Nike has introduced some new uniforms for some NCAA men’s basketball teams. The most noticeable change is a form fitting top that showcases the players’ upper body physique.
Hmm. i can understand wanting to show off the players’ muscles with a tighter top. And, while it is strange to simultaneaosly make the tops tighter and the bottoms looser, I can see why the guys might want to have a slightly slicker look and get away from those skin-tight shorts-shorts. You know, those skin-tight short-shorts THAT THEY WORE IN THE 1950’s!!! Seriously, WTF? how much longer and baggier can those shorts get?
But, there is much more WTF ahead. A spokesman from one of the universities said:
Yes. Please take the young men’s input seriously. So you can cater to their sporting spirit and come up with what I have bolded in the next quoute:
I just included the Syracuse and Florida ideas in the quote for context. But a “LeBron James insignia” on the OSU uniform when James didn’t even attend that school??? And what if he had? Should North Carolina put Nike’s famous Michael Jordan spread-eagle dunking silhouettes all over their uniforms? No. they should NOT!
(… he limps away weeping and muttering under his breath: notenoughrolleyes/notenougWTF’s/not enoughrolleyes/notenoughWTF’s…)
OOOO WAIT! Nike explains:
I see now. OK. Gotta personalize that look.
It really is true that “There is no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM’”. Glad to see the kids understand that.
They all know better.
They know, instead, that the word ‘TEAM’ does contain ‘ME’
At least they’re consistent–when was the last time you heard someone these days say, “It is all about I”?
Well mostly what I’m “on” about is the LeBron James thing on the OSU uniform and why anyone would entrust 19 year-olds with deciding what to put there. But then again, I haven’t seen it. But at this rate the uniforms might read “O to the S to the U, Yo!” in a few years.
As for the Jordan thing–yeah I was afraid of that. I should have checked before I posted. I thought they might have that on their unis but they aren’t the only ones, are they? That Jordan silhouette has become sort of a Nike “sub-logo” (or maybe I should say it is a sub-brand) and UNC has Nike unis. It is no more annoying or noticeable then any other company logo on a uniform. With the LeBron thing I’m envisioning something like the GSH that has been on the Chicago Bears uniforms for a long time. And James didn’t even go to school at OSU!
But maybe it’ll be more understated than that (sort of a “low-key” ridiculousness) .
Yeah, the Jordan brand has become a pretty mainstream trademark. St. John’s, Cal, Cincinnati, and UNC, off the top of my head, wear (or did wear five or six years ago when this stuff mattered to me a little more [i.e. when I was in high school]) head-to-toe Jordan gear. I think UNC A&T had a deal, too, because of a friend of Jordan’s coaching there.
The Lebron thing will probably be the little mark he already has – I think it’s some kind of stylized initial/number deal with a crown involved somehow. As I’m sure you already know, whatever’s going to sell the most merchandise, the schools are going to jump all over (and teenaged wannabes like my former self with their disposable income will jump likewise). As far as actual style choices, mostly I think what that means is they’ll come up with a bunch of different designs and he’ll tell them what he likes and doesn’t like, and they’ll work with that. I read an article about 10 years ago where Jordan told the Nike shoe people that he really liked the style of some Ferrari, and the face of some watch, and they designed a shoe for him playing off of those two elements. And now, to my everlasting shame, I’ve related that story to someone else on purpose. Point is, I suppose, don’t hold it against the players, if you can help it. They just dig the free stuff, and think it’s cool that they get to say they helped design the uniforms. Hold it against the Nike design majors who come up with 35 different variations of Oregon football uniforms.
PS rereading my first post, that unintentionally came off really flippantly. Sorry about that.