Pages

Saturday, February 28, 2015

#2 in a series: America East logo usage

After a couple of days of throwing up prevented me from writing this post, I'm finally able to get back near a computer without being afraid of throwing up on it. Today, I'll continue the series I started with my last post and cover the use of conference logos on uniforms with the 9 teams of the America East conference. The America East is more streamlined than the Horizon League, but still not full conformed. 3 teams use no conference logo, while the remaining 6 use the primary logo of the conference. The AEC also is more convoluted in that there are four different uniform manufacturers for the nine teams: five teams with Nike, two with Under Armor, one with adidas, and one with New Balance. Without further ado, the team-by-team breakdowns:

Albany Great Danes

UAlbany, the defending America East champions, are one of five teams under the Nike brand in the conference. Now that the Great Danes have ditched their two-color spilt shorts they wore last season, most notably in the NCAA tournament, the Great Danes have a solid set of uniforms. They are one of three teams in the conference to not wear a conference logo on either uniform, white or purple.

Vermont Catamounts

Vermont is the one team in the America East to wear adidas uniforms, and the only school with four different uniforms. Although the Catamounts' uniforms look as if they haven't been updated in 10 years, they aren't horrific (except for a completely awful grey road alternate jersey). Vermont also does not use a conference logo on three of their uniforms. The whiteyellow home alternate, and road black uniforms do not have a logo anywhere on the uniforms; however, Vermont does use the conference logo on the sleeve of their grey alternate jerseys. Yes, those are sleeved, GFGS uniforms-the worst single uniform in the conference, in my opinion.

Stony Brook Seawolves

The Seawolves of Stony Brook are in the majority as one of five teams under the Nike brand in the America East, and one of six to use the America East logo on their uniforms; however, just like Vermont, the logo doesn't appear on one uniform. The logo appears on the cream home uniforms over the left collarbone, but doesn't appear on the road red set, instead being replaced by a generalized logo used by the NCAA to represent men's basketball.

UMass Lowell River Hawks
Costello Athletic Center
UMass Lowell is the newest member of Division I, having just finished up its second transitional year. The River Hawks also play in the smallest arena in the America East, which doesn't help with recruiting; however, their jerseys are some of the best in the conference. The primary conference logo appears on the back of the jerseys on both the white and blue jerseys, basically taking the place of a nameplate.
Paul E. Tsongas Center










New Hampshire Wildcats

 New Hampshire is another of the five America East teams under the Nike brand and part of the group that does use a conference logo on their jerseys. I wasn't able to find a picture of the back of this season's white home jerseys for the Wildcats (this was the best I could find), but seeing as though the conference logo does appear on the back of the blue jerseys, I would assume that it is in the same place on the white jerseys as well.

Hartford Hawks
The Hawks play in the most interesting arena in the America East, Chase Arena, which can be seen to the left; however, their jerseys aren't nearly as interesting, with the exception of the alternate black uniforms. The Hawks' plain home and road uniforms both have the conference logo on the back, but the alternate black uniforms have no conference logo whatsoever (and are barely legible, to just add to the oddness).








Binghamton Bearcats
To me, the Bearcats have the most confused uniform identity in the America East. Binghamton has three different uniforms, white, black, and grey, from Nike, two of which use the conference logo, one which doesn't. To add to the confusion, only the black jersey has the NCAA patch for men's basketball, while neither of the other two. The white jersey is devoid of a conference patch, while both the black and grey uniforms have the conference logo on the left hip of the shorts. Adding to all of this is the simple fact that the primary color of the Binghamton color scheme is green, but the Bearcats don't have a green uniform or prominently use green on two of their jerseys.

Maine Black Bears
Getting my vote for the worst AEC uniform set is the Maine Black Bears, who, despite their name, don't use black in their color identity at all, instead opting for white, light blue, and navy blue. Throw in some horrible New Balance striping patterns that change from uniform to uniform, and these Maine uniforms earn the prize of worst in the conference. Not even the conference logo placement is standard, as the logo appears on the left hip on the white jerseys but doesn't appear on the blue jerseys.

UMBC Retrievers
To wrap up the America East, we come to the conference doormat, the UMBC Retrievers, who do have one of the nicest arenas and uniform sets in the conference, thanks to Under Armor. The Retrievers have three uniforms, white, black, and grey (although surprisingly no yellow, considering how much of it is used in their logo). All three jerseys do not have the conference logo on them, making UMBC one of just three teams in the conference to not use logos on their jerseys.


Thanks for sticking with me over such a long layover between posts, and I'll hope to have another one up within the next few days (stomach permitting).

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Horizon League logo usage

Last night, February 13, I was at the Valparaiso vs. Green Bay basketball game. Great game, great crowd, great atmosphere. The game itself was incredible, but the uniform matchup was very nice as well. Through the duration of this game, the part of the uniforms that stood out to me was the conference logos. Most major conferences standardize use of the logo, such as the Big 10, SEC, and the Pac-12. However, the Horizon League is not a league that requires that all teams use the same logo, in the same place, on each jersey. Two different Horizon League logos are used by teams in the conference on their jerseys: the conference's main logo and the wordmark. After looking into this, the breakdown of the usage of each logo is:   - 4 teams using the primary logo
                                                                   - 4 teams using the wordmark
                                                                   - 1 team with no logo used
The team-by-team breakdown shows no real pattern in the usage of each logo. Seven of the teams in the conference are Nike: four use the wordmark, three the primary. The two adidas teams are different as well. For the breakdown of each team, in alphabetical order:

Cleveland State Vikings
Cleveland State is one of the seven teams signed with Nike; one of five under the Nike brand. The Vikings have three jerseys: white, grey, and green. On both the white and grey uniforms, the primary logo is placed above the hem of the shorts on the right leg. However, the green jersey and shorts do not have a logo on them, making Cleveland State unique in being the only team in the league to not have the league logo on one set of jerseys, but on the other sets.



Detroit Titans
Just like Cleveland State, UDM is one of the Horizon League teams under the Nike brand. Detroit has three jerseys as well: white home jerseys, red aways, and a grey alternate. The Titans use the wordmark logo on all of their uniforms, putting it on the left collarbone on all three. The quirk for Detroit is the color of the wordmark font: red on the white jersey,
black on the grey jersey, and white on the road red jerseys, making Detroit the only team in the league with three different colored fonts for the league logo.

 UWGB Phoenix
The Phoenix of Wisconsin-Green Bay also side with Nike as their jersey producer. The Phoenix, even with a color scheme of green, red, black, and white, only have two jerseys; white at home, black on the road. This season, UWGB has had at least one alternate jersey, but that will be covered in a separate post. From what I could find, it appears as if the wordmark logo only appears on the road black set, on the right hip. The white set appears to have a 3-D, raised primary logo patch where the league logo appears on the black jerseys, which would make the Phoenix the only team in the Horizon League to put a team logo on the hip of their shorts.

Milwaukee Panthers
U.S. Cellular Arena-UWM
UWM is the only team in the Horizon League to host games at two different arenas, although just one game was scheduled for the on-campus Klotsche Center for this season, with the rest set for U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee. The defending league tournament champions are also one of just two adidas teams in the Horizon League, along with UIC. Unlike past years, the Panthers have only two jerseys this year: white and black. Both feature the Horizon League wordmark logo on the left hip, with the font being black on the white jersey and the opposite on the black jersey.
Klotsche Center-UWM



 







Athletics Center O'Rena-Oakland
Oakland Golden GrizzliesThe Golden Grizzlies of Oakland, the newest member of the Horizon League, are also just one of two teams in it that are under the Jordan brand from Nike. Oakland has the most jerseys of any team in the league with 4; white, gold, black, and grey. On three of these jerseys, white, gold, and black, the Horizon League wordmark logo is placed on the top left of the jersey, around the collarbone area. On the alternate grey jerseys, the wordmark can be faintly seen in matte black, which is barely readable, just like the rest of the jerseys.



UIC Flames
UIC joins Milwaukee as one of two Horizon League teams signed with adidas, and one of four teams in the league with three distinct jerseys. The Flames wear white jerseys at home, and either red or blue on the road. UIC is included in the list of league teams that put the league patch on the shorts, opting for the primary logo on the left hip. The logo is in white on both sets of road jerseys, and in blue on the home jerseys.

Valparaiso Crusaders
Currently the first-placed team in the Horizon League, my hometown Crusaders have one of, if not the most traditional uniform sets in the league. Since scrapping the brown away and grey alternate jerseys after 2011, Valpo has had a classic feel to their uniform set. The Crusaders are counted among the ranks of Nike teams, putting them in the majority in that category in the Horizon League. Valpo uses the primary league logo on both the home white and road yellow jerseys, placing it on the right hip of the shorts. At home, the logo is printed in yellow; on the road, in white.


Wright State Raiders
Wright State is one of just two teams in the 9-team Horizon League affiliated with Nike, but having their jerseys made by Jordan. Additionally, the Raiders will be the last team in this post with three or more jerseys. On all Wright State jerseys (the white homes, green roads, and yellow alternates), the primary league logo is printed on the left hip of the shorts, in green, white, and green, respectively. An interesting note on the alternate jerseys for Wright State is that the NOB is below the player's number, not above it as is normal.


Youngstown State Penguins
The final team in the Horizon League is the outlier of these statistics: Youngstown State is the only team in the league not to wear a league logo anywhere on their jerseys. Both the white home jerseys and red road jerseys do not contain the league logo; not on either hip, not on the collarbone, nowhere. Youngstown State is also the only team in the league to not have a wordmark on the front of their jerseys, instead opting for a large letter "Y".

That'll be all for today, and I'll try to have another conference done on the same topic sometime in the next week or so.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Welcome to my Addiction

First of all, let me stary by saying that I am obsessed with uniforms, their design, and the fact that they are ever-changing. However, that they are constantly changing presents a problem for me. Seeing as though I'm still in high school and that there are ostensibly better sites on the Web for that source of information, I don't have the time to cover all of the changes being made in the uniform world. With that in mind, what I will be doing is selectively covering bits and pieces of the uniform world, from alternate uniforms to patches to interesting jersey quirks, etc. Before I get started, I would like to clarify: -I was born in Ohio. I am not a bandwagon Ohio State fan. Don't even start.
                                   -Because of time constraints of school and soccer, I will try to post bidaily, but                                        that isn't guaranteed.
If you find something that you think should be include, contact me through the link at the top of the page. With that, enjoy a blog that I would be grateful to have 50 people reading by the time I graduate in 4 years.