NIKE NFL Uniforms

[Lights Out]

i actually prefer the higher stripes. come at me bro!

Agreed. It's more consistent that way.

[wILL-INI]

i actually prefer the higher stripes. come at me bro!

Agreed. It's more consistent that way.

Exactly, it's not that bad. I personally can't stand sleeves like this anyway. They can't make the sleeves a little shorter?

[CrazyAnna]

i actually prefer the higher stripes. come at me bro!

Agreed. It's more consistent that way.

Also agreed. I like what Nike has done for the NFL in 2012.

[slats7]

Way too high. The bottom of the shoulder stripe should be parallel with the middle section of the front uni numbers. When they're above the numbers, they look awful.

Wait, what? Parallel with the middle section of the numbers? The sleeves would have to be past the elbow to do that!

Not at all. Look at the Romo pic above from 2011. The stripes (which are roughly at mid-bicep) are parallel with the middle section of the "9."

This Kosar pic is a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about.

If I owned the Cowboys, I'd return them to the 1977 unis immediately, sleeves and all. If you want to trim the excess white material under the stripes (as exhibited by Staubach), fine by me.

Behold the modern day monstrosity: sleeves hiked all the way up to Canada; non-serif numbers; sickening green pants; unnecessary logo creep; skin-tight jersey that looks like it was painted on; etc. If this is "progress," count me out.

[aawagner011]

I think a lot of people are overreacting and nitpicking the hell out of some of the things Nike's done. Sure, I could understand the collars or the Flywire, but nearly all of these things are TEAM approved. The Colts somehow figured out they can have full pant stripes.

The Patriots avoided both the two tone collar AND the Flywire AND maintained their normal collar striping while still utilizing a new template.

Then we've got the five or so teams that said no thanks to the new tech and literally have the same unis as last year but slapped a swoosh on them.

And y'all wanna talk like Nike just showed up at the doorsteps and said, "Here, this is what you're wearing. No questions asked." Clearly there were options available. I honestly think Nike's on field product looks better than Reebok's did. Sure, some collars might look different, but it's not as if the teams had no choice to stick with their usual collar. I think Nike has done a fine job this year.

[ARTnSocal]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

[Billy B]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

The Chiefs have one of the sharpest color combos in the league and have one of the best looks from the neck down in the league.

As far as the higher stripes on the jerseys with long sleeves, I think it's a case by case basis. The Cowboys look good with the higher stripes, but for some reason it looks awkward to me on the Chiefs jerseys.

[vmd9]

And y'all wanna talk like Nike just showed up at the doorsteps and said, "Here, this is what you're wearing. No questions asked." Clearly there were options available. I honestly think Nike's on field product looks better than Reebok's did. Sure, some collars might look different, but it's not as if the teams had no choice to stick with their usual collar. I think Nike has done a fine job this year.

If I remember correctly, all of the teams received the blank Nike jerseys with the flywire on them. I can understand having a problem with different designs, but the base of the uniform looks a lot better than Reebok's or any other jersey used in the past. The shiny materials on the Eagles and the cheap looking Raiders jerseys are terrible compared to the Nike one's.

[Chief.]

In my extremely biased opinion, the Chiefs came out of the Nike takeover with an improved uniform. I'm happy the sleeve/shoulder/whatever stripe is finally prominent and not tacked on as a very thin stripe at the end of the sleeve as it was before. I always noticed the mesh on the Reebok uniforms made the white pads show through from underneath, and Nike's material gives it a nice, solid red all the way through.

Stanzi's sleeve isn't the best example of the uniform's improvement, but I saw very few players wearing that cut. Cassel has his cut to the shoulder.

[dmhtfld]

The stripes on most 49ers players jerseys looked horrible. Jacobs facemask looked pretty hideous too.

[BlueSky]

Way too high. The bottom of the shoulder stripe should be parallel with the middle section of the front uni numbers. When they're above the numbers, they look awful.

Wait, what? Parallel with the middle section of the numbers? The sleeves would have to be past the elbow to do that!

Not at all. Look at the Romo pic above from 2011. The stripes (which are roughly at mid-bicep) are parallel with the middle section of the "9."

This Kosar pic is a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about.

If I owned the Cowboys, I'd return them to the 1977 unis immediately, sleeves and all. If you want to trim the excess white material under the stripes (as exhibited by Staubach), fine by me.

Damn...the numbers and sleeve stripes even match the helmet star and stripes.

I think several teams, like the Saints (change pants stripe to match helmet stripe, change helmet bumper to team wordmark font, don't use toilet seat collars) and Cowboys missed golden opportunities to massively upgrade their unis. A shame.

[andrewharrington]

I prefer the "classic" looks to the modern designs because most of the new ones look like crap. It's that simple.

I'll take a clean Bears or Browns look to a fancy new Seahawks or Jaguars mess any day. The looks have lasted because they look good. The Browns and Chiefs have no reason to stay the same for reasons of a winning tradition. Teams like the 49ers and Jets have returned to classic looks after experimenting with random black and new designs because they look better that way. If only the Vikings and Patriots would wake up...

I'm probably older than you but I'm hardly an "old foggie" as you said.

This just in. History didn't begin 20 years ago. The Browns are one of pro football's greatest franchises, and the Chiefs won 3 AFL Championships to go along with their Super Bowl win.

4th string qb Rudy Carpenter was wearing the same type of jersey as Romo, except that his had been tailored to the open, shorter length sleeves that many qbs now seem to prefer.

That's a pretty good look.

Nike has been just awful in their return to the NFL thus far. This is the best they could do with a long leadtime for the king of American sports leagues? Russell Athletic could've done a better job to this point.

The lead time sounds like a while, but in the licensed apparel business, it really isn't. Imagine figuring out how a team's uniform translates to your template, designing it, getting approvals for all the color swatches and visuals, making revisions, getting samples, making more revisions, etc., then multiply that by 32 and have it all on my desk in 18 months. You're basically getting a multi-billion dollar operation up and running from nothing to full speed in a year and a half.

I think a lot of people are overreacting and nitpicking the hell out of some of the things Nike's done. Sure, I could understand the collars or the Flywire, but nearly all of these things are TEAM approved. The Colts somehow figured out they can have full pant stripes.

The Patriots avoided both the two tone collar AND the Flywire AND maintained their normal collar striping while still utilizing a new template.

Then we've got the five or so teams that said no thanks to the new tech and literally have the same unis as last year but slapped a swoosh on them.

And y'all wanna talk like Nike just showed up at the doorsteps and said, "Here, this is what you're wearing. No questions asked." Clearly there were options available. I honestly think Nike's on field product looks better than Reebok's did. Sure, some collars might look different, but it's not as if the teams had no choice to stick with their usual collar. I think Nike has done a fine job this year.

Of course some of the blame can be deflected to the team if you don't like parts of the uniform, but Nike still designed the stuff in the first place, and nearly everything it designed that the teams did adopt has been received poorly. The pieces that people are saying Nike improved on are those that stayed the same for the most part. Growing pains are natural and to be expected in this type of situation, though.

[Gothamite]

I prefer the "classic" looks to the modern designs because most of the new ones look like crap. It's that simple.

I'll take a clean Bears or Browns look to a fancy new Seahawks or Jaguars mess any day. The looks have lasted because they look good. The Browns and Chiefs have no reason to stay the same for reasons of a winning tradition. Teams like the 49ers and Jets have returned to classic looks after experimenting with random black and new designs because they look better that way. If only the Vikings and Patriots would wake up...

I'm probably older than you but I'm hardly an "old foggie" as you said.

This just in. History didn't begin 20 years ago. The Browns are one of pro football's greatest franchises, and the Chiefs won 3 AFL Championships to go along with their Super Bowl win.

hey, if it didn't happen since Fox started broadcasting the games, then it didn't happen.

[ARTnSocal]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

The Chiefs have one of the sharpest color combos in the league and have one of the best looks from the neck down in the league.

As far as the higher stripes on the jerseys with long sleeves, I think it's a case by case basis. The Cowboys look good with the higher stripes, but for some reason it looks awkward to me on the Chiefs jerseys.

.

I wasn't at all meaning to be critical of the Chief uniforms or their color combo, but to call it the 'best uniform' in the entire NFL, gimme a break.

That jersey and uniform as classic as it was, is nowhere near the best uniform in the NFL, but I will say that their away uniform when it consists of the red pants contends for top 5.

Some teams (IMO of course) just don't look as good when the numbers are moved to the shoulders after a long tradition of having them on the sleeves. KC and Oakland fall into that group, I'm glad the Raiders have stuck with them on the sleeves. The only thing I'd like to see Oakland do is revert back to the silver numbers with black outline on their away white jerseys just like they had in '63 and '70. They were one of the very best throwbacks (IMO) back in 1994 for NFL-75.

Buffalo had never had their numbers on their shoulders in their history .... until they brought out the 1965 throwbacks in 2005, and the Bills had to move them to the shoulders because they couldn't fit both the 1965 style striping and the numbers on the sleeves due to today's players no longer wearing the longer short-sleeves like back in the day.

I'm not saying go back to the old style of those long short-sleeves, but I really wish the NFL would make it a regulation that sleeves cannot be altered length-wise anymore than they've already become over the years.

It's gotten so out of hand with these sleeve alterations I find it downright annoying .... perhaps I'm just too pedantic about it .. is it just me or do others feel the same??

Here's is a genuine authentic 1965 Bills throwback jersey of the Mad Bomber :

Now ya got an authentic throwback of Stevie Johnson's from the AFL-50 Legacy season of 2009. Can't call 'em genuine retros since the numbers were on the sleeves above the striping back in 1965. I will say this, I truly love what Reebok did with it.

[Chawls]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

Nah. He's right. They are the best right now.

[oldschoolvikings]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

Nah. He's right. They are the best right now.

Its right up these, no question, although IMO its a few small color alterations on the helmet logo from being truly great.

If you count alts, the Falcons' throwback is the current best in the NFL, maybe the best in football. (IMHO, of course)

[illini1]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

Nah. He's right. They are the best right now.

Does it bother anyone else that the stripes on the sleeves and socks are still not the same. The yellow stripe on the socks is a thicker than the yellow stripe on the jersey.

[Billy B]

Here is the best uniform in the NFL right now.

The 'best' uniform in the NFL??

You must be having a laff

Nah. He's right. They are the best right now.

Its right up these, no question, although IMO its a few small color alterations on the helmet logo from being truly great.

If you count alts, the Falcons' throwback is the current best in the NFL, maybe the best in football. (IMHO, of course)

Which is why I said from the neck down. I'm really not sure what the right way to do the helmet is and haven't really thought of anything better they could do. Every time I see the arrowhead with yellow accents instead of black it looks too light and just blends into the white making the whole thing unreadable. And the color scheme on the jerseys is so good that introducing black to it wouldn't do any help. As mismatched as it is, I still think what they have now is their best option.

[hugevolsfan]

i actually prefer the higher stripes. come at me bro!

Agreed. It's more consistent that way.

I like them on Rudy Carpenters but not on Romo or Orton they show too much sleeve at the bottom

[John in KY]

The stripes on most 49ers players jerseys looked horrible. Jacobs facemask looked pretty hideous too.

I don't think there's much you can do about that facemask - Jacobs is using one of those new Schutt Vengance helmets and all the facemasks for them are really odd looking.

If Alex Smith can have all 3 stripes done right, then they should do it for all the players and ditch this truncated stripe look.