Question about Steeler's helmuts

[ebod39]

as you know the Rooneys are very traditional and it's not they oppose change,

but we knew we had to pick our battles. The design process isn't very different

than what we do here on the board. We brainstorm what we think can use and update,

cleaned up or changed all together. And as we are here, there's just some things you

don't even attempt to touch because of tradition. The sleeve stripes where one

of these things. Also it was made very clear by the organization that they weren't looking

for a complete overhaul and the stripes, like the helmets were not to be touched.

We felt the one place to make our mark (ie: Nike stamp) was the number font.

an in keeping it tied to history we used the helmet numbers as our basis. The Rooneys

really liked it and understood that it gave them a unique aspect to their jerseys

that other teams were not going to have. We also talked about the

sleeve stripes, the shrinking lineman sleeves etc... and they made it very clear to

try and retain as much of the striping as we could, almost to the point of not

wanting a reduction at all. We were able to compromise, since they understood it was a fact

how players have gotten bigger and their needs have changed. One thing that did not change

was on both jerseys, they still use what is called Durene fabric for the sleeve stripes. It's a knitted, polyester fabric that you will find on very old jerseys from the 60's & 70's. It was a very common material and if you played any level growing up you probably had it.

The steelers are the only team to still use this that I know of in any way for game use.

The steelers were great to work with from the top on down, they were always accomodating.

Oh, and don't think some of this and all uniform change isn't "business" driven.

A change in uniforms or logos means the consumer needs to update their wardrobe

with new product which means new sales and more money for the licensees,

the teams and the leagues.

[ebod39]

as you know the Rooneys are very traditional and it's not they oppose change,

but we knew we had to pick our battles. The design process isn't very different

than what we do here on the board. We brainstorm what we think can use and update,

cleaned up or changed all together. And as we are here, there's just some things you

don't even attempt to touch because of tradition. The sleeve stripes where one

of these things. Also it was made very clear by the organization that they weren't looking

for a complete overhaul and the stripes, like the helmets were not to be touched.

We felt the one place to make our mark (ie: Nike stamp) was the number font.

an in keeping it tied to history we used the helmet numbers as our basis. The Rooneys

really liked it and understood that it gave them a unique aspect to their jerseys

that other teams were not going to have. We also talked about the

sleeve stripes, the shrinking lineman sleeves etc... and they made it very clear to

try and retain as much of the striping as we could, almost to the point of not

wanting a reduction at all. We were able to compromise, since they understood it was a fact

how players have gotten bigger and their needs have changed. One thing that did not change

was on both jerseys, they still use what is called Durene fabric for the sleeve stripes. It's a knitted, polyester fabric that you will find on very old jerseys from the 60's & 70's. It was a very common material and if you played any level growing up you probably had it.

The steelers are the only team to still use this that I know of in any way for game use.

The steelers were great to work with from the top on down, they were always accomodating.

Oh, and don't think some of this and all uniform change isn't "business" driven.

A change in uniforms or logos means the consumer needs to update their wardrobe

with new product which means new sales and more money for the licensees,

the teams and the leagues.

[Gothamite]

That's an interesting story. I know why the change was made, but this is the one line I have a problem with:

We felt the one place to make our mark (ie: Nike stamp) was the number font.

This is the problem I have with companies like Nike. It's not Nike's place to leave its "stamp" on a team. The redesigns should be driven by the team's requirements, not the designers'.

We see this "stamp" in soccer especially. Nike outfits all its teams in the same uniform. Good for Nike's budget, but not good for the teams.

[Blue Falcon]

While on this topic, does anybody remember during the 1995 playoff game against the Colts, the announcers said that the Steelers would be in new uniforms the next year.

Were there any proposed unis that got turned down? Nothing changed for 96, but then the rounded numbers came in 97 but that was about it.

I wonder if something more drastic was planned, and it was ixnayed.

[ebod39]

Gothamite I totally agree with you, I just didn't want to sugar coat anything.

Trust me I had many arguments with other designers and even bosses who wanted to change things on teams just for change sake. They always felt this need to change things, let's update them, lets' propose this, as a way to validate having this huge expensive cost for having the NFL license. I consider myself a traditonalist and was always having discusssion about what was sacred and couldn't be touched within sports.

I agree the numbers didn't have to changed, but like we do here on the board.

we come up with an idea, try it out and we thought it looked good. It brought

some consistentcy head-to-to and gave them a unique font unlike anyone else.

Blue Falcon, I don't recall if there was anything proposed and accepted before the '97 change.

I do recall some concepts being worked on but nothing that actually got signed off on.

[Gothamite]

Hey, I'm not blaming you. Just the corporate arrogance behind so many of these things. And I appreciate the "peek behind the curtain."

Besides, anyone with that avatar can't be all bad.

[SoxSteeler]

Is ebod39 still around on the boards? I'm wondering what other ideas Nike proposed or that got tossed around for the Steelers.