The Chicago Bears will be breaking out their 1936 throwback uniforms this Sunday, when they take on the Minnesota Vikings. If you’re a fan of stripes — as am I — then this the uniform for you.
This is the first (and possibly only, as the Bears don’t do a uniform schedule) time the team will wear the throwbacks this season. The team announced the uniforms in a video showing the throwback stripes being applied to the blue shell.
Keepin' it classic 🔥 pic.twitter.com/B2zf6DWpYD
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 20, 2024
The team was also practicing in the throwback helmet yesterday.
If you’re not aware, this throwback was introduced in 2019. The 1936 original version on which it’s based is probably best known nowadays for its depiction in this portrait of Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski:
Since it was first introduced, the team has worn the 1936 throwback a total of seven times and has a strong 5-2 record when wearing them. Of the seven times, they wore them twice against the Vikings and twice against the Texans. Sunday’s meeting will make it the third time sporting these versus the Vikes (they currently stand at 1-1).
Those matchups and scores are below.
September 29, 2019
Bears 16 / Vikings 6
December 9, 2019
Bears 31 / Cowboys 24
December 13, 2020
Bears 36 / Texans 7
October 17, 2021
Packers 24 / Bears 14
December 20, 2021
Vikings 17 / Bears 7
September 25, 2022
Bears 23 / Texans 20
December 24, 2023
Bears 27 / Cardinals 16
I love these uniforms — and it’s a treat to see them once or twice a season — but I realize they’re not for everyone. There are a few throwbacks I’d classify as “polarizing” when it comes to a strong like or dislike of a uniform. Uniforms like the New York Giants Legacy Red, the Broncos’ 1960 throwbacks, or (and perhaps especially) the Pittsburgh Steelers Bumblebees seem to fall into this category. You either love ’em or you don’t.
What are your thoughts on the Bears 1936 throwbacks? Are you of the mind that unis like this and some of those mentioned above are cool to see (even with all the concessions to modern equipment that are required) or do you feel like these uniforms should be best left in the past? And as far as throwbacks go, where would you rate the Bears 1936 uniform?
Love these throwbacks!
agree!
I love these jerseys! I’d prefer a couple orange stripes on the pants, and using their normal white socks with an extra orange and navy stripe on them. But these are all-time greats in my opinion
See, stripes are good on football uniforms.
Especially socks
Great throwbacks, though I think they ought to wear them against a team from the same era.
Yep, a Lions or Packers throwback preferably, but any team from that era, if they were wearing a pre-war uni, should make for an excellent match up.
While the shoulders deviate from the “Chicago Stripes” pattern, that a minor flaw…these are really spectacular!
Even the opponents looked good in the games when these were worn…obviously the Pack, ‘Boys and Vikes, but especially the Texans and yes, even the mono-cardinal RedBirds.
Noooo! You were supposed to wear them on Thanksgiving against the Lions throwbacks!
As a Bears fan, I really loved these when they first came out in 2019. But, seeing them every year has kind of taken the wow factor out of them. Probably should have saved these for Thanksgiving day against the Lions.
Indeed, that would have made for a great aesthetical matchup.
I’ve always liked the old school helmet stripes, having grown up in Delaware with the U of D/Michigan/Princeton winged helmets. I like these as well, though a good friend of mine from Chicago, not so much…
They’re just fun!
Some teams just have their own..thing.
Michigan’s helmet.
The Cowboy’s star.
The uniform works for the Bears.
The helmet?
Too Michigany.
I understand they want to wear them in front of their home fans, but I really want to see them next Thursday in Detroit, with the Lions also in their throwbacks. Don’t know if that’ll happen… for all we know, the Lions might go with their black alts and the Bears will just have their regular road unis. But who knows at this point?
Actually, just checked Week 13 on the GUD and they seem to already have the Lions pegged for their throwbacks. I don’t recall any official announcement; hell, we still don’t have the Lions’ pants for this week (unless they just announced it, but I think they usually wait until Friday).
So, maybe we might get back-to-back Bears throwbacks? It doesn’t look like they’ve announced a second game for the orange jersey… unless they might try to get a color-vs-color game?
Just gotta wait and see, I guess.
Detroit will wear the throwbacks for Turkey Day (yay!). As far as the Bears throwing back opposite them? Highly doubtful. After this weekend, they’ll have already spent two of their three “alternate” bullets (they wore orange jerseys and helmets in Week 2). That means they have one date left for either another orange helmet wearing, or another throwback wearing.
Since they debuted the new orange lids in 2022, they’ve worn those twice per season, and the throwback only once. I’d say if we’re going to see the Bears in another alternate this season, it will be in the orange lid.
Does that definitely mean they won’t wear throwbacks next Thursday? Of course not, but I wouldn’t be on it. I expect we’ll see the bears in white over midnight navy. The throwback vs. throwback would be awesome, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Would love to see the Bears belay the blue britches and go white-over-white…maybe call a uni-audible by pairing what they ‘should’ be wearing for road games with a white wishbone( aka : the toilet seat C) and gray grills on the headwear!
Color V Color on Thanksgiving would be perfect.
Enjoy the change for sure. Too bad they don’t wear them against different teams. Why the Vikes so much. Vikes should be wearing their throwback as well.
I love these. I would love to see them permanently.
I love these throwbacks! The only ones I like better are the Monsters of the Midway.
Freezing cold take here on uni-watch comments, but the Nike makers mark on the sleevecap kinda takes the wind out of my sails here. Could they really not make an exception and put it on the chest or did nobody in the decision making process have an aesthetic opinion and they never even considered it…?
I’m reading the Nike paperwork with the NFL now:
***Spoiler Alert***
It kinda makes sense.
It kinda doesn’t.
Nike is NOT allowed to make logo placement changes to current uniforms.
Nike could be, however, allowed to make logo placement changes to future/expansion team uniforms, AS LONG, as they decide to change logo placement to all NFL teams.
Which, I read to mean, no individual logo placement for any team.
That swoosh ruins everything, and I think it’s a huge contributor to the problems with sleeves on modern football uniforms generally.
You’d look at the logo and think, “well, it’s really small, so no big deal,” but every element also needs to reserve some empty space around it (between the swoosh and the stripes, TV numbers, or whatever). So it’s effectively hogging more than twice as much real estate because of that buffer. This pushes out everything else from the sleeve space, which has already shrunk considerably because of the cut of the modern jerseys.
Not to mention the “need” for that logo to always be the most visible element, which works against any lower-contrast designs (this was really bad in the latest batch of Nike MLB City-Connect uniforms) and also works against any throwbacks.
Every uniform that has it, would look so much better without it.
These are a little goofy, but I love them. It would be cool to see them against the Lions near-perfect throwbacks on Turkey Day, but the Bears normal set is classic enough that I’m fine with either way.
I get the impression that the players hate those sock stripes. I might prefer them with some white on the socks, but throwbacks are throwbacks, so I wouldn’t argue for a change there.
Love them as a 1-2 times per year thing.
Agree with many -next week would have been cooler, IMO.
As much as I love the Bears’ standard number font, I really like this uniform with its stripes. Actually I like that old-fashioned serif coming off the top of the “4”; I’d like to see more teams go back to that.