Good Monday morning, Uni Watch readers. I hope everyone had a good weekend!
It’s not quite Monday Morning Uni Watch time yet, but we’re getting close…
Yesterday afternoon, the Indianapolis Colts opened their preseason by hosting the Denver Broncos, who I assume you all know got all new uniforms this offseason. Back in April the team unveiled their new uniforms, and Paul had his review. You may want to give that a quick once-over to familiarize yourself with the new kits, a few elements of which I’ll highlight below.
As you can see, the Broncos have a ton of uni-options, and they can pair their white jerseys with white pants (which they did yesterday), as well as both blue and orange pants. I was sincerely hoping their debut would be pairing the white tops with the orange trou, but alas, they did not. They chose to go icy white.
They’re calling the white jersey “Summit White”. Paul didn’t have all that much to say about it, but here’s how he critiqued it.
Basically the same thing [as the blue jersey], but in white. Again, not terrible, although it would be stronger without the zigzag.
This jersey can be paired with orange pants (my favorite combo of the entire set), navy pants, or white pants.
The first thing that jumps out — or, rather, doesn’t jump out is the helmet striping. As Paul mentioned in his article, it’s got a matte finish (good), but there is this weird, sort-of stripe that’s there but it’s not really there. “[T]he old striping has been removed; in its place, as indicated by the recent helmet leak, is a truncated arrow comprised of of a bunch of triangles, signifying mountain peaks.”
In almost every angle and every shot of the helmet, the striping is impossible to make out. Even when you get a tight, close-up shot, it’s barely visible.
On the less tight shots, it’s still barely visible.
In the above photo, you can see the NOB is large and easy to read. You can also see the perforations in the numbers, both front and back.
The front of the jersey doesn’t look too bad. I don’t really like the thin orange stripe that only partially wraps around the collar, terminating at the base of the neck where the NFL shield is located. I don’t mind the stripe, but it should “close” to form a complete ring. Terminating it like that just looks off.
As we saw with the Lions’ new jerseys, the jersey template forces any kind of wordmark down on top of the numbers. Fortunately, unlike Detroit, the Broncos wordmark is small in comparison, so this doesn’t look too bad. I also like that the team seems to be emphasizing the blue and orange about equally. The numbers are in a bespoke, rounded font, but they are large and easy to read. They are navy with orange outlines.
Perhaps the most controversial part of the new uniform is the sleeve caps with the “mountain peak motif.” Paul calls it a “zig zag” and honestly, it doesn’t bother me. I’d rather it not be there, but it’s not a terrible element.
It doesn’t remind me of a mountain peak, however. But it’s not overdone and it adds a nice touch of blue and orange to an otherwise pretty plain jersey.
One other thing I’d forgotten about until I saw game photos were the triangle shapes located on the sides of the jersey (you can see these on the jersey on the left below). These are so-called “performance vents” (they are described in this graphic). I honestly have no idea why they made these in contrasting color, but they’re so small and barely visible.
The worst part of the new uniform — at least in my opinion — and which you’ve now seen in several photos, is the very odd pants striping. A thin blue stripe extends the entire length of the pants, but there is also a 1/3 length orange stripe, which not only truncates shortly below the waist, but does so at a 45° angle. It actually doesn’t look terrible when guys are in their three- and four-point stances, but looks awful on anyone who is upright.
I can think of no reason, other than “because we can,” to have the orange stripe terminate like that. A full length orange and blue stripe would have looked so much better. It doesn’t tie into the sleeve cap design (at least to me), and makes the pants look unfinished, or lopsided. This is probably my biggest complaint about the new uniforms. If you look at the sleeve caps, the blue portion has a similar cut, not the orange. Perhaps if they had switched this up on the pants it wouldn’t look as bad.
One other complaint I have — although this is by no means unique to the Broncos — is the desire to pair same-color socks with pants. I get this is now the style, and the guys want to look like they’re wearing superhero costumes, but visually, the socks should really be blue. That would balance the blue from the helmet nicely. But the full white-below-the-waist look is just unbecoming for an NFL team. I could maybe see it for teams who have white helmets, but if your helmet is dark, you need to wear dark socks if you’re wearing white pants.
My only other (small) complaint is the lack of TV numbers on the jerseys. There is plenty of room to put them on the shoulders. They’d add just a bit more color to an otherwise mostly white jersey. Even the Colts, who have UCLA-esque loops, manage to fit TVs on the sleeve caps. (Note also in that photo that #28 Jonathan Taylor is wearing a Guardian Cap!)
After the unveiling, I thought I’d dislike these uniforms a lot more than I do, now that I’ve seen them on the field. They came thisclose to having a really good new uniform. Unfortunately, they’re not quite good. But they’re better than I originally thought. The blue/orange balance is good, and the numbers and NOB are crisp and easily readable. That’s what’s really important and the rest is just window dressing. And I bet these will look fantastic when the team pairs them with the orange pants. But for now, we can only wait.
You can see more photos here.
I’ll leave you with a couple videos, so you can get a sense of how these looked on the field and in action.
Powered his way in. 😤
📺: NFLN | @AudricEstime pic.twitter.com/IziprDP3rJ
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 11, 2024
Shifty. 💨#DENvsIND | 📺: NFLN pic.twitter.com/GPOewuaSxR
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 11, 2024
OK, readers. What did YOU think of these? And now that you’ve seen them in action, are they better, worse, or about what you expected? What did you like and what didn’t you like?
The floor is yours.
These didn’t look as bad on the field as I had originally thought. And, since they are traditionally a white on white road team (we won’t talk about the blue pants from the last set mismatching the stripes), I can live with this.
First time getting bonus points!
April 23, 2014. Wrigley 100 year anniversary game. Went with my dad and brother. Still have the large plastic ticket they used that day and the Feds giveaway jersey
Very cool
I think we’ll be able to live with these. I will still always prefer their previous iteration. I didn’t see the game live, but was the helmet stripe as weak in live action as it looks in photos?
Glad to hear this from someone else. I thought I was the only one who preferred the previous set. I never understood the amount of dislike for those.
Meh, they’re ok. I’ve got to be honest, I’m just not that into Navy with orange. Much prefer a more royal shade of blue. Even when I see the Houston Astros and other franchises with this color scheme I feel the same way. If they added TV numbers, removed the zig zags, fixed the pants stripes and changed the navy to royal, these would be among the best Unis in the NFL. I like the NOB and number font and matte helmet, but that’s about it. Oh well. Try again in 5 years, Broncos!
I agree that the navy and orange just doesn’t blend as well as the royal. I can’t quite define why. Maybe the softer blue just meshes better with the orange. And across sports it seems that way, Knicks, Mets, Boise State. Royal and Orange just pair so much better together.
I don’t know why, but the number font leaves me cold.
The new Bronco unis are fine. The mountain grapics aren’t as obtrusive as i’d thought. The helmet “stripes” though, what is the point? They’re barely visible.
All those ticky-tacky details equal death by a thousand cuts. Huge improvement over the previous generation though.
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. None of them are horrible design killers on their own. But they are all just little, stupid, unnecessary deviations from classic design. It isn’t a disaster like other new uniforms, but makes you shrug your shoulders and ask why this instead of just reverting to the orange crush look full time.
First impression is these are an upgrade over their previous set. I like em.
In action the first thing that jumps out is the lack of tv numbers. Just blank space there, like they forgot something. It is bad enough when Nike omits them when the space is tight, but as Phil noted, there is so much room in this case that it just looks really bad without them.
Agree that the mountain stripe thing on the shoulder isn’t awful in game action, it is not good, but it wouldn’t ruin a uniform that was otherwise good.
The helmet stripe thing and the pants stripes are what really downgrade this uniform. They are pointless and don’t look good. Overall this isn’t a disaster for the eyes, but all the little items listed above just make you think it looks cheap and gimmicky.
They’re not as bad on the field as I thought they’d be. I’ll wait to pass full judgment on the set until I see the home unis in action.
Now that we’ve seen them in action, they aren’t horrible. The odd design choices just seem so unnecessary and don’t add anything to the overall design. At least the previous Bronco uniforms as dated as they were made a statement. Between the sleeves stripes and the pant stripes the design looks like a pack of cigarettes from 1982.
It isn’t Falcons/Bucs alarm clock level bad of a rebrand. It is just unremarkable.
They’re better than the previous ones, of course. Mostly boring.
Number font is okay, except the 3, which looked awful on the last set too.
Royal would be better. Completing that orange stripe on the pants would be an improvement.
If they’re going to do the mountain zig zag, then make it a little bigger. Fitting it into the sleeve cap doesn’t really work.
Some orange topped (or orange/blue/white ‘mountain’ pattern) socks would help.
I’m surprised no one noticed that they also made the logo on the helmet smaller. It’s now also off center. I hate this. It seems many NFL teams aren’t placing their logos in the right spot because the helmet manufacturers can’t seem to make a helmet design that takes team branding into consideration.
As a lifelong Broncos fan, I think these uniforms are wildly uninspiring. Are they ok? yes. But Every element feels contrived and kinda small/wimpy – pant stripe, helmet striping, the “mountain” element – which takes its cues from the logo. The more I look at them the more I hate them, not the other way around.
I’m also a graphic designer and I think you can see that moving to concepts on a screen has caused designers to not visualize “in the round” very well. There’s too much focus on TINY details that you can’t see when watching on TV and the uniforms have become “choppy”. The Titans and Texans designs are this way. The Seahawks design is similar too. Lots of little nonsense going on at the expense of a bolder/clearer aesthetic. SMH
An upgrade for the Broncos, because its hard not to be from the 1997 set.
Still, not great.
Gotta admit these are perfectly fine. While not as strong as the throwbacks they are clear step forward on the prior set. The odd parts are really not notice and the zig zag stripes are fine as thing for them. It could use some TV numbers and the pants striping is odd but not awful. I think these are a solid upgrade.
I watched this with my wife yesterday. I liked her stream of thought:
“Did the Broncos get new uniforms?…I kinda like them, but why do they have the weird orange stripe on the pants? Wouldn’t it look WAY better if it went all the way down?….Why are there holes in the numbers? that’s weird….Why does Boo Boo have 5280 on the front of his helmet? (We call Zach Wilson Boo Boo after the Bob’s Burgers character that he looks like)…wait, is there something on the back of the helmets? It looks like there’s something, but maybe I’m just seeing things….(after realizing everyhting is triangles) What the heck do triangles have to do with Broncos OR Denver?….Don’t those sleeve stripes look kinda like the Chargers bolt stripes? Is that allowed?….I like them, but they seem trendy and like they’ll be out of style in a few years, like Ship Lap.”
+1 for the Bob’s Burgers reference!
The Broncos realized they had a horrible road uniform. So they debuted its replacement with a horrible road uniform. A white jersey should never ever be paired with white pants and socks. There should have been orange and/or blue pants or socks. Man was that bad after announcing all the nice looking options the could/should have worn.
I didn’t mind the white pants as much as the lack of contrasting color in the sock area. The white leotard look is just as as bad as the solid leotard or scuba look. But I agree, the blue or preferably orange pants would have looked better. Unless you are a white helmet team, I’m not a fan of the white/white paring for anyone. I always call it “the ice cream man” look. Not sure why it doesn’t bother me with the white helmet teams, but with everyone else, I hate it.
These new uniforms will shine when they wear attractive combinations. White Jersey, orange pants and blue socks will look very nice. Home orange jersey, white pants and orange or blue socks will look good. Orange Crush retro will be pleasant to see. All the other combos will bore and disappoint.
GTG… Sat 5/31/08. The White Sox were unable to score and this score line held up as the final.
So many elements that aren’t even visible that it just makes wonder why they even bothered. And the pant stripes are absolutely brutal.
Better than what they replaced. But still nowhere near as good as the classic Orange Crush unis.
Yeah I think a lot of it is done as a marketing ploy to sell more retail jerseys (because tiny details will be more visible to the customer closely examining a Jersey on the store shelves.)
That being said the “stripe” on the helmet is still a real head-scratcher to me…
The Broncos unis are an improvement but not a big one. I’m just not a fan of the navy and orange combo.
Those pants stripes need to be thicker. Also, bring down the orange stripe all the way or get rid of it. Really my only gripe. I’m looking forward to seeing the orange pants.
They are definitely an upgrade, but that’s not saying much. That truncated pants striping is HORRENDOUS, and I just can’t deal with the constant mono-white crap. It is simply baffling to me the number of mono uniforms that these teams keep rolling out. It’s almost like I hate them out of spite because it would be a pretty great set if they would have just put a good stripe on the helmet and pants, and just never go mono-anything. Such simple adjustments that would make a huge difference.
I like these a lot. I am in the camp that a traditional football uni design basically always looks good if the design keeps it traditional, but in 2024, it’s time to start taking some risks, but it’s also been long enough that designers should be taking risks that work (not alarm clock numbers and crap like that).
Excuse me while I discount my opinion to everyone here: but these and the falcons unis are great examples of something different that doesn’t get super weird, and actually works very well (the falcons gradient hasn’t aged super well with me, but I liked it at first and it’s easily replaced or removed without changing the rest of the design).
The lions and cardinals went “back to basics” and they both are disappointing to me. Granted both of those teams made big improvements over what they had previously worn, but the lions in particular, look like a high school team now, and not a successful high school team that puts effort into their uniforms. Part of that is straying from what works. Removing pant striping is not for EVERYONE. Modern sleeve tailoring makes sleeve stripes look kinda bad in most cases, and essentially turns anything on the sleeve into clutter because there is very little real estate to work with. Darn near any football uni looks decent if the front numbers are big enough. It’s just an aesthetically pleasing proportional thing. So don’t put a huge wordmark on the front (below the now gigantic collars, AND an NFL logo) to make the numbers noticeably smaller. Try tv numbers again. There’s not enough room to make sleeve designs work anymore, so put something on the shoulder to add some visual interest.
My only beefs (beeves?) with these broncos unis are: 1-all white? Come on. They’ve got other options, too many teams are doing that now, and so many teams can claim that historically they wore all white once before so it’s ok for them to do it now. 2-“brand” clutter. That helmet looks nice (I like the “stripes”) but guess what doesn’t work for me? The US flag and NFL logos cluttering up the back. Give me a break. The NFL logo is already cluttering up the front of the uni. And why on earth do they need an American flag anywhere on the uniform?
I think the Cardinals unis would look great if they paired the red jersey/white pants. You would think teams would have learned from the Bills fiasco years ago. When they switched to the current set it was a BIG upgrade. But, guess the mono-look is something we will be forced to watch until it runs its cycle.
There is a reason some teams have stuck with a classic look over the decades. It’s because it “worked”.
I mentioned this regarding the NY Giants throwback that they’re wearing this year: there is definitely room for unis that look different/unique but don’t look ultramodern/overdesigned/costumy. I’d love for the giants to color swap those century red unis for a white uni with the chest stripes and make those their core set. I’d also love to see the packers adapt the big dot acme packers design to their current colors and make that their core set. And I’d like to see the bears make some tweaks to their throwbacks so the shoulder stripes don’t look so wonky with the modern tailoring, and make that their core set, and the Steelers bumblebees should be their core set. There should be a team with verticle torso stripes (a la the Ames throwbacks). These are all classic/traditional/not “weird” unis that would add some variety to the league. That said, I also want to see some teams keep it classic. The niners and colts for example, don’t need to make weird changes. Then there’s also room for innovators. I’d just prefer that the innovators come up with more thoughtful innovations sometimes. The MLB CC unis (more and more) just smack of both laziness and too many cooks in the kitchen, and NFL innovators tend to call backsies as soon as possible.
I thought the Colts had an exhibition game against the Virginia Cavaliers. And that is neither a compliment to the Broncos or the Wahoos.
Agree with Apples – I think it has a “Virginia Commonwealth A&I” vibe.
Given the lack of sleeves, I like the jersey striping quite a bit. Minimalist, and yes, the “mountains” motif is silly and non-existent visually, but I think it looks nice. The lack of TV numbers is fine for me. The bad? The pants striping is not good. Just use full f-ing stripes people. Also, that strange striping on the helmets is totally useless as a detail. Had you not pointed it out, I wouldn’t have immediately even noticed it. So, what’s the point?
By making those “mountains” on the sleeves angular, they look like knock off Charger bolts.
Lifelong Broncos fan here. I was ready for a uniform change, and I should have been careful what I wished for. I like these significantly less seeing them on the field than I did when they were unveiled in April.
My only quibble with Phil’s rundown is that I have a slightly higher opinion of the “zigzag” sleeve design, which does look like shadows on a stylized mountain face to me. That said, it’s just small enough that it’s hard to make out what it is from a distance, so it does kind of just looks like rumpled stripes with anything other than a tight camera shot.
One thing Phil didn’t mention that I don’t like is that the spacing of the wordmark and the numbers on the front of the jerseys feels way too low to me. It looks like the players are wearing their numbers on their stomachs instead of their chests.
Overall, is this an improvement over the uniform design they just got rid of? If you’d asked me in April, I would have said yes. Now that I’ve had a first impression of them in in a “real life” setting, I’m not so sure.
“One thing Phil didn’t mention that I don’t like is that the spacing of the wordmark and the numbers on the front of the jerseys feels way too low to me. It looks like the players are wearing their numbers on their stomachs instead of their chests.”
Um…
;)
Ugh. My bad. Reading lots of words is hard. I must have seen a mention to the Detroit Lions and let me eyes glaze over. ;^)
Self-effacing humor aside, I did read that, but sort of neglected to take the logistical steps necessary to apply your critique to the numbers in addition to the wordmark. In any event, I now know we basically saw the same thing. The number placement bothers me more than the wordmark, although if they got rid of the wordmark, they could probably move the numbers up a little bit and make it look better.
This. But so many things are working against number size and placement now. The template being one of them, the wordmark, the gigantic collar as well as the super steep angle of the collar V. I am of the mind that uniforms don’t need a template per se, because then the tail wags the dog in a lot of cases. This particular template would work great for the Steelers Batman uniforms for example, but take a team like the Titans or Oregon State and now they’ve got a shoulder yoke on top of a shoulder yoke. Or the Seahawks where suddenly a design that was meant to flow WITH the template is now fighting against it. All this to say, the template (as in this year’s MLB unis, as well as most current NFL helmets) is forcing designs to adapt to the template, and they are usually the worse for it.
Decent colors and numbers granted. The zigs are way too Chargers-ish and the striping across the board is dumb and too nuanced. The stripes look unfinished in every quadrant. Sad part is, this is the easiest thing to fix. Another Nike fail that will probably be gone in 5 years ala The Jags
I think the new uniforms for the Broncos are just too boring. I know there’s mixed opinions on the previous set, but at least they were unique and made the team stand out. The zig-zag will always look like the Chargers bolt to me. And the 1/3 orange stripe on the pants makes it look like they’re wearing flag football flags.
I often find myself watching a game for the sole reason of “that matchup will look really good.”
There weren’t many of those with the Broncos old set – especially road unis – and I can’t imagine many with this set either.
Worst of the new four in my view.
Seeing them on the field now, my opinion on them has gone down. The helmet, collar and pants striping are all way over the place and inconsistent. The snow peak looks like a ripoff Chargers uni where it could be so much more. It desperately needs more consistency.
That uni is so plain.
Maybe it’s been done already, but I’m just here to point out the Colts finally updated their end zone wordmark.
Didn’t hate the sleeve “mountains” like I thought I would. Fix the pant stripes with the orange going all the way down, and these would be good. I hate the white socks. But they don’t look as bad when the white pants have stripes. The leotard look is always worse when the pants and socks are the same, with no stripes breaking it up. The Cardinals looked awful in their all red, except white helmet. They have no stripes on jersey or pants. Also their way oversized “ARIZONA” across their chest looks like a college team. And of course too low because of the new template of the jersey.
Another Bronco fan here. Besides the stupid pants stripe, the best thing about these is that they could have been so much dumber. The worst part is how designers could have phoned it in and ended up with something respectable.
-Do nothing else, just remove the jersey stripes and make the pants and helmet stripes straight. Or leave the helmet alone and the point is mountain peak or whatever (hell, cut it so a big peak nestles with a lower peak). Would be a fine upgrade.
-Add white pants to the color rush for home and a white jersey for the road, either navy D helmet or current with a normal stripe.
-Throwback, obvs. Even with the wrong shade of orange.
The pant stripe is too thin and just wired. Too many design elements aren’t even visible. The mountain peaks on the sleeves look like Chargers bolts. The helmet should ‘ve been glossy and done away with the stripe altogether. Ditch the white socks. Otherwise uni is OK.
I give the Broncos an 3.5 out of 10.
Colts get a 9.
It’s a blowout.
These look exactly like I expected in action. None of the dumb little design gewgaws works at all. If I didn’t know those sleeve zig zags were supposed to be mountains, I would have assumed they were just a take on the Chargers bolts. I’m pretty tired of navy in sports, but it has never looked right on the Broncos. Royal and orange are beautiful together – go back to this already! Also whoever mentioned these look like UVA was spot on. Man, everything about these just screams “SEE YOU IN FIVE YEARS WHEN WE REDESIGN”.
I’ve always wondered if they had lost those two Elway Super Bowls, would they have changed their uniform sooner and and dropped the modern navy scheme and logos…
Before several readers mentioned it, I thought it was just me who got “Chargers vibes” from the zig zags. The pants stripe is horrible. Although I prefer stripes — and preferably wider ones like the Super Bowl-winning Bears had — I would rather see stripe-less pants than this stupid truncated look.
Maybe they could put the zig zag on the pants instead of the weird strip and they’ll really look like the chargers.
My issue with the mountain motif on the sleeve caps is the order of the colors, which changes on each jersey, when I think they should remain the same on all 3 jerseys.
The order, from top to bottom, should be: Orange (sunlit sky)-white (snow capped summit)-Navy (the mountain). They get it right on the navy jersey, but re-order them on the white and orange jerseys. I understand why they did it, they want the bottom “stripe” to be the same color as the jersey, but the names themselves, Sunset Orange and Summit White, indicate what the colors represent, and thus where they should be.
Probably just me though, it usually is…. Everything else is fine for me, just hope they don’t go mono too often.
They need tv numbers. The pants are cut off like that because it’s supposed to have a mountain top white part underneath.
The “zig-zag” exactly models an element in the logo, bringing helmet and shoulder design together. Look just behind the jaw of the Bronco logo and you’ll see it.
As a Coloradoan, I can also tell you that the shoulder design looks just like a mountain peak, with the sky behind, and red rocks in front. Instantly recognizable.
Not perfect unis, but huge upgrade from worst in the league.
The helmet “stripes” made up of triangles immediately evokes the texture of a football to me. If this is what the designers were intending, then brilliant !
I can’t believe I’m saying this.
Bring back the parentheses.
But really, just make the orange crush permanent.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw “Charger bolts” on the sleeve caps. How did they miss that? A division rival?! C’mon man! Also that number on the rear of the helmet is HUGE. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so large.
at least the pants aren’t plain?
I like the pants stripes myself, the helmet stripe, and the zig zag shoulder caps. My only beef with this look is I dislike white socks with white pants. I much prefer the contrasting socks look.
Helmet, jersey and pants look pretty good to be honest. It’s those awful “iced out” socks the black players love that ruins the look of this uniform
Not impressed and not disappointed. Bland look. The helmet signifies: hey, we are the Bears in the West.
I don’t understand this criticism; the Broncos have had navy helmets for almost 30 years, and the new ones are matte which differentiate them from the bears even more…
Guess the game from the injury???
Not bad, although I’m a bit disappointed in the “peak” on the shoulder. It translated much better in the promotional photos than it appeared on the field.
My biggest critique is the helmet striping; it’s ugly and the fact that it’s barely visible during game action makes it feel even more unnecessary. I get that minute design elements are included as retail jersey gimmicks but putting some tiny detail on a helmet just doesn’t make any sense…
I wish they would have done a two contrasting stripe look similar to Virginia Tech link which would have been a unique yet minimalist look for an nfl team.
Even retaining the old striping would have looked better.
Overall tho it’s tolerable and they look like the Broncos. Excited to see the rest of the combinations on the field.
No, these still suck. What could have been….
On a side note:
The Indianapolis Colts updated their field, endzones match their current wordmark.