NFL 2022 Changes

[BBTV]

Among other things, the Lions suffer from playing under sterile 5,000k light inside of a giant soulless depressing warehouse.  They really need more white on their uniforms to counteract the dullness of their home environment.  They would also benefit from the dazzle fabric of the pre-Nike era, but that's obviously not coming back any time soon.  

 

Take the Sanders-era jersey, drop the TV numbers, and run the stripes vertically.  Then you have a traditional uniform with enough white to (*sigh*) "pop", and they could even throw the old horizontal lion on the sleeves and create sort of a throwback to this era.  Hell - maybe even go with this striping pattern on the sleeve.  Either way, MORE WHITE.

[ManillaToad]

9 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

They can always throw it back to the 50s when they last won an NFL Championship.

 

Helmet on the guy in the back looks like pieces of metal welded together

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The Lions haven't looked good since the 90s. They looked good in the 90s.

 

Feels like there's an obvious solution there.

 

If the Buffalo Bills could revert back to an 80s look in the 2010s, hit big on a couple of drafts and dominate the league, the Lions can similarly do the same. Piece of cake. 

[HOOVER]

3 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

I think the Lions current look has potential.  They just took it two or three steps too far, which is pretty standard procedure during the Nike era.  
 

The dark gray adds zero.  The only place it even shows up on the primary uniforms is in the number outlines, which muddies the borders. It’s obvious it was only tacked on a an annoying excuse to foist those horrible dull gray color rush monstrosities on the world. Nike has such a weird boner for dark gray.  Step one is dropping that useless color from all applications. 
 

Next are the sleeve word marks and WCF patch. Clutter that helps nothing. (As a side note… as a two decade resident of Detroit, I can assure you that absolutely no one has fond memories of William Clay Ford as the Lions owner.). Drop those useless elements from the sleeves and let those Northwestern stripes do their job. 
 

Do the above, wear blue over silver at home, mix in the top notch throwback, alternate silver and blue pants on the road, find a white sock with the road jersey’s sleeve stripe to wear with the blue pants, only wear those stupid white practice pants during practice… then I could live with this look indefinitely, personally. 

 

After playing every game in the 90's unis on Madden for a few hours, I switched to their current unis and I instantly became more appreciative of them, but you 100% nailed it:  they simply added too much.  The helmet looks good, the Grey pants look good; they just need to remove the sleeve logos and go back to the 90's number font and this would be an incredible set.  

 

I disagree with you on Nike's use of Grey, but that's just a personal thing as I enjoy Grey unis more than your average fan.  It gets messy when you use Grey twice, as they've attempted to do with the numbers, especially with Honolulu Blue in the mix as there's not enough contrast.  They tried 2 mid-tone Greys, using their Dark Steel Grey rather than Anthracite for the number outline with their Blue Grey/Pewter/Silver whatever theyr'e calling it today.  The Tennessee Vols show you how to do it with their Smokey Mountain Grey uniforms, where the Anthracite is dark enough to contrast with Dark Steel Grey, and then their Tennessee Orange is so vibrant that you get dark, medium, and light contrast levels that work together properly.   Honolulu Blue, Blue Grey, and Dark Steel Grey are all mid-tones so it just turns into a muddled mess.

So yes, I agree:  remove the sleeve logos and then revert back to a number font similar to the 90s unis, with White fill and Grey fill (that matches their helmet/pants) and call it a day.   

Lastly, I disagree on the Blue pants and think they should be retired, unless they must be used for a Color Rush set.  With a Silver helmet, the pants must always be Silver/Grey.  The Blue makes the uniform bottom-heavy.  My opinion.

 

[HOOVER]

10 hours ago, simtek34 said:

 

So this?

 

 

Also side-note, this is a beautiful matchup. The Honolulu Blue and Silver vs the Hunter Green and Yellow.

 

EDIT: Was perusing the Lions subreddit and saw these. Man, does the 1982-2002 Uniform look gorgeous on a modern template. (There's two images. Hover over it and an arrow to the second one will appear.)

 

 

 

WOW.  Those are beautiful!

 

 

 

 

Embedding both here, they display a little larger.  This is great Photoshop work.  These needed to be added some way, some how to their uniform set as an alternate. 

 

Would be curious to see these in today's Honolulu Blue with the current logo.

[Indigo]

The Lions just need more white.

---shameless plug alert---

 

[LEWJ]

12 hours ago, Old School Fool said:

 

Let's all remember that one time in 2001 when the Packers made it weird on Thanksgiving.

 

“…uh…dad, are they wearing pants?”

[DCarp1231]

Washington has dubbed their alternate uniforms “battle blacks”

 

[The_Admiral]

I could get behind a St. Louis Football Cardinals split for the Lions where they're a blue palette swap of the Raiders at home but have the Northwestern stripes and outlined numbers on the road. Thanksgiving throwbacks plus Barry Sanders throwbacks, essentially.

[oldschoolvikings]

On 11/4/2022 at 4:43 PM, Volt said:

 

To Stetson's credit, they did the  aforementioned rebrand with Bosack in 2018.  Joe knows how I feel, so I'm not stepping out of line here, but true to form, he provided them  a really solid logo & set of wordmarks...but then complicated things by adding a custom color...one not in Nike's team color library.
 

 

So if I'm reading this right, Nike has their own color "library" and are hesitant to provide custom colors?  That sure explains a lot. (If I had to guess, I'd bet that Nike's color library has, like, three greens, but for some reason two dozen dark grays?)

 

For some reason, I find that annoying.  In a perfect world, the needs of the client should come way before the convenience of the supplier.

[walkerws]

13 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

So if I'm reading this right, Nike has their own color "library" and are hesitant to provide custom colors?  That sure explains a lot. (If I had to guess, I'd bet that Nike's color library has, like, three greens, but for some reason two dozen dark grays?)

 

For some reason, I find that annoying.  In a perfect world, the needs of the client should come way before the convenience of the supplier.

When you get so big, custom colors that won’t get used much aren’t valuable. 

[oldschoolvikings]

2 minutes ago, walkerws said:

When you get so big, custom colors that won’t get used much aren’t valuable. 

Too bad.  The fact that the manufacturer’s brand is now significantly bigger than the brands of some of the clients they’re supposedly working to promote is one of the big problems with current sports uniforms.  

[walkerws]

I agree. Bigger fan bases buy more swag so that makes sense to not be stuck with extra material. Smaller schools don’t generally buy or receive extras so to make so much extra would be counter productive. You would think they have color palates that are pretty close. 

[DCarp1231]

Washington color names so far-

 

• Legacy Burgundy

• Battle Black

 

I wonder what the others will be named. Honor Gold? Tactical White?

 

Gotta keep that military fetishism alive somewhere

[Bathysphere]

24 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Washington color names so far-

 

• Legacy Burgundy

• Battle Black

 

I wonder what the others will be named. Honor Gold? Tactical White?

 

Gotta keep that military fetishism alive somewhere

“The socially conscious inspiration behind our white guilts“

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

21 hours ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

The Lions just need more white.

---shameless plug alert---

 

 

I'd still want silver numbers. So for me, I'd reverse the white and silver there.

Remember that the 90's set was tweaked version of the 70's set which had silver numbers:

 

[HOOVER]

19 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

So if I'm reading this right, Nike has their own color "library" and are hesitant to provide custom colors?  That sure explains a lot. (If I had to guess, I'd bet that Nike's color library has, like, three greens, but for some reason two dozen dark grays?)

 

For some reason, I find that annoying.  In a perfect world, the needs of the client should come way before the convenience of the supplier.

 

You're reading this right.  But not thinking about it with the right perspective (business & production).

Since I've used the Bosack example, let me elaborate using that and another one he did.

EXAMPLE 1:  STETSON UNIVERSITY

 

Stetson Hatters athletics now have Stetson Green and Hatter Green designated as their official brand colors:  https://gohatters.com/documents/2021/10/20//CLC_brand_guide_stetson.pdf?id=9153

 

Stetson Green:  Pantone 343 C
Hatter Green:  Pantone 363 C

 

However, they are a Nike school.  Nike actually has 7 greens in their Nike Team Sports Color Chart, which you can seen on the next to last page here:  https://niketeam-asset-download.nike.net/catalogs/2022/2022_Football_11_04_22_V2.pdf?cb=09302022
 

Volt

Action Green

Lt Green Spark
Pine Green

Team Kelly Green/Apple Green

Team Dark Green/Gorge Green

Noble Green

Guess what?  NONE of these are the same Pantone as Stetson Green or Hatter Green.   The designer chose, either on his own or with the university itself, 2 shades of Green without either considering physical applications of these colors, whether it was a Nike uniform, Sport-Tek polo for the groundskeepers, or a Gildan t-shirt for the frat houses.  I don't know how they came to these colors...I wasn't there...all I know is that they don't match what their most visible apparel provider manufactures.   Heck, they may not even match the windscreen on the baseball fences, and maybe they didn't care about that, but for things like uniforms...you have to.

On top of that, only Team Kelly Green and Team Dark Green are available in both stock & custom team apparel, uniforms, and footwear.   It simply is not feasible for Nike to manufacture 7 different greens for a cotton t-shirt, Dri-Fit t-shirt, 2 hoodies, 2 crews, 2 sweats, and a multitude of jackets, polos, shorts, hats, socks, compression garments, uniforms, uniform accessories, etc.  They have a hard enough time keeping up with their 16-18 core colors, which I'd estimate make up about 90% of colors used by most schools.  

 

The other Greens can be used via special request (an archaic manual process) via email with Nike Team, but only for product that is sublimated (Nike Digital Uniforms), and those requests have to be approved.   I can tell you from experience, it's not worth the hassle.

EXAMPLE #2:  SUSQUEHANNA RIVERHAWKS

Susquehanna University decided to rebrand away from their long-time Crusaders moniker to be politically correct, and Joe did their redesign as well.   Just like he did with Stetson, he gave them a major upgrade; Joe is a skilled designer and while I have been critical to him on here and directly, this isn't a Bosack bash session.  His design work is often very good and there's a reason he gets the calls to do them.   Not a fan of all of his work, but he's hit some jobs out of the park, and Susquehanna's new identity is really solid.

However, when it comes to color choices:  https://suriverhawks.com/documents/2021/9/21//SU_RivershawkStyleGuide_2017.pdf?id=2936

Susquehanna Maroon:  Pantone 7421c

Susquehanna Orange:  Pantone 1585c
Susquehanna Grey:  428c
 

NONE of these are exact matches for Nike's 6 Dark Red/Maroon colors, 3 Oranges, or 6 Greys.  We ended up choosing Team Cardinal for their Maroon.  Their Orange was just about directly in between Team Orange and Bright Ceramic (TN Orange).  Ultimately, the AD just picked what was available from Nike...which is where the process should have begun (they've been a Nike school forever).  The teams look great and most people never notice, but for the discerning eye, you'll notice that their uniforms & apparel don't match their printed branding around campus.

 

But yeah, Nike isn't going to just start making every product in their team catalog in your specific PMS colors, just because that's the crayon you picked out of the box.  So, when branding a program, it's important to confer with the right people in delivering it physically, not just in athletics but in signage, construction, etc. to make sure it'll work.  Look, matching Susquehanna's Grey to Nike's 2-3 Light Greys was easy, and it's not that big of a deal, but the Maroon & Orange on the field do not match what's in their Brand Style Guide.    Maybe I'm the whackjob that cares, and most other people don't, but to me, that detail matters.

Keep in mind, for major college programs and the NFL, MLB, NBA, it's different.  They're going to do special things for those teams.  The Seahawks are an example: that's where Action Green came from.  But don't expect to find Action Green everything; most of their merch sold is Navy, Grey, or White and Action Green is printed/embroidered on.  They're simply not going to move enough volume of Action Green everything to warrant manufacturing it.  Ditto with the Miami Heat...they'll move tons of Vice City merch, but that doesn't mean that Nike is going to add Blue PMS 298 C and Fuschia PMS 2385 C to every team product line in the catalog.  In fact, neither are.

For Stetson, Kelly Green simply was too far off from Hatter Green to make it work.  Team Dark Green/Gorge Green was an easy choice for Stetson Green and no one knows the difference, but we had to go through a process to get Hatter Green added by Nike, and even now that it's added, they are not making stock or custom fabrics in Hatter Green - it can only be used in certain applications, typically sublimated (Nike Digital) uniforms or features on cut & sew (Nike Custom) uniforms, such as numbers, logos, and stripes.  Can't order a Hatter Green football jersey.   You can order Team Dark Green or Team Kelly Green, but you can't just order Hatter Green.   And for the sale rep & equipment manager/coach ordering these uniforms, instead of just designing them online in their builder, saving the design, and using that saved design number in the order when placing it with the dealer, which can be done in under an hour, the uniform now has to be designed in the builder, then an email has to go to Nike Team, you wait 2-4 weeks to get .pdf designs back from their staff with the appropriate colors & fonts, and then you can manually submit the order through the dealer.   Ordering timelines are everything, and sometimes you wouldn't get the .pdfs back from Nike for 6 weeks, and you'd miss deadlines or uniforms would deliver late, and there was no reasonable escalation process.  Again, a nightmare.  And that really falls back on Nike for not having a better process, too.

Again, if Notre Dame signs with Nike and they want to start using Hatter Green for their green football jersey, Nike will make it happen for them, but they're not going to do it on a mass scale for small colleges & high schools; that's what the product offerings in Nike Team are for.

 

And that, for those of you still with me, is why you can't just pick a crayon out of the box and say "This is our color."   Unfortunately, that's what designers whose only job is to create something on screen that looks cool do, and they're not entirely at fault because production & delivery is not their area of expertise.  When you have no skin in the game when it comes to manufacturing, you just do what looks good, rather than what works in real life.

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

[HOOVER]

3 hours ago, walkerws said:

I agree. Bigger fan bases buy more swag so that makes sense to not be stuck with extra material. Smaller schools don’t generally buy or receive extras so to make so much extra would be counter productive. You would think they have color palates that are pretty close. 

 

Said much more succinctly than I just did.   And now that I'm directly on the side of manufacturing apparel, and having a better understanding of what goes into sourcing and buying & dying fabric, it's even more complex than most people understand.

[HOOVER]

3 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

Too bad.  The fact that the manufacturer’s brand is now significantly bigger than the brands of some of the clients they’re supposedly working to promote is one of the big problems with current sports uniforms.  

 

Again, it's not that.  We're not mixing ice cream flavors here.  There's a giant international production process that is involved.   

When you go to the car dealership, do they have every color you'd ever want in the car you want?

When you go to buy sheets for your bed, is every color you could think of available?  

No, and it's for the same reason.

Just because we can imagine it, doesn't mean we can have it made out of thin air when we want it.  
 

Last word I'll make on this topic as I have to get ready to drive to Tampa to see Adam Sandler's show tonight:  this doesn't absolve Nike from some of their mistakes.  Trust me, they are very bull-headed.  But I think over the last few years, we've seen less issues with color than we did the first few years of the NFL uniform deal, so you have to give them some credit for fixing things, though you can still absolutely criticize them fairly on many other points.

Like the Commanders uniforms.

[oldschoolvikings]

5 hours ago, Volt said:

 

Again, it's not that.  We're not mixing ice cream flavors here.  There's a giant international production process that is involved.   

When you go to the car dealership, do they have every color you'd ever want in the car you want?

When you go to buy sheets for your bed, is every color you could think of available?  

No, and it's for the same reason.

Just because we can imagine it, doesn't mean we can have it made out of thin air when we want it.  
 

Last word I'll make on this topic as I have to get ready to drive to Tampa to see Adam Sandler's show tonight:  this doesn't absolve Nike from some of their mistakes.  Trust me, they are very bull-headed.  But I think over the last few years, we've seen less issues with color than we did the first few years of the NFL uniform deal, so you have to give them some credit for fixing things, though you can still absolutely criticize them fairly on many other points.

Like the Commanders uniforms.

I can certainly see where you’re coming from on the T shirt - polos- hats and jackets perspective.  I guess my focus is pretty much solely on the on field colors.  In Detroit, at Walmart,  Target, what have you, you see about a dozen different versions of Honolulu blue, and no one gives it much thought.  But you’d think the game uniform can be customized to a particular color, and the manufacturer could take the effort to get it right.