new throwback with the beach blanket/habs stripe across the torso is the best thing they will have worn in decades. I’m so tired of our options basically being “traditional” (plain jersey body, simple sleeve stripes, pants with simple stripes, helmet with side logo), or Nikefied designs. Both of those options have merit, and both have many examples of excellent designs, but it get tedious seeing basically color-swapped generic uniforms or over-designed “modern” looks. The new giants century red uni, the acme packers giant dot uni, the Steelers bumblebees, the Iowa state throwbacks with the vertical stripes in front, all show that a uniform can be gorgeous, and original/unique without being weird, over-designed, or ultra-modern. The wolverines style helmet (careful not to overuse it, only one pro team should be allowed to use it as a primary) also shows us that helmets can be more than just something to slap a logo on, without having to resort to the jaguars “out of the shadows” look.
I think the 66-74 away jerseys were nice. I like the solid blue number. I dig the number on the helmet too.
Id say those suggestions fix The Giants pretty well. Easy fix to boot. They aren’t difficult.
Love to see what you would come up with if you decided to “Fix The Titans”.
“Love to see what you would come up with if you decided to ‘Fix The Titans’.”
link
Does that mean you think they should just go back to being the Oilers, or rather put the Titans logo on the helmet with the classic Oilers design?
I’d agree that uniform design is what they should be wearing, but a bit of a color swap to it, navy jersey, with red/white/columbia/white/red stripes, along with columbia outline to the numbers.
I’d be happy if they returned to being the “Oilers” — and the uniforms they wore for their first two seasons in Tennessee.
link
“Forget The Titans”. Go back to being the Tennessee Oilers.
Agree that either the 1966 set, or the first mock up you had adding in blue to the current road jersey would be the ideal options.
Heck, even the road uniforms from when they first went back to the NY helmet in 2000, having blue outlines on red numbers and a blue collar, would be better than the current design.
Blue helmet, white away jersey (with the red striping but with blue block numbers with no outlines), grey pants just as they wore before, solid red socks. Looks better than it reads. For home games: blue helmet, blue jersey, stick with the white pants with the current striping and the solid blue socks. I love the Legacy Red uniform by the way, hope it will stick around for at least one game per year.
As much as I like the throwbacks in both blue and white versions (the uniforms they wore when I became a fan in the 80s) I would gladly trade any of them for the Legacy Red, I like them that much.
As for the NY/Giants logos: NY on the helmet, small Giants under the collar and the shield. I love both the NY monogram and the solid GIANTS wordmark, but the NY is a real helmet logo.
Their Color Rush is THE perfect road uniform for them. No tweaks not need be made. If you want to add a set of blue pants as an additional option to the white, that’s great, just make sure it has the same stripe pattern as the sleeves of their ‘legacy’ blue uniforms.
I also happen to think their legacy blue uniforms are ALMOST their perfect home uniform. Just need to be paired with the current regular helmet shell, and ditch the navy shell altogether.
One more note about the helmet: I wrote an article on here that explored the idea of teams having mis-matching helmet sides, if they had multiple logos are marks that were equally strong to one another. I still think this is a solution that the Giants should adopt as immediately as possible: lowercase ‘ny’ on the right side, underlined GIANTS on the left side. White mask. Would solve almost every problem they have with ‘which mark do we use with what uniform’ argument their front office or fans could possibly have.
I was completely fine with the away jersey when it was paired with the gray pants. With the white pants with the red stripes, the whole uniform is blah. I think the gray pants should return for both home and away. Also, the “blue/gray/red/gray/blue” stripe on the white pants makes no sense to me. Other than the facemask, there are no other gray elements to speak of. Take those gray stripes and make them white.
Some of those concepts look an awful lot like the Buffalo Bills
Really great article and I tend to agree that there needs to be some blue on the road uni and that the Fran Tarkenton era combo looks to be about right. All this talk of the “ny” vs. “GIANTS” logo for the helmet; why not make it both? “GIANTS” for home and “ny” for the road. Thanks for this in-depth look and assessment and as a fellow Giants fan, I have also been a bit confused seeing their recent road uni evolutions.
The legacy uniform needs to be their primary. It’s just too clean. Then they can just flip that for their road uniform. White jersey, blue numbers, red outline, and red stripes on the sleeves. Classic look.
Hmmm, their inconsistencies never bothered me, but looking at it like this I think just going with the color rush set would work well and keep them a predominately blue colored team. I liked how their red stripes on the away set was different and stood out and made up for how boring their plain blue home shirt is.
I like the Color Rush look, with the shiny Royal helmet, and Royal socks.
Color match a Royal home jersey, add a “Little Giants” red alt specifically for games against the Cowboys and other Royal-based teams (Rams), and call it a day.
Then give all that red back to the Bills to use for their helmets again ;-)
May 25 2014 Dodgers Josh Beckett no hits Phillies 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park
GTGFTU week 6 2016
I’ve been a Giants fan since I was a little kid in the late ’60s, when Tarkenton was the QB. I remember many of the uniforms described above, and though I have nostalgia for the Tarkenton-era uniforms, I still prefer the Eli-era version, *especially* the road unis. I have no problem with the white jersey having no blue on it. IMHO, that jersey with the grey pants is a great and unique look for the Giants.
I agree with you Phil about the late 60’s/early 70’s jerseys. I like them very much as well.
However, that was the darkest era in Giants history, so it is unlikely that the Maras would bring back a uniform that evokes that era.
I think the argument that they need blue in the road uniforms because their nickname is Big Blue is nonsensical. The team is the Giants. They are not the blue Giants or the big blue Giants. Just because the fans, media, whoever gave them a nickname doesn’t mean their uniforms need to comply with the given nickname. The current white jerseys evoke the Giants great era of the 50’s and early 60’s, which is why the Mara family likes it. I prefer it with the gray pants, but that is a small point.
Some of those concepts look too much like the Bills. Maybe that’s simply because the concepts are shown with a white helmet and I try to ignore that but I can’t unsee it.
Yes – get some blue in the road uniforms! The road uniform in the lead splash photo is a good fix and would match well with current home uniforms.
Ever since they switched to the white pants with the complete red and white below the neck it hasn’t worked for me. It was better when they still had a little bit of blue in the pants stripes on the grey pants.
The current road uniform from the neck down would be a good-looking uniform. For a different team that had a helmet that matches it. Not a good New York Giants uniform. Would be a good Calgary Stampeders uniform.
link
Parcells era uniforms are good, but need one or two crucial changes. 1. No navy helmets. 2. Get rid of full block player names, make them simple block and two-color. I also prefer “ny” logo and blue pants with white jersey.
Why would the Giants wear the Bills’ road unis?
I love the massive numbers on the old helmets.
Hey Phil! Lifelong Giants’ fan here. Today’s lede immediately reminded of a column Paul wrote for ESPN all the way back in 2008 addressing this very question. What I remember best from it is that he posted a photo that simply swapped all of the red on NY’s road uniforms to blue, and IMHO the result was a real beauty. Here’s the link to that column: link
Link to side-by-side photos is at the end of the 5th paragraph.
I remember that column well! If my lede weren’t already so long I was going to reference it. I don’t think I’ve read it in a decade, but it was always one of my favorite columns of his.
When I started watching the Giants (late 1950`s) the white`s were very much like the whites you don`t like. They won the title in 56 and were in it 58 59,61,62,63 so to bring up the whites you like as kind of a championship uniform from a later era doesn`t hold water. The “I think we all can agree” comment is lame—I am one that doesn`t and I would be fairly certain that some others don`t either. This is probably coming across harder than it is meant but so be it.
One thing on the Giants unis is that the White looks it was the primary home jersey from 54-56. Also if you look GUD during 37-52 Red jersey was for more commonly used look and I would argue that the blue jersey was really the second choice look. The Giants were really a primarily red team until 57 which likely explains the white jersey being mostly red.
If the Giants are adamant about keeping the road jersey the way it is, then they need to go back to the gray pants wit the red/blue/red stripes. I would love for them to change the white jersey though, and add some blue to it. I would love blue pants too, but I don’t see that happening again. Go G-Men!
I like a lot of those looks, though I’m okay with the current look.
As long as they do not use the navy helmets. Mismatching colors is some Cowboys BS.
Great piece Phil.
It seems the Giants I’ve the past few years have been trying meld and merge variations of classic 50s/60s and the Parcells era; adding white pants and inconsistent stripings. The lifting of the one shell rule has alleviated that. And honestly a team like the GMen that has multiple visually pleasing uniforms in their history makes it difficult to mete out what the definitive look should be. I grew up in the Parcells era so that just looks “right” to me. I’ve gotta say though that the Eli era has had that nostalgia Yankee Stadium feel. I don’t love how they’ve strayed from the grey with the road white. They should just decide which sets will be primary and stick with that. Then assign the other era to throwback and keep the era appropriate consistency. The red road jersey and white pants don’t work for the NYG.
I personally LOVE it when teams have different jerseys that don’t mirror each other. I’m a Cowboys fan and love the fact that all of our uniforms have entirely different jerseys, pants, and socks (except when navy socks are work with color rush and color rush pants are worn with navy jerseys) in any of the 4 uniform sets we have. I appreciate this about the Giants too, though that away uniform looked much better with the grey pants. I do think their white color rush looks great and should probably be permanent, but hopefully they bring the red jersey back if they go that route.
*their white color rush should be permanent with blue or red socks. No all-white socks anymore for anyone, please!
Just go back to the identical gray pants they had for home and road that began in 2001 with the simple blue/red/blue striping. Once they started tinkering with the stripes, then the color, things went awry. It’s been very puzzling
*actually began in 2000
I always thought it was charmingly weird that the Giants had no blue on their road jersey/pants, like their own quirk that didn’t make sense in a vacuum but separated them from other teams. And the lack of red on the home uni balanced it out.
But losing the gray pants hurt the road look a lot in my eyes. The all-white uncomfortably highlighted the lack of blue. It just didn’t make sense anymore, to the extent that it ever did. I’d prefer a more balanced redesign of the current look rather than going back to the Simms era — but then again, I’m young and only remember the Giants of the past 15 years.
Grew up in the 50’s. Miss the gray pants.
’50’s
If you compare pictures of Fran Tarkenton and Daniel Jones as Giants, of course Tarkenton will look better because he wore his socks properly. If you dressed Jones in Tarkenton era uniforms he would sabotage it with his sock style and ruin it.
Does anyone else find it a little ironic that the New Jersey Generals of the USFL basically wore the red version of the New York Giants uniform for the 3 years of their existence? Only difference is the NJ helmet logo was actually a logo (5 stars and a wreath)!
just saying . . .
My preference is for the Giants to keep the current road jersey and ditch the white pants. Get back to the gray pants. Be it 2005 or 2012, either one of those iterations is what I like. I don’t care and it doesn’t bother me that there is little to no blue on the road uniform. Big Blue is just a nickname to me, and I don’t think the Giants have to have blue on every uniform they wear. I grew up with the “Giants” Parcells era stuff, but I much prefer when they went to the look they had in the Manning/Coughlin era.
Lifelong giants fan. My opinion is one set of pants. No blue pants as i dont think it looks great even with the white and they would definitely try an all blue which would suck. For the white pants, either the current (home) striping or the blue-red-blue “nfl stripes” is fine, but just pick. If the latter, need to move the facemask to white permanently. But my preference is keep the tiny bit of gray on the mask and the pants striping. But this leaves a problem for the white jersey stripe, because the blue-red-blue allows for easy matching to helmet. So i would say plain blue numbers (no red outline), no tv numbers (to match current blue jersey), and the northwestern stripe with blue thin outer stripes and a thick red inner stripe as shown in the first mockup. Then, i’d simply switch the pants stripe order to blue-grey-red-grey-blue (switching red to center, to slightly better match the other two elements). It creates technically three separate striping patterns, but the giants have gotten by this way in the past. Lastly, no collar, and blue socks. Its not perfect, but its giants-y, its more blue, and it should work at the very least as a transition. One last thing. Northwestern stripes do not belong on pants. I hate that
The notion of uniforms evoking a previous era…can we collectively knock that BS off? No sane individual would look at uniforms that are similar to what the team wore decades prior when they weren’t necessarily successful and think “hey- we used to lose alot in those”. Its just another layer of marketing horse doo doo.
Giants need to stop thinking its charming to look like something from yesteryear. Their logo is ridiculous and the worst change they made by ditching ‘Giants’- which itself was incredibly lazy. But it wasnt pretentious like the ‘ny’. But then again im not from new york- maybe this appeals to the illusion new yorkers have about themselves and their corner of the world.
How do you fix it? Rebrand. Or at very least, get a color scheme that isnt the most overused color scheme in all of creation.
The Tarkenton unis are pretty much perfect.
Well, Phil, that solved everything. 58 comments and 58 different ideas. So which, is best? Mine, of course, but perhaps they should pursue the look of their greatest successes.
I may be in the minority here but I’ve always loved how their away unis were completely different from their home ones. It’s such a unique look, and I honestly think it looks fantastic with no blue at all. That’s part of the charm. The only thing I would change is they should bring back the gray pants (and maybe fix the striping on them)
I’m not a Giants fan, but I think their blue home uniforms are among the nicest in the NFL. Nostalgia aside, I think they are WAY nicer looking than the LT-era blue jerseys.
I also think their current helmet is a vast improvement over the helmet they wore in the 89s and 90s, where the helmet and jersey were two completely different shades of blue – which always looked horrible to me.
I do agree that there should be some blue in the road uniform and I like some of the suggestions above.
I don’t know why the Giants ditched the white tops they started wearing in 2000. I liked how they looked with the gray pants. That beats their current white tops/white bottoms look by a country mile IMO.