Another Look at What Might Have Been

Courtesy of user thespungo on the sportslogos.net boards, this is a view of what Nike might have created for our Packers instead of just repeating Starter's mistakes with the 1994 throwback uniforms.

I love it. The yoke is perfect, ending above the collar point, and with shoulders more accurately replicate the 1937-1949 jersey.  We know the Packers wore actual gold pants with this uniform, not tan, so they're included as well. 

I could go either way on the sock stripes - the early version of this uniform had them, later versions did not - but this is definitely the throwback uniform we should have gotten.  

A New Take on an Old Classic

New York-based designer Matt McInerney is currently publishing his concept to re-design logos for all 32 NFL teams.

Here's his take on our favorite club:

Green Bay Packers

A little explanation:
This interlocking G & B, set in chamfered type, is a nod to one of the early Green Bay Packers logos.

He is of course referring to this logo, the beautiful interlocking "GB" worn on caps from Vince Lombardi through the 1970s.

I rather like it. I can't see the Packers ever ditching Dad Braisher's "G" helmet logo, but but as a "what if?" exercise I like McInerney's design a lot more than I do some of the others which have been proposed.

Concepts: "B Inspired"

The folks over at Minneapolis-based design firm BAKER have been experimenting with concept uniforms for NFL clubs, anticipating the switchover to Nike.

Here's their Packer concept, created by Steve Wåhlin:

Steve Wåhlin @SteveWahlin

I took two different approaches with this exercise: one forward-looking and one looking back to the past, but both firmly rooted in tradition. With the first design, I modernized the classic navy blue and gold color scheme that was a hallmark of the Packers first 40 years. On the jersey, the shoulder yoke pays homage to the classic Packer uniform of the 1940s. Overall, the yellow has been replaced with a true metallic gold. For a more contemporary typographic look, I turned to Champion bold; which is very readable and masculine, yet has some pleasing subtleties in the numerals. And finally, the G helmet logo—originally intended to mimic a football before it morphed into its current oval shape—has been streamlined back into a more meaningful, aggressive shape.

The NFL now advocates the use of a “third jersey” for special matchups or holiday games. Here, I’ve proposed a scheme where the navy blue in the entire uniform is replaced with the traditional Packer green. It’s no mistake that this is very much like the color palette of Notre Dame; Packers founder Curly Lambeau intentionally based his team’s color scheme on that of his alma mater, including using green and gold intermittently during his tenure as coach.

This last design has a throwback feel, but it does not specifically mimic any Packer uniform of the past. There are elements from a number of designs: the brown pants of the 1920s, clean yellow stripes from the 1950s; the white lettering and vintage Running Packer logo from the 1960s. But a lot of things have been simplified and rationalized. The helmet stripes have been reduced to one simple green line. The arm stripes have moved to the undershirt and simplified into 4 equal lines to represent the Packers’ four Superbowl wins. The 2 yellow stripes on each of the socks symbolizes the Packers’s wins in the first two Superbowls; and the total number of uniform stripes is 13—the Packers’ total number of NFL championships. The classic yellow color is still present but it is given a metallic sheen on the helmet, gloves and shoes. Go Pack Go!

Outstanding.

I'd like to look at each of his concepts individually, beginning with his blue and gold primary uniform.

Obviously, I love the shout-out to all of the Packers' glorious past; one of the problems with the team wearing Lombardi's uniform today is that it reinforces the notion that the NFL started with the Super Bowl.

I'm also a huge fan of the shoulder yoke, a classic Lambeau-era look that still works today in this era of disappearing sleeves. A classic look that fits with modern uniform construction, and that's a rarity. The jersey numbers are a bit too close to the Rams; I'd rather see a right-angle block in an additional shout-out to Lambeau's uniform.

Putting the TV numbers on the compression sleeves is a nice touch. For 3½ years I've been advocating moving the Packers' distinctive stripes there, but never the TV numbers.

I will admit a partiality to Lambeau's color scheme over Lombardi's. I do recognize that I am in the minority here, and understand that the chromatic uniqueness of the Green and Gold is worth preserving. With that in mind, his alternate uniform, featuring a variant on the Packers' current color scheme, would work well today.

The modified helmet logo doesn't quite work for me. I appreciate the idea behind it, and I like the more elongated version worn by the Packers in the early 1960s. But this is a bit too aggressive, trying too hard.

So I like the primary concept a lot. The alternate uniform also shows a lot of promise.

Always interesting to see the "Holstein Heisman" logo in action. It has never been a regular part of the Packers' uniform, but has seen an uptick in modern use.

I'd hate for the Packers to drop their famous Braisher stripes, but a pair of simple gold stripes on green is a fantastic look, hearkening back not only to 1940s look above but also the socks worn by the team during the Lindy Infante era.

Not sure about the reasoning behind the number of stripes:

the total number of uniform stripes is 13—the Packers’ total number of NFL championships.

That's fine, Steve, but what are you going to do when they win their 14th next year?

There is one element that I think the Packers should adopt immediately; the metallic-flake gold helmet.

This manages to combine the classic athletic gold color with a metallic finish. Modern, but similar enough that the Packers could adopt this helmet with the same ease they went to "pearlized" shells in 2001. Perhaps this is something Hydro Graphics Inc. could provide, if they expand their NFL offerings. It would be a perfect opportunity for the Packers to branch out into a metallic helmet without losing their visual legacy.

All in all, very well done. A very fun concept, something from which the Packers could learn. I'd love to see that helmet under a clear November Wisconsin sky.

So Simple, It's Perfect

This morning, Nike unveiled its new slate of special "Pro Combat" uniforms for the college teams they outfit. Among the standard hyper-futuristic designs on display is this 1967 throwback for the Oregon State Beavers:

Most notable are the sleeve stripes, which have been moved to the compression shirts:

What a novel idea, preserving 1960s design with twenty-first century technology. If Oregon State can do this, then why can't the Packers?

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UPDATE: Paul Lukas posted more pictures of the uniform on ESPN.com as part of his coverage of the unveiling:

The undershirt looks pretty good in its own right. I can easily imagine a green-and-gold version for sale at the Pro Shop:

Here's Paul's take (emphasis mine):

Surprisingly old-school, no? ... Hard to believe this is the same school that wore that sports bra design a few years back. ... A few minutes before the unveiling, a guy from Nike introduced himself to me, pointed at this design, and said, "I worked on all of these, and this is the best one of the bunch." Hard to disagree. ... Matte-finish helmet is interesting. ... Putting the sleeve stripes on the undersleeves, instead of on the actual jersey, is probably the future of football striping.

We can certainly hope so.

Another Modest Proposal

The UniWatch blog is currently running a contest in which entrants re-design one NFL club's jersey. As those who follow my Borchert Field blog know, I'm a sucker for uniform concepts, so naturally I submitted an entry this morning: my proposal to re-design the Packers' jerseys.

Entrants were limited to a 50-word description of their concept. Mine read:

Green Bay’s design is beautiful, but the jerseys, with the bold sleeve striping, are relics of a day when jerseys had sleeves (which is why the Packers truncated them in 1997). My solution - drop the striping altogether. The distinctive element is now a stencil font befitting the team’s name.

Certainly not my best PhotoShop work, but hopefully the design stands on its own.

I didn't want to just create some wild concept for its own sake. I wanted a new uniform that I could actually see Aaron Rodgers wearing as he drops back to pass before a packed house at Lambeau Field. So what works, stays. No changes to the pants or socks. The iconic helmet is also virtually untouchable in any realistic Packers concept (not even Ron Wolf could get away with that one), although I took the opportunity to bring back the gray face mask. There's something about the gray which just screams "pro football" to me, and I like the idea of a single uniform element, in this case the helmet, creating as stable a visual link as possible to Lombardi's era.

So, to the jersey. First things first: the sleeve stripes. We've talked about this before - sleeve stripes became hopelessly anachronistic the day players stopped wearing sleeves. This has been a problem for over a decade; the five-stripe pattern was being chopped down by players even before Nike reduced it to three stripes, as seen in this photo from Super Bowl XXXI the previous season:

On the new template with its cap sleeves, the vestigal sleeve stripes look even sillier:

So why not bow to reality, make it official and remove the sleeve stripes entirely?

At the same time, I also removed Forrest Gregg's neck striping - it didn't seem to fit without the sleeve stripes to balance it, and like the sleeve stripes it has fallen victim to player customization for years.

If players customize their jerseys to crop off a uniform feature, that feature doesn't have any place in my concept. With an eye towards something the Packers would actually wear, I'm using as a ground rule the new single-template-for-all-positions design the NFL is implementing next season. All players in all positions will be wearing the same uniform cut, and the design ought to reflect that. So out you go, last echo of Gregg's coaching tenure.

I also wanted to create something new while staying within the Packers' uniform tradition (which is why I didn't want to overhaul the helmets, pants or socks - they work marvelously in this new template, and we'll have no change for change's sake). I'm not a fan of the intricate piping and overdone paneling that has become fashionable in the NFL's design studio. Not to mention the wavy striping that doesn't quite make sense. Those just don't belong on the most storied of franchises.

So no sleeve stripes, no crazy piping. But I wasn't terribly interested in just putting out a blank green jersey. I thought about adding a "G" patch to the chest as the Jets and Steelers have done, but that seemed a little too easy a solution. Not to mention that once you add a commemorative or memorial patch, the jersey can get cluttered very quickly.

I decided instead to create a custom number font. Those can also get pretty dicey, but can work. The stencil seemed like a natural, fitting in with the wordmark the Packers have used since the 1970s:

The Packers also used to stencil player numbers on the backs of helmets in the 1960s, as in this Paul Hornung gamer:

The number font itself is based on the classic block font worn by the Packers in the 1940s:

A small logo on the back collar, one final Packers identifier, finishes off the concept. My one little concession to modernity.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. I'm a fairly tradition-minded Packer fan (okay, make that extremely tradition-minded), and I would be happy to see the Packers adopt this look.

I think the final result strikes the right balance to create a jersey worthy of the Packers' history. Deeply traditional and yet strikingly modern, the jersey is instantly recognizable wherever it is worn, from the football field to the grocery store.

Feedback is, as always, welcome.

UPDATE:

I'm honored to report that my design was selected by the judges as one of the eleven finalists, but fell short in the popular vote. Thanks for everyone who voted, and the fine folks at Uni Watch for a great contest. And congrats to Brad McPelican and his very cool Seahawks update.

A Modest Proposal

Been thinking about this one for a while, but it may be time for a slight change to the Packers' uniforms.

The NFL is currently testing a new skin-tight uniform, to be spread throughout the league soon (as the NHL did a couple years ago).

Looking at the new protoptypes, and considering the slowly-developing problem of disappearing sleeves, you can see the problem. There's barely enough room for even the Packers' downsized stripes as it is; once the new jersey cuts are unveiled they might be banished from the sleeves altogether.

And that actually might be a good thing.

Here's my proposal: Remove the stripes from the jersey sleeves altogether, and place them on the compression shirts players wear under the jerseys.

Okay, my Photoshop skills aren't the best. But you get the general idea.

Players could then crop their sleeves as short as they like (well, within reason), and maybe we could even create enough real estate on the arms to restore the proper Lombardi stripe pattern:
Plus, the NFL could actually start selling the compression shirts branded as "Authentics."

I smell a win-win.

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UPDATE 9/1/2010: Looks like Nike agrees, introducing these Oregon State throwback uniforms to be worn in the 2010 Civil War game with Oregon:

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UPDATE 10/17/2010: Now that Nike will be taking over the NFL uniform contract beginning in 2012, this seems more possible now than ever.