Tampa Bay Buccaneers Getting New Logo, Helmet & Uniforms

[Quillz]

Would it have killed them to run it past the fans first? I mean, Fortune 500 companies do test trials with real people all the time, so why not the Bucs? "These are our new uniforms and there's nothing you can do about it" is the height of arrogance and tone deafness.

Because fans don't know what they want. Half will hate it, half will love it. Other teams have tried it and it's never worked before.

You're forgetting that your typical fan doesn't know the first thing about uniform design.

[TheRicSlick]

Sad to see the Bucs aren't the best dressed team in the league. But as Kaz said get rid of the crappy number font ans it's ok.

[hawk36]

I teach high school. All of the kids think these things are "raw" and or "live". We're fighting a losing battle if we think good taste will ever make a come back.

Kids have bad taste as a rule of thumb.

I teach typography at the college level and am fighting the fight. Students will resist it at first but by the end of the quarter, the majority get it and understand good, well designed and crafted typography can be the difference between a good designer and a great one. And the difference between them getting a job and not getting a job upon graduation.

[guest23]

Would it have killed them to run it past the fans first? I mean, Fortune 500 companies do test trials with real people all the time, so why not the Bucs? "These are our new uniforms and there's nothing you can do about it" is the height of arrogance and tone deafness.

Ask microsoft how much their extensive focus grouping has helped them with their misadventures into the consumer electronics arena...bad design is quite adept at finding it's way to the marketplace.

[Old School Fool]

I like it except for the number font.

[BBTV]

When you think of some of the all-time greats - especially towards the end of their careers when they looked noticeably older than college kids - think guys like Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning - can you imagine them wearing a uniform like this? We'll use Reggie White as an example, because he looked older than his actual age. I can see him in any old-school traditional uniform, but he'd also look perfectly normal in the Bucs last set, the Eagles current set, the Jags Buerlein-era, even the Titans. He would look down right silly as a distinguished-looking older man wearing these uniforms. I mean anyone would look silly in these, but at least younger kids can sorta get away with it.

I feel the same way about John Elway in the monochrome Broncos get-up that he modeled. It looked ridiculous on him. I think Peyton looks a little silly in the current Broncos uniform, but maybe I'm just so used to it that I don't find it too offensive.

The day that a HOF player is immortalized in a statue depicting him in an outfit like this will be a sad one.

[slats7]

Would it have killed them to run it past the fans first? I mean, Fortune 500 companies do test trials with real people all the time, so why not the Bucs? "These are our new uniforms and there's nothing you can do about it" is the height of arrogance and tone deafness.

Because fans don't know what they want. Half will hate it, half will love it. Other teams have tried it and it's never worked before.

You're forgetting that your typical fan doesn't know the first thing about uniform design.

I find that very hard to believe in this instance. These unis are objectively bad.

[Alex Houston]

I feel like the Glazers just pulled a Batista on their fanbase and made horrid changes when none were necessary. I'm also kind of ashamed to admit this is my football team. Maybe I should just...jump ship.

[AgentColon]

When you think of some of the all-time greats - especially towards the end of their careers when they looked noticeably older than college kids - think guys like Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning - can you imagine them wearing a uniform like this? We'll use Reggie White as an example, because he looked older than his actual age. I can see him in any old-school traditional uniform, but he'd also look perfectly normal in the Bucs last set, the Eagles current set, the Jags Buerlein-era, even the Titans. He would look down right silly as a distinguished-looking older man wearing these uniforms. I mean anyone would look silly in these, but at least younger kids can sorta get away with it.

I feel the same way about John Elway in the monochrome Broncos get-up that he modeled. It looked ridiculous on him. I think Peyton looks a little silly in the current Broncos uniform, but maybe I'm just so used to it that I don't find it too offensive.

The day that a HOF player is immortalized in a statue depicting him in an outfit like this will be a sad one.

I thought of Elway right away.

[TheRicSlick]

When you think of some of the all-time greats - especially towards the end of their careers when they looked noticeably older than college kids - think guys like Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning - can you imagine them wearing a uniform like this? We'll use Reggie White as an example, because he looked older than his actual age. I can see him in any old-school traditional uniform, but he'd also look perfectly normal in the Bucs last set, the Eagles current set, the Jags Buerlein-era, even the Titans. He would look down right silly as a distinguished-looking older man wearing these uniforms. I mean anyone would look silly in these, but at least younger kids can sorta get away with it.

I feel the same way about John Elway in the monochrome Broncos get-up that he modeled. It looked ridiculous on him. I think Peyton looks a little silly in the current Broncos uniform, but maybe I'm just so used to it that I don't find it too offensive.

The day that a HOF player is immortalized in a statue depicting him in an outfit like this will be a sad one.

I thought of Elway right away.

Only because he was winning a Super Bowl.

[Xist2inspire]

To fire up the discussion here are the jerseys compared to each other:

Okay, now I guess I can make a fair assessment...

Why this doesn't work:

-Beforehand, the Bucs were a traditional team with modern touches. That's why the old wordmark and practice numbers stuck out like a sore thumb, because they were the only blatanly modern (for that time) elements in their overall identity. Their logo, wordmark, and helmet update promised to keep that "traditional, yet slightly modern" theme going, as the changes were in keeping with their image by being minor ones that still reflected modern trends (cleaned-up logos, bigger logo on the helmet, chrome). So, the logical thing would be to have the jerseys be similar to the Dolphins or Vikings, traditional with a few modern touches here or there. They decided to go full modern, which is the complete opposite of everything their brand was, and looked to still be prior to this unveiling.

-The yoke severely throws off the color balance. Look at the new white jersey vs. the old. What stands out? The new one is far more pewter-heavy as opposed to the old one. Therefore, you get a case of pewter overload, as there's way too much pewter at the top. Also, the yoke existing at all is a bad move, as again, it's an extremely modern element that simply wasn't there before. Now had this been the Titans, okay. They've established the yoke as part of their identity. Had this been the Bengals, who likely would've incorporated stripes into the yoke like Mizzou, then okay. Then the yoke would would serve a design purpose within their identity. What purpose does it serve for the Bucs other than being modern?

-The use of orange is bad. Tell me, what level of importance do you give to orange by looking at the jerseys alone? You'd think it was an important tertiary color, right? So why is it nowhere on the helmet and hard to see on the numbers? The bad thing about having the random slashes of orange on the jersey is that it draws your eyes straight to it, then leaves you wondering why there's a lack of it anywhere else. The Seahawks overdid it a bit with their lime green, but they had the right idea, since it's not used sparingly in certain areas, and nowhere at all everywhere else. The old jerseys left no doubt as to where orange stood on the level of color importance, but the annoying random appearances of orange in the new jerseys causes confusion and muddles the look.

-The thin outlines hurt the numbers even more than the font itself, especially on the red jersey. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a hard time recognizing the outlines on the numbers. It comes off as a big, almost-glowing pure white mass. Now let's be fair, the old jerseys had outlining issues as well. But, the thick black outlines (a design element carried over from their logo) kept everything together, as the use of black helped keep certain colors separate, and kept the overall look clean and not cartoony (strange that thinner black lines would help contribute to a cartoonier look, eh?).

-Speaking of black, that's another thing these jerseys are missing. Black appears as thin trim in the numbers, logos, and wordmarks only. This is a problem, because the main colors used in the helmet are pewter, red, white, and black! If anything, the cleaner look of the new logo emphasizes the use of black as strictly trim, as opposed to a full-fledged color option like the previous set. So why not use it for its intended purpose, the purpose it was used for on the helmet, and use it as clearly-visible trim around the numbers, yoke, and pants color box?

How it could've been fixed:

-Scrap the overtly-modern elements, they have no place in the Bucs identity. The yoke and pants color box have to go. Get a real pants stripe, or go without one altogether. Don't go halfway.

-Figure out how you're going to use orange, then add it to the helmet accordingly.

-Use black like you used it for the logo, as the primary source of trim. None of this multiple-thin-outlines-with-chrome-added nonsense.

(I have a hunch that the numbers are just the icing on the crap cake, had the Bucs gone with a simpler design like the Dolphins & Vikings, yet kept the number font we see now, they would've been recieved much like the Vikings and Dolphins' fonts were: An unfortunate choice, but not a deal-breaker.)

[powersurge]

To fire up the discussion here are the jerseys compared to each other:

How it could've been fixed:

-Scrap the overtly-modern elements, they have no place in the Bucs identity. The yoke and pants color box have to go. Get a real pants stripe.

-Figure out how you're going to use orange, then add it to the helmet accordingly.

-Use black like you used it for the logo, as the primary source of trim. None of this multiple-thin-outlines-with-chrome-added nonsense.

(I have a hunch that the numbers are just the icing on the crap cake, had the Bucs gone with a simpler design like the Dolphins & Vikings, yet kept the number font we see now, they would've been recieved much like the Vikings and Dolphins' fonts were: An unfortunate choice, but not a deal-breaker.)

So in other words: Start over.

Got it.

Ditto.

[BrandMooreArt]

When you think of some of the all-time greats - especially towards the end of their careers when they looked noticeably older than college kids - think guys like Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning - can you imagine them wearing a uniform like this? We'll use Reggie White as an example, because he looked older than his actual age. I can see him in any old-school traditional uniform, but he'd also look perfectly normal in the Bucs last set, the Eagles current set, the Jags Buerlein-era, even the Titans. He would look down right silly as a distinguished-looking older man wearing these uniforms. I mean anyone would look silly in these, but at least younger kids can sorta get away with it.

I feel the same way about John Elway in the monochrome Broncos get-up that he modeled. It looked ridiculous on him. I think Peyton looks a little silly in the current Broncos uniform, but maybe I'm just so used to it that I don't find it too offensive.

The day that a HOF player is immortalized in a statue depicting him in an outfit like this will be a sad one.

Not sily at all. In fact when i am designing concepts that is something i think myself. "How is a 35 year old man going to look in this?". Tou have to find the area between what your audience will like and what your product (players) look in it. I made a post a few days ago about how Nike is focusing on the younger audience and i think we can see that is quite clear and the NFL is on board with it

[imawalkingcorpse]

Would it have killed them to run it past the fans first? I mean, Fortune 500 companies do test trials with real people all the time, so why not the Bucs? "These are our new uniforms and there's nothing you can do about it" is the height of arrogance and tone deafness.

Because fans don't know what they want. Half will hate it, half will love it. Other teams have tried it and it's never worked before.

You're forgetting that your typical fan doesn't know the first thing about uniform design.

I find that very hard to believe in this instance. These unis are objectively bad.

My suggestion is to go read some Buccaneers message boards.

[bradsbeard]

Too bad Nike couldn't have taken this approach and applied it to the Bucs:

http://nikeinc.com/news/netherlands-unveils-125th-anniversary-dutch-home-kit#/inline/27769

[8BW14]

This (What we had: Rest in peace my beautiful lady)

> This (what I expected and could have tolerated)

> This (What we actually got and will have to live with)

They really dropped the ball with these. I expected more pewter, but definitely not this much and it is just a disgusting color when it's not shiny or metallic to be completely honest. They have no redeeming features in my opinion. Change for the sake of change and the "wow factor" almost never end up turning out well.

[TheRicSlick]

Poor future Bucs draft picks. Never got to play in the sexy uniforms.

[Sport]

I've grown tired of them since I first saw them this morning. They're dated already. There's no timelessness to this. This uniform is 2013 and in two years it'll still be 2013. If it lasts ten years it'll still be 2013. If we're being honest with ourselves this uniform has a shelflife and there is no way in hell in it lasts as long as the old set did.

[oldschoolvikings]

I'm really looking forward to Colorwerx (or somebody) posting the number sheet. I have a feeling it'll be hilarious.

[Alex Houston]

Man, the more I look at it, the more I still find to dislike. The home set has grown on me slightly, but man, that away set....ugh.