Question about sports uniforms and color

[thaipod]

I've wondered this for a while now, and want to get this forum's thoughts about this.  In general, a lot of uniform nerds don't like matching color jerseys and pants for the NFL.  I can't remember which team was the first to do it (Eagles? Seahawks?) but now, nearly every team has a version of their uniforms that match the colors of their jerseys and pants, especially since the Color Rush program started.  Generally, us uniform wonks seem to prefer Color A for the jersey and Color B or white for the pants.   However, with other sports uniforms like for the NBA and NHL, we don't seem to share that opinion as strongly.  In the NHL, both seem to be well liked depending on the team and color scheme, and in the NBA it's always matching colors for the top and shorts.  In fact, the one time I remember an NBA team trying a different color with the top and bottom it was the Wizards with their black jersey and gold shorts and it was universally  hated.

 

So yeah, why do we prefer the matching color look for the NBA, the non-matching color look for the NFL, and are ok with both for the NHL?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[PERRIN]

It's mainly a mix of tradition and how the uniforms themselves are built. In basketball same-color jerseys and shorts is the norm and they don't cover much more than the torso and upper legs. In football contrasting colors are what's traditional and the uniform covers every thing from head to toe. Having a solid block of color basically the entire body looks pretty tacky, especially since football uniforms are body-tight nowadays. Sports like baseball and hockey get away with single color mainly due to - again - tradition, but also because uniforms in those sports don't fit the player the same way as football. Of course, not everyone agrees with the application of color in other sports (I mainly only pay attention to football and basketball, I'm still a novice when it comes to the aesthetics of other sports) but that's the general reasoning. Hope this helps.

[chcarlson23]

There’s a lot that goes into the color blocking of each sport. Tradition is a huge one, but things change over time. A lot of really early basketball uniforms were different colored tops from the shorts, with some sets having the top be different for a “road” jersey. Baseball had lots of what we now call monochrome, non-grey looks, usually all navy or black, before white at home and grey on the road became the standard. 
 

Hockey is very unique, because the gear color evolved a little after the jersey style evolved, because into the 40’s breezers were canvas, and gloves were leather into the 50’s and 60’s. Typically teams pick breezer colors based on what color they want to emphasize more. Teams very easily could have picked any color they wanted for their breezers. The Habs randomly picked blue, but it works. And the Rangers picked red. 
 

The general idea behind breezer colors is to use the darkest color, like the Habs or Blackhawks. The base of the jersey, like the Hurricanes, or a third color that works with both, like the Avalanche, who use their steel blue color. But usually teams avoid white breezers. They get too easily marked by the puck and sticks, and generally don’t look so great. Teams have tried it, but it’s usually a flop for one reason or another. Gloves are similar, however white gloves are becoming more and more popular, because of the Golden knights really pushing them. 

[infrared41]

22 hours ago, thaipod said:

So yeah, why we prefer the non-matching color look for the NFL? 

 

Because other than all white, matching color NFL uniforms are ugly.