Tampa Bay Buccaneers Getting New Logo, Helmet & Uniforms

[CS85]

A very short while ago

I can still remember when the Buccaneers would make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance that I could redesign their pants

And maybe fans would be happy for awhile

But February made me shiver

With every rumor they'd deliver

Strange helmet on the door step...I couldn't shake it's bad rep

I can't remember if I cried when I saw their unis got Nike-fied

Something broke me deep inside the day...Bucs unis...died

So bye, bye Quality Design

Took the bevel to new levels and many souls cried

And the good old red and pewter look that they denied

For numbers that are chrome-ified

For numbers that are chrome-ified

Did you make a logo site and do you have faith in Philip Knight?

If Nike tells us so

Now do you believe in cut-and-paste with the XFL and toxic waste?

And can you teach me how to meet deadlines real slow?

Well I know that you're in love with matte

I saw the Vikings helmet not quite fall flat

You both made the purple look less blue

And I dug those purply hues

I was a lonely liker of the Bucs

With their colors rad and their old coach Chuck

But "God ing damn," I shouted, "these ing suck"

The day Bucs Unis Died

*chorus*

Now for 17 years this look had been real swell

Saving the franchise from creamsicle hell

But that's now how it used to be

When Dungy was praising Shaun E. King before Chucky hijacked his winning team

And they both now haunt my TV

And while our heads were looking down, the Glazers shopped their look around

Big investment with no return

All these jerseys should be burned

And while Goodell re-wrote a book of rules, Nike went to work with Satan's tools and the NFL played us all for fools

The day the Bucs Unis Died.

*chorus*

Hocus Pocus and a plague of locusts please descend upon the look that broke us

After the Jags we're falling fast

We landed hard upon the painted grass

Mike Glennon fumbled a forward pass, Darrelle Revis on the sidelines counting cash

The halftime air had scents of doom as their new jerseys entered the locker room

Random swatches on their pants, clock numbers counted their last chance

As Nike tried to rape the field

The Bucs fans refused to yield

Piss on the rotten NFL shield today Bucs Unis Died

*chorus*

And there we all were in the CCSLC

Generations of aesthetics geeks

With no patience left to start again

So Licht Be Nimble, Licht Be Quick

Fighting staph infections and Lovie Smith

Firing everyone is just a means to an end

As I watched the unveil take center stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage

No designer ever lured to hell could design such a turd

As the uniforms freshly ate the flames

A fireball rose over Raymond James

Here we are left to take the blame the day the Bucs Unis Died

*chorus

I met a fan who had season tix and I asked what he thought of this

He simply frowned and turned away

I went down to the sacred store where once hung the jerseys I did adore

But the man there said the jerseys went away

And in the streets the children screamed

It's the XFL look of their dreams

Not a word was spoken

Adults hearts all were broken

Red and pewter I admired most

Now are ketchup mustard and burnt toast

I'm glad as hell I don't live on the coast today, the Bucs Unis Died.

So bye, bye Quality Design

Took the bevel to new levels and many souls cried

And the good old red and pewter look that they denied

For numbers that are chrome-ified

For numbers that are chrome-ified

The XII have spoken.

Ah, yiss. It feels good to hold the belt once more.

[HOOVER]

The home set makes me a believer. I do not like the away set at all, as I hate away jerseys with solid color sleeves for the most part. However, once these hit the field in real use, I think people are really going to like them.

Note: the home set looks WAY BETTER with the red socks. There are a few shots of that set with red socks in the videon on buccaneers.com and one in the gallery as well. Hopefully that's what they end up wearing.

[TheSoundofThrowingPennies]

Just a small little thing I noticed. When Seattle unveiled, the jersey number was 12. When Jacksonville unveiled, 13, and now Tampa Bay has 14.

I guess my little theory is that these numbers coincide with the year they are released, and they only do it to the teams they have complete creative control over.

I'd be interested to see if this is just coincidence or if next year we get another futuristic design and the number on the jersey is 15.

[rtrich11]

tTo me it seems that at this scale and placement, the sword+flag are actually harder to recognize what they are. The hilt gets lost and the flag is too big.

[ONUV]

no way these make it to the field. the negative reaction is enormous.

[oldschoolvikings]

Just a small little thing I noticed. When Seattle unveiled, the jersey number was 12. When Jacksonville unveiled, 13, and now Tampa Bay has 14.

I guess my little theory is that these numbers coincide with the year they are released, and they only do it to the teams they have complete creative control over.

I'd be interested to see if this is just coincidence or if next year we get another futuristic design and the number on the jersey is 15.

That's pretty much standard procedure. IIRC even the Reebok debuts did it.

[MDGP]

tTo me it seems that at this scale and placement, the sword+flag are actually harder to recognize what they are. The hilt gets lost and the flag is too big.

It almost looks like the sword is supposed to blend in with the facemask, as though the flag was hanging on that instead... Which is something I could honestly see Nike saying... I should really get into the Nike BS Explanations business.

[Midway]

Welp, this is just the beginning of the new football uniform standard.

Random color inserts here and there, check.

Awkward logo/wordmarks placement, check.

Unnecessary custom font, check.

Flat or overly metallic colors, check.

Oversized logos/numerals, check.

[TheSoundofThrowingPennies]

Just a small little thing I noticed. When Seattle unveiled, the jersey number was 12. When Jacksonville unveiled, 13, and now Tampa Bay has 14.

I guess my little theory is that these numbers coincide with the year they are released, and they only do it to the teams they have complete creative control over.

I'd be interested to see if this is just coincidence or if next year we get another futuristic design and the number on the jersey is 15.

That's pretty much standard procedure. IIRC even the Reebok debuts did it.

Thank you. Never seen those images before.

[BrianVlietDesign]

Those number fonts ruined it all. Why? Why?

Whats the link with Pirates? Time pirates? Internet pirates?

Is this the Orlando Rage or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

[Rockstar Matt]

Now that I've been able to see the whole set, it isn't that bad. Or as bad as I originally thought it would be. With that said, because of the gloriously fantastic previous set this replaced, the current uniforms are a downgrade and a huge one at that.

I'd rank this set among the recent Nike makeovers as slightly better than the Jaguars, about the same as the Dolphins but far worse than the Seahawks and the Vikings.

[Chawls]

Change the number font and the pant stripes and maybe I can accept it.

But yeah. These look like one of those fake Nike uniforms that leaked back in 2011.

[Gr3g3]

no way these make it to the field. the negative reaction is enormous.

I'll bet you anything that they do.

[oldschoolvikings]

no way these make it to the field. the negative reaction is enormous.

A ton of people said that about the Jaguars' helmet last year.

IMO there is absolutely zero chance that a team would do an about face on a uniform at this point. The team, the league, Nike... everybody involved has already seen this firestorm coming and committed to see it through. Hell, I bet they're happy about it. When was the last time the internet blew up over something the Buccaneers did?

[TheSoundofThrowingPennies]

no way these make it to the field. the negative reaction is enormous.

I'll bet you anything that they do.

Yep. They're a massive hit on Twitter.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

My first thought when I saw the uniforms was "AFL" (followed by "these pewter capris look awful"). I've noticed that a lot of people are calling them Arena Football League, but not really offering any evidence, so here's my attempt to explain that reaction.

First, the Bucs:

To me the yokes totally work for the white jersey, as white basically feels blank to me, leaving room for more busywork, but I think it's making the color jersey garish. Not as garish as these (old) Arizona Rattlers jerseys, thanks to a lack of any Bucs-inspired detail (as opposed to the Diamondbacks-esque print on these):

However, this lack of anything very "Bucs" about this uniform--other than the color scheme, which ends up not working for me, actually, when pewter becomes the focus and creamsicle gets mixed with red (seems like a very Southwest combination to me)--is what really bothers me with this uniform. I'm not necessarily asking for a print a la the Seahawks' Native American striping, but, besides the colors, the only thing that says Bucs to me are the very small ship logo and alt wordmark on the shoulders--the numbers are obviously a disaster and I'd need a pic of "historical buccanneer blade carvings" to be convinced that they're anything other than digital.

At least the yoke isn't AFL to the extreme though, as in these Cleveland Gladiators and (old) Jacksonville Sharks unis:

In fact, it may be the case that if we had to stereotype AFL yokes, they'd include unnecessary piping around the yokes (with white space in between).

Or yokes made entirely out of piping and white space, as with the New Orleans Voodoo, Philadelphia Soul, and Spokane Shock:

In fact, maybe when it comes to the AFL, it's just all about piping:

I haven't talked about the helmet at all, and I don't think this is representative of the AFL as a whole, but you could make the comparison to the Bucs' new big logo helmets and the San Jose SaberCats'.

And actually, the Orlando Predators joke that CCSLC retweeted doesn't really hold up:

Who would've thought the AFL's central Florida team would have the less busy uniforms?

To wrap things up, I know that long-form posts (and ones with too many pictures?) are not the norm for any forum, but I wanted to clarify what we mean by saying that the Bucs' unis look AFL. In actuality, there probably isn't enough piping or Bucs-specific print to qualify it as AFL. What I think we mean, then, is that these Bucs uniforms seem amateur, garish, and trying too hard to look cool. If anyone has anything to add to clarify that, I'd appreciate it.

And at least be thankful that they didn't take any hints from the Tampa Bay Storm's old unis:

[BBTV]

I fear what Nike has in store for my Browns in 2015

.

The Browns already look like total horse****. Its not like they could look any worse.

The Browns should have been rebranded and those current mess of a uniform burned and tossed into Lake Erie, when they came back into the league in 1999.

And for the 198th time...QUIT BLAMING NIKE!!! The teams are the ones who make the decisions on the rebrands and uni changes. NFL properties is heavily involved too. You morons blaming Nike for everything don't know what you are talking about...as usual.

You have to admit that the large logo, use of chrome and bright colors all reek of nike. Not complaining about the features but its pretty obvious they have a great deal of control...

If the Bucs said "wow, that flag is just too big. We want it the same size as before", Nike might say "but... but BIG... and..." but the Bucs could just say "we want it smaller. Thanks."

"control" is in the hands of the client.

I completely agree with you. But you have to release sometimes the client doesn't know what's best for them and allows the "design" team to manhandle the situation.

Definitely, but that's hardly the fault of the designer. If it's an independent designer I would probably expect something a little more tasteful, but in Nike's case, if given no guidelines they'll do whatever they can to show off their technology and generate attention.

That's like dangling a steak in front of a lion then getting mad at the lion for eating it.

I'm not defending Nike's designers, but it's flat out lazy and irresponsible for anyone to blame a designer without knowing what the parameters were or what input the client gave. Even if none, the blame goes to the client.

If I look like an idiot because I'm wearing a woman's pink bejazzled sweater, it's my fault for buying it from the store, not the designer's for making it.

[TheSoundofThrowingPennies]

My first thought when I saw the uniforms was "AFL" (followed by "these pewter capris look awful"). I've noticed that a lot of people are calling them Arena Football League, but not really offering any evidence, so here's my attempt to explain that reaction.

First, the Bucs:

At least the yoke isn't AFL to the extreme though, as in these Cleveland Gladiators and (old) Jacksonville Sharks unis:

In fact, it may be the case that if we had to stereotype AFL yokes, they'd include unnecessary piping around the yokes (with white space in between).

Or yokes made entirely out of piping and white space, as with the New Orleans Voodoo, Philadelphia Soul, and Spokane Shock:

And at least be thankful that they didn't take any hints from the Tampa Bay Storm's old unis:

The numbers on the red uniform in that pic look like they're lighting up. That's actually pretty neat. Still don't like the shape though.

And we have to disagree about that last bit. A Zubaz uniform in the NFL for the Bengals would be amazing.

[imawalkingcorpse]

These are terrrible by college standards. I guess the Bucs decided to complete the trio of terrible looking Florida teams.

Agree, best dressed football team in Florida is .....Seminoles?

No. UCF

Is that what everyone you know says?

Nope, only my fellow Knights.

[oldschoolvikings]

Definitely, but that's hardly the fault of the designer. If it's an independent designer I would probably expect something a little more tasteful, but in Nike's case, if given no guidelines they'll do whatever they can to show off their technology and generate attention.

That's like dangling a steak in front of a lion then getting mad at the lion for eating it.

I'm not defending Nike's designers, but it's flat out lazy and irresponsible for anyone to blame a designer without knowing what the parameters were or what input the client gave. Even if none, the blame goes to the client.

If I look like an idiot because I'm wearing a woman's pink bejazzled sweater, it's my fault for buying it from the store, not the designer's for making it.

That's all absolutely true, but I think a slightly better analogy would be this. Let's say you don't know much about fashion, so you hire an expert. Now what if that expert (because for some reason or the another it would be advantageous to them) convinces you that men wearing pink bedazzled sweaters will soon be all the rage. And, since you feel this isn't your area of expertise, and you trust them, you go with it.

Now, you can say its ultimately your own fault... you physically put it on and walked out the door... but there's at least some blame to go around, don't you think?