Teams using "cooler" colors in descriptions instead of actual colors

[Kevin W.]

Michigan.

[ram29jackson]

...its also because in the world of men,..yellow is a negative/chicken term...nothing is yellow in the mens world haha

[Red Wolf]

I think he'll say that color descriptions are essentially meaningless. And he'll be right.

But they serve as a useful shorthand. And whatever we call the two colors you posted, we can agree that they're not the same.

I think there was a thread where he compared the reds of Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Nebraska. It showed that Wisconsin's cardinal and Ohio State's scarlet were the same, but Nebraska's scarlet wasn't the same as Ohio State's.

But I do like the color descriptions. Though they generally mean nothing, you can usually deduce something from the name. For instance, scarlet is typically a brighter color than cardinal.

Also, the Grizzlies blues I believe are Midnight, Smoky, and Beale Street blue.

[ARTnSocal]

Yellow:

Steelers 'Gold':

Difference? I think so.

ColorWerx will probably laugh at the inaccuracies I just posted, but you get the idea... haha

Not really ...

The color of the pants they wear, doesn't match it that terrible towel, different color schemes.

It's more like the color of the stripe in their helmet, which if that was a Crayola Crayon they'd call it yellow-orange.

But there's no way the STEELERS pants are that color .... If that's 'yellow' you posted on top, then I'd describe their pants as being 'medium' yellow ....

[TruColor]

OK...I'm back.

First of all, here's the Yellow/Gold/Athletic Gold used by the Packers, Chiefs, Vikings, Steelers, Chargers, Redskins, and Cardinals (beak in the logo) in print:

...and, here's the fabric/textile color that is used for the uniforms:

Ironically that the U. of Michigan was brought up...here's the color they call "Maize":

Prior to 1997, all of the aforementioned NFL teams used that exact color for their Yellow/Gold/Athletic Gold.

(There's a whole lot more that needs to be addressed on this subject, but this is a start.)

[Gothamite]

There you go - gold.

[andrewharrington]

Athletic gold (Steelers, Packers, Lakers) is not yellow any more than teal is green.

Related? Very much. But the same? No.

Exactly.

For some reason, any color within the yellow spectrum seems to just be labeled "yellow", while other colors have multiple excepted shades. Athletic gold, maize, amber, and saffron are just as different from each other as scarlet, cardinal, crimson, and garnet are.

It's because using gold as part of the name is disingenuous. It may not be yellow, but it is very close to yellow. It doesn't at all look like gold-gold. If they called it anything other than gold I wouldn't call it yellow. As you said, other colors have multiple accepted shades, but they are still referred to frequently as their, for lack of better term, parent color. For example, the NY Giants wear royal blue and the Chicago Bears wear navy. However, both teams are said to wear blue.

The problem is that, because of its metallic nature, gold reflects the colors around it and can appear anywhere from the less-intense 'vegas gold' color the Saints and 49ers wear all the way to the deep yellow color that the Steelers and Packers wear. This image is a perfect argument for calling deep yellow 'athletic gold' or 'gold:'

Then again, this image is a perfect argument against it:

[Gothamite]

That just proves that gold, like blue, comes in many shades. Vegas Gold and Athletic Gold are equally worthy of the name.

[TruColor]

The problem is that, because of its metallic nature, gold reflects the colors around it and can appear anywhere from the less-intense 'vegas gold' color the Saints and 49ers wear all the way to the deep yellow color that the Steelers and Packers wear.

Actually, "Vegas Gold" tends to be a flat, non-metallic Beige:

...as opposed to what the 49ers, Saints and Rams wear, which is a true Metallic Gold (here are four examples of different metallic Golds):

[UnclearInitial]

The problem is that, because of its metallic nature, gold reflects the colors around it and can appear anywhere from the less-intense 'vegas gold' color the Saints and 49ers wear all the way to the deep yellow color that the Steelers and Packers wear.

Actually, "Vegas Gold" tends to be a flat, non-metallic Beige:

...as opposed to what the 49ers, Saints and Rams wear, which is a true Metallic Gold (here are four examples of different metallic Golds):

Does this include the Saints 15000 versions of gold?

[LetsGoOakland9]

Just curious ColorWerx, where do you get this information? It's really interesting to see how many different colors are used in sports

[Morgan33]

Here are a bunch from the NHL I found on Colorwerx' site

The biggest Offenders are teams from the most recent expansion (Thrashers, Blue Jackets, Wild, Predators). Guess they needed to have cooler sounding colours for marketing purposes?

[andrewharrington]

The problem is that, because of its metallic nature, gold reflects the colors around it and can appear anywhere from the less-intense 'vegas gold' color the Saints and 49ers wear all the way to the deep yellow color that the Steelers and Packers wear.

Actually, "Vegas Gold" tends to be a flat, non-metallic Beige:

...as opposed to what the 49ers, Saints and Rams wear, which is a true Metallic Gold (here are four examples of different metallic Golds):

Vegas Gold in the context was a placeholder for anything 'non-athletic gold.'

[Drakonius26]

Actually the Steelers' use gold, but it's technically yellow-gold, while the Saints' old gold is technically metallic-gold. But when you market your team, it's a good idea to keep it simple stupid, and advertise yourself as the "black and gold," not the "stealth-black and metallic-gold."

[TruColor]

Just curious ColorWerx, where do you get this information? It's really interesting to see how many different colors are used in sports

It's what I do.

[Lee.]

Now 'splain about this whole Raiders-not-silver-or-even-grey-ya-moe-rons thing.

[aawagner011]

The problem is that, because of its metallic nature, gold reflects the colors around it and can appear anywhere from the less-intense 'vegas gold' color the Saints and 49ers wear all the way to the deep yellow color that the Steelers and Packers wear.

Actually, "Vegas Gold" tends to be a flat, non-metallic Beige:

...as opposed to what the 49ers, Saints and Rams wear, which is a true Metallic Gold (here are four examples of different metallic Golds):

Oh gosh, this is getting confusing now. To my eyes, those metallic golds look like light shades of brown!

[The Nation]

maybe gold is yellow?

[TheOldRoman]

That just proves that gold, like blue, comes in many shades. Vegas Gold and Athletic Gold are equally worthy of the name.

Not when athletic gold is much closer to yellow than to Vegas gold. As I said, I am fine with not calling it yellow since it is a distinct shade of yellow. However, having gold in the name is akin to when the Lakers called their purple "forum blue." They can call it blue, and it might have a lot of blue in it, but that color was much closer to purple than blue.

[Gobbi]

I do admit that the Steelers has always bothered me especially since you got a team like the Saints who actually are black and gold, and also when you know Steelers fans who are like "The black and gold!", and I'm like "No, thats yellow..." lol

Yeah, uh-huh, you know what it is.... black & yellow, black & yellow, black & yellow, black & yellow