I don’t mean to pick on Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy — he’s been with the team for nearly 50 years, and he probably has his hands full finding caps to fit Barry Bonds’s ever-enlarging cranium — but the team had some major slip-ups on the uni front last week. First, as reported here last week, Dan Ortmeier’s left-sleeve team logo patch was missing; then Fred Lewis’s right-sleeve All-Star Game patch was similarly unaccounted for. The kicker came on Friday, when Randy Messenger made his Giants debut with no name on his jersey.
Messenger had been traded late the night before, so the Giants had less than 24 hours to prepare a jersey for him. And yes, the trade happenedjust as the team was leaving New York and heading to Philly. Still, it shouldn’t have been that hard to get a jersey lettered and ready to go. Couldn’t they just have gotten one made at the local Sports Authority or something? Messenger didn’t pitch on Saturday or Sunday (no doubt due to embarrassment), so it’s not clear if his jersey has finally been brought up to code.
Interestingly, the Messenger nameplate snafu took place almost exactly a year to the day after the Giants misspelled Eliezer Alfonzo’s name on his jersey. Maybe the team should just take a week off every season during this time of year.
To be fair, the Giants aren’t the only MLB team with uni-related problems lately. As noted in Friday night’s comments, the Brewers’ right-sleeve anniversary patch was missing from Jeff Suppan’s jersey on Friday.
And whatever quality control issues MLB teams are having, it’s nothing compared to what’s happening to the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL. Reader Rob W. was at Philly’s Friday-night game and snapped pics of several players with numerals that had peeled off, as seen here, here, and here. First time I’ve seen anything like that since the Colts’ 2005 opener, when lineman Corey Simon had one of his numerals ripped off of his jersey (an oddity I no longer have a photo of, unfortunately, although I do have shots of of Miguel Tejada with the “1″ coming off of his jersey after a head-first slide in early 2005 [he played the rest of that game as No. 0]).
(Special thanks to Chris Shastid for the Messenger screen shot.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Colorado’s new football uniforms, unveiled over the weekend, will look like this and this. Additional pics, info, and video links here, and still more pics here, here, here, and here. … Amusing teal manifesto here (with thanks to Rob McCallum). … Check out Softbank Hawks pitching coach Tadashi Sugimoto, who appears to be wielding the world’s longest fungo bat (with thanks to, of course, Jeremy Brahm). … “I found my old high school volleyball practice shirt the other day,” writes Jeff Bethune. “I never really liked them, but now looking back I see it’s because of the extreme radial arching. I don’t know what my coach was thinking.” Actually, I think that looks pretty sharp, except for the uni number, which looks way clunky. … Great catch by Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek, who notes that the MLB logo at the base of Mike Rabelo’s mask is patterned on the American flag (here’s a close-up from the All-Star web site) — never seen that treatment before. … More from Vince: (1) Serious decal crowding on the back of the Northwestern softball team’s helmets. (2) Josh Beckett appears to be wearing everything but a noose. (3) Trevor Hoffman’s trophy room, complete with jerseys on the wall. … The guy in the center of this photo is a young Barack Obama, shown on the JV hoops team of his high school in 1977. Here’s another shot, from 1979. … Maybe the reason Carlos Zambrano took a swing at Michael Barrett the other day is that the “C” appliqué on Barrett’s helmet was peeling off, a uni transgression that might move anyone to violence. … Looks like Jorge Posada was wearing white-out on his nails on Friday night (good catch by Mike Foreman). … “Found this picture from this gallery of an American football (as opposed to soccer) team in Germany,” writes Tom Langan. “Note the team names (in English) on the backs of jereseys, what appears to be No. 57 memorial sticker, and some logos on the bottom of the jersey numbers, à la the EPL.” … Todd Burus and Chris Mahoney both note that Wily Mo Peña, who wears uni number 22, is wearing No. 26 wristbands — perhaps a holdover from his days with the Reds. Plus Burus adds that Manny has been wearing his skullcap backwards, with the MLB logo facing front. Not only that, but the Red Sox logo on the back is backwards, which means either he’s also wearing it inside-out (although it doesn’t look that way, because the backwards logo looks raised) or else it’s yet another quality-control issue. … Brinke Guthrie recently stopped in at McCovey’s Restaurant and snapped a buncha pics of the many jerseys on display. Check out his full slide show here. … Anyone know what Troy Glaus was wearing on his leg while running the bases in the 7th inning of last Monday’s Yanks/Jays game? David Chisholm says Glaus wasn’t wearing it while batting, but he apparently strapped it on once he reached base. … Interesting commentary here about how the Trail Blazers need to start fresh with new uniforms (with thanks to Aaron Wiens). … Latest volley in the discussion of the Orioles’ road uniforms can be found here (kudos to Zach Smith). … See that tiny white-ish smudge on the left edge of Terry Francona’s cap brim? You can’t tell from that photo (or from any other that I’ve been able to find), but on TV it clearly appears to be a small “11,” apparently a shout-out to former Sox player Doug Mientkiewicz, who was injured in that collision with Mike Lowell on Saturday night. … Looks like Johnny Damon picked up a first baseman’s mitt on the way to the ballpark last night (with thanks to Michael Basu). … Actual quote from Cincy pitcher Kyle Loshe, when told May 28th could be his day, since he wears No. 28 and the Reds were playing home game No. 28: “I hate my number. I’d rather be 21, 22 or 23.” (Nice find by Jeff Barak.) … Faaaaascinating reminiscence from Paul Hirsch, who writes: “When I was a ballboy for the 1974 Angels, we wore pants without belt loops. However, there was a pocket on the inside of the waistband where a belt could be snaked through, using a special plastic tool that guided the belt through. Not everyone used it, but it was available and it did help keep one’s pants up.” … John Moist reports that Saturday was Price Is Right Night in Fresno, with the Fresno Grizzlies wearing some truly bizarre jerseys. Additional pics here and here. … More minor league zaniness, this time from Matt Nelson, who notes that Memorial Day found the Binghamton Mets using red, white, and blue jersey insignia and bases.
June 4th, 2007
At the recent Uni Watch party in San Francisco, I met reader Al Cummings, who mentioned that his daughter works as a colorist for a major sportswear company. I said I’d be very interested in interviewing her, so he promised to point her in my direction. Sure enough, a few days later I got an e-mail from P.K. Cummings.
P.K. (which is what everyone calls her — it’s not an alias or anything like that) turned out to be quite a character. As you’ll see, she’s not exactly shy with her opinions. But you’ll also see that she’s a highly skilled professional with a lot of specialized technical expertise. That combination makes for a very, very good interview.
P.K. asked that I not name the company she works for, so the firm is referred to as “Company X” in the transcript that follows, even though it’s pretty obvious which company it is. Just keep that to yourself, OK? OK.
Uni Watch: How long have you worked at Company X, and what’s your title there?
P.K. Cummings: I’ve been there almost a year, and I’m a textile color specialist.
UW: How’d you end up with that job?
PKC: It was pretty serendipitous — it kinda fell into my lap. I’d worked in fashion and gone to school for textiles. I saw a post on Monster.com and responded.
UW: Where did you study textiles?
PKC: At the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, in Los Angeles. I studied textile design. We didn’t have any sports teams, so now, whenever we have “Wear Your School Day” at work, I just come in all black.
UW: What are favorite team uniforms, in terms of color?
PKC: I’m a fan of most throwbacks due to the simplicity. The old Celtics, when they wore satin shorts, are decent. And I have a locational and occupational bias towards the Raiders — silver and black always look good as clothing and face paint.
UW: Do you have a favorite color?
PKC: Green. Kelly green. Actually, there’s this gridiron green that we’re using now — it’s like a kelly, but not quite as springy. A bit olive.
UW: What about a least favorite color?
PKC: I don’t have one of those. [Switching to mock-flowery tone.] They’re all my favorites!
UW: Hmmmm…
PKC: Except for Vegas gold, which is just fucking hideous.
UW: So many people seem to hate that color. Why is that?
PKC: It’s like what you look like after a night of gambling in Vegas — jaundiced, drunk. Plus it’s really hard to match, it’s hard for mills to get right.
UW: So what does your job actually entail? You just mentioned fabric mills…
PKC: I work with all our sourced mills — there are over 40 of them. We have a set of in-house color standards on little placards, so the mills send me little samples of what their huge production lot will be like…
UW: Like a swatch?
PKC: Yeah. They send that to me, and then I read it on a spectrophotometer, which reads pure light, so I can see where it is, numerically, compared to our standards.
UW: These placards of yours, they probably have to be replaced from time to time, because they fade, right?
PKC: We keep them in a controlled environment. Our lab is conditioned…
UW: What does that mean?
PKC [after long pause]: Sorry, I just looked at MySpace and saw a picture of my brother’s butt — ugh! Fuck him, y’know? Wait, where were we?
UW: What does “conditioned” mean?
PKC: It’s maintained at a stable temperature and humidity. We like to keep it between 68 and 72 degrees, and 21.3% humidity. That’s the optimum.
UW: What sorts of Company X products do you deal with?
PKC: Everything, from the Dri-Power to the AFL uniforms, to selecting the threads to match with it.
UW: Like, the threads for seam stitching and embroidery?
PKC: Yeah. I just had this super drama today with the Philadelphia Soul.
UW: Um, is that an AFL team?
PKC: Yeah. The coolest thing I’ve gotten to do for the AFL is that the color we’re using for the Philadelphia Soul jersey, I got to name it Jon Bon Jovi.
UW: That’s the name of the color?
PKC: Well, it’s officially Soul Blue, but we reference it internally by a three-letter code, so it’s going to be JB — wait a minute, “Jon Bon Jovi,” okay, so it’s JBJ.
UW: What other leagues do you work with?
PKC: We do Little League Baseball.
UW: So the Little League World Series uniforms..?
PKC: Yeah, we do those.
UW: Any other leagues?
PKC: Company X lost most of their league contracts over the past few years, but they’re hoping to get a lot of them back.
UW: You mentioned to me in an e-mail yesterday that you hate how the gold on the Saints’ helmet doesn’t match the gold on their collar trim.
PKC: Oh, I hate that. I would be, like, fired if I did that. The closest thing we’ve had to that was a mismatch with Washington State — the silver on their pants didn’t match the silver on the helmet. So I had to read the helmet [on the spectrophotometer], redo everything, and then they actually ended up putting these horrible jerseys on the field. It was the saddest thing ever. It wasn’t my fault!
UW: Isn’t it hard matching fabric to plastic, though?
PKC: It can be, yeah. You just have work with the best dye materials. A lot of mills are pretty hesitant to spend the money on something they’re only gonna use once.
UW: Are you aware that the Cowboys have two different blues, and three different silvers?
PKC: Yes. It makes me crazy.
UW: If you could talk to the management of these teams, what would you say to them?
PKC: Look at the jerseys before you put them on the field! Or at least have a woman look at them.
UW: I’ve been told Jerry Jones, who owns the Cowboys, is actually colorblind.
PKC: Well, one of every 12 males is.
UW: What about women?
PKC: I think we’re up in the 200s.
UW: Wouldn’t life be easier, in some ways, if we were all colorblind?
PKC: I suppose, yeah.
UW: But you’d be out of a job.
PKC: Yeah, that would be a bummer. What would I do with my more-than-perfect vision?
UW: Your vision is better than perfect?
PKC: Yes.
UW: What is it, like, 20/15?
PKC: Yes.
UW: That’s pretty good.
PKC: I know.
UW: But wait a minute, you just sent me a photo of yourself wearing glasses.
PKC: I have a slight astigmatism, and my glasses have a glare reducer for the friggin’ computer screen and night driving. That and I take them off to emphasize a point every once in a while.
UW: When you’re dealing with mills and dye manufacturers and such, do you actually travel to the factories?
PKC: I do a little bit of traveling, but not too much. Mostly I work in-house.
UW: Do you communicate directly with any of the teams or leagues?
PKC: Personally? No. But I hear John Elway really liked one of the colors I worked on.
UW: Is he the owner of one of the teams?
PKC: I think he’s involved with the Philly Soul — I think it’s Jon Bon Jovi, Horse Teeth, and someone else. [Actually, Elway is part-owner of the Colorado Crush. -- PL]
UW: Do you use Pantone samples?
PKC: We try not to. It’s really hard to get super-accurate color readings, because the piece of fabric is mounted on a white backing, and that makes it hard to get the density of the color. Also, there are optical brighteners in the glue, which can affect the purity of the color.
UW: So do you use something else, instead of Pantone?
PKC: CSI — Color Solutions International. They’re another widely accepted standard within the industry. They work mostly with fabric — they have this color wall that’s, like, the Wonka-land for color. God, it’s amazing.
UW: Where are they headquartered?
PKC: North Carolina.
UW: Have you been there?
PKC: Mmmmm — I can picture it. But I haven’t been.
UW: You fantasize about it!
PKC: I do — it’s really lame. You know, I was e-mailing with my dad about a CD that he invested for me, and I wrote, “Yeah, just let it accrue a little.” But instead of “accrue,” I wrote “ecru,” the color. I didn’t even realize I did it, but he wrote back, “I can tell you’re a colorist.” And I’m like, aw jeez…
UW: You’re a color geek! That’s cool. Do you use one of those special viewing boxes with the special industry-standard lighting?
PKC: Yeah. UV 65 is the industry-wide standard, and then cool-white is another, because that’s similar to retail lighting. So yeah, we all have our light boxes, and our lab coats…
UW: You wear a lab coat?
PKC: Yes, I do. I look very official.
UW: Is it white?
PKC: No, it’s gray. White would reflect and then adulterate your viewing of the color. So it’s a very mellow gray. Our whole lab — everything in it is gray.
UW: Does your lab coat have a little name patch on it?
PKC: No, nothing cool like that.
UW [terribly disappointed]: So it’s sort of a uniform, but it’s not a cool uniform.
PKC: It’s just a boring lab coat, like your science teacher would wear.
UW: Any other rules in terms of what you have to wear?
PKC: No. And we can wear Company X product. Like, you can be super scumbagged-out, but as long as you’re wearing Company X sweats, you’re good to go. So I stocked up on sweats.
UW: What if you show up wearing, say, Nike sweats?
PKC: Hmmm. If someone’s lame enough to say something, you just say you got it at a sample sale so you could knock it off.
UW: Researching the competition, right?
PKC: Exactly. I got a bunch of Quicksilver stuff from one of the women in the graphics department…
UW: What’s Quicksilver?
PKC: They do surfwear stuff. They’re just another company, but someone bought a bunch of their stuff to knock ‘em off.
UW: We see sports design go through lots of color cycles. Like, purple and teal were really popular, and now red seems to be on the rise. How do these cycles come about? Do people like you sit around in a big room somewhere and decide all of this stuff?
PKC: Everything is pretty much decided two years in advance. There are trend operations that put out trend books.
UW: And do you participate in creating those trends, or do you just respond to them?
PKC: I respond to them, because I don’t have any say-so in the design process, as of yet.
UW: But it sounds like you have a world-domination scheme that will eventually call for you to make those decisions.
PKC: Yes, definitely.
UW: Do you belong any professional organizations?
PKC: I’m a member of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. There’s also the CPMA — that’s the Color, uh, something or other. I don’t know, it came free with another membership. [She's apparently referring to this. -- PL]
UW: What do you think are the best and worst trends in sports color?
PKC: Hmmm. I think the yellows never work out. They don’t televise well.
UW: Is that something you’re always thinking about? Like, you have to consider how it’ll look at retail, and then on TV, and then in high-def.
PKC: I do, yeah.
UW: Do you videotape things and then see how they look on TV?
PKC: I’ll do that with my digital camera. I’ll take something outside, film it from different light sources, that sort of thing.
UW: What about good trends?
PKC: I don’t know. You know, I think football uniforms in general are kind of ridiculous. I don’t think they match the current needs of football. Back in the day, it was a sweater or a sweatshirt, but now it’s graduated to this insane microfiber — like, the pants we’re doing for the AFL, it’s crazy. It’s so tight, but it stretches. The designer picked it on purpose, ’cause she’s kind of a pervert.
UW: So it’ll show off the players’ butts, or outline their packages?
PKC: Yeah, that kind of thing. She was like, “Ooh, it’s gonna be so tight on them!”
UW: Any predictions for future trends?
PKC: Well, I know that throwbacks are so much more prevalent now, so people are going with the more standard looks. I think it’s gonna segue into different kind of cut-outs. I don’t think colors per se are gonna change much.
UW: What does the average sports fan not understand about color?
PKC: That there are actually people working to make it happen correctly. Things don’t just show up matching — there’s a lot of work to make it all go together, especially since the fabric that you use for the pants may be different than the fabric for the shirt. And the mesh inserts are different from the dazzle fabric. So there’s a lot that goes into making it a cohesive unit.
UW: It sounds like you’re an actual sports fan yourself.
PKC: I had no choice, really.
UW: You mean it was a prerequisite for the job?
PKC: No, I mean growing up with my father and brother.
UW: Oh! Well, is it a prerequisite for the job? Can you work for Company X if you’re not a sports fan?
PKC: Yeah, you can. We have a lot of overweight people who work there, too. I mean, come on, we make athletic apparel…
UW: How has the job affected how you watch sports?
PKC: I’m way more hyper-critical of what they look like. I’m always looking to see if the socks match, or making sure the numbers and trim match up.
UW: So it’s basically ruined your sports viewing experience?
PKC: No, after about two beers I’m able to put all that aside, and then I could care less.
UW: Do you prefer a team that has only two colors, like the Colts or the Red Wings or the Jets, or a team with a lot of colors?
PKC: Hmmm. [Long pause of consideration.] You know, it doesn’t really matter. I like both approaches. The multiple colors are fun, because it adds more variety to what you can paint your face with.
——–
Well put. Über-thanks to P.K. for an interview as entertaining as it was informative.
February 28th, 2007
Another university is doing a public service by putting its visual history on the web. Reader Dan Hardin has the details:
Texas A&M has an ongoing project to digitize historic pictures related to the university. Many are of athletic teams, and touch on some of your favorite uni-related items:
• From pre-1900s baseball, here are some interesting collars and pants.
• Here’s another early baseball shot, with some players with pointed collars and some with turtlenecks, a couple wearing ties, and oh my, the socks! [The "AMC" insignia refers to the school's original name, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. And yes, this baseball team sure looks football-ish, but note the bats and gloves in the foreground. -- PL]
• In 1923, the team name was on the placket. This isn’t the greatest picture, but it’s more notable for who’s included — in the back row, second from left, is King Gill, the original A&M “12th Man.” And in the middle of the back row, the tallest one, that’s Pat Olsen, a former major leaguer for whom the A&M baseball stadium is now named.
• The football team of the 1970s featured some interesting stripeage.
• These 1943-44 basketball uniforms, however, were much more unfortunate, at least in my view. [I beg to differ. -- PL]
This is just a sampling. You can access the entire collection here.
The archive is a friggin’ gold mine, whether you’re into baseball (look here, here, here, and here), basketball (here, here [those sneakers!], here, here [love those matching striped kneepads], and here [is that the most amazing jersey design ever or what?]), or football (here, here [note the refs in jackets and bow ties], here, here [ref now in slacks and broadcloth shirt], here, here, here [rear pants striping!], here, here, and here).
Sorry, got a little carried away there, but that’s how good this material is. And there’s a lot more where that came from. Lots of little anomalies, too — two different members of the 1938 football team, for example, were photographed while wearing a No. 57 jersey, and both of them had mismatched numbers on their helmets.
Kudos to Texas A&M for documenting its own history, and thanks again to Dan for the tip.
Duck L’orange L’jaune: By now we’ve all seen the yellow Oregon helmet shown at right. But until yesterday, I hadn’t seen anyone actually wearing the damn thing. That changed last night, when Uni Watch Omaha bureau chief Bryan Redemske sent me a trio of pics that went out over the AP wire but somehow never circulated on the web. Take a look here, here, and here.
They look kinda like motorcycle helmets, no? Fortunately, I already have plans for Thursday night (gonna be attending the annual holiday fish fry at the completely wonderful Sunny’s Tavern, hosted by the even more wonderful Sunny Balzano), so I won’t have to watch the horrid spectacle of the Las Vegas Bowl.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Logo Creep Alert from Travis McGuire, who writes: “I found this photo on the Arena Football web site promoting their new video game. The funny thing is, the Russell Athletic logo on the sleeve is quite large, but it doesn’t appear on this version of the photo, which is on the Chicago Rush home page.” … “Anquan Boldin looks like he needs a belt,” observes Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek, who also sent along this circa-1950 photo of a primitive facemask being worn by Brown goalie (and future U.S. Olympian) Don Whiston. … Yesterday’s post about outdoor basketball prompted several readers to mention that basketball was played on a clay court at the 1936 Olympics (the first year it was a medal sport). Brian Jackson turned up this photo (which doesn’t really show the court, but at least you can tell it’s outside) and a booklet digitized in this PDF file, which includes a player’s recollections of the court (go to the 18th page of the document, which is page 14 of the booklet itself). … Amusing blog entry here about the Redskins’ cheerleaders. There’s also a mention of the now-defunct Steelerettes, who clearly had the best cheerleader unis of all time (further details on them here, but you might wanna hit your mute button first; tip courtesy of Neal Shaffer, who also sent along a page of great Iowa high school patches).
December Call-Up: Attentive readers (which means, y’know, all of you) have undoubtedly noticed my recent references to Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek, who scored the trivia quiz and has been helping me out lately with photo research. Tomorrow he joins the active roster, as I’m turning over the blog’s main entry to him for a day. Not gonna tell you what he’s writing about, but I’ll give you a hint: Vince lives just outside of Cleveland, and his debut entry definitely reflects his locale.
Finally, I’m not gonna be around for most of today (Uni Watch hedge fund analyst Jenny Strasburg and I are gonna go see this and this, and then check out what we’re gonna cook for dinner!). So talk amongst yourselves today, treat Vince right tomorrow, and I’ll be back on Friday.
December 20th, 2006
