New Winnipeg Blue Bombers 80s-era Thirds

[walby2]

The day after suffering a horrible evisceration at the hands of Ricky Ray and the Toronto Argonauts, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have made a feeble attempt at distracting their increasingly restive fanbase by introducing a new 80s-inspired third jersey. This jersey is essentially the same as the one that was worn from the early 80s until the end of the 1994 season, a time when the Blue Bombers were a dominant team in the CFL with Grey Cup wins in 1984, 1988 and 1990.

The fans have been clamoring for this jersey for some time, mainly because it hits the nostalgia sweet spot for their fans (it's hard to get excited about 1950s throwbacks if you were born in 1976), and also because they are, quite frankly, a beautiful set of unis.

My only gripe with these is the tiny looking sleeve logo. As I recall, the sleeve logos were much bigger back in the day... verging on double the size of what's shown in the image below. How hard can it be to look at some vintage photos of the old jerseys in action and actually get the details right?

Oh well, other than that they're fine. They almost made me forget about the Bombers getting shredded last night.

(Have any other CFL teams rolled out 80s-era thirds yet? I'm assuming that as with the 50s, 60s and 70s-era retros, this is a league-wide thing.)

[oldschoolvikings]

\

The fans have been clamoring for this jersey for some time, mainly because it hits the nostalgia sweet spot for their fans (it's hard to get excited about 1950s throwbacks if you were born in 1976), and also because they are, quite frankly, a beautiful set of unis.

Indeed. That blue is as pretty as an apple on Christmas day.

[Joshawaggie]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered before, but what is the reason for replicas not having player numbers?

I agree that this is an awesome uniform. Could maybe do without the white collar though.

[walby2]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered before, but what is the reason for replicas not having player numbers?

Just a weird CFL quirk. For whatever reason, the default for CFL jerseys of all kinds is blank, without names or numbers. It can actually be kind of hard to find a replica jersey that already comes with a player's name and number on it. In my experience, the jerseys being sold with player numbers already on them are more often than not basically pre-made custom stitching jobs... the screened-on numbers (like you'd see on the low-end NFL replicas hanging on the racks at Marshall's) are almost nonexistent for CFL jerseys.

I'm not sure why this is... maybe it's just a case of Canadian manufacturers following hockey's lead where the default is no names/numbers. Even though most fans (in Winnipeg at least) get names/numbers stitched on, you do see a good number of jerseys around town with absolutely nothing on them. This is annoying, especially when you consider how rarely you ever see a NFL jersey like that.

[walby2]

Here's a look at the real deal old school jersey circa 1990, the last year in which the Bombers won the cup. I think by this point the Bombers had shifted gradually to a slightly darker shade of blue and gold from the bright almost blue and yellow of the early 80s. The new third appears closer in colour to the older 1984 version as compared to this one shown below. (This was just before they switched completely back to the 50's era navy blue in 1995.)

As you can see, the sleeve logo was much bigger than what the new third appears to have.

The player pictured below is Jeff Croonen and the source is his website (http://www.jlcroonen.com/ring-one.php ) :

[Island_Style]

Damn, those colors are sexy together!

[kw11333]

Not saying that jersey is bad, but their 3rd jersey really should have been white.

[Discrim]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered before, but what is the reason for replicas not having player numbers?

Just a weird CFL quirk. For whatever reason, the default for CFL jerseys of all kinds is blank, without names or numbers. It can actually be kind of hard to find a replica jersey that already comes with a player's name and number on it. In my experience, the jerseys being sold with player numbers already on them are more often than not basically pre-made custom stitching jobs... the screened-on numbers (like you'd see on the low-end NFL replicas hanging on the racks at Marshall's) are almost nonexistent for CFL jerseys.

I'm not sure why this is... maybe it's just a case of Canadian manufacturers following hockey's lead where the default is no names/numbers. Even though most fans (in Winnipeg at least) get names/numbers stitched on, you do see a good number of jerseys around town with absolutely nothing on them. This is annoying, especially when you consider how rarely you ever see a NFL jersey like that.

I won't lie, I've wondered about that every now and then. I suppose a negative way of looking at it is that it seems bush league, especially when on the flipside, no store worth its salt will ever be caught dead carrying numberless NFL or NBA jerseys. Hell, the tent sale Rogan's Shoes used to hold over the summer remain the only times I've ever seen NFL or NBA blanks on a rack (for anyone wondering which ones I remember off the top of my head: 95-99 Patriots home, Tennessee Oilers white, Houston Oilers white, creamsicle Bucs home, WLAF Ohio Glory home, Warriors "The City" gold, Magic blue pinstripes, Pacers white pinstripes, Jazz mountains in white, Syracuse Nationals red). At the same token, there are those out there who'd see this state of affairs as an opportunity (or dig around for an even better opportunity), and I'll leave it at that.

[JCRGraphix]

I love these! The lack of numbers is definitely odd though!

[16kid]

Thank god!!

[TruColor]

I need to do some more research on this, but that Yellow/Gold/Athletic Gold you see for the Blue Bombers really only existed for usage in their primary logo. And, for most of their existence (prior to 1995) they wore some sort of Royal Blue.

An official 1994 Style Guide sheet I have shows this as their color palette:

...which lists Navy as the primary color, but in essence, it's somewhere between a Royal and Navy.

I'm unclear on the actual transition season, but they wore this color scheme prior to 1994:

[walby2]

I need to do some more research on this, but that Yellow/Gold/Athletic Gold you see for the Blue Bombers really only existed for usage in their primary logo. And, for most of their existence (prior to 1995) they wore some sort of Royal Blue.

That could be a pretty tricky undertaking. Even though the official colours remained the same during that period, the Bombers really seemed to drift in different colour directions through the 80s and mid-90s (and possibly before that, but I'm too young to remember first-hand). I always just chalked it up to them using a small local supplier for uniforms (Harv-Al Sporting Goods) until the late 80s... I thought a small business like that might be a little less detail-oriented than a large athletic wear manufacturer that would keep the colours consistent from year to year.

For what it's worth, I don't seem to recall the Bomber colours changing in 1994... it wasn't until 1995 when they changed to the lightning-W logo and moved to a much deeper Navy blue (as compared to the previous Royal) which was pitched as being a throwback to the Grey Cup heydays of the 50s and 60s when the Bombers wore Navy.

[walby2]

In a strange coincidence, the player whose picture I posted a little over a week ago to illustrate the Bomber jersey circa 1990 has died, according to an announcement yesterday on the Blue Bombers' facebook page.

RIP Jeff Croonen, 1966-2013

The player pictured below is Jeff Croonen and the source is his website (http://www.jlcroonen.com/ring-one.php ) :

[Stampman]

The old Bombers unis-prior to the RBK fiasco--were among the best ever in all of sports.

Especially in the 80's & 90's

And that's coming from a Stampeder fan.

[BigBubba]

Have any other CFL teams rolled out 80s-era thirds yet?

The Argos are wearing 1983 throwbacks for one game to mark the 30th anniversary of that Grey Cup-winning team.

[TruColor]

Have any other CFL teams rolled out 80s-era thirds yet?

The Argos are wearing 1983 throwbacks for one game to mark the 30th anniversary of that Grey Cup-winning team.

...using this logo - which also uses the current color scheme:

That shade of Light Blue (Cambridge Blue) was introduced in 2012, and is the first full-time use of a PANTONE Goe color I've found.

Which means it's the first one. Because I would know (!).

[SLAM]

Clean.

[Jamikel]

Should be their firsts. Royal blue and metallic gold is such a striking and unique combination.

[Sodboy13]

Looks better with the gold outline on the numbers.