2010オリンピック・ユニフォーム

もちろん、バンクーバー五輪のアイスホッケー各国代表のジャージの事ですよ。このブログの事ですから。

ベラルーシ

カナダ

中国

チェコ

フィンランド

ドイツ

ロシア

スロバキア

スウェーデン

アメリカ

ラトビア

ＩＯＣのスポーツ連盟ロゴ使用禁止令が下りてしまったので、ほとんどの国はレトロ調なデザインになってますね。皆が皆レトロだから、逆に新鮮味が無くなってしまった。まあ、逆に言えば変に頑張りすぎてるデザインも無いんだけど。レトロユニ好きなんだけどなー。

WBC uniform watch

I’m sure many people noticed this, but some WBC uniforms are alarmingly similar to MLB uniforms. Guess that’s template at work (and lack of creative colour schemes due to flag colours, though not every nation adheres to their flag stripes). Anyways, without further ado, here they are:

Australia

South Africa

It was difficult to tell them apart on quick glance, especially since they played in the same pool in Mexico City.

Oakland Athletics

Different font, obviously, but pretty similar otherwise.

Canada (home)

LAnaheim Angels

Canada has the faux vest thing going.

Canada (away)

Arizona Diamondbacks

Reverse the font colouring, and you’re basically there.

Dominican Republic

Future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez pitching for his homeland, earning a job with the Mets in the process.

Texas Rangers

There’s that annoying underarm panel in many WBC jerseys, and the helmet bill’s different colour, but otherwise…

Italy

LA Dodgers

(Immortal Manny at work)

Obviously. Was this done because of the Piazza-Lasorda connection from the first WBC?

Netherlands (the Cinderella!)

Baltimore Orioles

Cap colours need to be reversed, and MLB teams seem to be fond of cursive fonts while WBC unis tend to use block fonts.

Now for the more far fetched connections after this jump

Frozen Four Unis

The wonderful UniWatch blog does a great job in reviewing all 16 teams’ uniforms that made it to the Frozen Four (Sixteen). Eri Kiribuchi’s Bemidji State makes the list, but Paul Kariya’s alma mator Maine doesn’t (though it does in the comments). Lots of great classic looking unis (some resembling NHL unis) all around, with some horrendous alternate jerseys. Why do you need alts for college hockey? Marketing rules.

NPB Alternate Uniforms

Following the NPB throwback uniforms post, this time we have the NPB non-throwback alternate uniform special.

First, let’s just get a general sense of what NPB uniforms look like. These are all the NPB managers wearing their home uniforms circa 2006. The only major change we’ve had since then is the Tigers who are now using their 80’s throwbacks full-time as their home unis (mentioned in the post linked above), great move!

I don’t know of any Hiroshima Carp alternates, so I’ll just note that that’s Marty Brown pictured on the top left corner.

Hanshin Tigers (bottom row, third from left)

2006 Interleague Uniforms can be found from the post linked at the top of this post, they were 80’s throwbacks.

2007 Interleague Uniforms (designed by some fancy designer… lame)

2008 Interleague Uniforms (even worse! looks like someone took an eraser and deleted pinstripes from various parts of the unis and added yellow blotches, a much more sensible move would be to use even older throwbacks as alternates since this is a team with history)

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (bottom row, second from right)

Managed by the flamingo stance slugging legend himself, Sadaharu Oh.

2006 Hawk Festival Uniform

2008 Hawk Festival Uniform (both versions suck, this shade of yellow just doesn’t work as the primary colour, SoftBank unis are ugly to begin with anyways, they look like slo-pitch unis or something)

Saitama Seibu Lions (bottom row, far right)

2007 Summer Uniform (apparently the red lines represent fangs or claws of the lion or something, ugly)

2008 Interleague Uniform (stars on shoulders, what is this, an all-star uniform? unnecessary)

Chiba Lotte Marines (bottom row, third from right)

Managed by Bobby Valentine. Fantastic fan support, ugly alternate uniforms. Get a load of this.

2005 Alternate Uniform (black pants and white top!?!? Definitely the ugliest alternates we’ve seen in recent history – polyester heaven of the 70’s and 80’s are a whole another matter)

NPB Throwback Uniforms

NPB has caught onto the the throwback uniform craze in recent years, so without further ado here are some unis that made an appearance on the field.

Firstly the Hawks this season celebrated their 20th season since the franchise relocated to the island of Kyushu and the 70th season since its founding with these uniforms. The Nankai Hawks (1947-1988 ) uniform on the left looks sharp, and the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (1989-2004) look alright but is way too recent to feel any sort of nostalgia (Kenji Johjima was wearing that exact Daiei outfit before leaving for Seattle). For a more nostalgic look, the Hawks should’ve chosen the early Daiei look complete with the “hawk helmet” (eyes painted on the side and everything). Still, both uniforms are much sharper than the current “slow-pitch” Softbank uniforms. 

Below are the Giants throwbacks (home and away) that they wore last season as part of their franchise’s 5000th win celebration. The uniforms are from their absolutely dominant V9 era (1965-73) when they captured 9 straight Central League pennants, and captured the hearts of almost everyone in Japan as there were few entertainment options available back in the day and Giants games were broadcast every night.

In 2006, the Hanshin Tigers wore these great throwback uniforms from the 80’s, which includes the only time they’ve captured the Japan Series in 1985. These were worn in interleague games, but they proved to be so popular that the team has subsequently adopted the home uniform as regular home unis (great move!) 

Saitama Seibu Lions also reprised their golden era in the 80’s with the blue throwback away uniforms on the right last season which were worn for some special games. Since the team team had a dynasty back then, the all blue look doesn’t evoke possible gaggage, but great memories instead. 

The Lions went even further back into their history with the Nishitetsu Lions (1951-72) throwback unis this season. They look nice, except for the unnecessary Nike logo (like in the throwbacks above), but since the these uniforms were worn before my time, it doesn’t do much for me other than the fact that throwbacks are almost always better than lame special edition summer/sunday/interleague uniforms designed by some famous designer (which I will get to in a future post).

Chiba Lotte Marines went throwback this year too with these Lotte Orions (1969-91) uniforms from back in their Kawasaki days which you can see here with Bobby Valentine. Apparently the Lotte Giants in Korea has the exact same throwback uniforms which they wear on occasion. Since both teams are owned by the same Korean-Japanese parent company, there’s a branding effort there (even though the Korean team is supposedly named after the Yomiuri Giants).

Here’s a great shot from a ceremonial first pitch in Yokohama between the Marines and BayStars interleague game. The oldtimer pitcher is sporting a “that’s gotta be the 70’s” orange-and-green Taiyo Whales uniform! (And the oldtimer batter in the Lotte uni above.) 

Next time, some selection of non-throwback special uniforms.

Edit: As reported earlier, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows wore powder blue uniforms from their Yakult Atoms (that’ll be the Mighty Atom aka Astro Boy!) during the Golden Week holidays in May.