A Couple of Simple Elements to Great Vintage Uniforms

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

Back in the "golden age" of NFL uniforms, what I think is around the early 1960s (when helmet logos became common and uniform manufacturers began to offer more varied stripes on sleeves and pants) though maybe the early 2000s,  (pre some uniform fiascos of recent years) there were a few things that we thought made uniform stand out.

The one we will illustrate today is the repeating of the helmet stripes on the uniform pants and the sleeve stripes on the uniform socks. For some reason, this works and we will never see it again because socks have been sans stripes (by and large) for a long time and sleeve striping is really, for all intents and purposes gone.

Here are three examples—

The Bears have been great at having the sleeve and socks stripes match.

Here is one with UCLA loops and matching pants stripes. It's not the alternating concept of the above shots but does give a consistent look, so it is an exception to the rule.

As you look at old photos from that era take note of this design. Sometimes it's only the lid and pants or some other combination, but it's something we think is cool and wanted to share.