The Nike Invasion

nike.com

On Tuesday, Nike revealed the new uniforms for each of the 32 NFL teams. Prior to the unveiling, some fans feared that Nike would go crazy and drastically change the uniforms of every team, even in spite of each teams' respective histories.

This however, did not come to fruition (as those who actually understood how athletic business works knew) for a majority of teams. In fact, five teams, the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and Carolina Panthers opted to wear their current uniforms, rather than wear a Nike uniform.

31 of the 32 NFL teams did not change their uniform designs; the only team that did change were the Seattle Seahawks, and that change was huge.

Helmets- The Seahawks stuck with a navy blue helmet, with the helmet logo in Navy Blue and Silver. The helmet stripe features a sublimated northwestern "wing"pattern.

Uniforms- The home uniforms are Navy blue, with sliver shoulder stripes, and lime green "wings" on the sleeves. The left shoulder stripe features the Seahawks wordmark. The numbers are silver with lime green outlines. Finally, the collar features a lime green stripe with a northwestern wing design.

                  The road uniforms are white, with navy shoulder stripes and navy "wings" on the sleeves. The wordmark is in white on the shoulder stripe. The numbers are navy with lime green accents. The collar is navy with the white wing pattern.
 
                 There is also a silver alternate that matches the white uniform.

Pants- The Seahawks have three sets of pants, a navy blue pair with a lime green stripe, a white pair with a navy stripe, and a silver pair with a navy stripe. Each stripe features twelve "wings" that are meant to represent the "twelfth man" (the nickname for the fans of the Seahawks).


All in all, the uniforms aren't that bad. They could be much better, especially if the shoulder stripes were just reduced to being on the sleeves. Of course, the uniforms could be much worse, and this was a pretty good design by Nike.

Tim Tebow Ruins Everything

Last week, the Denver Broncos traded Golden Boy, greatest player EVER!!!!!!! to the New York Jets for a fourth round draft pick. Despite Tebow's mediocrity, people think he's good or something, so Jets fans were clamoring to get an authentic Tim Tebow uniform. 

These uniforms were being sold in stores by Reebok. Now, prior to the season, Nike won the rights to produce every uniform in the NFL. The contract transferred between Reebok and Nike on March 1st. Therefore, Reebok cannot produce any NFL uniforms and profit on them.

http://www.deseretnews.com/images/article/midres/818781/818781.jpg

Tebow was not traded to the Jets before last week, so there was NO way that Reebok could have produced the uniforms prior to losing the contract and therefore, the company was profiting of "Tebowmania" illegally. 

Nike realized this and decided to intervene, suing Reebok for the profits made on the sales of all Jets jerseys with Tebow's name. Of course, Reebok was violating Nike's right tobe the only provider of official NFL uniform merchandise. And before you go saying that this is just Nike being petty, these sales will result in millions of dollars in revenue that Nike will lose, as anyone who bought reebok apparel probably won't buy Nike apparel when it is released on April 3.

In response, US District Judge Kevin Castel granted Nike a restraining order against Reebok, blocking all sales of Tebow-related apparel. This was the correct decision, as Reebok was clearly attempting a last second cash grab that the company obviously knew was against the rules. In fact, Nike should also be awarded all the profits from Reebok's sales, and should even be granted damages, since Reebok should be punished harshly for such a selfish move.

And seriously, Tim Tebow is a back up QB. He sucks... People need to get over him. (I needed to get that off my chest).

Retired Numbers

Earlier this week, the Denver Broncos signed quarterback Peyton Manning. One of the first questions (besides "what is going to happen to Tim Tebow?") was "what number is he going to wear?"


When he played for Indianapolis, Manning wore the number 18. However, the Denver Broncos had already retired the number in honor of former quarterback Frank Tripucka.

Frank Tripucka

When a player leaves a large enough impact on a franchise, the franchise will honor that player by retiring his number, not allowing another player playing for that franchise to ever wear it again.


So, this rule meant that Manning could not wear 18 as long as he played for the Broncos. However, when asked about this, Tripucka claimed that he would be perfectly fine with allowing Manning to wear the number if he joined the team. Sure enough, when Manning was introduced by the Broncos, he was presented with a number 18 jersey.

This has created controversy on Manning's character. Many believe that it was selfish for Manning to take the number, and that he should have respected Tripucka's place in Broncos history. In response to these claims, Manning stated that he "[feels] like he really wants me to wear his number," and that he is "honored to wear his number..."


This hasn't changed the fact that Manning appears to be selfish for needing to wear the number 18. I am one of these people who think Manning lacks class for wearing the number. Of course Tripucka would "want" Manning to wear his number. It is a common courtesy to do something like that. However, it is also a common courtesy to acknowledge the importance of the number and have politely turned down the offer. If that had been done, both men would have looked good to the public. Instead, Manning now has taken on the appearance of just another sports diva who needs to get his way.

Hockey East Redesign

This weekend is the championship for the Hockey East Conference of NCAA Hockey. The Conference consists of ten teams from the New England Area. Being from Maine and a huge hockey fan, I have decided to create a series of concepts for each team in honor of the Hockey East Championship. 


My goal for this series was give each school their own distinct look and to make the league as diverse as possible, while still keeping the integrity of each school's history and designs intact. The schools will be presented in alphabetical order.


BOSTON COLLEGE
The Eagles are the two-time defending Hockey East champions, and winners of five of the last seven. On Friday, they will face the Providence Friars in the semifinals, for the opportunity to advance to a third straight finals appearance. 


BC currently have new uniforms for the 2012 season, featuring gold and maroon racing stripes (vertical arm stripes), hem stripes, and sock stripes. The road uniforms are the same, with white stripes replacing the maroon ones. While these uniforms are okay, they aren't nearly as nice as their previous uniforms. For this concept, I wanted to return to a look similar to those previous uniforms, in which the Eagles won three national championships. The crest on the front remains unchanged, and the sleeve stripes are only slightly different than the ones on the old uniforms. The biggest change are the road pants, which are gold, and feature a double stripe that matches those on the sleeves.

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BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The Terriers are also playing in this weekend's semifinal, against the University of Maine, and are attempting to regain the championship for the first time since 2009, when they defeated UMass-Lowell in the championship game.

BU wears two different sets of uniforms. The primaries are similar to the Boston Bruins cut (if the full yokes were removed) while the Alternates are Detroit Red Wings-esque. For my concept, I wanted to keep a similarly classic look, and created a design that somewhat combined both uniforms while also being fundamentally different from each in the process. The arched Boston and number remain, while the sleeves are a contrasting color with a smaller stripe of the same color located higher on the sleeve. Both the hem stripes and sock stripes feature this stripe pattern. Finally, I added the BU logo as shoulder logos.

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MAINE

The Black Bears are the team of my rooting interest, and are facing BU in this weekend's semifinal. If the Black Bears win, they will make their second appearance in the Final in three years. A championship victory will be the first by a team not named BC or BU since 2004, when Maine defeated UMass.

Maine's uniforms are nearly perfect, featuring a classic double-blue color combination with triple stripes on the arms, hem, shorts, and socks. The crest on the front is a cursive "Maine" wordmark. To me, the only thing wrong with these uniforms are the shoulder yokes, which just don't appeal to me. In my concept, the only thing I did was fix the shoulder yoke to match the style of the rest of the uniform striping.

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MASSACHUSETTS

The Minutemen were eliminated by BC in the quarterfinal round. 


UMass currently have uniforms with the wordmark/number combo as a crest and Northwestern striping. They are okay, but could be much better. For my design, I wanted to a combination of a modern and traditional look. UMass has a logo that uses black and silver liberally, so I figured I would include those in the uniforms to give them a bit more pop. The striping on the uniforms is a Red-Silver-Black design that I made standard throughout the entire set. On the road uniforms (or any other red portion) the striping stays the same, but the red stripe matches the uniforms, and disappears (trust me, it looks way better than a white or silver shoulder yoke). I also placed the minuteman logo on the front to round things out.

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UMass-Lowell
The Riverhawks were eliminated by Providence in the quarterfinal round and are the first two-seed to lose in the quarterfinal round.


I personally am not a fan of UMLs uniforms. The home unis are Montreal Canadiens clones with blue helmets. The road unis have a generic three stripes and shoulder yokes design. I feel like there is a red uniform too, but I'm not sure if they still use it. Anyway, neither design really strikes me. I also have an issue with the fact that the design seems to struggle deciding whether red or blue is the primary, ala Texas Rangers.

For this design I wanted to:

1) Choose a primary color. Like I said, having blue and red clash for primary status isn't a good idea, so for this concept, I made blue the primary color. 
2) Modernize the uniforms. I'm not particularly a fan of every Hockey East team wearing a traditional uniform... UML is one of those teams that got bumped out of the traditional category.
3) Change the script on the uniforms, I hate how it looks currently.

The uniforms feature red paneling with white accent piping on the jersey, pants, and socks. I also decided to make the wordmark on the front diagonal, as it made the uniform look more even than any other attempt.

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Merrimack
The Warriors were eliminated by Maine in the quarterfinal, in a rematch from last year's quarterfinal matchup, which Merrimack won.


Merrimack's uniforms are two completely different styles. Their home uniforms are yellow with a white-blue-white torso stripe (and sleeve stripes to match) with the school's MC logo as its crest. The road uniform is navy, with yellow double hem and sleeve stripes. I know in the past that the numbers on these looked like highlighter yellow when viewed in person (though images of the uniforms don't seem to portray that). The crest on these uniforms is a Merrimack wordmark.

I am not a fan of having two different designs, especially when they are that different, so my first goal was to make a single uniform design for both home and road uniforms. My second goal was to make Merrimack look more modern. Both uniforms give a sense that the Warriors have lots of history in Hockey East, which is very far from the truth. In fact, Merrimack was consistently the worst team in the league for years, and only recently experienced success. That fact made me decide to come up with a modern design for the team.

I love the use of yellow at home, so I kept that look, while giving each uniform shoulder stripes with white piping as well as white and Yellow/Blue (depending on the uniform). Both uniforms use a version of the MC logo The shorts are navy with a white-yellow-white stripe design, and the socks feature a stripe similar to that of the shoulder stripes.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
UNH was eliminated by BU in the quarterfinal round. 


 The Wildcats have excellent, simple uniforms, so I didn't want to do too much different. The only real difference is the addition of silver, which create a double stripe look. Also, I decided to go with Silver for the home instead of white, I figure it could look pretty good as a light jersey. The only other change is that both shoulder logos face forward.

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NORTHEASTERN
Northeastern failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing in ninth place.


I hate Northeastern's uniforms, which are just a copy of the Chicago Blackhawks uniforms (which I also dislike). Also, the Huskies have one of the worst logos I've ever seen. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me that people actually think this is a good logo and are willing to use it. Anyway... For this concept, I wanted to give Northeastern a new look based around their split-color N logo. In order to achieve this, nearly everything on the uniforms have the same split-color look, most notably with the numbers (I tried shoulder stripes, but they didn't look right).The shoulder logos are the huskies current split-paw logo, which I like a lot.

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PROVIDENCE
Providence will face-off against BC in the semifinal. They are the first seven-seed to advance past the quarterfinal round.


The Friars current look is "cookie-cutter" (shoulder yokes, triple arm and torso stripes) and uses this logo, which I absolutely despise. In order to correct the look, I went in the opposite direction. First, I came up with a unique sleeve stripe deign. There really wasn't an inspiration for these, I had another design that failed, so I kept tweaking until I eventually came up with this look, which I like a lot. I also changed the crest logo to the side-profile friar, which I feel is more consistent with the style of the uniforms than the current logo.

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VERMONT
I used to love Vermont's uniforms (They were similar to my BC uniforms but in green and yellow). However, recently they changed both their uniforms. The home whites don't look bad, but the road uniforms... Well, they got caught up in that fauxback fad that's been plauging the NHL, and it does not look good. 

For my concept, I wanted to remove the awful vintage white and roundel. Finally, I went with a stiping that creates a V on the sleeves, torso, shorts, and socks. I also made the striping and numbering match the same style seen on the V in the crest (yellow-white-yellow on the road uni, green-yellow-green on the home uni).

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There you have it, a redesign for all ten teams in Hockey East. 

Hidden Meanings

One thing that I love about sports logos is that they aren't always exactly what they seem. Sure, at first you may see one object, but if you look closer, you could find a hidden image in the logo. Though many don't realize it, some use negative space to their advantage, while others use arrangement to give their logos dual meaning. Even some of the more straightforward looking logos may have hidden meanings.


MLB
Arizona Diamondbacks- The alternate logos of the Diamondbacks both use clever arrangement to give their logos double meaning.


The first logo is a coiled up snake. However, the fashion in which the snake is coiled also forms the letter D.


The second logo is the lower case letters D and B arranged next to one another, representing the team name. The two letters are lowercase and actually form an overview head of a snake, with the holes in the letters acting as the snake's eyes.




Milwaukee Brewers- The Brewers from 1978-1993 is the image of a baseball glove catching a baseball. Of course, looking closer, the fingers of the glove create an M, while the base of the hand form a B.


Montreal Expos- This defunct team had one of the more interesting logos with numerous meanings. First, it was a lowercase M. Second, the M is made up of a red-white-blue split color scheme, which is a reverse of the french flag, a shout out to the french community of the city of Montreal. The third is the letters e,d, and b (the d is the white part and the e combined). These letters stand as the abbreviation Expos de Montreal Baseball (the large M is included).




NFL
Atlanta Falcons- This is one of my favorite logos ever. It is a plus that the falcon actually also is a stylized F, with the arms helping to create the letter.


Philadelphia Eagles- SUPPOSEDLY the Eagles logo faces the left (all other motion logos face right) because the three back feathers create an E... Personally, I don't know if I buy this one.




NBA
Washington Bullets- Another defunct team, the Bullets logo features two hands at the top of the Ls in bullets going after the ball, representing the opening tip off of a basketball game.


NHL
Minnesota Wild- At first glance, the Wild logo looks like a bear colored red, yellow, and green. However, those colors make up a wildlife scene with trees, the moon, a shooting star (where the eye is), and a river (where the mouth is).


Dallas Stars- The top point of the Stars logo also doubles as the A in the word Stars.


New York Islanders- First, the hockey stick on the Islanders logo combines with the N to make NY. Also, the top tip of the I overlaps the image of Long Island. The part that overlaps actually marks the location of the team's home stadium. Finally, the four tape stripes on the stick represent the four Stanley Cups the team has won.


Vancouver Canucks- The Canucks logo is both an Orca whale leaping from icy water as well as the letter C.


Winnipeg Jets (New)- When the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and retook the name Jets, the team created this logo. First, the Jet makes up part of the maple leaf behind it. The second hidden message is the notch at the top of the roundel. This notch is a shout out to the teams ownership group, True North.


Washington Capitals- First, the hockey stick in the Capitals primary logo is also the T in the wordmark. The team's secondary logo is an eagle, but the bottom of the eagle is split at the bottom, creating a negative space image of the US Capitol Building AND the Washington Monument (the triangular shape where the white starts).


Hartford Whalers- This defunct team had a logo that clearly looked like a W with a whale's tail above it. However, the negative space between these creates the letter H as well.


Quebec Nordiques- The Nordiques, another defunct team, had a logo that represented a lowercase N, a hockey stick/puck combo, and finally an igloo if the previous two elements are combined.




NCAA


BIG 10- The past two Big Ten logos have both featured clever use of negative space. The previous logo (when the conference had 11 teams) has and 11 hidden in the negative space under the T. In the current logo, the letters I and G in BIG form the number 10.


Washington State- At first glance, this is simply a Wildcat logo. However, a closer look reveals that the Wildcat is made up of three distinct sections... The sections also happen to be the letters, WSU, the abbreviation for the school.


Eastern Washington University- Ok, this one is very obvious, as the wings make up the letters EWU... The contrasting color really brings out the letters.




As you can clearly see, logos hiding secret meanings are very common in athletic logos. What is more astounding is that I am positive I didn't list nearly all the logos that utilize this technique. So the next time you watch your team play, be on the lookout for these hidden meanings.

Rebranding the New England Patriots

In past posts, I presented different examples of uniform and logo design that have actively been used in the real world. Today, I wanted to divert from that and present a concept design of my own. This concept is a rebrand of my hometown team, the New England Patriots.


It's not that I think there is anything wrong with what the Patriots currently wear. In fact, I like the look (which puts me in the minority) but there are things that I believe could make it better. 


First, I brought back Pat Patriot, the primary logo the team wore in previous seasons. However, Pat Patriot is too detailed to be a quality logo in modern days, so I created a modernized version of the logo. The new Pat Patriot has a sleeker look, with cleaner shadowing and a simplified coat. Pat's sleeves have been rolled up as a representation of the "roll up your sleeves and get to work" attitude of New Englanders. His face has been changed from a happy grin, to an aggressive scowl to better reflect the game of football in the modern era. Other aspects of the logo remain the same, but are rendered in a more simplistic fashion, similar to many designs currently used.


Next, I redesigned the team's wordmark. I'm not a fan of the team's current wordmark. It isn't the worst I've seen, and there is nothing technically wrong with it, the wordmark just isn't my cup of tea. My version of the wordmark uses a custom font with block style letters that are stylized to portray motion and swiftness. The letters are colored with a red (or silver) strip to further enhance the sense of motion.

Helmet, Primary logo, and Wordmark

For the secondary logo, I wanted to create something that would not only represent the team, but also the entire population of New England as a whole.

The logo is a tattered red flag, adorned with six stars, each representing a New England state and a green pine tree in a similar style to current the flag of New England. The tattering of the flag represents the perseverance and grit of Patriots as well as of New Englanders, who struggle struggle through even the most difficult hardships and succeed.

Secondary Logo

Finally, I created a uniform set that represents the simplicity of the Patriot Way. The primary home uniform is navy blue, with sublimated stripes on the torso, similar to the Patriots uniforms during the 1990s. The numbers are two-toned, featuring white with a silver strip similar to the design of the wordmark. The pants are silver and contain a blue stripe outlined in red. The stripe design represents the speed and fluidity of the Patriots signature style of offense, which features quick passing strikes. The away uniform is the same design with a white uniform and blue pants.

There you have it. In all, this design took me between 3 to 5 weeks to think up and design. Feel free to leave your comments and criticisms on any of the designs.

But Everyone is Doing It! Black For Black's Sake Edition

Last week, we discussed three trends in sports uniforms over the years, the powder blue craze, the bright-color phase, and the teal and purple years. This week, I will present another trend that has recently taken hold in sports...

 Black for Black's Sake (BFBS) 

Image from uni-watch.com

Black for Black's sake is a trend that describes, according to Uni Watch, "teams that gratuitously add black to their uniform design even though black was never one of their team colors." This trend really peaked during the 1990's and 2000's when it seemed like every team from all levels of sports began wearing black in their uniforms.


In the MLB, numerous teams have added black to their color schemes. However, the five that stand out the most are the New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays, and Oakland Athletics. Amazingly, only the Mets still wear a black uniforms, and even that is being phased out of use.




The most notable case in the NFL are the Detroit Lions, who traditionally wore Honolulu Blue and Silver, but added black in 2003. The Lions still include black trim, but phased out the black uniform in 2009.


The Arizona Cardinals, one of the most historic teams in the NFL, sported Cardinal and white uniforms for most of its history, but added black trim in 2005. In 2010, the Cardinals also added a black uniform to their set.




In the NBA, the two most notable teams to use BFBS are the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics. While the Celtics only use black in their alternate uniforms, the Knicks have black incorporated into their uniforms full time, something they did not do in the past.



The NHL currently has one offender. The Calgary Flames have historically worn Red and Yellow, but in 1995, the Flames added black trim. Black has been a part of Flames uniforms ever since.


Black for Black's Sake is mostly seen at the college and high school lever, where teams do not have to follow as strict uniform rules (when it comes to changing uniforms) and can add black to their uniforms more freely. 


In college, Oregon is the most obvious offender. In fact, some uniforms the Ducks wear don't even include the school's official colors (Green and Yellow). Of course, look anywhere and you will probably be able to find a team that has worn a black uniform at some point in time. At this level, it is very common.


One common explanation for the craze for wearing black is that black looks tougher than other colors. Others just believe black has become popular because "it looks cool" and can go with any other color. Whatever the explanation, black in sports uniforms (that have not historically contained black) will be around for along time.


 I personally am not a fan of the trend (this does not include teams like the Boston Bruins or Pittsburgh Steelers, who have always worn black), and am glad that many professional teams no longer take part in the trend.