Gone are the days of simple, understated uniform changes. Nowadays, we have to make it a showcase on television, social media and everywhere else under the sun.
You can probably (correctly) blame it on the Oregon Ducks, who have gotten so prolific that they recently unveiled two new unis for one bowl game. And, no, they didn’t change from one set to the other at halftime. But their rapid-fire production and promotion of their garb and branding has compelled everyone else to follow their lead.
That also counts in the style department. Only the most storied college programs and professional teams seem to have a “free pass” not to change everything, something that keeps the peanut gallery from saying things like, “Man, the Green Bay Packers’ look hasn’t aged well at all!” Almost all of the athletes want to see things modernized a bit, and anything can be used as an excuse to do so.
Sometimes, the change is fairly minor, as was the case for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — great uniform set, but that old pirate flag logo didn’t age well at all. And, other times, teams will go all-out — either crashing and burning like the Florida/Miami Marlins, or succeeding spectacularly like the Buffalo Bills (a phrase that hasn’t been uttered since the 1990s, I know).
One of the most common catalysts, at least outside of hockey and basketball, is the coaching change. New coach, new system, new look — it all ties together nicely, and many people won’t bat an eye when a coach comes in and management wants to erase the memories of the last regime.
This happened recently right here in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World, when the Plant City Raiders and coach Mike Fryrear felt the team needed a new look to help launch a new era.
“When you look good, you feel good,” Fryrear says. “And when you feel good, you play good.”
This rings true in baseball like no other sport in the world. No athletes are more superstitious than baseball players, and a lot of their rituals and habits extend to uniform use. After you finish reading this column, just flip on over to Athlete of the Week for one example.
But, as tightly as baseball players will cling to their uni-related rituals, they can all get behind a new visual branding. As Fryrear says, the kids love to go to a modern look whenever they can.
The coach was the man behind many of the changes and put in quite a bit of work to make them happen in real life. Hillsborough County has fairly strict guidelines for what teams can and cannot do with their unis, so the challenge of having so much creative control is sticking to those boundaries. County rules state baseball uniforms can’t have any piping tacked on, and, to help lesser-funded programs cut costs, everything that goes onto the uniforms must be screen-printed.
But, for Fryrear, the hardest part was working with the school colors. Orange and teal can clash fairly easily, even with some white thrown into the mix, so breaking that up was integral. To do that, the coach followed one of the biggest modern sports trends by adding black into the mix.
After settling on the new “PC” cap logo, based on a font Fryrear adopted from his time at Wiregrass Ranch High School, he fused the sharp new logo with classic baseball style — vests like the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates once wore, multi-colored batting helmets in the style of the Baltimore Orioles and old Montreal Expos, and striped stirrups at pitching coach Gary Cates’ suggestion.
“Everyone does it,” Fryrear says. “We watched the Cardinals in the World Series, and a couple of guys had those socks. You watch Plant and some big-time programs, and they all have them. The kids love it. It’s not a plain look — it’s sort of exciting when you see a guy out there with stirrups. You’ve got Miguel Martinez out there on the mound. He’s got that glove out there facing the hitter and his stirrups on, and he looks mean.”
Southeastern Uniforms & Team Sports produced all of the Raiders’ gear, and Fryrear says there’s still more to come.
“Black, white, orange, and teal — we’re going to have four sets of uniforms,” Fryrear says.
The team already has used the set of orange jerseys, but have lost two games in them. As such, the Raiders aren’t keen on wearing them much anymore. To compensate, they’re working on that teal set — a look that should evoke memories of the Florida Marlins’ World Series-winning days. Regardless of how they perform in those new duds, the entire team is glad to have had their look freshened up in 2014.
“A guy that’s been doing the same thing over and over and over, you give him a little bit of a makeover, you give him a little bit more confidence, and he’ll go out there and play with a little more enthusiasm,” Fryrear says.