NFL Weekly Uniform Notes

[neo_prankster]

The Chargers uniform is one of the best in the league.

I don't agree about the Titans vs Giants or 49ers vs Chiefs. The Titans road scheme is decent. The Giants home blue is boring. Chiefs uniforms is boring too. 49ers previous design look better than the current one.

Right because this...

looks so much better than this...

Well, if you can put the horse shield on the sleeves and numbers on the helmets, then it would be even better.

[Viper]

The Bears have taken the field tonight in navy alts with orange block letters and numbers, with no trim on either.

Not very easy on the eye, especially at night.

[illini1]

The Bears have taken the field tonight in navy alts with orange block letters and numbers, with no trim on either.

Not very easy on the eye, especially at night.

I'm anti-white trim on uniforms so I love them!

[Billy B]

Something interesting about what the Bears coaches were wearing tonight. The long sleeve shirts they wore for the throwback game had the normal three stipe pattern with the white outlines when one of the only changes in the throwback jerseys was the removal of those white outlines.

[MDC]

I loved the throwbacks, but every suggestion I have for how to improve them just makes them look like the current ones more and more.

[dennisbergan]

The Bears looked like a middle school team tonight. Nice helmet, BTW. I love them solid navy blue helmets with the grey facemask. That just screams, "Who the eff are we?" to the national audience.

A team like the Bears, who already wear a "throwback" uniform as their normal uniform, don't need to trot out a "even more throwback" uniform. Its just a pointless exercise.

Same deal with the Packers. They don't look much different then they did 40 years ago. Yet, they still have to come up with some stupid looking uniform to call a "throwback". The Bills, Eagles and Chargers "throwbacks" make sense.

The Packers, Bears and Colts? A waste of time. Its like if Penn State or the Celtics came out with a "throwback". What is the point?

[BlueSky]

The Bears looked like a middle school team tonight. Nice helmet, BTW. I love them solid navy blue helmets with the grey facemask. That just screams, "Who the eff are we?" to the national audience.

A team like the Bears, who already wear a "throwback" uniform as their normal uniform, don't need to trot out a "even more throwback" uniform. Its just a pointless exercise.

Same deal with the Packers. They don't look much different then they did 40 years ago. Yet, they still have to come up with some stupid looking uniform to call a "throwback". The Bills, Eagles and Chargers "throwbacks" make sense.

The Packers, Bears and Colts? A waste of time. Its like if Penn State or the Celtics came out with a "throwback". What is the point?

My thoughts exactly. This uni was so similar to what they wear every week that it's a total "why bother?"

Now if they'd used this...

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

Right because this...

looks so much better than this...

i find that it does. i never was a fan of the old chargers set. I like the powder blue set but the navy set i never liked. But i do like the current set. that just my two cents.

[BlueSky]

Right because this...

looks so much better than this...

i find that it does. i never was a fan of the old chargers set. I like the powder blue set but the navy set i never liked. But i do like the current set. that just my two cents.

I'll just weigh in with my usual griping about how powder blue wasn't even the original Chargers blue and how great they'd look if they'd just go back to their true original look, using the darker Pacific Blue:

Home

Away

[leopard88]

The Bears looked like a middle school team tonight. Nice helmet, BTW. I love them solid navy blue helmets with the grey facemask. That just screams, "Who the eff are we?" to the national audience.

A team like the Bears, who already wear a "throwback" uniform as their normal uniform, don't need to trot out a "even more throwback" uniform. Its just a pointless exercise.

Same deal with the Packers. They don't look much different then they did 40 years ago. Yet, they still have to come up with some stupid looking uniform to call a "throwback". The Bills, Eagles and Chargers "throwbacks" make sense.

The Packers, Bears and Colts? A waste of time. Its like if Penn State or the Celtics came out with a "throwback". What is the point?

My thoughts exactly. This uni was so similar to what they wear every week that it's a total "why bother?"

Now if they'd used this...

You left out the best part of the uniform -- the socks!!!

I lost track of how many times I read my copy of "The First 50 Years" back in the day.

[BlueSky]

The Bears looked like a middle school team tonight. Nice helmet, BTW. I love them solid navy blue helmets with the grey facemask. That just screams, "Who the eff are we?" to the national audience.

A team like the Bears, who already wear a "throwback" uniform as their normal uniform, don't need to trot out a "even more throwback" uniform. Its just a pointless exercise.

Same deal with the Packers. They don't look much different then they did 40 years ago. Yet, they still have to come up with some stupid looking uniform to call a "throwback". The Bills, Eagles and Chargers "throwbacks" make sense.

The Packers, Bears and Colts? A waste of time. Its like if Penn State or the Celtics came out with a "throwback". What is the point?

My thoughts exactly. This uni was so similar to what they wear every week that it's a total "why bother?"

Now if they'd used this...

You left out the best part of the uniform -- the socks!!!

I lost track of how many times I read my copy of "The First 50 Years" back in the day.

My grandmother gave me that book for Christmas when I was 8 or 9 and I still have it today.

[dirwuf]

The shoulder stripes are an early ancestor to todays cutoff Colts shoulder hoops...

[TruColor]

I'll just weigh in with my usual griping about how powder blue wasn't even the original Chargers blue and how great they'd look if they'd just go back to their true original look, using the darker Pacific Blue:

...

Yeah, this bugs me too. I believe that a large portion of the love for the so-called Powder Blue throwbacks, is due to the fact that they represent a much brighter and more dynamic color scheme than was actually even used. Not only was the original Blue much darker, but so was the Yellow.

Here is the Blue and Yellow as represented by the throwback unis:

...and, here are representations of what was actually used:

I can only estimate the colors - the NFL didn't adopt Pantone standards until around 1980 or so...all colors were represented by color chips in the Style Guide (I have scans of the 1972 Guide, and a physical copy of the 1977 Guide along with the 1987, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 physical Guides FWIW). The Blue and Yellow I'm displaying here are really, realy close. In fact, the 1994 throwbacks used that same exact darker Blue as well.

[BlueSky]

I'll just weigh in with my usual griping about how powder blue wasn't even the original Chargers blue and how great they'd look if they'd just go back to their true original look, using the darker Pacific Blue:

...

Yeah, this bugs me too. I believe that a large portion of the love for the so-called Powder Blue throwbacks, is due to the fact that they represent a much brighter and more dynamic color scheme than was actually even used. Not only was the original Blue much darker, but so was the Yellow.

Here is the Blue and Yellow as represented by the throwback unis:

...and, here are representations of what was actually used:

I can only estimate the colors - the NFL didn't adopt Pantone standards until around 1980 or so...all colors were represented by color chips in the Style Guide (I have scans of the 1972 Guide, and a physical copy of the 1977 Guide along with the 1987, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 physical Guides FWIW). The Blue and Yellow I'm displaying here are really, realy close. In fact, the 1994 throwbacks used that same exact darker Blue as well.

Didn't realize that but you're right, though it still looks lighter than the original.

[TruColor]

Didn't realize that...

Let me clarify one thing...in the 1994 throwbacks, they designated the Blue as 301 U...which is kind of silly since you can't (or shouldn't) mix 'C's and 'U's together in one project. U stands for use on uncoated paper stock, and C for use on coated paper stock. You can't mix paper stocks - you can't have one portion of a logo print coated, and another portion print uncoated, right?

Anyway, here's the color that was specified for the 1994 Chargers' Blue:

It looks like they matched a lighter textile for that Blue.

However, the darker Blue I posted in a previous post very closely matches the Blue used from 1961 through 1973, and matches the color chips in the official Guides.

For my next trick, I will show how the Oilers' throwbacks are also way off in terms of color...

[leopard88]

My grandmother gave me that book for Christmas when I was 8 or 9 and I still have it today.

That's about how old I was when I got it for Christmas (from an aunt and uncle, if memory serves me). It might be in my basement or in my mother's crawl space. I'll have to dig for it one of these days so I can pass it on to my son (who is, coincidentally, just about to turn 9).

[BlueSky]

My grandmother gave me that book for Christmas when I was 8 or 9 and I still have it today.

That's about how old I was when I got it for Christmas (from an aunt and uncle, if memory serves me). It might be in my basement or in my mother's crawl space. I'll have to dig for it one of these days so I can pass it on to my son (who is, coincidentally, just about to turn 9).

Good stuff. BTW, you're right about the Bears' throwback socks, they're a huge plus to those unis. I really hope they use that design for a throwback someday.

[infrared41]

I'll just weigh in with my usual griping about how powder blue wasn't even the original Chargers blue and how great they'd look if they'd just go back to their true original look, using the darker Pacific Blue:

Home

Away

Agree 100%.

[infrared41]

The Bears have taken the field tonight in navy alts with orange block letters and numbers, with no trim on either.

Not very easy on the eye, especially at night.

As a fan of throwbacks and all things old school I can't believe I'm about to say this but... The Bears throwbacks absolutely sucked. My girlfriend said it best, she said "they look really cheap." Awful. Not one good thing about them.

[Bmac]

Why are the numbers on the Bears' throwbacks so small? And why does the material look crappy?