Short-lived uniform features

[Discrim]

So I was reading the NFL changes thread recently, and somebody posted a photo featuring the Chargers' old uniforms.  Vs. the Broncos, I think.  It was there that I noticed the Chargers' wordmark was on the socks, something I'd known the Dolphins and Bengals used to have, but I'd been unaware the Chargers had done it too...or that they stuck with it into the 2000s (the only team to do so), seeing as the Bengals and Dolphins' sock wordmarks didn't survive their 1997 changes.  Not sure how hard I really wanna look, but the one season the Jets did this and the Patriots' two season tour are the only other teams I'm aware of using sock wordmarks.  Not sure why this was an AFC only thing, though with the rise of jersey wordmarks, we're probably never seeing these again (at least on the gridiron.  OTOH, the fact that soccer clubs have their name or their initials on their socks all the time slipped my mind at the time of posting).

 

Any similarly short lived features (or features that were never widely adopted but somehow stuck around) worth a mention out there?

[1insaneguy]

The trend of flywire collars/ two tone collars on Nike NFL jerseys comes to mind. If I remember correctly, the two-tone collars lasted like 2 seasons and the flywire collars lasted for 4 seasons at most.

[Ark]

From 2002 to 2004, the New York Giants road uniforms had blue socks (they also had blue collars, number outlines,  and names from 2000 to 2004)

 

[NeauXone]

Rams early white pants with a gold stripe that were only ever worn for a preseason game back in 2001.

[raz]

 81-88, Cowboys had numbers on the top of their pant stripes - longer than I remembered. 

 

Colts too, 82-86 (and silver pants)

 

Lastly, the Packers, 85-87

[MJWalker45]

12 hours ago, 1insaneguy said:

The trend of flywire collars/ two tone collars on Nike NFL jerseys comes to mind. If I remember correctly, the two-tone collars lasted like 2 seasons and the flywire collars lasted for 4 seasons at most.

The Ravens still use the Elite 51 template, but that pattern on the neck was removed a little while ago. It seemed every team that had a colored in collar with Reebok got that treatment.

Forgot that the Chargers had this horrible look

Ravens wore it for one year, then changed the collar to purple. 

 

[Wade Heidt]

 

For at least a couple of seasons in early to mid 1980s.  The WHL's Regina Pats had the unique look of the nameplate below the numbers instead of above.  Might have been from 1983-85?

 

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

During the classic years of the Oakland A's uniforms, 1972 to 1980, they had a front number for half of one season.  A front number was put on the uniform after the All-Star break in 1972.

 

Early season vs. late season:

 

    

 

And the odder thing still about this number was that it was a different font to the number on the back.  The front number was in the font we associate with the Expos, while the back number was in a kind of block font (though not the standard one used by the Dodgers, nor the varsity font that the team went to in the latter years of this uniform set).

 

Both fonts can be seen in this card:

 

 

 

[BBTV]

1996 Eagles had stripes instead of a logo on their white jerseys - logo was on their green pants, which at the time featured only a single black stripe.

 

Jersey was changed the following season.  Technically, both white and green jerseys were changed each of the first three seasons of their existence, but this was the most noticeable change.

 

 

[Sport]

In 1997 Deion Sanders had his sleeves cut on the road uniforms to resemble Jackie Robinson's sleeves for the 50th anniversary of the integration of baseball

 

 

and then the rest of the team did it too. 

 

 

In 1998 the sleeves were back to normal

[BBTV]

When Deion did it, the league made the rest of the team did it, saying that they had to be a uniform size - basically vest or no vest.  I'm 94.89% sure I remember that correctly.

[burgundy]

18 minutes ago, BBTV said:

When Deion did it, the league made the rest of the team did it, saying that they had to be a uniform size - basically vest or no vest.  I'm 94.89% sure I remember that correctly.

 

That would make sense. Seeing as the patches are on the shoulders, they were obviously tailored that way. It wasn't just a bunch of Chris Sales cutting up jerseys.

 

[nash61]

Remember the Predators' shoulder wordmark? That might hold the record for the shortest-lived feature of them all. This jersey (obviously a draft jersey) leaked the night of the first round (Nashville didn't have a pick), and by the time Magnus Hellberg was drafted with their first pick the next day, the wordmark was gone.

 

 

[johnnysama]

In 1972, due to a manufacturing error on the part of Wilson, who made these jerseys, the Chicago Cubs had their first pullover road jerseys feature the number on the center for that season only.

 

Do you think other teams should have gone this route with their pullover jerseys?

[SCalderwood]

Here's one (I think)... remember like 10-15 years ago when a few MLB teams had those mutlicolored sparkly helmets, where the vents (and I think the back) would be a different color than the rest of the helmet)?  The main teams I remember having them were the Mets, Rockies, and Rangers.  I don't remember any team using them for too long, but maybe my memory is a bit fuzzy.

 

Here's what I'm talking about...

 

 

Another thing... I definitely remember the Mets and Rockies using them, but did the Rangers actually ever wear theirs in a game?  I can't find any photos of them actually wearing that in a game (maybe I just didn't search hard enough), but I remember it being modeled during a new uniform unveiling or something.  I am pretty sure they were legitimate helmets made for the team to wear, but maybe they just decided not to wear them.

 

[spartacat_12]

18 hours ago, nash61 said:

Remember the Predators' shoulder wordmark? That might hold the record for the shortest-lived feature of them all. This jersey (obviously a draft jersey) leaked the night of the first round (Nashville didn't have a pick), and by the time Magnus Hellberg was drafted with their first pick the next day, the wordmark was gone.

 

 

 

The Ducks also had an odd wordmark on the collar of their orange alternate when they first unveiled it. It was abandoned when they switched over to the Adidas template.

 

[LMU]

The Boston Navy Sox of 2009.

[monkeypower]

2 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

The Ducks also had an odd wordmark on the collar of their orange alternate when they first unveiled it. It was abandoned when they switched over to the Adidas template.

 

It wasn't wasn't abandoned, it moved to the inside of the collar, à la hanger effect.

 

---

The Calgary Hitmen used this logo for their first season in 1995/96 because their original logo was deemed "too violent".

 

They would switch to the original logo the following season and have used it ever since, colour change and cleaning up lines notwithstanding. This Burst logo would return as a shoulder patch when they brought back the "originals" (like the second year originals) during their 20th anniversary.

[M4One]

When the Calgary Flames introduced their new home jersey in 2003, the name plate was originally black, outlined in white.  The commentators complained they couldn't read them, so they switched them out to white, outlined in black, after a game or two (or maybe more.  Can't remember.)

 

[cheo25]

The 1975 Astros bulls-eye on the back of the jerseys. The rainbow stirrups also didn't stick around long, but I think they might have been around for 1976, too.