The dust has settled somewhat from yesterday’s uniform circus. In the end, the Browns uniforms look very much the same, especially to someone sitting in the upper decks, or at home on the couch. We weren’t really anticipating a big change, and certainly weren’t disappointed.
I kind of like the mesh pant stripe. I know it is more a performance change than an aesthetic one, but it reminds me of the old style mesh jerseys. The only question about the Browns new uniform set seems to center around if the team will actually wear the Brown jerseys.
‘Tradition’ is the reason given for why the Browns made the white jersey the standard for the team to wear at home this past season. Of course by choosing to wear the white uniforms at home, the Browns ended up wearing the same look for all 16 games. The funny thing about ‘tradition’ is that the Browns have a pretty long history of wearing Brown uniforms as well.
Regardless, I’m sure most were pleased that the Browns didn’t get the ‘Full-Nike’ treatment on the uniforms. The only team that did get significant changes to their design was the Seattle Seahawks.
At least for now.
Now, before we start wondering when the uni-bomb will drop on the Browns, let me bring back something from our While We’re Waiting piece this morning-
Contrary to what many fans think, a uniform outfitter like Nike can’t just walk in and make design changes without a team’s permission. Nike is just a vendor supplying a service to a client, and in this case the client is the NFL, whose team owners are some of America’s most conservative businessmen. They’re not the sort of people who want their teams to look, for lack of a better term, wacky.
The NFL has rules that keep a team from changing its uniform design more than once every five years. So many teams that have made recent uni changes aren’t yet eligible for a redesign. A full-scale makeover, including getting all the product into the retail pipeline, takes time, and Nike’s new relationship with the NFL is still very young. So we might see more redesigns next year, or the year after. There’s one big caveat, however: No alternate jerseys were shown Tuesday. Word through the grapevine is that several of them are in the works, including one for the Redskins. No word yet on when we’ll see these (maybe at the draft?), but it might be that Nike and the NFL have decided to stick with conventional primary uniforms and push the envelope with the alternates.
That was from Uni-Watch’s Paul Lukas. So no matter what Nike wants to do with the Browns or anyone else’s uniforms for that matter, the team must sign off on it.
I’ve been accused of being a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to uniforms. I certainly do have my opinions, and I’m generally not afraid to call out an ugly look on a team when I see it. With that in mind, I took a look at what Nike did with the Seahawks uniforms.
I have to say, I don’t really hate ‘em. In fact, I actually kind of like ‘em. Take a look at the photo set here.
If you could imagine the Browns going with something similar (but tailored to the traditional colors), would it be that huge of a disaster?
I can see the Brown jerseys with white numbers and orange piping. Perhaps some orange striping to the sleeves. Obviously, the Browns wouldn’t use the same ‘wing’ shape that is prevalent in Seattle’s new digs. I’m not a big alternate uniform fan, but for the Seahawks the alternate grey works. I don’t know about an alternate orange for the Browns.
The helmet design could be a potential hiccup.
Seattle’s new helmet has a unique stripe that because of the subtlety of the colors I think I like. I’m not sure how this would play out in Cleveland. I don’t imagine the Browns would add a helmet logo at this point.
Which leaves the stripes as the only real place that could get a redesign. Not sure I’m excited about that possibility, but I’d kind of like to see what options might exist.
Any amateur uniform designers out there wanna take what Nike did with Seattle’s uniforms and give the Browns an update? I’d love to see what you come up with.
