Your Favorite Year

[Byron19]

Unless you own every team in a league, chances are pretty good that there are going to be uniforms that you like and some that you don't from year to year.

But there are certain years where everything comes as close to your perfection. What was that year and what sport was it in?

For me, the year was 1993 the league MLB. The pull-over phase had ended, all teams wore white at home and grey on the road. And while there were a few alternate jerseys, there wasn't a ton of them.

Here is a link to Dressed to the Nines.

What say you, uniform fans?

[Michigan Dave]

It was close, but I'm going 92-93 NHL. I liked 91-92 (75th Anniversary), but 93 had the best Toronto sweaters, the classic Bruins, Gretzky-era Oilers, black & silver Kings, the Whalers' best set, Quebec, San Jose's inaugural sets...the only drawback is that there's no North Stars green, which I loved. The Pens' road sets that year were great as well. In fact, if the NHL could just go back to 1993 for everything, it would be better off.

http://www.nhluniforms.com/1992-93.html

[BrianVlietDesign]

For me, it was 2002-2003 NHL , 2005 MLB, and 2006-2007 NHL.

In 2002-2003, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defied the odds and had a miracle run to the Stanley Cup Finals. I was about 14 then and in middle school and wore my Ducks jersey almost every day during the playoffs LOL.

In 2005, my White Sox won the World Series. This was something I honestly never thought I would see. At least not for quite some time. But, we had the team to do it and it was quite a ride.

In 2006-2007, the Anaheim Ducks in their first season under a new name, won the Stanley Cup. I also graduated from high school just a few days after they won the Cup, too. So, there was a whole bunch of emotions behind it. 2007 was a beautiful year with many great events that took place in my life.

[Sport]

1995 NFL There's just so many great looks from that season that were changed shortly after

- the Broncos still wore orange

- we still had the oilers

- the Jags and Panthers made their debut

- The Bengals were still in their super bowl unis, as were the bills

- the Dolphins hadn't yet added blue

- Steelers block font

- Patriots and Cowboys both had giant logos on the shoulders

- the 49ers went back to wearing their normal uniforms, but hadn't yet added black

- The browns uniforms weren't a jumbled mess and the next year they wore purple jerseys and black pants

- Colts in blue pants, Jets in green helmets

- Bucs in creamsicles

- The Vikings were in the last year without "Sven" on their sleeves

- The Chargers and Seahawks uniforms were in their prime

- the cards still had the northwestern stripes on the pants

- and The Eagles and Lions hadn't jumped on the black train quite yet

[BBTV]

- and The Eagles and Lions hadn't jumped on the black train quite yet

The Eagles had nearly as much black in 95 as they do now. No black jersey or facemask though.

[Quillz]

I think I'm the only person who liked the Dodgers' 1999 alternate uniforms.

[oldschoolvikings]

MLB '66, although I wasn't old enough to remember it.

Just for the A's all gold sleeveless number, and the Astros' first "shooting star" jersey.

(I love me some cracked-out baseball unis.)

[Korkie]

Unless you own every team in a league, chances are pretty good that there are going to be uniforms that you like and some that you don't from year to year.

But there are certain years where everything comes as close to your perfection. What was that year and what sport was it in?

For me, the year was 1993 the league MLB. The pull-over phase had ended, all teams wore white at home and grey on the road. And while there were a few alternate jerseys, there wasn't a ton of them.

Here is a link to Dressed to the Nines.

What say you, uniform fans?

1993 was a great year for MLB unis. The original Marlins look, the Mets, Brewers, and Giants wearing my favorite uni sets for them, the Padres with the blue and orange. Good year.

[BallWonk]

But there are certain years where everything comes as close to your perfection. What was that year and what sport was it in?

For me, the year was 1993 the league MLB

Nope. Every year MLB has at least two teams doing something really, really ugly. The closest I can come is 1991:

Dressed to the Nines

But even that has huge flaws: The bad old Giants script, the pinwheel Expos caps, Cleveland in its beer-league softball uniform heyday, and the Padres just beginning their "is San Diego still in the major leagues?" uni phase. On the plus side, everyone was wearing full-button jerseys, the Royals still wore powder on the road, and the Phillies were still in maroon.

1993 is a solid choice, though. I also give high marks to 2002:

Dressed%20to%20the%20Nines"]Dressed to the Nines

Outside of baseball, I might go with the 1998 World Cup. Countries were still trying to have distinctive, consistent uniforms, and manufacturer templates had not yet come to dictate that all teams be equally ugly. And, of course, it featured that sublimated Mexico jersey:

And Scotland! In the World Cup! With plaid!

(If you can't see from the picture, that's plaid in the shield holding the Scotland crest. The jersey itself, alas, has sublimated stripes, not plaid.)

[spyboy1]

It was close, but I'm going 92-93 NHL. I liked 91-92 (75th Anniversary), but 93 had the best Toronto sweaters, the classic Bruins, Gretzky-era Oilers, black & silver Kings, the Whalers' best set, Quebec, San Jose's inaugural sets...the only drawback is that there's no North Stars green, which I loved. The Pens' road sets that year were great as well. In fact, if the NHL could just go back to 1993 for everything, it would be better off.

http://www.nhluniforms.com/1992-93.html

I'm thinking along the same lines as you are on this one, but I'm opting for 1991-92 by a whisker over 1990-91.

1990-91 had the last year of the North Stars green, but the following year had the NHL 75th Anniversary patch on everything and the Turn Back the Clock jerseys for Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York and Toronto. It was also the final year for the Whalers in green, the final year for the Penguins Stanley Cup jerseys and the final year for the Devils red and green jerseys and we were still several years away from the horrid alternates of 95-96.

[Sport]

- and The Eagles and Lions hadn't jumped on the black train quite yet

The Eagles had nearly as much black in 95 as they do now. No black jersey or facemask though.

I meant they weren't wearing darker colors and they both hadn't added the black alternates yet.

For my favorite NHL year I wanted to say 1997, but that year is so hit and miss. At that time we still had the Flyers in their orange jerseys, the Capitals were in those fantastic blue and copper jerseys, the Canucks had just switched to the blue jerseys,the Kings were still wearing black and silver, and the Sharks were still in their classic original uniforms as were the Panthers. However there was a ton of bad in that year. We were still enduring the Islanders "seasick" jerseys, the Coyotes "cosby" sweaters, the Blues "red period", and the Leafs switched to that awful awful number and NOB font.

So, my favorite year would be the 92-93 season. Look at NHLuniforms.com, the only problems I have are those terrible Capitals uniforms and Tampa's number font.

[mania]

But there are certain years where everything comes as close to your perfection. What was that year and what sport was it in?

For me, the year was 1993 the league MLB

Nope. Every year MLB has at least two teams doing something really, really ugly. The closest I can come is 1991:

Dressed to the Nines

But even that has huge flaws: The bad old Giants script, the pinwheel Expos caps, Cleveland in its beer-league softball uniform heyday, and the Padres just beginning their "is San Diego still in the major leagues?" uni phase. On the plus side, everyone was wearing full-button jerseys, the Royals still wore powder on the road, and the Phillies were still in maroon.

Those are actually some of my favorite Indians looks ever, and I loved the pinwheel Expos caps too. I could take or leave the Giants script comparatively, but yeah, San Diego's definitely the worst look in the bigs that year.... although 8 pinstriped teams seems like a few too many (arguably 8 too many, but I digress...)

[Korkie]

But there are certain years where everything comes as close to your perfection. What was that year and what sport was it in?

For me, the year was 1993 the league MLB

Nope. Every year MLB has at least two teams doing something really, really ugly. The closest I can come is 1991:

Dressed to the Nines

But even that has huge flaws: The bad old Giants script, the pinwheel Expos caps, Cleveland in its beer-league softball uniform heyday, and the Padres just beginning their "is San Diego still in the major leagues?" uni phase. On the plus side, everyone was wearing full-button jerseys, the Royals still wore powder on the road, and the Phillies were still in maroon.

1993 is a solid choice, though. I also give high marks to 2002:

Dressed%20to%20the%20Nines"]Dressed to the Nines

1991 is a solid choice, especially with the Phillies wearing the road grays with the maroon colors. Those roadies are far and away superior to the powder blues, imo. 91 also had the Jays in their white front caps full time at home, which is a bonus. Also, the Angels old look and the KC powder blues were still around. But the horrid Mariners unis and Reds pullovers ruin it for me.

As for the NHL, I go with 93-94. Still having the Jets and Nords, Kings in black and silver, Canucks at the peak of the flying skate era, Flames before the black, Whalers in blue (much better than green) and the inclusion of the awesome red Panthers unis to go with the other great expansion looks of the Sharks and Sens. The only negative would be the Dallas Stars (loved the North Stars unis to death).

[DGivens87]

MLB - 1993 for some of the same reasons stated above (esp. the Marlins teal-ed out look). And who didn't own a "CR" Rockies hat when it first came out? I remember everyone at school wanted one of those.

NFL - 1994 primarily because that year's Patriots uni was the sharpest look they've ever had. Plus, throwbacks were unleashed (which I loved then, and still do to this day).

NHL - 1995 because the Bruins had their classic 80s-era jerseys (my first hockey jersey being a black Bruins jersey of the same era).

Soccer - 1994, because some of the World Cup kits worn - especially the US one - were pretty freaking zany. You'll never see such tacky designs on the big stage ever again. Templates took over en masse shortly thereafter.

[Discogod]

I'd have to say 1988-89 NBA. Some of my favourite unis of all time - the Nuggets rainbow set, Bucks with the green Ultrastripe design, first year of the Hornets, great Mavs, Cavs, Sonics, Pacers and Hawks unis, last year of the Kings' powder blues with the subscript NOB, the unis weren't getting too baggy yet... Just perfection.

[mmejia]

Only problem for me with 1993 MLB is that my Astros were one year from my favorite uniform set (well, second to the shooting star early 70's) Instead, they they were in the home-white, away-off whites.

1993

1994

[Gary]

1995 MLB season by far

[Byron19]

But even that has huge flaws: The bad old Giants script, the pinwheel Expos caps, Cleveland in its beer-league softball uniform heyday, and the Padres just beginning their "is San Diego still in the major leagues?" uni phase. On the plus side, everyone was wearing full-button jerseys, the Royals still wore powder on the road, and the Phillies were still in maroon.

When I was thinking about this, 1991 was what I originally was going to write about but the Cards and the Reds still had pull-over jerseys. The one thing that was really awesome about that year was that the White Sox debuted their new unis.

Tangent: for as much publicity as Camden Yards gets for being a game-changer, the 1991 White Sox were the first team to bring sports marketing into the future and people don't really recognize that. They had a highly popular turn-back the clock uniform, an alternate uniform and they updated their look that had just enough traditionalism to go along with a modern design.

I think that a lot of teams chased the White Sox and their overall package, their look. But none can capture the zeitgeist that Chicago tapped into.

When I was younger (I got into baseball in 1986) despite playing in the third-largest US city, the White Sox were essentially an anonymous team. Sure, they had Carlton Fisk and Tom Seaver, but they weren't anything special. After their early 90s make-over, everyone had a White Sox hat. Despite being from Boston and a die-hard Red Sox fan, I actually went out and bought a White Sox away jersey because I thought it looked so cool. Sure, the black and silver had something to do with it; but it was something else. Something that's hard to pinpoint. Whatever it was, they hit the nail right on the head.

[Buster]

1995 NFL There's just so many great looks from that season that were changed shortly after

- the Broncos still wore orange

- we still had the oilers

- the Jags and Panthers made their debut

- The Bengals were still in their super bowl unis, as were the bills

- the Dolphins hadn't yet added blue

- Steelers block font

- Patriots and Cowboys both had giant logos on the shoulders

- the 49ers went back to wearing their normal uniforms, but hadn't yet added black

- The browns uniforms weren't a jumbled mess and the next year they wore purple jerseys and black pants

- Colts in blue pants, Jets in green helmets

- Bucs in creamsicles

- The Vikings were in the last year without "Sven" on their sleeves

- The Chargers and Seahawks uniforms were in their prime

- the cards still had the northwestern stripes on the pants

- and The Eagles and Lions hadn't jumped on the black train quite yet

I have to agree with this...especially the Broncos, Bucs and Oilers points. I always loved the Oilers' uniforms despite not being a fan of theirs.

Don't forget that the Rams still had their proper colors and the Giants' uniforms still made sense. Also the Jets had Kelly Green:

[Saintsfan]

As far as soccer world cups are concerned, the 1990 world cup was a pretty good looking one. A few 'interesting' looking strips for the non traditionalists, (I remember an interesting number for the Czechoslovakians, and a slightly 'busy' looking Yugoslavian number), but also some decent modern updates of traditional kits (England's kit that year, contrary to ESPN's opinion, is an absolute classic, but also Argentina had a decent looking strip, as did West Germany, with a neat little black, red and yellow striping pattern, amongst others). I'll come up with an answer for the EPL after a little research and thought!)