Alternate Uniforms

You have all already heard my rant about Retro Jerseys. Besides serving the purpose of being nostalgia for sale, Retro Jerseys serve the purpose as being “something different to wear” for fans other than their teams’ traditional uniforms. Another phenomenon that has been created in recent years which also serves this purpose is the invention of the alternate uniform.
Way back when, teams had two uniforms; home and away. But into the 21st century, teams have created third and many times fourth uniforms that they wear in addition to their traditional home and away uniforms and to me, this definitely should raise a few eyebrows.
I’m thinking of my beloved New York Mets as the perfect example of this. I mean, at home, they have all an all white uniform, a white uniform with pinstripes, and an all black uniform. On the road, they have a gray uniform and a black uniform. From there, you are really special if you can identify the rules they have for the different hats they wear. In the beginning, the Mets wore a plain blue hat with their orange logo. Now, in addition to the blue hat, they also have a black hat, and a black hat with blue bill. Well, the rules for these hats go as follows: If the Mets are home and wearing a plain white jersey, they can wear a blue hat or a black hat with a blue bill; if the Mets are wearing pinstripes, they can wear their blue hat or black hat with a blue bill; if the Mets are home and wearing black, they will always wear their all black hat. If the Mets are on the road and wearing gray, they will wear the black, blue bill hat and if they are wearing their road black, they will wear their all black hat. There, I just explained it as best I can, but please do not ask me how many combinations there are. In layman’s terms: 5 jerseys, 3 hats, 1 team. At Shea Stadium, amongst fans, you can see all different arrangements of these 8 articles of Mets gear—not including retro and PRACTICE jerseys. Wheew that’s a lot of uniforms. Any more uniform additions and a Mets’ fans’ closet may begin to resemble that of a rich debutant.
I love the Mets. I like their colors and their logo. But really, I’m fine if they just had 1 home jersey, 1 road jersey, and 1 mutual hat. It would be simple but effective. The uses of these additional uniforms definitely do not serve a practical purpose, but they do have a purpose as all combinations can be seen being worn amongst Shea Stadium fans. If all articles that a team is going to wear can actually be sold to fans, why not have a team wear and you as an organization in turn sell as many different articles as possible?
As a Mets fan, I know there is no hope in rectifying this situation. But it isn’t just the Mets. I mean the Braves wear an alternate red jersey, the Nationals wear and alternate red, the Marlins wear an alternate black and throughout baseball, a majority of teams wear an alternate 3rd jersey and/or hat. And for none of the teams do these alternate uniforms serve any practical purpose except the purpose of providing more choices for a fan in shopping season.
I’ll move on to my favorite sport, hockey. More than any other sport, the hockey jersey—sweater—is a work of art. I mean besides sporting colors that are more visible than any other sport, hockey sweaters sport huge crests—logos— and patches in many cases and in my opinion, hockey sweaters are more aesthetically beautiful—for the most part—than the upper-wear of any other sport.
But while most teams had assembled masterful uniforms into the 1990s, in the mid 1990s, many NHL teams began to wear a third sweater. For the most part, it is the newer expansion teams that continually add alternate sweaters. But besides the Nashville Predators addition of a mustard-color sweater and my Islanders addition of a neon orange sweater—of course I own one though—even many of the league’s original 6 teams have added alternate sweaters. I mean, the Rangers have an alternate sweater with the Statue of Liberty as the crest and the Bruins have this honeycomb yellow looking sweater with a bear head as the crest as opposed to the traditional B in a wheel that they have been wearing different forms of for decades. So really, while not all teams have added an alternate sweater, a high majority have and really, none of these sweaters seems to have any practical sense to them except for once again serving the purpose of promoting higher sales. While in the up-coming 2007-08 season, no NHL team will be wearing a third sweater; all teams will be wearing a new style of sweater known as “The Reebok Edge”. But stay tuned for my analysis on them. I have a lot to say on that issue.
What the average fan can do to stop all this I’m not exactly sure. I mean, I have been victimized. I have bought a Mets all-black jersey on 3—Piazza, Ventura, 2000 World Series edition—occasions, I still frequently wear my all black Mets cap, and I still have my Islanders orange sweater hanging in my closet. I guess though, if all fans just buy ONLY what their favorite uniform is, if the fans make a choice by overwhelmingly buying one uniform much more than they buy another, I guess then that management would be forced to make a decision. But that event and management abandoning their abundance of alternate uniforms, well the probability of that event’s occurrence is slim. So I guess that more than providing constructive advice as for how you fans can right and obvious wrong, I am just giving you a piece of my mind on an issue that really bothers me.
I am though curious as to what other peoples’ opinions of alternate uniforms are. I would appreciate it greatly if I could get some feedback on what all of your opinions are on alternate uniforms, in particular, if you have any specific examples of particularly agitating alternate uniforms that you can think of. I look forward to reading your feedback. Until next time, I’m out….