Cleveland Browns Brown Uniform

[Buster]

The color combo yesterday looked great, but when you look at the details, it just looks worse and worse.

The orange/brown/orange scheme looks great though.

[CitizenTino]

I can deal with the :censored:ty pants stripe if they made these two simple changes.

It is unbelievable how much better that set looks with two simple changes. Still not perfect, but a huge improvement nonetheless.

Even before they began playing to form in the second half, the Browns took a ton of criticism on social media yesterday for the orange socks/orange pants combo. Now let's see if the message gets through.

[ConcreteCharlie]

i didn't watch much pre-season so this was the first day i got to take in game action of the new uniforms. i could go on for paragraphs as to why, but the short story is i like these uniforms far less than i did at unveil and i think they are a far poorer design than i previously thought as well. a lot of people wanted them to bring back orange pants; you were wrong for that.

Orange pants don't have to be ugly.

Indeed

[BrandMooreArt]

i didn't watch much pre-season so this was the first day i got to take in game action of the new uniforms. i could go on for paragraphs as to why, but the short story is i like these uniforms far less than i did at unveil and i think they are a far poorer design than i previously thought as well. a lot of people wanted them to bring back orange pants; you were wrong for that.

Orange pants don't have to be ugly.

i dont even like that Bowling Green uniform

honestly though, yes that is a better designed uniform and the use of color better. but that RGB reproduction of those film photos has definiteyl diluted the orange, that is not the exact swatch of orange they were wearing. they would have been very close to the 2014 Browns color - which goes to my point before that bright warm colors are just too intense to be used in 50% of the uniform. i think thhis "diluted orange" in the photos makes them easier on the eyes but they're not a real representation.

that said, i still feel orange pants is more appropriate for a college team. bright warm colors bring a sort of youthful energy with them, they're intense and i have never felt an NFL uniform needs to use this much of one. so although this is a nice design, it doesn't do anything for me personally. it still screams NCAA to me

[TheOldRoman]

If they had a true white outline, then I think I'd agree with you. But the partial white drop-shadow actually makes the numbers less legible - your eye is drawn to the white shape, itself not enough to differentiate the numbers, while the brown and orange blend together where they meet.

This, absolutely. I don't know why more people aren't picking up on this. The disjointed bits of white outline are going to jump out at you and drown out the orange from a distance. Remove the orange parts and you just have a few random polygons on the jersey. That's what you'll see with the Browns.

Also, the Bears' throwbacks are stupid and they should stop wearing them. Yes, they're better than what the Browns did, but even if they weren't, them wearing them isn't an excuse for Cleveland to do something dumb.

[Gothamite]

Okay, I watched highlights. And had a couple reactions:

1. The numbers are barely legible at best, even in HD. On wide shots I had trouble telling them apart.
2. All those little truncated stripes make the Browns look like a flag football team.

I always used to root for the Browns when they played anybody but the Packers. Now I want them to have several 0-16 seasons in a row until they bring their real uniforms back.

[hawk36]

I can deal with the :censored:ty pants stripe if they made these two simple changes.

It is unbelievable how much better that set looks with two simple changes. Still not perfect, but a huge improvement nonetheless.

Even before they began playing to form in the second half, the Browns took a ton of criticism on social media yesterday for the orange socks/orange pants combo. Now let's see if the message gets through.

Remove the orange on the numeral altogether and it would be even better yet.

[ARTnSocal]

i didn't watch much pre-season so this was the first day i got to take in game action of the new uniforms. i could go on for paragraphs as to why, but the short story is i like these uniforms far less than i did at unveil and i think they are a far poorer design than i previously thought as well. a lot of people wanted them to bring back orange pants; you were wrong for that.

.

Although an overwhelming amount of Cleveland fans have been clamoring for a return to the alternate orange pants, I can tell you they never wanted orange pants matched with orange socks.

The NFL 5-year uniform rule DOES allow certain tweaks to be done. The main part of rule of that is if there's a new logo and/or jersey or pants color selected it needs a 5-year run.

When the NE Patriots underwent their major rebranding in 1993 they had red numbers on ther bright blue jerseys with gray pants.

The following season in 1994 they switched jersey numbers from red white, same issue as Cleveland currently has with their orange jersey numbers on the brown jerseys. NE also switched the face-mask to red from the gray, along with changing the striping pattern on the pants, all after just 1 season.

In 1995 the Patriots changed the jersey numbers to an italic style font.

In 1997 they flip-flopped their logo and TV numbers, moving the logo to the shoulder and the TV numbers to the sleeves.

After the 5-year run had ended, they changed their unforms in 2000 from the brighter medium blue to navy blue, and changed their pants from gray to navy.

This rule is not outdated from when the Patriots made their jersey tweaks. Buffalo had sleeve stripes that were angular on the 2011 uniform change. In 2012 they were leveled off and are no longer on an angle.

Bottom line; If the Browns desire to make tweaks to their jerseys numbers after the season I'm quite sure they can do so.

[TheOldRoman]

I think you're wrong here. You can't look at what the NFL allowed 20 years ago. Branding and merchandising wasn't then what it has become. A better example of them allowing tweak would be the Rams, as they unveiled the new unis with a block font. then went to the current font the next year, and removed the side panels in year three. Still, replicas had the Rams' custom font in year one, unlike the gamers, and it could be argued that dropping the side panel was a very minor thing.

Like their relocation rules, I'm sure the uniform rules can be amended on a case-by-case basis. That being said, I can promise you that pants haven nothing to do with it. That's because the NFL doesn't sell replica pants, and there are no manufacturers complaining they have 100,000 unsold pairs of Browns pants sitting in a warehouse. The Browns could come out in gray pants for 16 games next year if the wanted, and I don't think the NFL would have an issue.

However, since jerseys are sold to fans, and are a huge money industry, there would be an issue with changing the Browns' numbers. Nike is going to be pissed that they have thousands of un-sellable orange-numbered jerseys sitting in a warehouse because of the change. Sports Authority is going to be pissed that a bunch of jerseys they recently ordered will have to be discounted because they are no longer current. The absolute only way the Browns change the numbers next year is if the NFL determines they are illegible. Otherwise, they're here to stay.

[ARTnSocal]

I can deal with the ******* pants stripe if they made these two simple changes.

.

That is very well done.

It's how it should have been put together in the first place.

It's too bad that the NFL extended the contract with Nike by 3 years thru the 2019 season, the league could have switched after next season.

[dennisbergan]

The Browns should have worn brown socks with the orange britches. That I will agree with.

But to say that their OLD (and they were really old) uniforms were far superior and "a real uniform" is just not correct.

The new helmet is clearly better. The brown facemask is better then the drab grey one. The numbers are not a big deal for me on any of their jerseys.

People will get used to the entire set. I've not bothered by Tampa's either. I am when they wear the orange socks, which serve no purpose and look out of place when there is no orange alt with the set (which there SHOULD be).

I have much more issue with Washington's mismatched and clearly past-their-prime things they keep wearing. Those things just look bad (and their team sucks lemons too). And the Bengals could use a re-do as well again.

But all of you people pining for the drab old Browns garb, I just don't get. This is 2015 and for once, Cleveland is trying to get out of the 70's. Much like Arizona finally did years ago.

[oldschoolvikings]

I think you're wrong here. You can't look at what the NFL allowed 20 years ago. Branding and merchandising wasn't then what it has become. A better example of them allowing tweak would be the Rams, as they unveiled the new unis with a block font. then went to the current font the next year, and removed the side panels in year three. Still, replicas had the Rams' custom font in year one, unlike the gamers, and it could be argued that dropping the side panel was a very minor thing.

Like their relocation rules, I'm sure the uniform rules can be amended on a case-by-case basis. That being said, I can promise you that pants haven nothing to do with it. That's because the NFL doesn't sell replica pants, and there are no manufacturers complaining they have 100,000 unsold pairs of Browns pants sitting in a warehouse. The Browns could come out in gray pants for 16 games next year if the wanted, and I don't think the NFL would have an issue.

However, since jerseys are sold to fans, and are a huge money industry, there would be an issue with changing the Browns' numbers. Nike is going to be pissed that they have thousands of un-sellable orange-numbered jerseys sitting in a warehouse because of the change. Sports Authority is going to be pissed that a bunch of jerseys they recently ordered will have to be discounted because they are no longer current. The absolute only way the Browns change the numbers next year is if the NFL determines they are illegible. Otherwise, they're here to stay.

I agree. There really isn't a precedence for an NFL team saying, my gosh, we designed a butt ugly uniform, can we just admit it and change it? They are stuck with it. A few years ago we had some people saying the same thing about the Jags helmet, but I said then they were stuck with it, and they are.

That being said, I think Cleveland could make a petition as a special case as per the unreadable numbers. If that's the angle they're going for, basically admitting they didn't do their due diligence as to the legibility of the numbers (which is obvious now they didn't), or claiming the visibility tests the tried weren't complete enough (again, pretty obvious), the NFL might give them a break on that. Still, since they will have to basically eat the cost for all the for-sale jerseys out there, my guess is the leagues first response would be to tell them to, for now anyway, just avoid wearing the brown as much as possible. Between wearing white at home, and pulling out the orange when they have to, they might have to deal with the unreadable numbers by more or less turning the brown jersey into a fan jersey that rarely gets worn.

In the meantime, for the love of all that's holy, never match the orange pants and orange socks again, you mouth breathing jackasses.

[Sport]

If that is the modern answer to the Cleveland Browns then we don't need a modern answer to the Cleveland Browns. Not every team needs to dress like it's 2015. In fact, I'd argue a grand majority of teams don't need to dress like it's 2015. The Cardinals are your example, dennis? The Cardinals are the prime example of why you don't chase trends. They looked like arena league jackasses in 2005 and they look like 2005 arena league jackasses now, which is worse because now they're more dated than any uniform in the league! They are not a good example of modern uniforms done right. Just the opposite frankly.

We'll "get used to" the Browns uniforms? I suppose that's true, but in the same way we got used to the Bills terrible awful horrendous 2002 uniforms. After a while it's just pointless to continue harping on how bad a uniform is. The Jaguars still wear that stupid bucket on their heads, but it's worthless to continue talking about.

I mean, being as objective as I can how does illegible orange numbers on a brown jersey with BROWNS down the pant leg look better than what they used to wear unless you're just being a modernist homer?

[C-Squared]

If that is the modern answer to the Cleveland Browns then we don't need a modern answer to the Cleveland Browns. Not every team needs to dress like it's 2015. In fact, I'd argue a grand majority of teams don't need to dress like it's 2015. The Cardinals are your example, dennis? The Cardinals are the prime example of why you don't chase trends. They looked like arena league jackasses in 2005 and they look like 2005 arena league jackasses now, which is worse because now they're more dated than any uniform in the league! They are not a good example of modern uniforms done right. Just the opposite frankly.

We'll "get used to" the Browns uniforms? I suppose that's true, but in the same way we got used to the Bills terrible awful horrendous 2002 uniforms. After a while it's just pointless to continue harping on how bad a uniform is. The Jaguars still wear that stupid bucket on their heads, but it's worthless to continue talking about.

I mean, being as objective as I can how does illegible orange numbers on a brown jersey with BROWNS down the pant leg look better than what they used to wear unless you're just being a modernist homer?

I think we have similar tastes in uni design, but there is a market for Nike's gaudy, non-traditionalist designs. I have taught several sports marketing classes over the past few years and you'd be surprised how popular the Jags, Bucs, and Browns unis are with teenagers... usually the same kids who love everything Oregon wears. Sometimes, gaudy and different is enough to win people over. "Better" is subjective, but Nike certainly succeeded in their goal of distancing the Browns from the drab, traditional look fans associate with the past 15 seasons.

For what its worth, I agree about the Cards and personally think the Bills have done the best job of "modern uniforms done right" of all the teams in sports to change their look in the past few years. It would have been nice to see Cleveland sport a more conservative alternate uniform... maybe in time.

[ARTnSocal]

.

'oldschoolvikings' wrote:

I think Cleveland could make a petition as a special case as per the unreadable numbers. If that's the angle they're going for, basically admitting they didn't do their due diligence as to the legibility of the numbers (which is obvious now they didn't), or claiming the visibility tests the tried weren't complete enough (again, pretty obvious), the NFL might give them a break on that. Still, since they will have to basically eat the cost for all the for-sale jerseys out there, my guess is the leagues first response would be to tell them to, for now anyway, just avoid wearing the brown as much as possible. Between wearing white at home, and pulling out the orange when they have to, they might have to deal with the unreadable numbers by more or less turning the brown jersey into a fan jersey that rarely gets worn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A team can petition many things including that, and they NFL would probably grant their request. The ones who already purchased the brown jerseys w/ orange jersey numbers could get the option to trade for the updated ones with white numbers, the NFL could well afford it, but the ones who keep them, well .. that jersey could be worth some value in mostly in northeast Ohio in the years to come.

Don't expect the Browns to petition tho', I doubt very much they'd ever admit to making such a dumb and obvious error. The socks they can fix themselves by simply wearing the brown ones next time they wear orange pants.

[hockey week]

I think any change would certainly come with the Browns eating a lot of the cost of buying back jerseys that are already out there

But if they only change the numbers, they might be able to get away with that as a minor change. Every jersey has a player on it, and those players change pretty regularly. There are probably thousands of blanks waiting to be numbered, and those wouldn't have to be changed.

I'm thinking they could change the numbers from orange to white at the end of the season with minimal repercussions.

[ARTnSocal]

If that is the modern answer to the Cleveland Browns then we don't need a modern answer to the Cleveland Browns. Not every team needs to dress like it's 2015. In fact, I'd argue a grand majority of teams don't need to dress like it's 2015. The Cardinals are your example, dennis? The Cardinals are the prime example of why you don't chase trends. They looked like arena league jackasses in 2005 and they look like 2005 arena league jackasses now, which is worse because now they're more dated than any uniform in the league! They are not a good example of modern uniforms done right. Just the opposite frankly.

We'll "get used to" the Browns uniforms? I suppose that's true, but in the same way we got used to the Bills terrible awful horrendous 2002 uniforms. After a while it's just pointless to continue harping on how bad a uniform is. The Jaguars still wear that stupid bucket on their heads, but it's worthless to continue talking about.

I mean, being as objective as I can how does illegible orange numbers on a brown jersey with BROWNS down the pant leg look better than what they used to wear unless you're just being a modernist homer?

I think we have similar tastes in uni design, but there is a market for Nike's gaudy, non-traditionalist designs. I have taught several sports marketing classes over the past few years and you'd be surprised how popular the Jags, Bucs, and Browns unis are with teenagers... usually the same kids who love everything Oregon wears. Sometimes, gaudy and different is enough to win people over. "Better" is subjective, but Nike certainly succeeded in their goal of distancing the Browns from the drab, traditional look fans associate with the past 15 seasons.

For what its worth, I agree about the Cards and personally think the Bills have done the best job of "modern uniforms done right" of all the teams in sports to change their look in the past few years.

..

Interesting .... the Bills uniform change was done in 2011, the final year of NFL teams working with Reebok.

The only uniform change I've liked since Nike took over is Minnesota's ........ with the exception of the socks for the purple pants.

I especially love those sweat stains that show up on Nike jerseys, and how long it took them to make the Eagles jerseys in midnight green last season.

Why the NFL extended their contract with Nike for another 3 years is quite puzzling.

[BrandMooreArt]

If that is the modern answer to the Cleveland Browns then we don't need a modern answer to the Cleveland Browns. Not every team needs to dress like it's 2015. In fact, I'd argue a grand majority of teams don't need to dress like it's 2015. The Cardinals are your example, dennis? The Cardinals are the prime example of why you don't chase trends. They looked like arena league jackasses in 2005 and they look like 2005 arena league jackasses now, which is worse because now they're more dated than any uniform in the league! They are not a good example of modern uniforms done right. Just the opposite frankly.

We'll "get used to" the Browns uniforms? I suppose that's true, but in the same way we got used to the Bills terrible awful horrendous 2002 uniforms. After a while it's just pointless to continue harping on how bad a uniform is. The Jaguars still wear that stupid bucket on their heads, but it's worthless to continue talking about.

I mean, being as objective as I can how does illegible orange numbers on a brown jersey with BROWNS down the pant leg look better than what they used to wear unless you're just being a modernist homer?

I think we have similar tastes in uni design, but there is a market for Nike's gaudy, non-traditionalist designs. I have taught several sports marketing classes over the past few years and you'd be surprised how popular the Jags, Bucs, and Browns unis are with teenagers... usually the same kids who love everything Oregon wears. Sometimes, gaudy and different is enough to win people over. "Better" is subjective, but Nike certainly succeeded in their goal of distancing the Browns from the drab, traditional look fans associate with the past 15 seasons.

For what its worth, I agree about the Cards and personally think the Bills have done the best job of "modern uniforms done right" of all the teams in sports to change their look in the past few years.

..

Why the NFL extended their contract with Nike for another 3 years is quite puzzling.

It's really not

$$$$$$$$$$$

[DGivens87]

.

Although an overwhelming amount of Cleveland fans have been clamoring for a return to the alternate orange pants, I can tell you they never wanted orange pants matched with orange socks.

The NFL 5-year uniform rule DOES allow certain tweaks to be done. The main part of rule of that is if there's a new logo and/or jersey or pants color selected it needs a 5-year run.

When the NE Patriots underwent their major rebranding in 1993 they had red numbers on ther bright blue jerseys with gray pants.

The following season in 1994 they switched jersey numbers from red white, same issue as Cleveland currently has with their orange jersey numbers on the brown jerseys. NE also switched the face-mask to red from the gray, along with changing the striping pattern on the pants, all after just 1 season.

In 1995 the Patriots changed the jersey numbers to an italic style font.

In 1997 they flip-flopped their logo and TV numbers, moving the logo to the shoulder and the TV numbers to the sleeves.

After the 5-year run had ended, they changed their unforms in 2000 from the brighter medium blue to navy blue, and changed their pants from gray to navy.

This rule is not outdated from when the Patriots made their jersey tweaks. Buffalo had sleeve stripes that were angular on the 2011 uniform change. In 2012 they were leveled off and are no longer on an angle.

Bottom line; If the Browns desire to make tweaks to their jerseys numbers after the season I'm quite sure they can do so.

You beat me to it. The switch from red numbers in '93 to white numbers in '94 was due to a lot of complaints about the visibility of said numbers. After the '94 season, the entire jersey was revamped at the request of the Krafts, who petitioned for the change shortly after assuming ownership in early-1994. The design itself was finalized in August '94, and approved for the '95 season shortly thereafter. The look lasted five years (the flip-flop of the logos and TV numbers actually occured at the same time) before they went to navy in 2000.

My take on the Browns jersey set from yesterday's game vs. Jets: visually speaking, it didn't look like the Jets were playing another team from the NFL. And that's all I have to say about that.

[MJWalker45]

If that is the modern answer to the Cleveland Browns then we don't need a modern answer to the Cleveland Browns. Not every team needs to dress like it's 2015. In fact, I'd argue a grand majority of teams don't need to dress like it's 2015. The Cardinals are your example, dennis? The Cardinals are the prime example of why you don't chase trends. They looked like arena league jackasses in 2005 and they look like 2005 arena league jackasses now, which is worse because now they're more dated than any uniform in the league! They are not a good example of modern uniforms done right. Just the opposite frankly.

We'll "get used to" the Browns uniforms? I suppose that's true, but in the same way we got used to the Bills terrible awful horrendous 2002 uniforms. After a while it's just pointless to continue harping on how bad a uniform is. The Jaguars still wear that stupid bucket on their heads, but it's worthless to continue talking about.

I mean, being as objective as I can how does illegible orange numbers on a brown jersey with BROWNS down the pant leg look better than what they used to wear unless you're just being a modernist homer?

I think we have similar tastes in uni design, but there is a market for Nike's gaudy, non-traditionalist designs. I have taught several sports marketing classes over the past few years and you'd be surprised how popular the Jags, Bucs, and Browns unis are with teenagers... usually the same kids who love everything Oregon wears. Sometimes, gaudy and different is enough to win people over. "Better" is subjective, but Nike certainly succeeded in their goal of distancing the Browns from the drab, traditional look fans associate with the past 15 seasons.

For what its worth, I agree about the Cards and personally think the Bills have done the best job of "modern uniforms done right" of all the teams in sports to change their look in the past few years.

..

Interesting .... the Bills uniform change was done in 2011, the final year of NFL teams working with Reebok.

The only uniform change I've liked since Nike took over is Minnesota's ........ with the exception of the socks for the purple pants.

I especially love those sweat stains that show up on Nike jerseys, and how long it took them to make the Eagles jerseys in midnight green last season.

Why the NFL extended their contract with Nike for another 3 years is quite puzzling.

The issue with the Eagles is that they waited until the last minute to swap out templates. The reason for extending with Nike was most likely because Under Armour didn't bid enough and if adidas was vehement that all teams wear Shockweb it probably didn't go anywhere.