GFB

Now all I want to see is a white bull-horn helmet with a blue horn on the right and a red horn on the left.

I think the Texans made some really good decisions like the bull-horn helmet, brightening the red and trying to craft a visual identity that wasn't "generic Oilers replacement" that the original look  — for as much as I was a fan — never seemed to get past, even with the awesome logo.

However, any good that the Texans did with this rebrand gets washed away because they failed to show the smallest semblance of restraint.  It's an identity-by-improv... throwing increasingly crazy ideas at the wall until the end and you have no idea how you arrived where you did. 

I could pick apart the entire identity, but I think something as simple as the helmet/shoulder logos pairings is the best example of the problem.  The team has this new bull-horn concept that they want to tie into the uniforms and helmets... It's objectively a good idea! But because it's a new visual that has no existing brand equity, you'd imagine that they'd want to keep the logo around in some fashion so people know it's the Houston Texans.

The logical solution is to keep the logo on the helmet and pair it with the horns on the uniform, and when you move the horns to the helmet for the alternate, the horns come off the jersey and the logo is added to the shoulders.

Instead, they somehow arrived at doubling up the logos on the home uniform and creating an alternate uniform that has no logos at all and four bull horns, just because they were trying to appeal to this fan survey that they self-interpreted as "Well, at least one of the uniforms needs to be conservative" and they decided that had to be the home uniform for reasons.  The general rule for interpreting fan surveys is that if there's no consensus, the general takeaway should not be "everyone's right, so let's try to make them all happy" and far more "We haven't provided a good enough solution up to this point, so our fanbase doesn't know what to pick."

This is elementary-level branding stuff and completely self-inflicted by the leadership. 

3 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Sounds more like Nikespeak than anything else. I'll buy that it's based off  of the three sections of the robohorse, but not that it's based on an actual mane.

It’s a symbolic depiction, not illustrative. Obviously it doesn’t look like actual horse hair (and who would want it to), but how the stripe widens at the nape of the neck and comes to a point on the forehead mimics a horse’s mane:

I always thought it was a cool little thing for the Broncos and I’ll be sad now that it’s gone.

44 minutes ago, Cujo said:

Do we think the Broncos might've given away their new number font when they planted this new sign last year?

 

No, because the 4s in the leak are open and the ones on the sign are closed. 

I prefer the sign numerals if I'm honest.

8 minutes ago, Germanshepherd said:

The Broncos current helmet stripe is kinda stupid

Do people not realize the current stripe is made to look like an actual bronco mane? And the three sections of the stripes are taken from the three orange shapes making up the mane of the cyberhorse?

Final verdict for me:

• Block numerals and lettering
• No black on home/road uniforms
• No more sleeve nonsense interrupting the stripes
• They went for it on the black uniforms and the revised blue helmet. My biggest problem with all the prior black uniforms for the Lions was that there was never enough blue, and I always feared having a blue lion on a blue helmet would be invisible. By darkening the decals to black-and-silver, they were able to balance the look into something that actually works and is unique. The Blue/Black/Blue/Black alternate is something I hope we see.
• Nothing specific, but these uniforms showed that the Lions had a clear vision of who they are and what they wanted to look like. They weren’t pushed around by Nike or the NFL.

• Blue facemask. This is a personal preference and probably unpopular, but the honolulu blue facemask is just too bright/loud for me… It dominates the eye.  It’s less noticeable on the simpler masks, but when you get to the more complex lineman masks, it’s WAY too much blue (at the very least, I would like the Lions to bring back the silver masks from the throwbacks and swap them in and out like the Browns did in recent years to keep the looks fresh).
• The chest wordmarks are too large and unnecessary, but beyond that, the wordmarks being the only italicized thing on the uniform will drive my OCD through the roof. I would have preferred a new wordmark to match this set (especially one that uses an uppercase N). 
• Black pants. Unbalances the alternate uniform and can’t be worn with anything else. 
• White pants. Downgrade from the normal silver pants and are over-worn. 

• The striping pattern is a little too complex and doesn’t translate as well from the home jersey (white numbers w/silver stripes) to the road or alt uniform (blue numbers w/ blue stripes) or helmet. If they just went with the simpler | thin | thick blue | thin | thick blue | thin | stripe scheme  (or just added white/silver between the northwestern stripe of the last set) it would applicate a little better across all mediums. Do they also feel a little narrow to anyone else? I prefer the chunky width of the last set. 
• Blue pants. The ideal scenario is two sets of blue pants – one set with the normal home stripe pattern and another to match the alternate blue helmet – but if we have to choose, I’m fine making the trade off of stripes for being able to wear them with everything.

All in all, they’re a significant upgrade from the last set and they cleaned up almost all the trouble spots. These new uniforms  get a rave review from this Lions fan…

(or, 8.9 out of 10)

That Houston design is so amateur I can almost guarantee it was made in-house

I think you’re right @jp1409

no wordmark on home jerseys:

3 minutes ago, RedSeaHeath said:

 

the lack of a chest wordmark is interesting here, probably just a pre-production jersey

Overall, a significant upgrade from the last set! I’m very happy. No black on the primary jerseys, no dumb sleeve wordmarks or tribute patches, and readable block font.

The only quibbles I have are that the sleeve stripes work better on the home jersey (silver outlines on both the sleeves and numbers), but feel clunky on both the road and alternate (blue outline on the sleeve stripes, silver outline on the numerals) and that they didn’t upgrade the wordmark, which is now the only italicized item on the uniforms.

lmao wrong thread

9 minutes ago, MCM0313 said:

I’m sure the Barrys will have striped pants and no sleeve wordmark, but I just have a feeling they aren’t the main thing. 

Yeah, I meant the 90s throwbacks replacing the 50s throwbacks and then the main set of uniforms

That preview makes me think we are getting the 90s throwbacks (the big white stripe shot between blue) and I’m happy to see the block letters.

Just the WCF patch removed, no sleeve wordmarks, and the pants having stripes left to clear, but this is promising

The lighting is so harsh for the Lions set photo there's no way to discern heads from tails, but from the neon logo on the wall, my guess is that the 90s Lions throwbacks will replace the 50s Lions throwbacks.

EDIT: Or not. IDK, 48 hours to go!

3 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

 

 

...It already exists. (I have no idea what a stag has to do with a spike, but whatever...)

 

https://www.antlerxtreme.com/the-truth-behind-spike-bucks/

Hoodoos is a great name.

1 hour ago, GFB said:

 

Once again, all you would have to do to “fix” this is to flip the striping pattern on the shoulder insert from white-green-white to green-white-green and it’d look just like it did in the early 00s pre-Nike:

 

That small change makes these uniforms look so much better and more natural.

1 hour ago, whitedawg22 said:

These uniforms never looked right on a modern template, and jersey sleeves have gotten even smaller since the Pennington years. In the original 60s jersey, the "inner" stripe was a true hoop that went all the way around the arm, and the white sleeves were actually sleeves rather than shoulder caps. 

With tiny modern sleeves, the white had to be moved up further onto the shoulder, leading to the truncated inner stripe and even a little cutout from the white shoulder cap.

It

This just looks bizarre and wrong. If they bring this back, they should modernize it to fit modern templates instead of trying to just paste a look that was designed for full sleeves onto a jersey with essentially no sleeves.

Once again, all you would have to do to “fix” this is to flip the striping pattern on the shoulder insert from white-green-white to green-white-green and it’d look just like it did in the early 00s pre-Nike:

UPDATE:

2 hours ago, monkeypower said:

While I was never as anti-previous Jets set as some people, they definitely became dated very quickly while these new old ones are classic football uniforms.

 

Here's the rest of the logo slick.

 

The jet inside the football makes me happy

I can’t imagine Bodamer and co. have been sitting on their hands for the last few months.
 

If they can get a trademark in place, I believe they can unveil an identity by the draft

1 minute ago, BottomlessPitt said:

As long as they don't choose Yeti. 

...that's the exact sort of name I can envision them picking with this criteria.

35 minutes ago, BottomlessPitt said:

As boring as it might sound, I wouldn't be surprised if they're called the Utah Pioneers with some kind of covered wagon or wagon wheel inspired logo. 

This is one of those names where it's a great idea until marketing realizes that almost no one is going to get excited about the mascot in the same way that non-hockey fans did for Golden Knights and Kraken. It's a fine name and motif in a vacuum – professional, not embarrassing – but it's unfortunately too touchy/boring and 50 years too late.

You could get away with a name like Clippers or Barons or Zephyrs decades ago, but in the era of Kraken and Wild and Lightning it has to be something more exciting to capture the public interest.

I mean, the full quote was that the Lions would have “one of the best uniforms in the NFL for the next 5 years or so”  so it’s not like – even here and now – these new uniforms are being considered a long-term solution

Utah Coyotes and keep the Kachinas, continuing the proud Utah tradition of their sports teams wearing another regions’ heritage like a hunting trophy