2024 NFL Changes

[SportsFan12]

5 minutes ago, Lights Out said:

I expect it'll look like ass on TV with the bright silver stripes not contrasting enough with the white base. About the only thing I do like is the icicle effect on the numbers, it's very clever without being overdone.

I was thinking the same, just like how Arizona’s white set has almost no visible detail on TV. A lot of the MLB City Connects are like this too (Rays, Blue Jays come to mind)
 

Unfortunately, Nike and the NFL are more concerned about minor details that are only visible up-close so that they can post articles/diagrams outlining all the meaningless things they are supposed to represent.

[Old School Fool]

1 hour ago, DCarp1231 said:

Yikes, ew, oof, what have you. The Vikings should be embarrassed 

 

I hate to say it but I really like this. Purple is my favorite color and seeing it combined with metallic silver (which I love due to the Raiders) is really awesome for me. If Madden had Create a Team, this is probably something I would make.

 

This uniform has no business being any good but it is. Sometimes you just need to do stuff and you will get good results sometimes. It is what it is.

 

Also, I'm expecting a profanity laced tirade from @oldschoolvikings coming up.

[PurpleHayes]

1 hour ago, HOOVER said:

This uniform is so :censored:ing unnecessary.  

Pandora's Box has been opened.

 

This would have been innovative...in 2019. Now? It's just another team chasing a hot trend that is popular with 12-year-olds.

 

Ooooooohhh, icy white...how intimidating.

 

Someone needs to stop this trend, but it sure as heck won't be Goofball Goodell.

[SavardToColton]

If these were one off uniforms worn by, let's say TCU I wouldn't think twice. But the Vikings should be above chasing college uniform trends. 

[NYCdog]

2 hours ago, NH4 said:

About what we expected. Another unnecessary uniform but if they were going to do this, the coloring of the stripes should be flipped but whatever

 

1. Icy look is the new BFBS. Everyone’s doing it. 
2. Silver on white is not enough contrast. See Cardinals invisible silver flakes sporadically spread out on a white helmet. This color should’ve been yellow.
3. “Winter Warrior” yet they play in a domed stadium

 

[Old School Fool]

5 minutes ago, NYCdog said:

3. “Winter Warrior” yet they play in a domed stadium

 

Minnesota is one of the only teams who need a dome. North winters are brutal.

[SportsFan12]

This is the sports uniform world we live in. If Timmy and Sally and Billy from Twitter want an all-white uniform, the team will eventually listen to them. Sickening.

[YelichGraphics]

7 minutes ago, SportsFan12 said:

This is the sports uniform world we live in. If Timmy and Sally and Billy from Twitter want an all-white uniform, the team will eventually listen to them. Sickening.

The world we live in is that the consumer is asking for something that will guarantee sales. I don't think it is always a bad thing. The Sabres wouldn't have royal uniforms without them, a ton of the throwbacks were all requested by the consumers in fact I don't think the reintroduction of a second helmet or third happens without fans asking for them back. Name one business that doesn't listen to their consumer base...

[SportsFan12]

7 minutes ago, YelichGraphics said:

The world we live in is that the consumer is asking for something that will guarantee sales. I don't think it is always a bad thing. The Sabres wouldn't have royal uniforms without them, a ton of the throwbacks were all requested by the consumers in fact I don't think the reintroduction of a second helmet or third happens without fans asking for them back. Name one business that doesn't listen to their consumer base...

Miami Dolphins fans have been asking for full-time throwbacks for a decade and have been denied. 

 

I agree it can ocassionally be helpful, but it seems to do more harm than good overall, considering most of the people on this app seem to be in the age range of 15-30 and have no clue what a quality uniform looks like.

[PurpleHayes]

34 minutes ago, NYCdog said:

1. Icy look is the new BFBS. Everyone’s doing it. 
2. Silver on white is not enough contrast. See Cardinals invisible silver flakes sporadically spread out on a white helmet. This color should’ve been yellow.
3. “Winter Warrior” yet they play in a domed stadium

 

 

If everybody's doing it, then it's not unique. But then, I'm not a marketing whiz.

[PurpleHayes]

17 minutes ago, SportsFan12 said:

This is the sports uniform world we live in. If Timmy and Sally and Billy from Twitter want an all-white uniform, the team will eventually listen to them. Sickening.

 

Yeah, about 37 13-year old kids made that demand, likely. All the traditional older fans don't vote in stupid online polls, so that's why we get stuck with 'icy whites' and BFBS which appeal to middle schoolers.

[bowld]

Honestly as a one-off alternate uniform its not that bad. Rather have this than all black

 

Also when I think of Vikings I think of snow/ice and same goes for Minnesota 

[DCarp1231]

*sees ‘oldschoolvikings is typing…’*

 

[mcrosby]

Hey Mods, I think something is broken. This has been displayed for a while: 

[oldschoolvikings]

55 minutes ago, Old School Fool said:

I'm expecting a profanity laced tirade from @oldschoolvikings coming up.

 

Well, if that's what you're looking for I'm afraid I'm going to be a disappointment.  I'm too old for profanity laced tirades these days. My current posting style is more low-grade snark and unspecific passive-aggressive trolling.

 

But even so, I'm not sure I could build up a lot of anger even if I wanted to. These uniforms are just kind of... dumb.  The best I can muster is just  sort of weary eye roll.  

 

So, these are pretty much what we saw coming, but with a few surprising (to me, anyway) details.  I didn't expect a white horn on a white helmet. And, yeah, it sucks. I also really wouldn't have seen the silver helmet stripe as a possibility.  As a Viking fan, that's the most out-of-left-field little detail to me.  I'm going to need to see the back of the helmet to see how the horns, which normally almost touch, co-exist with that stripe.  As for the supposedly "generic" wordmark...  that's the most troubling part of the whole design. It actually isn't a brand new font... it's the NOB font, which is based on the number font. My concern is that it's a precursor to making that font the new wordmark, which would be a huge mistake. The Vikings' wordmark is beautiful, and an absolute classic. If they officially switch to that wordmark, a profanity laced tirade may be an order.

 

Two more things. Silver has never been a part of the Vikings' color scheme. So I think we can put to bed any idea that the NFL's "rules" will prevent teams from doing whatever they want. There's lots of discussion on this board about how some of us grumpy old traditionalists over react and the NFL's rules won't allow things to go too far.  So... offically, and for the record... everyone can stop with that bullspit. The "rules" only exist until a team decides to do what they want. That's the truth.  It's the wild west.

 

And finally, as bad as this might be, I'm thankful for three things.  First, the Vikings' dopey color rush get up is gone. Second, it isn't an all-black uniform, which to me would be much much worse.  And finally, they (for now, at least) have always treated the "white out" non-sense as a once a year event... which is how alts should work. No mixing and matching, no further dilution of the brand.  Pull them out, sell some jerseys, and put them away.  Hopefully, it stays that way. 

[oldschoolvikings]

11 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

*sees ‘oldschoolvikings is typing…’

 

 

6 minutes ago, mcrosby said:

Hey Mods, I think something is broken. This has been displayed for a while: 

 Patience, young people.

[MCM0313]

6 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

Well, if that's what you're looking for I'm afraid I'm going to be a disappointment.  I'm too old for profanity laced tirades these days. My current posting style is more low-grade snark and unspecific passive-aggressive trolling.

 

But even so, I'm not sure I could build up a lot of anger even if I wanted to. These uniforms are just kind of... dumb.  The best I can muster is just  sort of weary eye roll.  

 

So, these are pretty much what we saw coming, but with a few surprising (to me, anyway) details.  I didn't expect a white horn on a white helmet. And, yeah, it sucks. I also really wouldn't have seen the silver helmet stripe as a possibility.  As a Viking fan, that's the most out-of-left-field little detail to me.  I'm going to need to see the back of the helmet to see how the horns, which normally almost touch, co-exist with that stripe.  As for the supposedly "generic" wordmark...  that's the most troubling part of the whole design. It actually isn't a brand new font... it's the NOB font, which is based on the number font. My concern is that it's a precursor to making that font the new wordmark, which would be a huge mistake. The Vikings' wordmark is beautiful, and an absolute classic. If they officially switch to that wordmark, a profanity laced tirade may be an order.

 

Two more things. Silver has never been a part of the Vikings' color scheme. So I think we can put to bed any idea that the NFL's "rules" will prevent teams from doing whatever they want. There's lots of discussion on this board about how some of us grumpy old traditionalists over react and the NFL's rules won't allow things to go too far.  So... offically, and for the record... everyone can stop with that bullspit. The "rules" only exist until a team decides to do what they want. That's the truth.  It's the wild west.

 

And finally, as bad as this might be, I'm thankful for three things.  First, the Vikings' dopey color rush get up is gone. Second, it isn't an all-black uniform, which to me would be much much worse.  And finally, they (for now, at least) have always treated the "white out" non-sense as a once a year event... which is how alts should work. No mixing and matching, no further dilution of the brand.  Pull them out, sell some jerseys, and put them away.  Hopefully, it stays that way. 

As I said earlier, I would gladly take this in exchange for the discontinuation of white socks with purple jerseys. But they will continue to have people calling the latter “clean” and “slick” and “icy” instead of what it really is: lazy. 
 

Frankly, I think the tweens who apparently dictate taste these days probably won’t be happy until every game in every sport is mono black against mono white. Thankfully, there is a tipping point at which traditionalists will start to push back, so it’ll never be 100% that way. But (old man yelling at cloud) when I was a kid, sports were colorful, dagnabbit!

[McCall]

6 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

Well, if that's what you're looking for I'm afraid I'm going to be a disappointment.  I'm too old for profanity laced tirades these days. My current posting style is more low-grade snark and unspecific passive-aggressive trolling.

 

But even so, I'm not sure I could build up a lot of anger even if I wanted to. These uniforms are just kind of... dumb.  The best I can muster is just  sort of weary eye roll.  

 

So, these are pretty much what we saw coming, but with a few surprising (to me, anyway) details.  I didn't expect a white horn on a white helmet. And, yeah, it sucks. I also really wouldn't have seen the silver helmet stripe as a possibility.  As a Viking fan, that's the most out-of-left-field little detail to me.  I'm going to need to see the back of the helmet to see how the horns, which normally almost touch, co-exist with that stripe.  As for the supposedly "generic" wordmark...  that's the most troubling part of the whole design. It actually isn't a brand new font... it's the NOB font, which is based on the number font. My concern is that it's a precursor to making that font the new wordmark, which would be a huge mistake. The Vikings' wordmark is beautiful, and an absolute classic. If they officially switch to that wordmark, a profanity laced tirade may be an order.

 

Two more things. Silver has never been a part of the Vikings' color scheme. So I think we can put to bed any idea that the NFL's "rules" will prevent teams from doing whatever they want. There's lots of discussion on this board about how some of us grumpy old traditionalists over react and the NFL's rules won't allow things to go too far.  So... offically, and for the record... everyone can stop with that bullspit. The "rules" only exist until a team decides to do what they want. That's the truth.  It's the wild west.

 

And finally, as bad as this might be, I'm thankful for three things.  First, the Vikings' dopey color rush get up is gone. Second, it isn't an all-black uniform, which to me would be much much worse.  And finally, they (for now, at least) have always treated the "white out" non-sense as a once a year event... which is how alts should work. No mixing and matching, no further dilution of the brand.  Pull them out, sell some jerseys, and put them away.  Hopefully, it stays that way. 

What we were expecting from you...

 

What you gave us...

[raz]

What's with the perpetual monochrome unis anymore? 

 

I love purple and silver - but good luck finding any more than a whisper on this uni. But instead, let's be like all the cool kids and have a look.

[tBBP]

2 hours ago, NH4 said:

About what we expected. Another unnecessary uniform but if they were going to do this, the coloring of the stripes should be flipped but whatever

 

 

So they actually did it...they actually went and did it. I mean, on one hand, horn aside, these would make great uniforms for, say, Wisconsin-Whitewater, or Mount Union, or shoot, even Northwestern...but here? Color me not surprised.

 

And speaking of color, I could have sworn the first version I saw of that white helmet had a purple horn. They should have done that here. I mean, shoot, if they eliminated the yell--erm, gold, what problem would a color-swapped horn present? Now, with all that said, I will say these two things: 1) if ANY team in the NFL had a reason to do a winter-themed alternate, it's this one. Roping in @Old School Fool's point about the winters up there, brutal doesn't even begin to cover it. That cold up there just don't even make any kind of sense. That's a whole other kind of cold up there. Four-plus years of living and working up there gave me a whole different perspe--anyway, I will also say that 2) I actually find the icicle treament on the numbers pretty clever. Cheesy, but clever at the same time.

 

Now, with all that said: did the Vikings themselves "nickname" this uniform, did Nike come up with it for them, and/or did the NFL mandate a nickname for this? (As an aside, I am really beginning to get annoyed with the constant need to "nickname" every single uniform set, primary or otherwise. Sometimes it's perfectly okay to let things be what they are: home, away, and alternate. But then, I'm past the target age for these things, so yeah, time to go find a cloud to yell at. )

 

2 hours ago, HOOVER said:

This uniform is so :censored:ing unnecessary.  

Pandora's Box has been opened.

 

That already happened with the Colts' Indiana Nights alternate that, like your favorite RKO, came from out of nowhere (except the black swoosh on the Colts' road jerseys that we all knew would eventually lead to a black alternate.) If the Colts opened the box, the Texans blew the lid up and filled it up with water, and the Vikings, icy though they may be, jumped right in and began swimming laps. We'll see what the Snatit have up their sleeve in a season or few...*

 

3 minutes ago, YelichGraphics said:

The world we live in is that the consumer is asking for something that will guarantee sales. I don't think it is always a bad thing. The Sabres wouldn't have royal uniforms without them, a ton of the throwbacks were all requested by the consumers in fact I don't think the reintroduction of a second helmet or third happens without fans asking for them back. Name one business that doesn't listen to their consumer base...

 

And this is the main point right here. I do understand this. After learning more about the Nike+Fanatics deal and seeing that excellent expose video that Baseball Doesn't Exist posted (along with several other YouTube channels covering the same topic), my understanding shifted entirely on all this. The main point is this: Nike's #1 goal with all these extra alternate alternates is to sell as many jerseys and associated product as possible...even if it comes at the expense of eroding brand integrity and/or equity. That's what it's all about: moving units. I completely get that from a business standpoint. That doesn't mean I agree with it, but I do understand it. So despite my personal opinions on some of this stuff, I can at least balance it with that perspective.