Who Are The Trendsetters?

[Lights Out]

Eagles were first NFL team to drop lighter colors for darker colors. A lot of teams followed.

IMO, the Chargers started that trend in 1988 when they switched to navy.

[goforbroke]

I know the Knicks did it briefly in the 80s.. And the islanders in the mid 90s after the fishsricks. But most people give credit to the Jets for being the first team to drop a classic set for a modern one (I guess it was modern for the 80s) and then return to the originals full time - or a modified version of the original. After the Jets lots of teams followed the same type of trend .. Giants pistons blue jays etc.

[BrandMooreArt]

in the sports world it is the uniform manufacturers (Nike and adidas mostly) and the logo creators. again, that is Nike and adidas/Reebok but there are plenty of outside sources too. Bosack, Verlander, Davidson, Rickabaugh, etc. and a few agencies.

but sports is always behind everything else. Nike and adidas isn't creating things like the DADA or Bauhaus movement, they're getting reports and ideas from graphic design trends and very much from fashion trends. if you want to see into the sports world future look to galleries like Dribbble and Behance and pay attention to whats going on in fashion from Paris, Miami, New York, Chicago, LA, etc. it might take 7 years for it to come around, but there's a good chance it will eventually. a lot of the minimalism you see in sports branding in the last 5 years or so was starting to happen about 10 years ago in graphic design when Web 2.0 style was dying.

and as with any trends, one will lead to another. trends and movements are often done as rebellion against the previous one. the bright colors in sports during the 90s were replaced by darker ones partly because it was just different, but also to create a different brand personality. football especially made the adjustment to a more professional and "badass" look. the Buccaneers being the perfect example. the current vintage/retro obsession might be replaced by whatever is happening in web design in a few years. in CFB where we see loads of texture and color options, the next trend wave in response might be a super brand of minimalism.

[lancealot]

The Denver Broncos started the side paneling trend, correct?

An argument can be made that is the single most influential uniform in football history. Before that, how many uniforms had inter-connected elements that ran from the jersey to the pants?

Even if they didn't start the trend I would give this uniform the most influential uniform of the modern era. The amount of high schools and colleges (across basically every company) that used that exact template is ridiculous. Hell even alot of custom manufacturers still use that template.

For the most influential of all time I would say the first uniform to have sleve stripes

[The_Admiral]

a lot of the minimalism you see in sports branding in the last 5 years or so was starting to happen about 10 years ago in graphic design when Web 2.0 style was dying.

Web 2.0 design was dying in 2003? How is that possible?

[BrandMooreArt]

a lot of the minimalism you see in sports branding in the last 5 years or so was starting to happen about 10 years ago in graphic design when Web 2.0 style was dying.

Web 2.0 design was dying in 2003? How is that possible?

certainly on the decline when texture (especially subtle paper and grunge) started to come around. the drop shadows and "glossyness" was being killed off then. 2009 was the last year i would say any of it was significant, but even that was in the lower realms of design. like on 99designs.com

[The Ironclad]

African Americans.

[The_Admiral]

a lot of the minimalism you see in sports branding in the last 5 years or so was starting to happen about 10 years ago in graphic design when Web 2.0 style was dying.

Web 2.0 design was dying in 2003? How is that possible?

certainly on the decline when texture (especially subtle paper and grunge) started to come around. the drop shadows and "glossyness" was being killed off then. 2009 was the last year i would say any of it was significant, but even that was in the lower realms of design. like on 99designs.com

I've always thought of "Web 2.0" design as the wave of minimalism in recent years, like the new eBay logo, or the aborted Gap logo.

[Hat Boy]

The White Sox went with powder blue road uniforms from 1964-1968.

They returned to gray in '69, but the Pilots and Expos picked up the mantle of powder blue that year. 1991 was the last season of full-time powder blue roads (KC and Montreal).

[Davidellias]

The Denver Broncos started the side paneling trend, correct?

Also I think they pioneered the use of Tapered Helmet stripes in football (Along with Carolina), now a lot of College use that or a smilar design with helmet stripes.

[tomtucker]

straight outta compton, the first cd i ever got........... well my mom payed for it...............yeah im gangsta

[Raysfan12]

The White Sox went with powder blue road uniforms from 1964-1968.

They returned to gray in '69, but the Pilots and Expos picked up the mantle of powder blue that year. 1991 was the last season of full-time powder blue roads (KC and Montreal).

I thought the Cubs wore powder blue years earlier than the White Sox.

[vicfurth]

Eagles were first NFL team to drop lighter colors for darker colors. A lot of teams followed.

IMO, the Chargers started that trend in 1988 when they switched to navy.

Or the cowboys did in the sixties by going navy instead of royal? Pssh

[John in KY]

Since no one has mentioned it - there were no facemasks in any color but gray until the Chargers went to yellow in 1974 (and the Chiefs also switched to white facemasks prior to the season but the Chargers were first).

You could also say they were first team to darken their uniforms, going from columbine blue to dark royal that same year.

The Denver Broncos started the side paneling trend, correct?

Agreed - but the cynic in me still thinks that Nike developed that style for the Broncos just to show off their new jersey template with the "batwing" extensions of the side panels. Very effective color choices as the orange side panels pop out from the navy jersey.

Eagles were first NFL team to drop lighter colors for darker colors. A lot of teams followed.

IMO, the Chargers started that trend in 1988 when they switched to navy.

Or the cowboys did in the sixties by going navy instead of royal? Pssh

The Cowboys didn't change to navy until 1981. The royal might have gotten a bit darker in 1964 but it wasn't that much darker than the 1960-1963.

[FiddySicks]

People loved when the White Sox went black in like 1990 or whatever, although that wasn't BFBS it did show how popular black was and I think pushed a lot of people in that direction....

Although now that I think about it the LA Kings going to silver and black might have been the first.

i think it was the kings and the NWA "straight outta compton" music video that made black popular.

Yeah but the Kings also got their color inspiration from the Raiders. Love em or hate em, the Raiders were the ones who made black and silver popular (even though it wasn't a case of BFBS).

[DS729]

Since no one has mentioned it - there were no facemasks in any color but gray until the Chargers went to yellow in 1974 (and the Chiefs also switched to white facemasks prior to the season but the Chargers were first).

You could also say they were first team to darken their uniforms, going from columbine blue to dark royal that same year.

The Denver Broncos started the side paneling trend, correct?

Agreed - but the cynic in me still thinks that Nike developed that style for the Broncos just to show off their new jersey template with the "batwing" extensions of the side panels. Very effective color choices as the orange side panels pop out from the navy jersey.

Eagles were first NFL team to drop lighter colors for darker colors. A lot of teams followed.

IMO, the Chargers started that trend in 1988 when they switched to navy.

Or the cowboys did in the sixties by going navy instead of royal? Pssh

The Cowboys didn't change to navy until 1981. The royal might have gotten a bit darker in 1964 but it wasn't that much darker than the 1960-1963.

God... I think Nourdr would have killed himself if he were alive back then.

[Silent Wind of Doom]

People loved when the White Sox went black in like 1990 or whatever, although that wasn't BFBS it did show how popular black was and I think pushed a lot of people in that direction....

Although now that I think about it the LA Kings going to silver and black might have been the first.

i think it was the kings and the NWA "straight outta compton" music video that made black popular.

I thought it was the Raiders that were tied closer to that movement than the Kings. Did the look in L.A. come before or after the Kings abandoned gold and purple?

[imawalkingcorpse]

People loved when the White Sox went black in like 1990 or whatever, although that wasn't BFBS it did show how popular black was and I think pushed a lot of people in that direction....

Although now that I think about it the LA Kings going to silver and black might have been the first.

i think it was the kings and the NWA "straight outta compton" music video that made black popular.

I thought it was the Raiders that were tied closer to that movement than the Kings. Did the look in L.A. come before or after the Kings abandoned gold and purple?

Well 1988 was the year the first Eazy-E record came out, in one of the videos he is wearing a black Kings hat. Now I can't speak for LA, but I know people that wore that stuff in Florida wore slightly more Kings hats than Raiders hats.

[Discrim]

Eagles logo, 96-present

Some might say the Pats' Flying Elvis could've been the beginning, but the current Eagles logo was the trendsetter. First of all, I wouldn't even begin to try counting how many high schools and colleges' teams either use the eagle head recolored, or adopted a logo very obviously based on it. More to the point, it seemed like there were a lot of head logos that came out in the years afterwards.

jaguars and panthers came out with their logos before the eagles came up with this didn't they? and wasn't really anything revolutionary because rams, vikes, ravens, cards, and pats (as you mentioned) had their head logos long before the eagles did

Yeah the Jags and Panthers had new modern head logos in 1995, before the Eagles set debuted in 1996. The Ravens head logo didn't materialize until 1999 (they had the winged shield until the lawsuit), and that was three years after the Eagles introduced their new logo. The Rams, Cards, and Vikes didn't have a modern head logo, though the Cardinals' old logo was probably the closest to what the Patriots, Eagles, and Broncos tried to copy and/or modernize.

Yeah, it's true the Pats, Jags and Panthers' heads came before it (thus, Flying Elvis has the better claim to being the trendsetter), but the Eagle struck me as the most prominent example, largely due to how many high school and college teams use either a recolored version or something blatantly based on it, especially compared to the other three (I've seen a few tweaked Patriots logos, and IIRC some schools have used the old Jaguar head, but I can't think of anybody prominent who used the old Panthers head besides the Panthers themselves.)

I was thinking this was relatively more recent trends...as far as powder blue in baseball, the Cubs may have been the pioneers of powder blue, but the only other light blue uni that came out in the 40s was the Dodgers' satin blue uniform, though that one is more associated with another short-lived trend of satin specials reserved for night games, which would somehow manage to find new life across the Atlantic when soccer teams first began playing night games (the thinking behind them was the same in both sports, though: it was thought that satin showed up better under the lights). Much like with names on the backs of jerseys, the White Sox have a much better claim of having been the trendsetters as far as powder blue goes, given how many other teams adopted the hue afterwards, and how long the trend lasted.

And while the Broncos proudly own football's single most influential uniform, I raise you football's single most influential helmet...

[TheGiantsFan]

How about cream-colored jerseys, such as the Giants' home unis, in baseball? How did those come about?