guest23

Another point to add about the anti-counterfeit angle is that the historically most popular franchises (eagles, raiders, cowboys, packers etc.) typically have the easiest to replicate jerseys and use traditional block fonts. Yes there are exceptions like seattle and certain superstars that wear custom fonts but if I'm nfl properties and I want to protect the shield from knockoffs wouldn't I try to do more to protect my most valuable brands?

Except for the cowboys nfl properties handles all of the merch sales and revenue sharing. For the counterfeit angle to be a rationale behind the proliferation of ugly team specific fonts it would have to come from the top down but given nike's role in custom font proliferation at the college level, I'm thinking thwarting counterfeiting is really not a driving the decision making process.

Allow me to clarify for what I thought was quite obvious: BAD team specific block: az cards, farve era vikes, browns current etc. GOOD supplier block: sand knit, wilson, russsell athletic, champion, mcaullife, whoever did unc bb during the jordan era etc.

Block numerals are functional and aesthetically pleasing. Non-block has come in and out of favour aesthetically since sports started using numbers but block continues to endure. Your reasoning does not align with history as there are enough examples that illustrate the availability of non-block. If there was demand, teams (especially pro) had the option to do so.

Please reread my quote. I am referring to team specific/proprietary block (eg az cards, last gen vikes, browns etc) and you are choosing to discuss all custom fonts. There's a reason why so many teams wore/wear and continue to go back to block fonts as the default for US based sports for so long. It's easy on the eye, legible and looks good with just about every uniform design.

of what?:

nothing worse than team proprietary block for the sake of proprietary block...supplier specific is cool because it was organic nike fonts are sooooo forced.

[MOD EDIT: No politics.]

To add on, it sounds like having retail throwbacks ready for the season was a league or nike requirement. Getting throwback uniforms on the field would likely be doable as there are more than enough capable facilities that could produce on field uniforms and slap a swoosh on within the timeframe.

By my math the owner of the team had the last 20 years to go back to the old uniforms. Lobbying a decade for multiple helmets to bring back uniforms was a terrible tactic for him to get what he wanted when he had the power to change any time he wanted.

If you lived through the eagles kelly green era of the 80's and 90's you would know this reasoning does not hold water. Their kelly green was basically an off the rack russell athletic stock green that matches extremely closely with current jets green, alternatively nobody if nike's stock green was used and it was not 100% accurate, nobody would be able to tell. You could easily do a cunningham era or other simpler throwback by ordering some stock green jersey and throw some numbers on them. If you wanted to get crazy you could even screen some birds carrying football on them.

that's a great north texas concept

nfl properties has basically abdicated its oversight of the nfl uniform aesthetic to its supplier(s) ...all about designing for retail and following the college trends now.

fyi they did wear the tommy trojan logo with the colors inverted for 1 season and went back to the traditional stock trojan/spartan/warrior the following season.

I think that was the workaround rule implemented in the 90's but I thought most conferences codified it at least a decade ago where the home team is able to choose.

As other posters have said, the comfort is likely psychological because lay-people over the course of generations, have made a broad and over-reaching conclusion based something that's technically true (darker colors absorb light, thus retain heat) but not conclusive enough to be statistically significant to the point where it would truly impact performance.

Change for the sake of change. There are a few teams like the falcons or jets whose identity is not really settled as to what their best helmet color is but the vast majority of franchises don't need to mix and match or do home/away, div/non div.

The flaw with your argument is that every example except for jags teal is a worse option than what they wear. You are reinforcing the point that the iconic franchises have selected their best option and alternatives worsen their look.

I think you're still missing the point. What makes great brands great brands is oftentimes what they choose not to do with their visual identity. They know what they have and it works for them, and when you look at the most admired, longest lasting, most valuable brands they often are the most consistent with their visual presentation and rarely steer from that.

Your characterization is off a bit. The raiders org like others know that they have build a massive brand and mystique around silver/black/silver and despite carolina's overstepping, they own that look and choose to stick with it. Sure they could muddy the waters with a cool looking black/silver/black alt uniform but they see no reason to.

Probably but the on field uniforms themselves typically have long lead times as well. Last year everything was impacted because you had bottlenecks everywhere on the logistics and labor side of things. Upstream suppliers had to ramp so even if you had manufacturing capacity things took quite a while. Sports uniforms and apparel in general have traditionally operated with very long lead times of 9-12 months and moving so much production overseas has reduced responsiveness and flexibility. Things are slowly moving toward automation and manufacture on demand which is favorable for bringing back apparel domestically but there is a long way to go. There are others here who have more insider knowledge on the subject but this is a rough state of things.

That was the standard size for champion during that period. The jets had the nfl version.

He's an entitled failson and if you want to smooth over that go for it but I'm going to hold firm on my joke.

Alternate translation: Wealthy old owner who inherited his father's franchise and reputation for stinginess does not prioritize team's on field look because there might be an out of pocket expense for a uniform overhaul and he's worn the same damn clothes for the last 35 years.

They absolutely could with die cut vinyl...sure it would take longer to apply but it would actually not look cheap. This helmet could also be a candidate for a painted on logo if they went with a yellow shell and painted on the cabernet