Arena Football 2012 Uniforms

[Sodboy13]

Yeah, they've had the silver helmets and black alternates for a few seasons now. Might have even had them before the original AFL collapsed.

[Raysfan12]

Well, this isn't a good start, aesthetically or otherwise.

Pittsburgh and Orlando played the AFL season opener last night, using two teams of hastily-assembled replacement players. This came about after the apparently-bipolar head of the players' union reportedly demanded a 362.5% raise in base pay for players, and offered a 2-1/2 hour negotiating window to owners to avoid a strike. Shockingly, the terms were not met.

Matching the terrible quality of play: the uniforms. For the first time in team history, the Predators decided to don an all-silver alternate uniform. Not gray, not graphite, not anthracite, but shiny, "dirty-white" silver jerseys and pants. Pittsburgh wore their standard road whites. The result:

Positive: Slash-through numbers are back! Negatives: Everything else.

Put two teams against each other dressed like that, with rosters assembled literally hours before gametime, and yeah, it's not going to go well. By the way, a couple of hours after the game, the union head declared the strike over.

Feel free to document any and all uniforms of the Arena Football League's 25th - and likely final - season here.

If Those Predator uniforms are red, I'm all for them.

[cmbuk]

Yeah, they've had the silver helmets and black alternates for a few seasons now. Might have even had them before the original AFL collapsed.

Silver lids started when coach McMillan took over.. In 08 they had the black alt..

Last year they wore silver black silver at home also..

I have no prob with the silver lids.. As there is silver in the blue jerseys.. Just seems a needless black alt... But.. Oh well

[cmbuk]

Well, this isn't a good start, aesthetically or otherwise.

Pittsburgh and Orlando played the AFL season opener last night, using two teams of hastily-assembled replacement players. This came about after the apparently-bipolar head of the players' union reportedly demanded a 362.5% raise in base pay for players, and offered a 2-1/2 hour negotiating window to owners to avoid a strike. Shockingly, the terms were not met.

Matching the terrible quality of play: the uniforms. For the first time in team history, the Predators decided to don an all-silver alternate uniform. Not gray, not graphite, not anthracite, but shiny, "dirty-white" silver jerseys and pants. Pittsburgh wore their standard road whites. The result:

Positive: Slash-through numbers are back! Negatives: Everything else.

Put two teams against each other dressed like that, with rosters assembled literally hours before gametime, and yeah, it's not going to go well. By the way, a couple of hours after the game, the union head declared the strike over.

Feel free to document any and all uniforms of the Arena Football League's 25th - and likely final - season here.

If Those Predator uniforms are red, I'm all for them.

Preds had a red alt in 08? I was a fan

[rams80]

So THIS is what Oklahoma State would have looked like if Nike had been left unchecked.

[burgundy]

So THIS is what Oklahoma State would have looked like if Nike had been left unchecked.

More like what Oklahoma State would have looked like if Nike had the aesthetic ineptitude of Russel.

[DustDevil61]

Those Utah helmets are a thing of beauty!

Unfortunately, Thats the only thing those uniforms have going for them. The striping patterns seem kind of random and silver numbers on a white jersey are never a good idea.

Also, why are is the number font on the Talons jersey so big?

Well, I do like the move to gray helmets for Utah (and actually introducing gray into the color scheme), but yea, I liked the overall package from last year--namely the orange numbers and orange road pants.

Gray Helmets + Gray Numbers + Orange Pants + Single Black Shoulder Stripes - Almost all trace of Orange on jerseys + No Gray on Pants = 1 hot mess.

Hopefully, the Blaze fix it soon (next year?) and emphasize orange (and/or gray) to better differentiate from Milwaukee, and for that matter, the rest of the league. If I recall, no other current AFL teams use much orange. Maybe there's more orange or gray (white!!) on the homes, but if it's as fragmented as this, then I'm worried.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Yeah, they've had the silver helmets and black alternates for a few seasons now. Might have even had them before the original AFL collapsed.

Silver lids started when coach McMillan took over.. In 08 they had the black alt..

Last year they wore silver black silver at home also..

I have no prob with the silver lids.. As there is silver in the blue jerseys.. Just seems a needless black alt... But.. Oh well

The silver helmets were indeed around before McMillan and during the "old" AFL. That exact uni was a third in 2008. I know because I was at the game when they debuted (and admittedly, was disappointed). It was pretty much the primary last year. The helmets were anyway; it was hard to tell if the jerseys were black or navy sometimes. I have a few games on my DVR I never watched. Maybe this will motivate me to take a look... or finally delete them.

Their navy helmets and unis are far superior, IMO.

[oldschoolvikings]

So THIS is what Oklahoma State would have looked like if Nike had been left unchecked.

This could be one of the worst FB uniforms ever.

[MJWalker45]

I disagree. I think it's a look that will stand out. Would I probably wear black pants? Definitely, but they need to avoid being confused for Milwaukee. And really, Zubaz was way worse than these

[WideRight]

So THIS is what Oklahoma State would have looked like if Nike had been left unchecked.

This could be one of the worst FB uniforms ever.

This is why I hate matte finish on helmets. It looks like primer and they forgot to add the topcoat. These are FUGLY!!!!

Death to matte helmets!!! Silver works well with black and orange, grey does not.

[ManCalledAmp]

For once I'm going to rail against the matte helmets. It's too much.

The Talons would be pretty solid if the helmet wasn't matte. I like the huge digits.

Tampa is awful, Pitt is tragic, and Utah needs help in the worst kind of way. The numbers for the Orlando Predators are great...and everything else is terrible. And for once, I actually really like what Chicago did with all of that. (Painful to say, as a Kats fan since the original Kats in the 90's.)

[Guest]

No pictures, but watching the Soul I noticed that they have a Russell logo below the nameplate and their own Soul logo above it. That's a new one to me, and I'm not a fan

[walkerws]

They've done that for awhile due to it being an element they carried over from Nike

[Island_Style]

Watching the Sharks vs Barnstormers now. The Sharks are at home. They are wearing an ugly grey jersey with a camo pattern. It is a very light grey. Iowa is wearing white. Can't really tell a difference. Ugly, putrid game.

[theSLVRBCK]

Island, was at the game. It was military appreciation night, hence the camo jerseys. They were auctioned off afterwards, with the high earner being "Big Sexy" Jeff Littlejohn's jersey at $1250. These were the jerseys in question...

The sharks also dropped a new camo hat for purchase which I picked up and then had all the players sign so I can add it to my collection. It isn't a fitted hat so I wasn't going to wear it.

First time I have gotten to see the Barnstormers in person. I think they are easily my favorite uniform of all the teams I have seen in person so far.

[sorcerer77]

Island, was at the game. It was military appreciation night, hence the camo jerseys. They were auctioned off afterwards, with the high earner being "Big Sexy" Jeff Littlejohn's jersey at $1250. These were the jerseys in question...

The sharks also dropped a new camo hat for purchase which I picked up and then had all the players sign so I can add it to my collection. It isn't a fitted hat so I wasn't going to wear it.

First time I have gotten to see the Barnstormers in person. I think they are easily my favorite uniform of all the teams I have seen in person so far.

Barmstormers used to have a better uniform back when Kurt Warner played for them. The helmet was the same, but the jersey had wings above the numbers, and the pants had propellers on them.

[WideRight]

Yeah, the Barnstormers uni's now are pretty sad. When they had the wings & propeller those were great uniforms. The uniform elements, while a bit cheesy, actuall were symbolic of the team's logo and concept. Now they are just random color swatches.

[fkaKrock5cent]

When I started watching the AFL around 2004 it was when Nike was just taking over and the league looked AWESOME! It's too bad to see what RA has done to the creativity of the uniforms. I hate how every team NEEDS a black helmet and that their jersey can only be shoehorned into one of the three mediocre templates Russel has on hand. What they did to the Storm, a team that's worn gold and blue since the early 90's, is just depressing. The Storm look like a broke European team.

Also, can someone explain to me how gray is considered a dark enough color to be worn at home? Isn't that kind of a safety issue?

Since I'm here... I may as well plug my AFL redesign going on in the Concepts section.

[DustDevil61]

Bumping the thread, Utah does, in fact, still have the orange pants around. They wore it at home with their black jerseys and helmets:

I'd say that the Blaze's home looks are among the best in the league (though that's not saying much); their roads, however, need some work, and need some work badly.