Bengals uniforms

[Eye]

The Boomer Esiason era uniforms were good, but the Corey Dillon era uniforms were great. Probably top three, MAYBE, even best uniforms of all time.

It had everything without looking garish, no ugly ass, stupid font to take away from the design, and a fantastic sleeve logo.

Interestingly enough, though, I don't think an orange version of those jerseys would work, even though their vastly inferior current jerseys can do an orange jersey reasonably well considering the uniform is a mess. Regardless, the Dillon era uniforms might be the best uniforms ever, and perhaps the fact that an orange alternate WOULDN'T work, is just another reason for why I feel that way.

[Somppi]

The main issue I have with their jersey is the side panel on the jerseys... it just looks hideous. I'm not really a fan of the round numbers either, but that's just me.

[powersurge]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

[Gothamite]

Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing.

I don't think anyone's saying that.

Personally, I grew up with plenty of uniform designs that deserved to be scrapped, and plenty that deserved to have been kept.

The previous Bengals uniform deserved to be kept, and this current mess deserves to be scrapped, regardless of who grew up watching what.

I'm sorry to pick on that one line of your post, but we see it often, and it's insulting every time. Although you might not have intended it as such, that line belittles the opinions of others by dismissing them as mere nostalgia. Let's stick to the merits of designs and try not to wade into the muddy waters of why people like what they do.

[IceCap]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

The previous two sets (the Esiason and Dillion sets) were revolutionary without being gaudy. Using the traditional football uniform design of shoulder hoops and straight pants stripes, but replacing traditional elements found in those designs with tiger stripes, was brilliant.

The current set has some nice ideas. The idea of using the tiger stripes in the sleeve area is fantastic, but the team botched the execution. The home jerseys aren't that bad, but the road whites messed this great concept up by adding a full orange shoulder yoke and inexplicably cutting the tiger pattern off to make the majority of the sleeve area black. They even managed to screw up the basic concept of "use the tiger stripes on the sleeves" on the orange alternates. You would think it would be as simple as take a plain orange jersey and add black tiger stripes to the sleeve areas. Yet for some reason they decided to make the sleeves black with orange tiger stripes.

So I agree, sleeve tiger stripes sounds great, and it can be done. Plenty of very talented members of this board have done fantastic things with that idea in the concepts section. The team screwed it up though.

On top of the botched tiger stripes on the sleeve idea, you have the other things the current look does wrong. I get what they were going for with the white side panels, trying to mimic the white underside of a tiger, but it just doesn't translate that well onto a football uniform. The Broncos-esque pants stripes also bug me. It doesn't add anything that the straight pants stripe didn't.

The number font is just jarring too. I can't look at the current Bengals uniform and not think "why are the Bengals wearing a drop shadow version of the Bears' font?" Standard block, or even a custom font that matches the B logo/wordmark would be a huge upgrade.

Finally the B logo. As a rule of thumb I prefer letter based logos to reflect the city, rather then the team name. On top of that the tiger striped B is a huge downgrade from the fantastic tiger head logo. Just slapping it under the collar seems tacked on. The wordmark would have been fine if they had to have something there. The B is ok as far as an alternate for merchandising goes, but it shouldn't be the primary, and it shouldn't be on the uniforms.

The previous two Bengals sets were brilliant in their simplicity. They took a traditional football uniform design and injected just enough of the tiger stripe motif to make it stand out without it becoming gaudy. It was that rare perfect mix of tradition and modernity. The current set has a good idea behind it in using the entire sleeve area to contain the tiger stripes, but they over thought it. What should have been a relatively basic design turned into an over-designed mess.

[Sport]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

My liking them has nothing to do with nostalgia and everything to do with how fantastic they looked. Don't play that card here.

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

The previous two sets (the Esiason and Dillion sets) were revolutionary without being gaudy. Using the traditional football uniform design of shoulder hoops and straight pants stripes, but replacing traditional elements found in those designs with tiger stripes, was brilliant.

The current set has some nice ideas. The idea of using the tiger stripes in the sleeve area is fantastic, but the team botched the execution. The home jerseys aren't that bad, but the road whites messed this great concept up by adding a full orange shoulder yoke and inexplicably cutting the tiger pattern off to make the majority of the sleeve area black. They even managed to screw up the basic concept of "use the tiger stripes on the sleeves" on the orange alternates. You would think it would be as simple as take a plain orange jersey and add black tiger stripes to the sleeve areas. Yet for some reason they decided to make the sleeves black with orange tiger stripes.

So I agree, sleeve tiger stripes sounds great, and it can be done. Plenty of very talented members of this board have done fantastic things with that idea in the concepts section. The team screwed it up though.

On top of the botched tiger stripes on the sleeve idea, you have the other things the current look does wrong. I get what they were going for with the white side panels, trying to mimic the white underside of a tiger, but it just doesn't translate that well onto a football uniform. The Broncos-esque pants stripes also bug me. It doesn't add anything that the straight pants stripe didn't.

The number font is just jarring too. I can't look at the current Bengals uniform and not think "why are the Bengals wearing a drop shadow version of the Bears' font?" Standard block, or even a custom font that matches the B logo/wordmark would be a huge upgrade.

Finally the B logo. As a rule of thumb I prefer letter based logos to reflect the city, rather then the team name. On top of that the tiger striped B is a huge downgrade from the fantastic tiger head logo. Just slapping it under the collar seems tacked on. The wordmark would have been fine if they had to have something there. The B is ok as far as an alternate for merchandising goes, but it shouldn't be the primary, and it shouldn't be on the uniforms.

The previous two Bengals sets were brilliant in their simplicity. They took a traditional football uniform design and injected just enough of the tiger stripe motif to make it stand out without it becoming gaudy. It was that rare perfect mix of tradition and modernity. The current set has a good idea behind it in using the entire sleeve area to contain the tiger stripes, but they over thought it. What should have been a relatively basic design turned into an over-designed mess.

This post is excellent.

You mentioned how they should've just thrown black tiger stripes on the orange jersey. I've always thought the same and I've mocked it up before.

Last week I was in a store in downtown Cincinnati and I saw this jersey on the rack. It's exactly what you were talking about.

That one change makes it a much better jersey.

[ESTONES6]

I just don't understand how they thought that was a good uniform design. It almost looks like they had a room full of kids design uniforms... then took a new group of kids, asked them what parts of which uniforms they liked, and then just mashed it all together. They just have tiger stripes flying all over the place. They definitely need to return to a more simple style, a more simple lay out. They don't need tons of tiger stripes and panels all over the place. KISS.

[epper]

You mentioned how they should've just thrown black tiger stripes on the orange jersey. I've always thought the same and I've mocked it up before.

Those are pretty much the perfect Bengals unis.

[DustDevil61]

You mentioned how they should've just thrown black tiger stripes on the orange jersey. I've always thought the same and I've mocked it up before.

Those are pretty much the perfect Bengals unis.

Not a bad take on the Bengals uniforms, but I still maintain that the Bengals could've stuck with their Esiason-era uniforms (with the necessary upgrades to the fabrics, uniform cuts, etc., and a couple of tweaks) and would've looked as fresh as they did when they debuted in 1981 (I think). However, I'm fine with the current set (number font, tapered stripe, and all), IF:

--The Bengals get rid of that awful white side stripe on their black and orange uniforms, and

--Get rid of the white on the pants stripes.

I'm also open to the idea of using the orange uniform as the full-time home, as it would help differentiate the Bengals from their fellow Ohio NFL team (true, Black=/=Brown, but they are similar) while being more colorfully correct with a true Bengal tiger.

However, I'd gladly bring back the old look, even if it meant all black; those old Bengals uniforms were clean, unique, and properly restrained.

[SmoothieX]

The Bengals unis are my wife's favorites. We argue every Sunday over this.

And she's not a oh look it's pretty type. She's a bigtime football fan.

[hawk36]

Bengals Super Bowl era unis were the best by far. The new ones are trying too hard to be cool. The old ones simply were cool.

[BBTV]

First off, when most people hear "Esiason set", we probably think of the jerseys from the early '90s with the numbers on the sleeves and the Champion rounded-block font.

This is true.

That set was much better than the set that followed, which moved the numbers to the shoulders and added the sleeve logo.

I do not agree with this. In fact, I think that the change in font and TV number position, and the addition of the sleeve logo, made it near perfect. If you take that set, throw a wordmark on there, and maybe a custom font (nothing outrageous - think Falcons or Texans) you'd have a great contemporary look.

Champion font aside, as I know I am one of the few people who love it, I think the original version was better because it was less cluttered. Okay, they are the Bengals, and we know this because of the shoulder loops with tiger stripes in them. We get it. They don't need to beat us over the head with it by adding a tiger to the sleeve. The only step after that is adding sublimated tiger stripes to the numbers (no, spleen, that is not a good idea). Plus, it made the jerseys more cluttered. Oh, and death to jersey wordmarks.

I get what you're saying about the sleeve logo, but they really needed to move the numbers up to the shoulder, so something needed to go there. Maybe the B, or a non-tiger striped B (or a C) logo would've worked better. On today's templates though, they probably could get away with that design without any type of sleeve logo.

For the record, I don't dislike the Champion font, but the standard block worked much better on those particular uniforms. I feel completely opposite about the Bills jerseys though - the switch from Champion to standard was a downgrade.

[powersurge]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

The previous two sets (the Esiason and Dillion sets) were revolutionary without being gaudy. Using the traditional football uniform design of shoulder hoops and straight pants stripes, but replacing traditional elements found in those designs with tiger stripes, was brilliant.

The current set has some nice ideas. The idea of using the tiger stripes in the sleeve area is fantastic, but the team botched the execution. The home jerseys aren't that bad, but the road whites messed this great concept up by adding a full orange shoulder yoke and inexplicably cutting the tiger pattern off to make the majority of the sleeve area black. They even managed to screw up the basic concept of "use the tiger stripes on the sleeves" on the orange alternates. You would think it would be as simple as take a plain orange jersey and add black tiger stripes to the sleeve areas. Yet for some reason they decided to make the sleeves black with orange tiger stripes.

So I agree, sleeve tiger stripes sounds great, and it can be done. Plenty of very talented members of this board have done fantastic things with that idea in the concepts section. The team screwed it up though.

On top of the botched tiger stripes on the sleeve idea, you have the other things the current look does wrong. I get what they were going for with the white side panels, trying to mimic the white underside of a tiger, but it just doesn't translate that well onto a football uniform. The Broncos-esque pants stripes also bug me. It doesn't add anything that the straight pants stripe didn't.

The number font is just jarring too. I can't look at the current Bengals uniform and not think "why are the Bengals wearing a drop shadow version of the Bears' font?" Standard block, or even a custom font that matches the B logo/wordmark would be a huge upgrade.

Finally the B logo. As a rule of thumb I prefer letter based logos to reflect the city, rather then the team name. On top of that the tiger striped B is a huge downgrade from the fantastic tiger head logo. Just slapping it under the collar seems tacked on. The wordmark would have been fine if they had to have something there. The B is ok as far as an alternate for merchandising goes, but it shouldn't be the primary, and it shouldn't be on the uniforms.

The previous two Bengals sets were brilliant in their simplicity. They took a traditional football uniform design and injected just enough of the tiger stripe motif to make it stand out without it becoming gaudy. It was that rare perfect mix of tradition and modernity. The current set has a good idea behind it in using the entire sleeve area to contain the tiger stripes, but they over thought it. What should have been a relatively basic design turned into an over-designed mess.

I think we may be saying the same thing here. The difference may be that I want to start with the newer jersey and take some of the elements from the older jersey to create something that falls in between the two; while you sound like you want to start with the classic jersey and borrow some elements from the newer look. Essentially I think we are much closer to being on the same page then it seems, am I right? I totally agree with many of your comments. I especially hate the number font, and to be honest I never thought of the Bears till you mentioned it. The away jersey is a definitely in need of some reworking. I still think that if you eliminate the white side panel, and change the font to a more classic font you would get a damn good looking jersey....don't you think?

[powersurge]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

My liking them has nothing to do with nostalgia and everything to do with how fantastic they looked. Don't play that card here.

"Don't play that card here"

Yeah right, because that has NEVER been the case on this forum.

Please, spare me. I've been on this board long enough to read plenty of nostalgic posts hidden under the guise of arguments for great design. I don't think that I'm that far off in making that comment.

[powersurge]

Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing.

I don't think anyone's saying that.

Personally, I grew up with plenty of uniform designs that deserved to be scrapped, and plenty that deserved to have been kept.

The previous Bengals uniform deserved to be kept, and this current mess deserves to be scrapped, regardless of who grew up watching what.

I'm sorry to pick on that one line of your post, but we see it often, and it's insulting every time. Although you might not have intended it as such, that line belittles the opinions of others by dismissing them as mere nostalgia. Let's stick to the merits of designs and try not to wade into the muddy waters of why people like what they do.

fair enough. Definitely not meant to be insulting in anyway...but can you really doubt me for saying that? seriously...how many times have we seen an argument on this board for the merits of good design based primarily around opinion and nostalgia. I've seen it a million times. I'll concede that I should have worded it differently, but I still think that its prevalent in so many posts. Again, not trying to insult anyone.

[TheOldRoman]

I get what you're saying about the sleeve logo, but they really needed to move the numbers up to the shoulder, so something needed to go there. Maybe the B, or a non-tiger striped B (or a C) logo would've worked better. On today's templates though, they probably could get away with that design without any type of sleeve logo.

For the record, I don't dislike the Champion font, but the standard block worked much better on those particular uniforms. I feel completely opposite about the Bills jerseys though - the switch from Champion to standard was a downgrade.

I get what you are saying, but I didn't think the numbers needed to moved up. Even on current templates, there is room enough for 4 inch numbers.

[Gothamite]

Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing.

I don't think anyone's saying that.

Personally, I grew up with plenty of uniform designs that deserved to be scrapped, and plenty that deserved to have been kept.

The previous Bengals uniform deserved to be kept, and this current mess deserves to be scrapped, regardless of who grew up watching what.

I'm sorry to pick on that one line of your post, but we see it often, and it's insulting every time. Although you might not have intended it as such, that line belittles the opinions of others by dismissing them as mere nostalgia. Let's stick to the merits of designs and try not to wade into the muddy waters of why people like what they do.

fair enough. Definitely not meant to be insulting in anyway...but can you really doubt me for saying that? seriously...how many times have we seen an argument on this board for the merits of good design based primarily around opinion and nostalgia. I've seen it a million times. I'll concede that I should have worded it differently, but I still think that its prevalent in so many posts. Again, not trying to insult anyone.

But it is insulting. I said that I didn't think you meant it to be dismissive and belittling, but it is.

You're free to feel that other posters' opinions are motivated primarily by nostalgia. They in turn are free to feel in return that your opinions are motivated primarily by a warped video-game short attention span. The trick is that neither you nor they should come out and say it, because all of you are probably wrong.

Again, the stronger argument is each design on the merits. Arguing the motivations of others is not only offensive but desperate, a tacit admission that you can't make a substantive argument. I don't think that's you, which is why I wish you wouldn't stoop to the namecalling.

[Sport]

I'm not sure if some of the comments backing the "classic" Bengals jerseys are comprised more of nostalgia as opposed to great design, but I find it suspect that the newer jerseys are being bashed as much as they are. I never found any of the team's previous jerseys to be anywhere close to perfect; if anything, I found the helmet to be revolutionary and the jerseys to be plain dull. Just because I grew up with them it doesn't mean its amazing. I think its definitely a matter of taste, but if you find a middle ground between the old and the new you may have a jersey that would be as close to perfect as possible. The current jersey does a much better job with utilizing the tiger stripes around the shoulders (especially with the current modern jersey cuts) the "classic" jersey did a much better job with the classic number font and the lack of any other cluttering elements. So basically if you eliminate the white side panel and go to the old number font you have a phenomenal jersey that would trump all other incarnations. The helmet is pure genious...please don't ever touch that.

My liking them has nothing to do with nostalgia and everything to do with how fantastic they looked. Don't play that card here.

"Don't play that card here"

Yeah right, because that has NEVER been the case on this forum.

Please, spare me. I've been on this board long enough to read plenty of nostalgic posts hidden under the guise of arguments for great design. I don't think that I'm that far off in making that comment.

At the time they wore those uniforms I felt they were the best uniforms in the NFL. Again, at the time. That's not nostalgia causing me to overrate them. Maybe my own biases about my team, but not nostalgia.

[Jungle Jim]

The funny (or perhaps "tragic" is a better word) thing about this is that the switch to the current uniforms was meant to mark a new era in the history of the franchise, and to shed the losing image that had come to be associated with the Dillon era uniforms. How well did that work out? (I'm a Bengals fan, btw, as indicated by my username.)

[andrewharrington]

I've made my case on this topic many times

The Bengals looked great with either this

or this

or even this

It was a streamlined, updated version of this

Which was a great uniform unto itself.

Those were NFL uniforms. I miss them very much and wear those jerseys most every Sunday to this day. I rarley wear the current jerseys. Their current uniforms are ugly tiger costumes and I can't wait for the day they change them.

I'm failing to see how moving the TV numerals up and adding a logo to the sleeve qualifies as 'streamlining' the original tiger stripe uniform.

Regarding the old uniform itself, yes, it was a great idea to take traditional design elements and infuse the tiger stripe pattern into them as they did, but the problem was it was not executed well in the least bit. Even the designer of the helmet has said as much in interviews that he hates the way the stripes on the uniform were executed. They just didn't complement the stripes on the helmet properly, and that's why the Bengals old uniform was lackluster. Definitely not one of the best ever in terms of the overall package. Concept was there, but it didn't come through in the final product, save for the helmet, though that uniform is still better than the current one.

For me, I always thought the Bengals helmet was great, but the rest of the uniform was overdone with the tiger stripes. I would have preferred they simply kept their original uniform with the big white and orange stripes on the jersey and socks, and the big black and orange stripes on the pants. This was a much cleaner look from the neck down, and the tiger stripe helmet would have jazzed it up just enough. Maybe orange numerals instead of white to differentiate from the Browns?

Imagine these with a tiger stripe helmet: