Digby

I know I keep saying this, but everything about the Ballmer-era branding has felt like them trying to galaxy-brain their way into a hypermodern brand, and I guess it didn't work out the way they thought it would. The "LA" thing, the black jerseys, the weird minimalism, the street-tough look... all gone in favor of something fairly traditional. Doesn't seem to match the usual Ballmer instincts so I can't help but think that there must be a pile of data suggesting that all the contemporary cleverness didn't quite land. Meanwhile, Ryan Smith has been left behind on the dock, bereft and confused.

That would be a sharp look too, the light blue they're using is more saturated and green-ish than the powder that Memphis uses/was generally more in vogue during the double-blue-everything era of the league. But with the only team currently pairing navy and red being the Wizards and their very specific design language, I don't think what the Clips chose here is necessarily an issue either. (But it is very Twinsy.) Plenty of options for alternates that aren't as unhinged as the usual City looks.

Really surprised by this turn for the rebrand. It's much more of a throwback to classic Clippers than I expected with the script wordmark; I thought we were trying to forget about those decades of unpleasantness. Main logo looks more like an obnoxious superyacht than any sort of clippership, which seems fitting. But the fonts are nice. Overall package is astoundingly logical and not galaxy-brained for a modern NBA brand.

Is it true that the Property Brothers Extended Universe sucked up enough flippable houses in the GTA that it actually contributed to the property value spike?

Probably not too many folks watching Concacaf Cup action tonight but I just finished the New England vs CA Independiente (Panama) match and it was Concacaf-y as hell. Chiefly concerning the broadcast, on something crash-prone called Tubi, a one-man booth of a man named George who I'm half-convinced they just pulled from outside the stadium. His highlights included: - Initially stating that Dave Romney is no relation to Mitt, but then changing course and mentioning four times that actually yes, he is somewhere from a third to fifth cousin, exactly which is unclear - Repeatedly pronouncing Andrew Farrell's name like Pharrell, the producer/pop star - Sharing his research into Panamanian soccer, including threats of an upcoming strike (again he said this four times) and that the league uses conferences, like the NBA does (not like the MLS does...?) - Rapping Mike Jones lyrics when DeJuan Jones touched the ball, only to conclude the bar with "Ah, my rapping sucks" - Coining the nickname "Bobby Wood, up to no good" - Incorrectly announcing Chancalay's goal as his first as a Rev - Sharing that he would drop his mic and walk away if his brother was substituted into the match (literally what?) I maintain once again: MLS's efforts to kill off all the public-access vibes of the North American game are gravely misguided and need to be stopped.

The nonprofit that stewards Boston's Emerald Necklace parks is suing the city over the plan to renovate the Franklin Park stadium for an NWSL team because they're mad the planning process is going too fast and because it would reduce the number of opportunities for schoolkids to play football there. I'm biased, wanting an NWSL team in this market, but I tend to think it's a good deal to get a decrepit public facility fixed up, NIMBY mucking-up is unreasonable to getting anything done, and that we shouldn't be encouraging kids to play contact football anyway. Strange bedfellows indeed, when the fundraiser-gala environmentalist set is suing the city's most progressive administration ostensibly in defense of black neighborhood kids (to get TBIs).

I think using those fairly thick pinstripes, in a second green and also a blue, is altering the visual perception of the base shirt green in most instances. One of those reasons that I felt like the rebrand and the shirt redesign were progressing without talking to one another.

I didn't bother watching the actual All-Star Game, I almost never do unless the halftime show is interesting. Still think the Elam Ending is worth bringing into regular-season overtime. But IDK, the concept of All-Star Games across any sport feels a little pointless to me now... it's not the 90s anymore. I don't even think the "competitiveness" angle is worth the pearl-clutching. Of course it's meant for the content and entertainment! What else should it possibly ever be? The LED court was also predictably annoying and distracting. Did anyone notice that the camera lingered so long on the overhead of the court during Jaylen Brown's first dunk attempt that they forgot to cut back to him for said dunk, and we totally missed it until the replay? Really excellent production work from TNT there.

IDK, I think there's simply too many light blue shirts in the league right now. Particularly with Adidas's insistence on one single template and repeated design motifs, this feels like an unnecessary regression in terms of individualized designs for teams. Not every team needs to do a municipal flag kit, also, but if Atlanta must do so, I will also note that their flag is a medium-dark blue and a deep, mustardy gold.

I don't even remember it happening in real-time, but when I read again about it years later, I kind of assumed it was an idea planted by John Henry staring into an overleveraged abyss before the pink-hat-era cash cow really took off, and before they figured out how to get concerts and football and obscure Irish field sports into Fenway on every other Sox off-day.

Galaxy use a nice deep shade of yellow that makes this work. Don't think I'd want it as their default look but for a cycle every now and then, it's nice. The negative-space sash is pretty creative and decent-looking, too. Color scheme reminds me of their final years pre-Beckham and pre-rebrand, whether or not that's intentional.

MLS was seemingly so all-in on the mono looks for so long that I can't remember many instances of contrasting socks, and socks only, being the first-choice combo. The last couple years of Chicago Fire's identity crisis they were doing navy shorts/shirts with red socks. And I remember that (horrible) Revolution away a couple years ago with the then-Spain design and the split two-tone blue trim, paired the aqua-ish blue socks with white shorts and shirts. But that's all I've got. The Whitecaps kit is a little lacking to me... between the badge and the lack of hoop and the lack of light blue, just doesn't feel like "them". Maybe including the other blue instead of white as a third color would've helped.

The other three multi-team markets are also the biggest MSAs in the United States; SF/Oakland is something like 12th. Granted SF/Oakland punches above its weight economically and culturally, but by that token so does Boston. So from a purely cold analytic perspective, there is probably some truth to that. The Bay Area jumps up that list quite a ways if you go up a rung on the census area ladder and include San Jose (not to mention all the $$ there), which is why that feels like such a missed solution. Regardless of this latest tech bubble apparently popping, I'm still taking the Bay over Las Vegas 10 years from now.

Convinced that Rob Manfred was the victim/champion of some recruiter's error, and that he was meant to be the CEO of a small-time hospital group or pamphlet-printing agency, and he had never heard of Major League Baseball until now. He's been faking his way through ever since.

There's a nice (IMO) unintended consequence of Adidas holding back its new template for the international summer tournaments this time, and kitting out MLS in last year's template for the 2nd year in a row. We've got more teams than usual that have a nice, coherent "set" of home and away jerseys that work nicely together even if they aren't the classic/boring simplistic color swap. I know that home/away jerseys feeling part of a set has never been a requirement in soccer, and especially not in the last few years where even the NBA and MLB are getting in on wacky alternate kits so that they can sell an entire differentiated line of merchandise to fans. And I do like plenty of kits that aren't matchy-matchy. But, sometimes it's nice to have that coherence across the brand, especially in MLS where the teams are still searching for brand establishment and relevancy. (That said, I do wish that said Adidas template allowed for more customization, and less gigantic armpit panels. And I also wish MNUFC would just own the anthracite color already.)

Sorta off-topic but these unveil photoshoots have become so strange. Who is wearing a jersey tucked in to pleated khakis???

I know the simple white jerseys as away kits always got dunked on, but I actually think Orlando would've looked better as plain white; the dark purple, metallic gold, and red color scheme for the trim works fantastically well and those pieces pop just fine on their own. That light lavender tint does distract from it a little bit. That said, I thought the updated USL badge would've been a fun novelty but I'm surprised how much I legitimately like it (apart from the outer lions looking like chimps). Feels like it could be the primary if they wanted. FC Dallas got real weird. Points for originality. The marketing copy for that one goes on about jet afterburners, for some reason. I like all the rest of this new unveil batch, lots of ideas that are simple but well-executed and just interesting enough. Austin got beat to that kit by Vermont Green FC but I do really like this take on the partial logo trend with just the tree/roots thing.

I think I'd lose that green entirely and/or set fewer stripes on the shirt. Like the idea, not the execution. I'll reserve judgement on the colors of the applications til we see the real thing but yeah, I'm wondering if the Adidas design team had guidance and ideas for a retro look but didn't get to see the rebrand assets until way late in the process and didn't design with them in mind.

Hard to get a true read on the colors from these photos... I think I like the lighter green? Even though the overall look feels too washed out. Also not sure about the double pinstripe, that darker border color kinda muddies things up.

I guess asymmetric socks would be a real headache for the equipment manager?

Asymmetrical trim bothers me, especially if it's only on the shirt! Sigh. Also feel like, given the "24-7" theme, they could have used a more neon/vibrant shade for the blue instead of their standard, muted light blue. But maybe I'm reading too much into marketing.

This center-stacking of the two logos is way too much, they need to be more closely spaced... the sponsor logos for Miami and Portland are both distractingly low. Love Houston going with purple -- agree that it would look better with some kind of deep space graphic (or woodgrain!) but also, when the color scheme is so bold and unique for the league, I don't think you need to worry about other design elements as much.

I don't think these copywriters have ever seen ripples in water before. Also a miss to go with navy shorts again, this one would benefit even more from the red shorts. But, I suppose this is nitpicking in the grand scheme.

I like red sleeves as a change of pace for the Revolution, though it seems that AND the dotted pinstripes are too many design elements. One or the other would've been nice on their totally plain previous home kit. Also, what does any of this have to do with the Boston Tea Party?

I noticed that as well, which makes me curious about the final product -- does the old one belong to their old league? Did they think it was too cringe to put on a shirt in this era of Take Us Seriously MLS? Or maybe just a clever merging of eras if they use fonts and lions that are closer to the current one.