A tribute to Bill King.

ZacharyCF — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:38:51 -0000

Sometimes people have brilliant ideas. Sometimes, people have not so brilliant ideas.

And sometimes, people have ideas that can be sold for ten bucks on the walkway from the BART Station to the Coliseum.

This, is one of those ideas.

Also, If there are any fellow AN'ers out there who would know how to best go about getting these jerseys I mocked up in my previous post, actually realized and made up for a possible community meet up at a future game, that would be excellent.

I'm not too sure if it falls under fair use or not, but it would be really neat to see done, if done well.

As for the Bill King tribute shirt, I have yet to design the back of it, but if you caught the Joker card I did of it earlier, you may have an idea of where it' headed.

A happy and healthy week to all.

-Zachary

http://www.facebook.com/zacharycf

In which I explore the glaring lack of Yellow(Gold) as a dominant color in A's uniforms.

ZacharyCF — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:51:57 -0000

Since very early on in my life, I've always been fascinated by uniforms in sports. I avidly enjoy ESPN Columnist (put the pitchfork's down!) Paul Lukas' blog, 'UniWatch : The Obsessive Study of Athletics Aesthetics', who have actually had some interesting reads about A's uni happenings as of late.

I am instantly a fan of any player who opts for sanitaries and stirrups. I absolutely loathe the way Manny Ramirez wears the uniform. And when it comes to uniforms in sports, I believe firmly that the best route in design is to "Keep it simple, stupid."

So it's with that design notion, and a sense of tradition in the teams that I love, that I can't help but cringe every time I see the A's take the field in the black jerseys. They just look out of place, and I can't help but think that they could be doing a lot better. It's no secret that the sand knit era is making a comeback in terms of design, anyway, and I think the A's are missing a GOLDen opportunity to not only wear something that hearkens back to a time when the lineup's were fleshed out with Dave, Reggie, and Catfish, to name a few.

But also, and this is the part that the business-man in me loves, is that the potential for merchandise sales is there as well. And the black jersey just feels like it should have been left abandoned after it was originally toyed with in 2000.

After the jump, I finally make my point, and ask the AN Community to get creative.

Cick here for a larger view.

Here you have what I'm calling the 'Yellow Project'. I think it'd be a nice touch to see the A's field a uniform that, can pay homage to those great World Champion teams of the 70's, but also integrate a color that the A's have sadly used very little of in nearly 30 years. We have three pullovers, and one button-up design.

The first two should be immediately recognizable to long time A's fans. What I have done is re envisioned the design a little bit, updating the numbers and nameplates with Swiss 721 type face, as well as updated the green and gold to be noticeably darker than what the original uniform of the day went with.

The third, however, is a combination of the current Athletics script, which was introduced into the Oakland uniform in 1987 (a similar script was used for the 1954 Phila A's), as the first button up jersey the A's would field since the 1971 Athletics donned what was essentially a continuation with what the KC A's played in. (It's also worth noting that the A's only wore Kansas City, on their uniforms for a single year, in 1961 on their away uniform) Note that this is a blend of 70's, 80's and 90's, mixing the pullover, the dominant yellow, as well as the modern Athletics script.

Lastly, we have what I feel is the 'safest' bet of adding yellow as a dominant color on an A's jersey. And it calls for what is purely a modern jersey, that can be worn home or away as an alternate, which would be the first time since the mid 1980's that the A's would have a home jersey with 'Oakland' on it.

If I had it my way, I would introduce all of these to the rotation, because I love the look of the yellow/gold, and the A's have always had a very modest wardrobe selection when it comes to uniform combination's.

But I know that there will be some, if not most, who will find this to be a total waste and even uncalled for, and that's where I will kindly ask for some AN Community participation.

Cick here for a larger view.

Now this template is much larger, but Flickr has limitations to image size, so if you would like the full image, my email is readily available in the profile, simply shoot me a quick message, and I can get that sent your way in no time. This is simply to get those who are interested, a quick and easy tool to mock up some heritage themed A's alternate concepts into the community discussion. And by all means, feel free to get creative. Red, white, and blue have also been Athletics primaries in the past, so have at it if you are into this sort of thing.

Thanks for sticking with me here, and I hope this is the first of many fanposts to come!

-Zachary

Poll

What does the AN Community think of reintroducing the Yellow(Gold) as a primary color to an alternate jersey?

Option 1

24 votes

Option 2

42 votes

Option 3

15 votes

Option 4

36 votes

Really?

15 votes

132 votes | Poll has closed

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

ZacharyCF — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:26:03 -0000

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

SB Nation User Blog: ZacharyCF

A tribute to Bill King.

In which I explore the glaring lack of Yellow(Gold) as a dominant color in A's uniforms.

What does the AN Community think of reintroducing the Yellow(Gold) as a primary color to an alternate jersey?

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Really?

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.