Tired of seeing annoying ads (like this one!) on Uni Watch? There’s a simple solution: Join Uni Watch Plus. You’ll get an ad-free site experience, plus exclusive access to our UW+ discussion forums, push notifications whenever a new blog post has been published, a special UW+ badge accompanying all your comments on the blog, and a 20% discount on our Teespring merchandise.
Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good Wednesday. To all those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a Happy New Year to you all!
I’m rejoined by Chris Diamond who is back again with Part III of his latest project — and this one is bound to raise some hackles. But unlike some of his other concepts, these are most definitely not created with the thought that the teams should adopt them as uniforms; rather it’s a think piece that, in an Orwellian sort of way, may be a look at where the future of uniform design is going (let’s hope not!). But if you’ve been watching the NFL or college football for the past couple years, you’ll notice there continues to be a trend towards wearing all black or all white uniforms.
Blackouts and Icy Whites: An Alternate Look (Part III — AFC South)
by Chris Diamond
“Blackouts” and “Icy Whites” – two words that usually arouse the ire of UWers. But two styles that are currently very popular in uniform design that show no sign of becoming unfashionable any time soon. For any who are unfamiliar with the terms, Blackouts are uniforms where every uniform part is black, with team colours only present as trim or highlights. Icy Whites are the polar (pardon the pun) opposite – every uniform part is white with team colour elements. They are often branded as “lazy” or “pandering to merchandising” — both of which are probably true about some designs. People have commented about football being turned into some kind of visual chess match or ballet, and, in fact, way back in 1986 UK TV Channel 4’s NFL coverage was eerily prescient about the trend!
But… is it possible to create a blackout and icy white for each team and for them *not* to look like a design afterthought? To give them some kind of design integrity so they look purposeful? Well that is what I am going to try and do here! These will not necessarily be direct blacking or whiting of teams’ existing designs, but re-workings that introduce additional design elements. This is important if every team has a black or white uniform as you need additional elements to set teams apart. Note this will include liberal use of stripes!
Inevitably lots of you are going to hate these with a passion, but that is OK because this isn’t a contest to find new uniforms or replace existing ones. Instead it’s to consider an alternate world where each team having a black and white uniform is just how it is, in the same way that in baseball each team has home whites and road greys (at least that used to be true). That seems natural, so why couldn’t this? So try and look at this in that light and not as designs for Nike to try and push more merch!
AFC South
Houston Texans
The Texans deep steel blue doesn’t work within this concept so I have ditched it and used H-Town blue (aka Columbia blue) as the primary colour. I’ve ditched the horns and gone with a tweaked version of their alt-jersey design with blue instead of red numbers. I can’t say I like their actual alt-jersey but the design works quite nicely within the black/white scheme.
__________
Indianapolis Colts
The Colts just wear speed (dark) blue and white (if you ignore the retro grey facemask) and as with other dark blue teams, this doesn’t work with black. So I’ve gone with a much lighter shade of blue and brought silver back in to add some variety. The white uni looks very similar to what they wore in 1987. Oh I’ve also given the helmet two stripes as the single stripe in a uniform of twin stripes has always bugged me!
__________
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jags current colour scheme needs no tweaking for this concept apart from bringing in more gold. Even in these mono-extremes I think this makes for a really lovely pair of unis.
___________
Tennessee Titans
The real Titans and Texans are locked in a weird co-dependent identity crises involving navy, columbia blue and red. So unsurprisingly there are similarities between their unis here too. Like the Texans I’ve got rid of navy but to try and make a bigger difference I’ve added a version of the helmet flame detail I used in a previous article to the sleeves. Actually, if you replaced the black with dark navy this might make for a nice real uniform set!
• • • • •
Thanks Chris! This is a fun thought experiment. As I said previously, will people see only the large blocks of color (all black and all white) or will they appreciate the subtle team colors found on the numbers and the stripes and the helmet logos? This is a tough division, because you already have three of the four teams who wear some form of mono-black. Will the black and white bases be “neutral canvasses” or will they become the predominate colors?
And I really like how the Jaguars concepts came out!
Readers? What say you?
MLB Playoff Uni Tracker
MLB Playoff Uni Tracking
Longtime readers know our longtime MLB Playoff jersey tracker Alex Rocklein has been covering all the jerseys worn by each and every Major League Baseball playoff team/game for the past several seasons, and I’m pleased to announce Alex is again returning for the 2024 MLB Playoffs. With the expansion of the Wild Card (to six teams — three in each league) in 2022, his graphics have gotten more complicated, but they’re still great. I recently did a Q & A with Alex and his Playoff Tracker.
So far things are progressing much the same way as the past two years. Three teams (Tigers, Royals and Padres) have won in sweeps, while once again, the Mets (tied 1-1 with the Brewers) will play only the second deciding Game 3 in the three years of the Wild Card round in the current format. They’ll meet today for a chance to head to Philly for the NLDS. And perhaps unsurprisingly, three of the four losing teams on Monday changed up jerseys for Game 2: the O’s, who wore white jerseys Monday, went to black tops yesterday; the Astros also wore white Monday but went with orange tops yesterday; and finally the Brewers, who wore their alt creams to open, wore their white pins last evening. Only the Brewers’ jersey change (but to another uniform, not a softball top) worked in their favor. The final losing team on Monday was the Braves, who wore blue tops both games, and lost both.
So, if you’re keeping score at home…or as Alex does below…three teams wore softball tops, all three teams lost (with the Braves doing so twice). I assume the Brewers will wear their pins today (respect the streak, n’at). If they do, whomever wins the game will have won in full uniform. So for round one, the softball tops are being shut out. That’ll teach ’em to anger the uni gods ;).
Each weekday from now until the end of the 2024 World Series, I’ll have an updated tracker which will fill out as each round progresses. You can click the image to enlarge.
A few notes from Alex for today’s Tracker:
• added patches to Mets and Padres jerseys
• fixed sleeve patch on Padres
• swapped order of Division Series so that they line up with Wild Card Series above
2024 TRACKER
• • • • •
Thanks Alex! Looking forward to this once again throughout the playoffs and World Series!
Guess the Game from the Scoreboard
Guess The Game…
…From The Scoreboard
Today’s scoreboard comes from Charlie Russell.
The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).
Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):
Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.
Guess the Game from the Uniform
Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.
Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.
Today’s GTGFTU comes from Jimmy Corcoran himself!
Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.
And finally...
…that’s all for the morning lede. Big thanks, as always, to Chris Diamond, for sticking with the all-black/all-white concepts. I’ve liked some of the mono-whites better than the normal uniforms thus far, but I really like how he did the Jags mono-blacks in today’s set. But the point isn’t necessarily to like them (or even have them appear on the field).
I should have a few more articles today, but I will be on the road for a bit of the morning and early afternoon. If any thing big breaks then, I’ll get up an article ASAP. I did get a bit of good news yesterday: my 15-year-old car passed inspection (although not without some minor expenses). *Phew*
Everyone have a great Thursday, and I’ll catch you all back here tomorrow.
Texans and Titans aren’t amazing, but I think Chris did a great job considering the source material. If you told me the Jags’ set was their real uniforms from the early 2000s, I would believe you, and I think they look great. Even the Colts’ black version works for me, but it would obviously be the most egregious use of BFBS of all time.
Glad to hear your car troubles have been resolved with only minor issues, Phil!
Thanks Charlie! Yes the Jags need something like this right now.
GTGFTU, pretty sure it has to be Nov 26, 1972. I think 1972 was the only year where those uniforms overlapped for Houston and San Diego.
They had those unis in 1973, but didn’t play each other that year, the first time (and only time until 1977) the Oilers and Chargers did not play each other. 1971 had the Oilers in the silver helmets they carried over from the AFL, 1974 had the Chargers in their blue lids, and 1975 saw the Oilers switch to white helmets.
Just checked the GUD, Oilers had those uniforms ’72-’74, Chargers ’68-’72. In ’73 they had yellow numbers, so slightly different uniform. ’72 season is the only time that matchup could have even happened.
You have the right game but not because of the unis, as Rob S pointed out. San Diego QB, John Hadl, was traded to the Rams after the 1972 season.
You are correct Greg, that is actually a one-year style uniform for the Chargers, in 1972 they got rid of the bolts on the pants but kept the same durene jerseys. In 1973 they went with new mesh jerseys with screened on numbers, then in 1974 they changed the entire uniform to what many call “The Dan Fouts era”. I wonder where the Jimmer would have this game rated as far as uniform matchups of the 70’s.
GTGFTS – June 8, 1950, final score Boston Red Sox 29, St. Louis Browns 4. This was after beating the Browns 20-4 the day before. St. Louis would rebound to prevent the sweep with a 12-7 win the following day. Several records were broken, tied, or approached in this game.
Was there no spot for “runs” in the Fenway scoreboard? I looked at a few other images and it looks like there was a spot for hits but not runs. Who cares about hits? I didn’t come to the ballpark to do math
Anytime the Titans harken back to their Oiler roots … IRL or in a concept design…is fine by me! Nice going with those, Chris!
“The real Titans and Texans are locked in a weird co-dependent identity crises involving navy, columbia blue and red”
I’d say the Texans have a newly-surfaced self-loathing inferiority complex when it comes to their branding.
Thanks Chris!
“I’d say the Texans have a newly-surfaced self-loathing inferiority complex when it comes to their branding”
I like that description much better :)
Well the socks look great.
Thanks Rick, I’ll take that :)
If you want to look like the UFL, or a division 3 college school then this is a great look.
Those Titans ones are awesome
Thanks Cole!
Thanks for another interesting set of uniform concepts, Chris.
What software do you use to make these?
Texans and Titans aren’t amazing, but I think Chris did a great job considering the source material. If you told me the Jags’ set was their real uniforms from the early 2000s, I would believe you, and I think they look great. Even the Colts’ black version works for me, but it would obviously be the most egregious use of BFBS of all time.
Glad to hear your car troubles have been resolved with only minor issues, Phil!
Thanks Charlie! Yes the Jags need something like this right now.
GTGFTU, pretty sure it has to be Nov 26, 1972. I think 1972 was the only year where those uniforms overlapped for Houston and San Diego.
They had those unis in 1973, but didn’t play each other that year, the first time (and only time until 1977) the Oilers and Chargers did not play each other. 1971 had the Oilers in the silver helmets they carried over from the AFL, 1974 had the Chargers in their blue lids, and 1975 saw the Oilers switch to white helmets.
Just checked the GUD, Oilers had those uniforms ’72-’74, Chargers ’68-’72. In ’73 they had yellow numbers, so slightly different uniform. ’72 season is the only time that matchup could have even happened.
You have the right game but not because of the unis, as Rob S pointed out. San Diego QB, John Hadl, was traded to the Rams after the 1972 season.
You are correct Greg, that is actually a one-year style uniform for the Chargers, in 1972 they got rid of the bolts on the pants but kept the same durene jerseys. In 1973 they went with new mesh jerseys with screened on numbers, then in 1974 they changed the entire uniform to what many call “The Dan Fouts era”. I wonder where the Jimmer would have this game rated as far as uniform matchups of the 70’s.
GTGFTS – June 8, 1950, final score Boston Red Sox 29, St. Louis Browns 4. This was after beating the Browns 20-4 the day before. St. Louis would rebound to prevent the sweep with a 12-7 win the following day. Several records were broken, tied, or approached in this game.
Was there no spot for “runs” in the Fenway scoreboard? I looked at a few other images and it looks like there was a spot for hits but not runs. Who cares about hits? I didn’t come to the ballpark to do math
link
Anytime the Titans harken back to their Oiler roots … IRL or in a concept design…is fine by me! Nice going with those, Chris!
“The real Titans and Texans are locked in a weird co-dependent identity crises involving navy, columbia blue and red”
I’d say the Texans have a newly-surfaced self-loathing inferiority complex when it comes to their branding.
Thanks Chris!
“I’d say the Texans have a newly-surfaced self-loathing inferiority complex when it comes to their branding”
I like that description much better :)
Well the socks look great.
Thanks Rick, I’ll take that :)
If you want to look like the UFL, or a division 3 college school then this is a great look.
Those Titans ones are awesome
Thanks Cole!
Thanks for another interesting set of uniform concepts, Chris.
What software do you use to make these?