Your Uniform of Nostalgia

[DeFrank]

Is there one uniform or piece of a uniform that, more than any other, fills you with nostalgia, memory, warmth for a time in your past? 

 

For me, it's less about the design and more about the cut of the uniform. The Pigskins have worn their white over burgundy uniform regularly since the 1970s, but I don't have a particular gut reaction to seeing pictures of it in the 1980s or 1990s. Instead, I have a strong sentimental reaction to seeing the same design on an approx. 2003-2008-era, because that's when I was a kid watching them, yadda yadda yadda. 

 

 

The helmet model, the shoulder pad structure, the numeral materials, jersey cut, NFL Equipment shields, etc.  I was thinking about this recently because of how Adrian Peterson looks like a player from the 00s-era Pigskins. His helmet model, the way he fills out his pads, etc. 

 

What are some of your uniforms that give you that feeling? Are there examples, like Peterson for me, that you can think of that are "out of era?"

[WSU151]

1 hour ago, DeFrank said:

Is there one uniform or piece of a uniform that, more than any other, fills you with nostalgia, memory, warmth for a time in your past? 

 

For me, it's less about the design and more about the cut of the uniform. The Pigskins have worn their white over burgundy uniform regularly since the 1970s, but I don't have a particular gut reaction to seeing pictures of it in the 1980s or 1990s. Instead, I have a strong sentimental reaction to seeing the same design on an approx. 2003-2008-era, because that's when I was a kid watching them, yadda yadda yadda. 

 

The helmet model, the shoulder pad structure, the numeral materials, jersey cut, NFL Equipment shields, etc.  I was thinking about this recently because of how Adrian Peterson looks like a player from the 00s-era Pigskins. His helmet model, the way he fills out his pads, etc. 

 

What are some of your uniforms that give you that feeling? Are there examples, like Peterson for me, that you can think of that are "out of era?"

 

Too many uniforms of the 80s and 90s give me fuzzy nostalgia feels. If I could I'd probably list 50-60 uniforms.

 

Probably this one more than any: 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

80's MLB uniforms.  Powder blues, Padres 3 color, Astros, etc.  

[PaleVermilion81]

[Prince Harry]

Early 2000s were my getting into hockey phase, so the Oilers in copper and blue is probably my number one for nostalgia. 2006 remains my favourite hockey memory. 

 

The Macfarlane designed thirds were also special because every kid wanted one back when they first came out and I was the first of my friends to get one. 

 

Despite them being rivals, I remember the gradient Canucks thirds and flaming horse jerseys fondly. I also owned both the Sharks teal jersey from that era with the pointed black side panels and the red 3D logo Sens jersey with the big diagonal chest stripe. 

 

I definitely loved “loud” jerseys back then which kinda contrasts with how much I prefer subtle and traditional designs now. 

[B-Rich]

This jersey:

 

1992.  At the same time this team was coming into being, my wife was nearing the end of her med-school years and we were checking out residency sites.  One was the Tampa area.   She signed up to take a one-month rotation at Tampa General between Thanksgiving  and Christmastime to see if she'd like doing a residency there. I went down with her for Thanksgiving week to help her move in, and bought this jersey (which I still have).  We celebrated our first anniversary in Tampa, and as that is the "paper" anniversary, she gave me tickets to a Lightning game (which we attended just before Christmas, when I went back down to pick her up and move her back home).  That game was held at the Lightning's temporary facility (the old Fairgrounds Building) and at the game we bought a logo ornament (which we still have).  The Lightning from that point on became my NHL team.

 

This jersey was worn for several years, often on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.  It evokes a warm feeling of being newlyweds, pre-mortgage and kids; not having too many cares in the world, having just enough money for the two of us to be happy, the world spread before us and full of promise of great things to come.  

 

I feel a little too old to wear jerseys anymore, but my two daughters (18 and 21) love to wear it, along with most of my other old jerseys....

[bowld]

Mighty ducks

Spaghetti canucks

Fisherman isles

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

 

The uniform that makes me overcome with nostalgia is the classic A's set.

     

 

 

I grew up a Yankee fan.  But there was no way not to love the mustachioed A's.  During the latter part of the Lean Years, the A's took me through the fall.  And even after I developed a strong preference for button-down / belted uniforms and a dislike for coloured jerseys, I maintained a love of this brilliant look.

 

When I actually saw them play on television it was usually in black-and-white, as I didn't have colour TV until I was in high school.  But from my baseball cards I knew exactly how glorious they looked.

 

 

 

Second place:

 

  

 

 

It was rare to catch a glimpse of this uniform in action when I was a kid; Net games were on only once in a while on New York's channel 9.  And even then I was seeing them only in black-and-white.  But somehow the brain compensates; when I think of watching the sports highlights on the evening news, the memories come in colour.

 

And then when I got to high school, there was a life-size photo of this guy on the gym locker wall: alumnus Billy Schaeffer, in his beautiful Nets uniform.

 

 

The Nets returned to this look in the mid-1980s, so I got to see it in action plenty of times as an adult.  But the sight of it still brings me back to childhood.

 

 

 

Honourable mention:

 

 

I was a Yankee fan, but I loved the Mets' classic look.  After unfortunate flirtations with silly racing strips, unnecessary tails, and hideous black, the Mets are back to looking right.  Almost. 

 

The one element that would make the Mets' road uniforms perfect would be the use of varsity numbers.  I know that it is strange for a team to have different number fonts home and road. But the differing number styles are those which go best with the team's two distinct lettering styles: standard block numbers with the home cursive lettering; varsity numbers with the florid serifed road letters.  

 

And the varsity font looked absolutely spectacular from the back, especially with no player names foul up the presentation.

 

 

 

So it's no coincidence that I consider the 1973 World Series the most beautiful uni match-up of all time, and why this picture strikes me as one the best-ever baseball shots:

 

 

 

[Vitalogy26]

Back when I was a wee lad (and well before I stepped foot on the University of Oregon’s campus), I was just getting into football by going to Hurricane’s games with my mother who I lived with in Miami. So these mean a lot to me:

 

 

 

 

These sets to me are the best the Hurricanes have ever looked and were a modern classic (and yes, I’m aware that nostalgia goggles combined with the National Title years may lead to a bias, but I don’t care!)

 

Coincidentally, young me couldn’t get enough football and I found myself drawn to watching late night Pac-10 games featuring a team wearing a similar design on the west coast:

 

 

I didn’t know at the time, but staying up and “cheating” on the Hurricanes with the Ducks would lead down a path to Eugene, and I enrolles there in 2010. Four amazing years are always brought back up when I see these beauties (which I still believe to be the best set the Ducks have ever worn):

 

 

 

 

Oops this post got long! These are just three football sets that mean the world to me because of where I was in my life and where I am now. I’ll never forget the Hurricanes getting me into football and I’ll never forget Oregon for making me the man that I am now.

 

[Mitch B]

27 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

 

 

 

My first favorite uniform: The New York Mets ... I fondly remember the uniforms of the Swingin' A's as well.

 

[BigDmo]

4 minutes ago, Vitalogy26 said:

 

 

 

Didn't think I'd be bringing the same nostalgia as someone else to this thread! I was going to post this exact set, because for me, that is the earliest memory I have of watching Oregon football at Autzen Stadium. I was about 10 years old when I finally started to understand the game and could fully enjoy the experience. One of my most vivid memories with this jersey set was watching Maurice Morris in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl vs. Colorado. He was hit in such a way he was able to roll off a defenders back and score. That run was the craziest thing I had ever seen (at that moment in my life) and Morris was a big part to why I started to really like the number 9. 

That was when Oregon really started getting national attention. Of course we stumbled through the early 2000's with hype and underwhelming finishes. Then came Kellen Clemens, Dennis Dixon, and constant uniform changes.

[AstroCree]

As a kid I wore my black Mike Piazza jersey so many times, the sleeve patch started to fall off. This is the uniform they wore when I fell in love with them. My whole childhood at Shea was seeing them wearing this. Uniform wise, the current Mets are at their peak but I still have my soft spot for the black unis. 

[AnPheitseog]

3 minutes ago, insert name said:

As a kid I wore my black Mike Piazza jersey so many times, the sleeve patch started to fall off. This is the uniform they wore when I fell in love with them. My whole childhood at Shea was seeing them wearing this. Uniform wise, the current Mets are at their peak but I still have my soft spot for the black unis. 

I have a lot of others, but this so much. I prefer the roads, but the entire set is just so warm and fuzzy. 

[Brave-Bird 08]

Early-to-mid 2000s when all of NFL Europe wore the same template. I love football, but I was obsessed with it when I first got into the NFL around 2000 (right after the Falcons made the Super Bowl). I traded Pokemon cards for a few more summers, then starting obsessing over the Falcons when Vick got drafted. That translated into 24-7 either playing football in the yard, browsing the internet for highlight videos (before YouTube...a challenge!) and even spending summers watching NFL Europe religiously. My parents were so confused. 

 

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

I’ll second DeFrank’s pick of the classic Skins look. God bless the gold pants they aren’t bad, but I’d be okay to never see them again. The skins I know and love wear burgundy or white pants. By now the gold pants make me think of the McNabb, RG3, and Kirk Cousins eras. I’m ready to move on. Bring back the days of the sweet sweet Mark Brunell era baby!

[MCM0313]

3 hours ago, WSU151 said:

 

Too many uniforms of the 80s and 90s give me fuzzy nostalgia feels. If I could I'd probably list 50-60 uniforms.

 

Probably this one more than any: 

That was the first one that came to mind for me. I'd also add the pre-2000 Rams, especially the white jersey; any Dolphins set from when they made the facemasks aqua up until 1997, when they went through their first redesign; and the Houston Oilers. Other sports don't get me that much. I still think the inaugural Vancouver Grizzlies' threads were awesome, and the Bucks' Irish Rainbow, even though it had been changed by the time I started watching. And of course the Nuggets' rainbow skyline (though I never watched it in person either).

[Chromatic]

Weirdly enough I think this might be the Canucks worst uniform; its their worst colour scheme coupled with their worst logo.

 

Yet every time I see it I feel a little bit of nostalgic warmth for when I was a child and first started watching hockey, The West Coast Express, etc.

[oldschoolvikings]

 

Undergrad days...

 

[WFite]

I grew up going to UH games back in the Art Briles and Kevin Kolb days. Seeing these bad boys against Oklahoma State make it all the more interesting that I later went to OSU and witnessed the end of the era these uniforms were in High School.

 

[FinsUp1214]

THE team and uniform that dominated my childhood:

 

It’s not the best the Jazz ever looked, but I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t miss the heck out of it sometimes.

 

I could easily say “everything any team wore from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s” evokes a general nostalgia, and both of the 49ers 90’s sets evoke that the strongest to me because that’s the uniforms that got me started in getting interested in uniforms.

 

But as far as a real personal nostalgia that I have a real local/personal connection to, the only other one I can think of that elicited anything like that is this:

 

 

I’d much rather BYU be in royal ‘84 throwbacks forever because that’s thier best look, but growing up south of Provo from the age of 8 onwards, this uniform was my first real college football experience in terms of exposure to aesthetics (thankfully I don’t remember ever watching the “bib”). I hardly watched any college football before 2000, so the Doman-Staley-Mahe team was the first one I really watched extensively. Oddly enough I’ve never been a BYU fan myself, but because due to proximity BYU football was just “in” my life (and I do have some family who are grads and fans), the sight of Brandon Doman or Luke Staley or Reno Mahe in this uniform brings back a lot of happy childhood memories.