Bad Design Trends

[dutyfree]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

[scottysprings]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

I always find this so lame, do you honestly expect a professional athlete to compromise comfort and performance of a garment for your personal aesthetic pleasure? Don't get me wrong, of course I'd rather see a vintage long-sleeved flannel football jersey out there on the field but it's unrealistic. I'm against the useless uni trends like baggy baseball uniforms and ridiculous piping schemes but I don't really think you can argue football jersey cuts.

[The_Admiral]

Wearing big pants isn't really a Bad Design Trend, per se, since they're not being designed as such. Manny Ramirez just happens to wear oversized pants like the models from the diet commercials that show how big their old pants were.

[oldschoolvikings]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

I always find this so lame, do you honestly expect a professional athlete to compromise comfort and performance of a garment for your personal aesthetic pleasure? Don't get me wrong, of course I'd rather see a vintage long-sleeved flannel football jersey out there on the field but it's unrealistic. I'm against the useless uni trends like baggy baseball uniforms and ridiculous piping schemes but I don't really think you can argue football jersey cuts.

But the only problem with this thinking is I've never seen any proof that micro sleeves enhance anybody's performance. If so, I'd sure like to know how.

[infrared41]

The only teams that look right with a gray facemask are the Giants and Browns. The Colts downgraded when they went to gray, and the Cardinals look stupid with a gray facemask on a modern identity.

Basically, trying to mix retro with modern is the #1 thing that makes me mad right now. Either go all the way retro, or modernize all the way. That's why I hate the Bucks' alt right now.

"Modern identity." Is that a nice way of saying ridiculous clown suits?

I think The Packers could get away with a gray facemask too but that's about it. I agree that if you're going to go "modern" (read uglier than ) then take it all the way. Same thing for an old school look.

[Billy B]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

I always find this so lame, do you honestly expect a professional athlete to compromise comfort and performance of a garment for your personal aesthetic pleasure? Don't get me wrong, of course I'd rather see a vintage long-sleeved flannel football jersey out there on the field but it's unrealistic. I'm against the useless uni trends like baggy baseball uniforms and ridiculous piping schemes but I don't really think you can argue football jersey cuts.

But the only problem with this thinking is I've never seen any proof that micro sleeves enhance anybody's performance. If so, I'd sure like to know how.

For one, tighter jerseys don't allow the opponent to hold onto your jersey. This is helpful for both the defensive line (making harder to be held) and the ball carrier (making it harder to hold onto the jersey tring to make the tackle.

[oldschoolvikings]

To be less specific, but more accurate...

The number one bad design trend today is the use of templates. Really, a strange piped-up monotard would be an interesting deversion if it only happened once. I loved (OK, still do!) the 70's Astros rainbows as a one-of-a-kind, it'll-never-happen-again thing, until every softball team copied it in a new color.

These big companies (we all b!#ch on Nike, but ALL the corporations do it) are driving design, and coaches and ADs just point to a picture in a catalog or on a webpage and say, "give me the (insert stupid template name) in our school colors", then act like its a BOLD NEW START!

It sounds crazy to say, but sports design was actually better when colorblind coaches who couldn't care less designed half the uniforms. Nike, Adidas, ETC. have professional, talented designers on staff, but it isn't their creativity that drives the look of sports uniforms... its cash.

[oldschoolvikings]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

I always find this so lame, do you honestly expect a professional athlete to compromise comfort and performance of a garment for your personal aesthetic pleasure? Don't get me wrong, of course I'd rather see a vintage long-sleeved flannel football jersey out there on the field but it's unrealistic. I'm against the useless uni trends like baggy baseball uniforms and ridiculous piping schemes but I don't really think you can argue football jersey cuts.

But the only problem with this thinking is I've never seen any proof that micro sleeves enhance anybody's performance. If so, I'd sure like to know how.

For one, tighter jerseys don't allow the opponent to hold onto your jersey. This is helpful for both the defensive line (making harder to be held) and the ball carrier (making it harder to hold onto the jersey tring to make the tackle.

So Decon Jones, Bubba Smith, all those guys made all those sacks with the huge disadvantage of sleeves? I remember seeing Walter Payton running down the field with those huge flowing sleeves trailing behind him two or three feet, almost scoring... until a DB, still 3 yards behind him, gets a finger snagged in the massive ammounts of extra sleeve material and robs Payton of the touchdown he deserves. That was probably the moment all NFL players decided the game would be improved be universal wife beater-jerseys. What a golden age of sports we now live in because of tight jerseys.

Seriously, I think that advantage is overblown, and besides if some modest and reasonable half length of sleeves were mandated acrossed the board no one would have an advantage or disadvantage. I think the biggest reason extra-short sleeves have become so popular has less to do with performance and more to do with big gun biceps and cool tats. When I played football years ago in high school, all the self-professed tough guys tucked their sleeves up under their shoulder pads, and never once did anyone claim it was about performance.

[dutyfree]

Football jerseys lose the sleeves in order to enhance performance (cough, cough, ...snicker, laugh). Yet, ridiculously, paste some lame version of the original stripes onto a sleeveless jersey and call it a day.

I always find this so lame, do you honestly expect a professional athlete to compromise comfort and performance of a garment for your personal aesthetic pleasure? Don't get me wrong, of course I'd rather see a vintage long-sleeved flannel football jersey out there on the field but it's unrealistic. I'm against the useless uni trends like baggy baseball uniforms and ridiculous piping schemes but I don't really think you can argue football jersey cuts.

But the only problem with this thinking is I've never seen any proof that micro sleeves enhance anybody's performance. If so, I'd sure like to know how.

For one, tighter jerseys don't allow the opponent to hold onto your jersey. This is helpful for both the defensive line (making harder to be held) and the ball carrier (making it harder to hold onto the jersey tring to make the tackle.

So Decon Jones, Bubba Smith, all those guys made all those sacks with the huge disadvantage of sleeves? I remember seeing Walter Payton running down the field with those huge flowing sleeves trailing behind him two or three feet, almost scoring... until a DB, still 3 yards behind him, gets a finger snagged in the massive ammounts of extra sleeve material and robs Payton of the touchdown he deserves. That was probably the moment all NFL players decided the game would be improved be universal wife beater-jerseys. What a golden age of sports we now live in because of tight jerseys.

Seriously, I think that advantage is overblown, and besides if some modest and reasonable half length of sleeves were mandated acrossed the board no one would have an advantage or disadvantage. I think the biggest reason extra-short sleeves have become so popular has less to do with performance and more to do with big gun biceps and cool tats. When I played football years ago in high school, all the self-professed tough guys tucked their sleeves up under their shoulder pads, and never once did anyone claim it was about performance.

Exactly.

And if wearing, say, a little girl's birthday dress will enhance your performance, go ahead and wear it. But don't mock the sleeved jersey you used to wear by applying some miniature stripes to the dress.

[mmejia]

The first thing that comes to mind for me is the cartoony/huge logo on front jersey trend the NBA went with in the 90's. Teams like Houston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Utah, Atlanta, etc.. all suffered through this period.

[ferrousoxide66]

The first thing that comes to mind for me is the cartoony/huge logo on front jersey trend the NBA went with in the 90's. Teams like Houston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Utah, Atlanta, etc.. all suffered through this period.

You are absolutely correct, sir.

Personally, i'd throw the Sixers into that mix as well, since that wordmark is essentially their logo.

[Puck]

I think when you jumble all that is wrong with sports jerseys and bad designs you get the Colorado Avalanche RBK Edge jerseys

Piping: Never understood the idea behind piping. I can't think of 1 jersey in any sport where vertical piping, especially on the chest/underarm area, looks good

Templates: No originality, no creativity. Teams having to share between 4-5 templates is a disgusting concept. I absolutely loved the old Avs jerseys with the triangular arms and waist which looked like mountains.

Hems: What's with the rounded hem line? I don't get this one. It serves NO PURPOSE whatsoever except making you look like you're wearing a shirt 2 sizes too large.

Hems 2: Lack of horizontal hem stripes. This has been a hockey tradition for a century now. I dont understand why so many teams are getting rid of them.

Colours, or lack thereof: In the NHL there isn't much variation in colour. All teams are either red or blue and black with one or 2 exceptions. I miss the all the other coloured jerseys we used to have like the green of the Stars/North Stars/Wild/Whalers, Orange of the Oilers, Yellow on the Pens and Bruins, Orange on the Flyers etc... Now everyone's going between a varation of blue or red.

That's why templating is always going to be a bad idea.

Thank you NHL and Reebok for ruining a system that was not broken.

The end.

[CMUBrent]

This has to be the worst design idea hockey has seen. As bad as the Capitals' white pants:

Long Hockey Pants!!!

[Jamikel]

Taking a perfectly good hockey logo and putting it in a circle to give it a retro feel (Wild home/new Blues third.) Two of the best logos in the NHL de-emphasized by a generic circle.

[HeyDingis]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that I have always despised is pinstripes on basketball uniforms. I hated the idea when they first seemed to come into prominence with the expansion teams, I hated them even more when the Rockets and Raptors did it, and I hated the Pacers uniforms when they added them. It disgusts me that they're now being reintroduced as some form of nostalgia.

[-kj]

<obligatory>

Feh. I loved the Pacers' pins.

</obligatory>

[The_Admiral]

The FloJo uniforms were the best look the Pacers had. A checkerboard pattern would go even further in connecting racing to the team's identity, but those were almost perfect. The pinstripes are just a contrivance in basketball design. They look tacky and dated, which is why they suit the Magic so well but nobody else. Product of the times.

[winghaz]

There are a lot of good comments in here. I agree with most of them. But I still have a few more things I don't like:

1. No more stirrups in baseball. Stirrups should be brought back. Look at pictures of Mickey Mantle, and that's the way baseball players should look.

2. Pine tar messes on on batting helmets. That just looks hideous. Tell the players to literally clean up their acts. Do you hear that, Manny?

3. Football pants that don't cover the kneecap. That just looks wrong.

4. Basketball trunks that DO cover the kneecap. I won't even wear shorts that cover the kneecap. They're too uncomfortable.

5. Gold basketball uniforms on the road. Gold is a home color.

6. Every other NFL team wearing white at home every now and then. The NFL should set a standard on this. Dark jerseys mean home, white jerseys mean road. We can probably grandfather the Dallas Cowboys in.

[eRay]

This has to be the worst design idea hockey has seen. As bad as the Capitals' white pants:

Long Hockey Pants!!!

The worst part is, I promise you those come back.

[Eye]

There are a lot of good comments in here. I agree with most of them. But I still have a few more things I don't like:

1. No more stirrups in baseball. Stirrups should be brought back. Look at pictures of Mickey Mantle, and that's the way baseball players should look.

Why?