Breakdown of Seattle Seahawks New Uniforms

[aci]

I like the colours. That is all. That ugly-as-sin repeating pattern shouldn't have been used once, let alone over and over again. The stripes on the shoulders don't look like wings or anything else. They're seemingly random blocks of colour. The number font is good, but with that repeating pattern, its completely ruined.

[habsfan1]

To be honest, they are different but they aren't really that bad. Now let's see if other teams will follow the Seahawks by having more creative designs in the future. The Panthers might reveal something creative, as their just got themselves a new logo and the uniforms can look like anything. Or maybe this new look will become a bust.

[Gothamite]

A lot of you are just caught up in the mentality of "Oh it's different, therefore bad!"

The Bengals have a way crazier design than this and nobody freaks out about that.

No.

You obviously haven't read many "worst uniforms ever" threads.

[CrazyAnna]

It could be worse Seahawks fans. You could be one of the teams that went with that stupid neck roll looking collar,those teams all ruined their uniforms by doing that.

Worse? As a fan, I LOVE THEM!

[BrandMooreArt]

2 changes that would greatly help the new set.

i wouldnt stop there. good start though

[Harlequin]

I actually really like the new Seahawks look. I think it doesn't fit in at all w/any other NFL teams... but over time that will likely change. My one major complaint with the uniform is I hate the single "Seahawks Wordmark" on the shoulder / collar bone area. Symmetry is good. This is bad.

[ExQuizit]

ithink they are bad, they should have went back to the old colors with an all grey uniform & grey helmet with the design style like the Bills did

[interlockingtc]

As hawk36 put it, rather than a cohesive whole, these uniforms represent nothing so much as a "hodge podge" of currently trendy design elements that have been randomly "thrown together". The result is a jarringly disjointed mess that cannot possibly hope to stand the test of time.

Couldn't agree more. It looks like design-by-committee, without an overriding unifying aesthetic.

Elements all jumbled together as if to satisfy the various marketing interests and design teams. No cohesion, no single identity.

Yes. What an embarrassment and lost opportunity. Most insidious of all is the highlighting of the nike logo on the shoulder. What a sham.

[aawagner011]

ithink they are bad, they should have went back to the old colors with an all grey uniform & grey helmet with the design style like the Bills did

They wanted a modern look.

Yes, but modern doesn't necessarily have to mean ugly.

[Lights Out]

And in this case, modern doesn't mean ugly.

[IceCap]

I like the colours. That is all. That ugly-as-sin repeating pattern shouldn't have been used once, let alone over and over again. The stripes on the shoulders don't look like wings or anything else. They're seemingly random blocks of colour. The number font is good, but with that repeating pattern, its completely ruined.

It's not completely ruined.

Says you. Others, myself included, disagree.

It's feathers in the style of local native art.

That means what, exactly? Sure it's nice to add something to a uniform that reflects the region, but it doesn't do anyone any favours when you shoehorn it in. It's not a good design element just because it reflects Native art styles from the area.

I don't know how you can say it ruins the jersey when the collar is a minor detail and will look like a stripe from far off, and the pattern in the numbers you can only see up close. It will look like regular numbers on the field.

You kind of answered your own questions. If you can't make it out then why have it? This is especially true for the pattern in the numbers and on the helmet. People will barely notice, so why include it? Just because? Sorry, that's not a good enough answer. Design needs to serve a purpose. What purpose is there to barely viable U shapes in the numbers and down the centre of the helmet?

The pant stripe is awesome though.

It's definitely the best use of the wing pattern, though the standard blue pants completely lack grey, which makes them clash with the home jersey, which primarily features grey as the secondary colour to navy. So if they go monochrome navy (and I think we can all assume they will, often) the colour balance between jersey and pants will be off.

[nuordr]

It seems like the players are envious of the new look Seahawks. Check out this article.

[IceCap]

It seems like the players are envious of the new look Seahawks. Check out this article.

Thing is, this isn't the NCAA. Nike can't play the "look how popular this is!" card in the NFL. No professional football player's letting a uniform decide where he signs, and owners aren't just going to let Nike walk in and redesign everything for shiggles.

[FooMasterX5]

i dont like where the seahawks wordmark is on one shoulder, seems unbalanced to me

[IceCap]

I don't care what you do or don't like You can like whatever you want. I'll even promise not to make baseless accusations about what you might "like' in a derogatory manner based off of your known stated preferences. Shame you can't say the same.

I suppose you want EVERY team to look like the Raiders and Giants with no striping whatsoever because it "isn't necessary."

See what I mean? I never said anything like that. I like quite a few modern designs. The Panthers, Rams, Eagles, Titans, Patriots, and Texans (among others) all have modern, contemporary looks that I like.

I don't dislike the new Seahawks look because it's modern. I dislike it because I find it ugly and poorly executed.

I agree the feathers look dumb on the helmet. But the 'purpose' of it is to add flavour to the uniform and for fans buying the jersey.

So it has no purpose what so ever on the helmet then? Ok. As for the jersey, Brian in Boston made a great point earlier, one that ties in with the point I made in my last post. When you take that U pattern out of context it loses all semblance of being a wing. When we see it in native art we know that it's supposed to be a wing or feathers because we see it as part of the larger image. The pattern has been removed from that context though. So the added "flavour" just comes off looking like a bastardized U pattern. I give Nike credit for the idea, but using this particular pattern in this way just didn't do the notion justice.

We also don't know which pants they will be using, so it's pointless to speculate on that.

The press releases showed the navy jersey paired with the navy pants. It's not pointless at all for us to "speculate" that this combo will be worn. Therefore it's not "pointless" to point out how mismatched the navy jerseys and pants are.

That wasn't what the article was saying, it was saying the players thought the uniform was cool. Whats wrong with getting the opinion of the people actually wearing the uniform?

Players, as a rule of thumb, have terrible taste. Why should, say, the Packers throw away the decades of tradition and legacy that's gone into their look just because a few of their players like the current flavour of the month?

[infrared41]

This combo isn't bad. The rest of them are pure garbage. I really like the new colors. It's the execution of those colors that is God-awful. I guess it could have been worse.

[nuordr]

i dont like where the seahawks wordmark is on one shoulder, seems unbalanced to me

I love the location of the word mark because it is different than the norm.

[IceCap]

I don't care what you do or don't like You can like whatever you want. I'll even promise not to make baseless accusations about what you might "like' in a derogatory manner based off of your known stated preferences. Shame you can't say the same.

Yet your first response was essentially "Yeah, well I don't like it and neither do other people therefore your opinion is wrong."

I never said that your opinion was wrong. Just that others, myself included, have a different opinion. I never stated one was more right then the other.

I don't dislike the new Seahawks look because it's modern. I dislike it because I find it ugly and poorly executed.

Matter of opinion. I think that while it's far from perfect, it still looks alright.

Even if you take aesthetics out of it, there's still stuff that doesn't seem right. Like why do the tv numbers lack the lime green outlines that the front and back numbers have? From a basic design standpoint, I don't see the point to that. Or how about why the wordmark is plastered across one collar bone, at an angle? Or why there's an inset that seems only to exist to highlight the Nike logo?

So it has no purpose what so ever on the helmet then? Ok. As for the jersey, Brian in Boston made a great point earlier, one that ties in with the point I made in my last post. When you take that U pattern out of context it loses all semblance of being a wing. When we see it in native art we know that it's supposed to be a wing or feathers because we see it as part of the larger image. The pattern has been removed from that context though. So the added "flavour" just comes off looking like a bastardized U pattern. I give Nike credit for the idea, but using this particular pattern in this way just didn't do the notion justice.

Whether you look at it as a feather/wing or not, it's still using an art style local to the Pacific Northwest, which adds a sense of locality.

It's not good enough to simply be reflective of the region. It has to fit. Simply being "local" isn't good enough if it's just going to be shoehorned in.

It also showed the navy jersey paired with white and grey pants. It also mentioned they had several options for coordinating pants and jerseys. So no, we don't know which ones they will be using.

When the first promo picture of a full uniform features monochrome blue you can bet that it's going to used at some point. Which is why the mismatching colour pallets between the navy jersey and pants is troublesome.

The problem isn't as bad with other combos, but it's still there. Both the white and grey pants feature a blue stripe with white or grey wings respectively. The navy pants feature a lime green stripe with navy wings. In each case the pants are missing a colour. The navy pants need grey, and the white and grey pants need lime green. All three jerseys feature all three colours, so regardless of the combo there's going to be a colour imbalance.

Players, as a rule of thumb, have terrible taste. Why should, say, the Packers throw away the decades of tradition and legacy that's gone into their look just because a few of their players like the current flavour of the month?

Well I wasn't even quoting you there but okay.

Yeah, you were.

So, you're basically writing off the opinion of an entire group of people and saying they have poor taste because their opinion is different from yours? It's like you're a jersey hipster.

Cute.

Anyway athletes by and large tend to be influenced by, or in some cases influence, trends. Which isn't a slight, simply an observation. It's to be expected. Athletes exist within a realm of pop culture, and that's where trends originate.

The thing is, in the realm of design, trends are fleeting and you end up looking dated in five, ten years tops. Look at parachute pants. It used to be that people who followed trends loved those. Now people who wore them look back and say "man, I looked stupid. What was I thinking?" Meanwhile people who stuck with the suit and tie look? They're never going to look dated.

It's much the same way with uniform design. Nike designs are the "in" thing. They're "cool," "slick," and "sick." You ask players what they like and they'll respond with what the current trend is. That's just it though, it's just a trend. It's fleeting, and in ten years the Seahawks uniforms those players are gushing over will seem dated. Meanwhile the Packers and Chiefs will still look good. So those teams that did follow the hot trend will have to change once the trend passes, and that's no way to build up a consistent brand.

That's why you don't ask players for input.

[nuordr]

It seems like the players are envious of the new look Seahawks. Check out this article.

Thing is, this isn't the NCAA. Nike can't play the "look how popular this is!" card in the NFL. No professional football player's letting a uniform decide where he signs, and owners aren't just going to let Nike walk in and redesign everything for shiggles.

I know that the uniforms will not help in signing players, but I think that it makes a strong statement when players from teams like Buffalo, Cleveland and Tampa Bay are wishing their teams made drastic changes. Even this evening on NFL LIVE, Detmer stated that teams like Cleveland need to follow in Seattle's footstep and come out with a modern design.

[TruColor]

Here are the new colors, for those who care about such things:

I should mention that these color descriptions ("College Navy", "Action Green", "Wolf Grey") come from Nike's own proprietary textile stock. "College Navy" is also designated for the Cowboys, Patriots et al, while "Wolf Grey" is used by the Raiders, Patriots, etc. These are special descriptions used by Nike themselves in order to designate their own stock of colors.