Logos and uniforms that have run their course

[Joshawaggie]

As a Vikings fan, I definitely have a love/hate relationship with their current uniforms. Sometimes I think they just look so good, while other times I'm almost disgusted with them. I'd say they already look dated, they were definitely trying too hard when they came up with them, and it's time for something new (or old).

I feel the same way. I don't hate them like most do, but it is time for a change.

[Buster]

The Dallas Cowboys and their muilticolored mess that was designed to look better on 1970s televisions. Today's HD TVs make them look even worse.

Pick 2 of the colors and make it consistent. You can even keep your green-silver if you make the helmet match the pants.

[ThorSkaagi]

I thought the Jets looked great when they went back to the neo-Namath uniforms.

Now they look kind of eh and even worse with Nike.

They could use a fresh start from the ground up.

TOO MANY STRIPES!

[kajeet]

The Dallas Cowboys and their muilticolored mess that was designed to look better on 1970s televisions. Today's HD TVs make them look even worse.

Pick 2 of the colors and make it consistent. You can even keep your green-silver if you make the helmet match the pants.

They need to change it but probaly won't because of some "we had it for so long,might as well keep it cause of tradition" logic. But fot TV comparison....

1977

2012

[TheFuture]

Here's one nominee:

I posted the home uniforms for a reason. I understand the title of the thread and am adhering to it. Let me make it very clear that I AM NOT SAYING I DISLIKE THE FALCONS' HOME UNIFORMS!!! In fact, I like them a lot and they have not run their course with me personally. It's just that these red home uniforms have run their course with most fans. Let me explain...

When the Falcons first rolled out their new set they wore the black uniforms as their primary. However, they also came with a red alternate. The fans and the players liked the red alternate so much the organization made the move to make the reds the primary. Now, there are fans who miss the black and want it back. The red uniforms today are not as special when they were only the alternates

Let this be a lesson to the Panthers and Chargers. Fans and others may like the electric blue and powder blue uniforms respectively more than the regular uniforms. However, if you change those uniforms may "run their course" with the fans after a matter of time. The Broncos just switched to orange this season, but as time goes on maybe fans will take the orange for granted and want to see the blue come back.

[rvrdgsfn]

In all honesty.... I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up

[ThorSkaagi]

Here's one nominee:

I posted the home uniforms for a reason. I understand the title of the thread and am adhering to it. Let me make it very clear that I AM NOT SAYING I DISLIKE THE FALCONS' HOME UNIFORMS!!! In fact, I like them a lot and they have not run their course with me personally. It's just that these red home uniforms have run their course with most fans. Let me explain...

When the Falcons first rolled out their new set they wore the black uniforms as their primary. However, they also came with a red alternate. The fans and the players liked the red alternate so much the organization made the move to make the reds the primary. Now, there are fans who miss the black and want it back. The red uniforms today are not as special when they were only the alternates

Let this be a lesson to the Panthers and Chargers. Fans and others may like the electric blue and powder blue uniforms respectively more than the regular uniforms. However, if you change those uniforms may "run their course" with the fans after a matter of time. The Broncos just switched to orange this season, but as time goes on maybe fans will take the orange for granted and want to see the blue come back.

Here's one nominee:

I posted the home uniforms for a reason. I understand the title of the thread and am adhering to it. Let me make it very clear that I AM NOT SAYING I DISLIKE THE FALCONS' HOME UNIFORMS!!! In fact, I like them a lot and they have not run their course with me personally. It's just that these red home uniforms have run their course with most fans. Let me explain...

When the Falcons first rolled out their new set they wore the black uniforms as their primary. However, they also came with a red alternate. The fans and the players liked the red alternate so much the organization made the move to make the reds the primary. Now, there are fans who miss the black and want it back. The red uniforms today are not as special when they were only the alternates

Let this be a lesson to the Panthers and Chargers. Fans and others may like the electric blue and powder blue uniforms respectively more than the regular uniforms. However, if you change those uniforms may "run their course" with the fans after a matter of time. The Broncos just switched to orange this season, but as time goes on maybe fans will take the orange for granted and want to see the blue come back.

Why don't they have a black alternate? It's almost unfathomable that they don't.

And that's how it is with me too. I'm a Titans fan, and when they introduced the light blue alternate I wanted it to be their primary so bad. They made it their primary about 6 years ago and I'm now just dying to have the navy blue jersey take the field again. The last time they wore it was in 2008.

[phutmasterflex]

Blame the fans. They loved their alternate red so much it became a primary. Then their love for that throwback just pushed that black set out of the way.

I really liked it.

[jr79]

The Rockies' logo just screams 1995. And they need new uniforms too. With more purple. They're the sole owners of purple in the league yet they wear black caps, white pinstripes, black vests, and ONE purple jersey. It's ridiculous.

And the elements are there to fix it easily. The ball and mountain is a bit clip-arty but it works. It's the dull as dishwater wordmarks and how they're arranged that remove every ounce of energy and life from the logo. It's like sports logo meets merchant banker letterhead.

[shaydre1019]

In all honesty.... I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up

I think run it's course means it doesnt look as good as it first did. This logo has always sucked. People complain about new logos all the time like the marlins and the leaked dolphins but I can't think of a major professional logo that looks even anywhere near as bad as this one, absolutely terrible.

As a rockets fan I liked their new set when they first came out and I don't think they're terrible, just kinda meh, could use an update maybe a return to yellow. I also hate the red yellow alts I think those are terrible. I like the logo think its really sharp but wouldn't be opposed to a whole new identity, maybe red white yellow with a tiny bit of silver.

The dolphins need to go old school with some modern touches. I'm a fan of the navy. Not a fan of the 90s number font or the drop shadow.

[Joshawaggie]

In all honesty.... I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up

It was never on course to have been run off.

[Gothamite]

Even if they cleaned up everything wrong with the current ones (font, random side panels, maybe the pant stripe), they still wouldn't look better than this.

It begs for a custom font, but other than that you wouldn't have to change a thing.

No, a custom font would push it over the edge to clownish, just as it did with the Chargers. That uniform is great because it's in a traditional football template, with all the craziness happening within the constraints of the striping sections of said template. That makes it a classic football uniform, that the absurdity of tiger stripes is offset by an otherwise traditional template and a strong block font. A custom font on that jersey would greatly detract from the look.

Agreed completely. The genius of that uniform was that it managed to be unique and innovative while remaining within the traditional template of the sport.

Start monkeying with that template, and you lose what made the uniform work so well.

[ARTnSocal]

The Bills could use a modernization à la Cardinals,Falcons,Panthers,Lions.

This needs some definition.

There's not another modernization needed.

That logo above is nothing but a FLAT BILLS DECAL but belolw is how the authentic Bills logo really looks when mounted on the helmet.

Much better I'd say .... better quality in 3-D like on the helmets

Buffalo only needs a few things tweaked.

1) all-white socks matching the shoulder stripes in the centre when wearing the blue pants

2) get rid those extra thick helmet stripes and return to the larger sized charging Bison logo that was worn on the white helmet in 1982 and 1983 before the helmet color to change to red. The NFL made Buffalo downsize the logo because of the stripe used in 2011, how it thickens toward to rare of the helmet..

3) For the throwbacks get rid of the 1965's and go with the 1963 home uniform. They wouldn't have to make them in a faux version either,, they could be worn just as they were in 1963.with TV numbers on sleeves, striping between top of sleeves where they meet the shoulders. With only one centre stripe on the helmet like in '62-'63-and '64 they'd look very genuine to to day

[Gr3g3]

If the panthers jerseys still looked like this they wouldn't be as stale as they are now, but over the years the cut of jerseys has changed dramatically and they've been left with this garbage:

[ThorSkaagi]

If the panthers jerseys still looked like this they wouldn't be as stale as they are now, but over the years the cut of jerseys has changed dramatically and they've been left with this garbage:

That's a beautiful set of wraparounds.

[Jamikel]

The Panthers jerseys would be such an easy fix. Just make the stripes taper like USC's.

[illwauk]

Even if they cleaned up everything wrong with the current ones (font, random side panels, maybe the pant stripe), they still wouldn't look better than this.

It begs for a custom font, but other than that you wouldn't have to change a thing.

No, a custom font would push it over the edge to clownish, just as it did with the Chargers. That uniform is great because it's in a traditional football template, with all the craziness happening within the constraints of the striping sections of said template. That makes it a classic football uniform, that the absurdity of tiger stripes is offset by an otherwise traditional template and a strong block font. A custom font on that jersey would greatly detract from the look.

Agreed completely. The genius of that uniform was that it managed to be unique and innovative while remaining within the traditional template of the sport.

Start monkeying with that template, and you lose what made the uniform work so well.

Gonna have to agree to disagree. I really feel like a custom font could add to these (though on second thought, the numbers-on-sleeves version WAS better). To me, these seem "absurd" in the same way a lot of uniforms from the 30s and 40s look to us now, and I was thinking of a font that wouldn't be out of place in that era. Something along the lines of this:

Even with a custom font, the Bengals unis would still be pretty tame by today's standards.

But again... just my two cents.

[tBBP]

Something like this, perhaps?

(Oh yeah... ***SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT***)

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, that works well, because the Bengals are in that great big family of samey 2000s wordmarks (Broncos, Seahawks, Cardinals, Texans, Falcons, who else?), and so to have numbers based on that wordmark would mean they're actually doing something cohesive and not just picking up their script from the factory. I might taper off the corner of that 7 that juts out a lot, but other than that, great set!

[tBBP]

Yeah, that works well, because the Bengals are in that great big family of samey 2000s wordmarks (Broncos, Seahawks, Cardinals, Texans, Falcons, who else?), and so to have numbers based on that wordmark would mean they're actually doing something cohesive and not just picking up their script from the factory. I might taper off the corner of that 7 that juts out a lot, but other than that, great set!

Thanks, man.

And that bolded portion, to me, is the key. It's one thing to design a custom number font that either looks closely derived from whatever team's script fonts (the previous-era Jacksonville Jaguars, current Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens, and mid-late '90s Utah Jazz) or a set that actually looks like it could belong to a real typeface. In the case of above I did the best I could to extrapolate the forms from the already existing Bengals font (I've tried that with several other teams, as well). On the other end of that spectrum is the custom-just-to-be-custom sets...and that's where we get the San Diego Chargers and Detroit Lions—and what the hell, Texas Rangers—of the world, where they just look hackneyed as hell, to me anyway.

Back to the Bengals, though, this much is certain: the dropshadows have got to go. They could either go back with a standard block, the set above, or hell even the old Champion block set (some team somewhere needs to, just because)—just get rid of the freaking dropshadow.