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SFGate article on 49ers' "One Day logo"


Gothamite

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I was referring to this jersey & sure it may have been a trend in the 40's but it was also a trend in the 90's as well. Dolphins & Ravens did the same thing. I truly believe these uniforms were in the works the same time as the new logo could be wrong though!

FSF49-1997.jpg

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I agree that dropshadows were very 90s.  In this case, the 1994 throwbacks were very popular, so I'm sure they at least influenced the decision to go that route (particularly when keeping in mind that the 90s update originally included white pants, like the throwbacks).

 

 

Slightly off topic (and not to create a tangent for the thread) -- I have always loved the 90s uniforms.  They look much better than the bright red and khaki look that they went back to.  I know that is the 80s glory days look, but it just looks washed out to me.

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35 minutes ago, hugevolsfan said:

I was referring to this jersey & sure it may have been a trend in the 40's but it was also a trend in the 90's as well. Dolphins & Ravens did the same thing. I truly believe these uniforms were in the works the same time as the new logo could be wrong though!

FSF49-1997.jpg

 

I don't think the two had anything to do with each other.  The "49ERS" logo was unveiled and abandoned in 1991, and the cranberry uniforms weren't introduced until 1996.

 

I think it's pretty clear those uniforms were inspired by the NFL's league-wide 75th anniversary throwbacks in 1994.  For that event, the Niners wore a uniform inspired by their 1950s design (keeping their regular helmets, as most teams did back then):

 

HISTORY_OF_FOTTBAL_UNIFORM_8a.jpg 49ers-Bears-1995-019.jpg

 

 

That look proved to be so popular that they kept on wearing it right through the Super Bowl:

 

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The following season they were back in the Montana-era look, as seen in this photo from September 17, 1995:

 

steve-young-of-the-san-francisco-49ers-p

 

But a change was in the works.  In 1996, they officially changed their uniforms to something virtually identical to the throwback, only incorporating logos on the sleeves and a gold outline on the numbers.  This is also when they changed the helmet:

 

72573691-dec-1996-william-floyd-of-the-s

 

What's not clear in these photos is just how dark the Niners' red was in this set.  It had a lot of blue in it, much more a cranberry color than the fire-engine red of the glory years.

 

Two seasons later, they ditched the white pants for metallic gold to match the helmets once again.


detroit-lions-runningback-barry-sanders-

 

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7 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

In 1996, they officially changed their uniforms to something virtually identical to the throwback, only incorporating logos on the sleeves and a gold outline on the numbers and reversing the pants stripes.

 

One other detail . . . because that's how we roll around here.  :P

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Good find on that photo! Those Lions blue pants were some striped socks away from working. 

 

RE 49ers 90's look: It always irritated me how the stripe on the gold pants didn't quite match the stripes on the helmet. If the helmet had the offset stripes like the pants did it would've looked even better. 

PvO6ZWJ.png

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Yes, good point.  Missed that one.

 

They reversed the pants stripes to match the new helmet stripes - red/white/red Braisher stripes replaced with thin black stripes surrounding a thick red stripe.  The only difference was the background.

 

Then when they introduced the gold pants they also put those tiny gold stripes between black and red.  After all that effort to match the various elements, suddenly the helmet stripes and pants stripes were off.  That one little detail always bothered me.

 

detroit-lions-runningback-barry-sanders-

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Technically they both match.  The pants match the E/W sides of the logo, the helmet stripe matches the N/S.

 

I'm not a big fan of the logo - it's too '90s ovaly for me.  They should have just outlined the red with black.  That being said, the pants didn't match, but they still worked.  Take away the SF on the sleeve and that's a fantastic uniform.  I even like the SF on the hip.  That shade of red makes me moist downstairs.

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That previous Niners set is always one I struggle with. The logo update was basically perfect, but just about everything else didn't work IMO. I think I could've lived with the application use of black in that set, but darkening that red was an egregiously AWFUL idea. That bright red was a signature to the Niners, and the darker red was a jarring shift I never got used to. Also, the extra details, such as the drop shadowed stripes under another Niners oval logo, the triple layered drop shadowed numbers, the mismatching pants stripes, the richer gold (which when paired with the new red sucked the life out of that set) made the whole thing too complicated and WAY too dark. It's in the same vein as the current Eagles look. There's a TON of little details to the look, probably too much detail in fact, but you can barely tell because the whole thing is just too damn dark to make an impression. What's even the point? 

 

BTW, I wonder if the same designer did the Niners, Eagles, and Bucs rebrands during that era. All three of those sets seem to follow the same basic logic (darker, more detail) when it comes to layout and color theory. 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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not really. Jeff Garcia wore the Riddell helmet that has the ridge in the middle and I'm looking at two different sets of stripes in this photo. 

 

49ers-Dolphins-2001-015.jpg

 

They could've matched and for some reason chose not to and I'll never understand why

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15 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Technically they both match.  The pants match the E/W sides of the logo, the helmet stripe matches the N/S.

 

That only makes sense if there was a deliberate gold stripe on the helmets, as the top and bottom of the logo still clearly has gold between the red and black.

 

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On the helmet, the red and black meet.  Or at least they're supposed to.

 

san-francisco-ers-authentic-pro-line-rev

27a37b98fd129b42b49b3fcb2d3467c0.jpg 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Gothamite said:

It does, kinda. But then why not make the helmet match?

 

I don't in general think all elements of a uniform have to match. But when a team goes almost all the way, and then misses one thing, it bugs me. 

I agree completely.. It's like Florida's orange jersey striping or auburn's helmet/pants issue.. It bugs me too, but the correlation to the logo was something I noticed WHILE discussing the mismatched striping, and from a side view (where only the pants striping and helmet logo are clearly visible), it matches.. I agree however that it would've made so much sense to just add the small stem of gold to the helmet striping.. I guess for me though, I would've preferred the pants striping to remove it and let the logo stand on it's own, because I'm generally not a big fan of 5-stripe helmet stripes, but it absolutely could've worked either way.. It's shocking how many of these issues are completely overlooked during the design process... Remove the logo from the sleeves, match the helmet/pants striping, and voila! Gorgeous uniform set

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To answer the question of the mismatched stripes of the 1998 helmet and the metallic gold pants, the helmet was introduced in 1996 with the white pants which did match the helmet stripe.  Not sure why they didn't update the helmet too in 1998 when they introduced the new gold pants though.  I agree it would have looked better.

 

72573691-dec-1996-william-floyd-of-the-s

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The 49ers one day logo was in was their second logo change in a handful of years. Between their Super Bowl wins in 1988 and 1989, the Niners added a black border around the "SF". It pretty much goes unnoticed. Even SportsLogos misses it in their logo rundown.

6uXNWAo.png

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15 minutes ago, Cujo said:

The 49ers one day logo was in was their second logo change in a handful of years. Between their Super Bowl wins in 1988 and 1989, the Niners added a black border around the "SF". It pretty much goes unnoticed. Even SportsLogos misses it in their logo rundown.

 

Woah. That was my favorite logo when I was a kid, and I had NEVER noticed that before you pointed it out. 

TomsMindBlown.gif

 

 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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