Brave-Bird 08

Those red pants never existed in physical form. The images of them were photoshop jobs by Nike that were included in the presentation and shared by the team at the time of the unveil.

I made this in 2013 and it's one of the first concepts that pops up when you Google "Falcons uniform concept." I regret it every day (also OMG @ those featured players...we really thought we were going to win a Super Bowl that year...)

To truncate the Falc-jacking, it's always "all they have to do is pick between the obvious options of the far superior 90s set...and/or 80s set...and/or 70s set...and/or originals!" and you just post really nice photos of those uniforms on loop until someone goes "the old bird looked so dumb but I prefer it." It took two pages. The problem with the Falcons uniform history is there's no glory days associated with any of the uniform eras they went through, and none were particularly bad, but not one is a clear winner over the other. So it's just folks talking in circles constantly about which style is our forever uniform. I don't think the Falcons have a previous uniform that is a forever uniform.

Back in my concepting days I fiddled with this so many times, and...nah. At one point I did try a trim color for the logo, facemask, trim on jerseys that was like a silvery bronze color, but it felt both like it was stepping on the Buccaneers toes, or Saints when I made it more gold. Think the Falcons really nailed a core colorway and application focus with the current helmet finish, touches of silver that blend in with the environment of the stadium, and red primarily is trim/pop color. All they have to do is kill the silly parts, like the ATL logo and the number font/drop shadows.

So the Braves have still not worn blue jerseys -- 10 out of 10 road games so far in the greys. I am holding out hope that the fan backlash on the piping change was loud enough that they are going to just to go without them this season, but I am sure it's more to do with the Fanatics delays

All I know is that the current uniforms are universally disliked. I am probably one of the few people to have an appetite for them, but appetite and preference are two different things. When someone first suggested the Nike uniform designs were purposefully temporary so teams could sell new jerseys, then double-dip after 5 years with a more traditional set, I laughed. Like, "oh, that's ridiculous." But you know what? At this point, do we have enough of a sample size to posit that might actually be the case?

This will always be my favorite NFL uniform. It's so perfect. Every single detail. Fools for ever making changes and going down the absolutely bizarre path with their identity that they have.

I've always found the most ironic part of it all that the Cincinnati Bengals, who were the eccentric offshoot of the Browns and eventually doubled-down at that identity by creating -- at the time -- a groundbreaking uniform that pushed all convention out the window, eventually decided their logo should just be a B monogram. Sometimes I even wonder if that was done on purpose, knowing that the Browns identity is so plain by default that using one of the C or B monograms would cut their likely logo options in half. But, like, come on Cleveland. The classic standing elf is as good as it gets.

saying "goes hard" should get you banned from this board

Right? 30+ focus groups is why the team is officially calling one of its uniforms a "tough" uniform like lmao have some self respect, Texans

They described a uniform officially as "tough" That's so bad it makes me long for a big fat icy whites post to hit me in the face

The logo slick update is 90% of this for me. The previous logo was a joke. This set is proper for the franchise.

Wait, Bryce Harper just straight up wore an old uniform last night? I feel like that's a pretty big deal.

Wait, wait, WAIT. Am I reading back through this thread correctly, that this was emailed out officially by the Broncos???

I agree. I even really like the home jersey, personally don't mind big wordmarks -- it has plenty of precedence, especially in the collegiate ranks. All they have to do is avoid monochrome and they would look outstanding. The helmet is especially fantastic.

I feel like this uniform's greatest magic trick was that the gradient helmet was so bad, discussion about the absolutely nonsensical plastic material on the shoulders went by the wayside. WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THESE?!

I would think more than half the league would take the opportunity to go all-in with what they can do by making additions. Sure, the Raiders and Packers might not make any additions...but let's look at the NFC South, for example. I would think that entire division ends up rotating through helmets pretty regularly.

We have gone from the NFL basically treating their team's helmets like primary logos to inevitably rotating through uniforms like college teams do. Ick. This scares me, especially because I fear teams will use this opportunity to complete the "icy whites" look. (Also, does this maybe clear up what's going on with Denver? Could be that white helmet is for an all-white alternate look, while the primary will be blue. We will see.)

I think it's fair that people tracking this thread specifically, and uniform trends in general, are more negative than "usual." I really appreciated Paul Lukas' interviews he posted with that former Nike creative, but it showcased to me a dynamic between the parties that be when these uniform projects are undergone that has potential to be worse now than ever -- there's too many cooks in the kitchen and events that can happen during these processes where poor opinion/input/perception can take over. Call me crazy -- or cynical -- but I just feel like that in the past uniform designs always felt polished, thoughtful, congruent and in the past few decades we've instead slipped into this meta where not only is quality control down, but companies are cheapening internal processes (when they think they're streamlining them) and folks who aren't qualified to make decisions are unfortunately in the position of power to make them (could go on a tangent about this in every industry, not just sports design). Did you see the quote in that interview about either Malcolm Glazer, or one of his children, where they used one of those notorious bad "Nike NFL" photoshops from circa 2012 and was like "why can't you do this?" And the Nike team basically had to be like, "well s---, we have to execute on their orders. These are going to suck!" That's how we got the Buccaneers, Titans, Jaguars, Browns, Jets, Falcons, etc. Add to the mix that the trend of wearing monochrome head-to-toe is becoming universal across the league because of brainless trend-following that has been perpetuated by this TikTok, social media clout-chasing era we live in, and it's more likely we keep seeing more of the same poor uniform elements versus actually getting something that is both interesting and looks good. Between the chorus of rejected uniform designs and downgrades in the NFL, the dilution of the meaning of a uniform in the NBA, and the absolute hilarity happening in MLB right now, what reason do any of us have to anticipate anything but more of the same in the next few weeks?

Just bring back the Mercury Mets vests, cowards

Yes. Love them. Only thing I would change is just use block numbers, and I don't like state-outline logos...so they could drop that.

@aawagner011 re: the Braves belt loops, I somehow just watched the entire game without noticing that. I have noticed that these new pants have those two big belt loop panels on the front. I'm not sure if its necessary -- I always thought of it as the anchor of the pant side stripe, if you can catch my drift. So, it feels weird to have if the side stripe isn't running up to it. But, shoot, anything that makes it look like the uniform got some extra attention to detail makes it stand out with the way the rest of MLB looks.

I'm glad none of those concepts from Nike turned real. That old Nike template was wayyyy too busy, with way too many seams and panels sewn together. Honestly, in hindsight, nothing looks good on it. Even the Ravens uniforms looked worse while they retained that template for as long as they did.

Because you are in Houston I am going to give the benefit of the doubt for maybe not being willing to accept it. But, there's so much wrong with the Rockets logo. The "banner" stops at the keyline but the words keep wrapping around. The font is not the Rockets font and does not tie into the R monogram that is just lazily slapped on top of the ball. There is black and two separate shades of grey -- and again, a random red logo at a completely different scale with thin white trim just PLOPPED DOWN on top of a graphic that otherwise looks like it was whipped up by an amateur in a high school Graphic Design 101 class. The Thunder logo is congruent and professionally done, it's just incredibly generic and boring. It means...nothing. Still, one is INFINITELY worse than the other. It actually is kind of hurting my brain that anyone on these boards would be convinced otherwise.