Four Score! Here's Your 2019 Griffins Jersey Design Contest

[Editor’s Note: Paul is on his annual August break from site. Deputy editor Phil Hecken is in charge from now through the end of the month, although Paul may be popping up here occasionally.]

By Phil Hecken

Follow @PhilHecken



For the fourth consecutive year, I’m pleased to announce what has become our annual design contest, once again in partnership with the Grand Rapids Griffins (a professional hockey team in the American Hockey League, whose primary affiliate is the Detroit Red Wings). The original contest began in 2016 (from which I received 85 submissions), and was held again in 2017, which resulted in 119 submissions. Last year’s contest received 61 submissions.

In the past three contests, the winner received a personalized jersey, tickets to the game when the jerseys was worn, and public recognition at the game. An awesome “prize” for the winner. The Griffins have graciously offered this as a prize again for this year’s winner.

This contest will be very similar in set-up to the past three. However, this one will be slightly more “wide open.” My new Griffins contact is Ashley Oostindie, who listed the new parameters:

“The details are that this jersey is going to be worn on our 90’s Night on Saturday, February 22 (with either red or black pants and red gloves/helmets). We’d like the contest to be for a 90’s inspired jersey. We don’t want to set any other regulations, as we’re not looking for the submissions to be any of our old logos or colors. We’d like something that is created fully by the designers.”

So — “90’s inspired jersey,” which leaves you guys plenty of room for inspiration! (And if you remember how some of those third jerseys looked in the NHL in the 90’s, you really have something to go for!)

Timeline:

• Submissions will be accepted from today through Friday, August 16th, 2019 (by 11:00 pm E.D.T.)

• Reader voting will begin Thursday, August 22, and continue on Friday August 23, Monday, August 26 and Tuesday, August 27 (Based on the number of entries in past contests, I will be breaking the submissions into four sets).

• Based on concerns raised in prior contests, rather than breaking the design submissions in to groups alphabetically, I will attempt to do so in a random order. While this will entail more work on my end, this will (hopefully) alleviate the concerns that “the same people always go against each other.” I’m not sure this is any fairer, but I will do my utmost to ensure a totally random spread of submissions. This is how we did it last year (with the help of the great Larry Torrez, who will again be assisting me this year) and seemed to work smoothly.

• The top three vote getters from each set (for a total of 12) will be reviewed by the Griffins on Wednesday, August 28th, and the winner will be announced on Uni Watch and Griffins social media on Friday, August 30th.

Design Guidelines/Rules:

• Create a brand new design for a 90s themed Griffins alternate jersey (remember: you are ONLY designing a jersey, not a full uniform).

• While your design work must be original, please DO NOT use current or previous Grand Rapids Griffins logos.

• Readers will be allowed to vote once per day during the voting period (you will be permitted to vote for more than one design).

• The top 12 designs as voted by readers will be the finalists.

• The Griffins staff and ownership will choose one winning design, which will be worn on on 90s Night, February 22, 2020.

• The winning jersey design will become the property of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

• The Griffins reserve the right to make design modifications to the winning design as needed.

• The winner will receive a personalized version of their jersey, tickets to the game that the Griffins will be playing in the jerseys, and public recognition of the winning design.

• LIMIT ONE DESIGN SUBMISSION per reader.

• Designs may be submitted as .jpg, .png or .pdf files.

• E-mail your entry to me (Phil Hecken) as an attachment to: Phil.Hecken@gmail.com; please label your submission “FirstnameLastname-GRGContest2019”

• It is strongly encouraged that you place your name or some sort of ID on your entry.

• One image ONLY (you may include multiple angles, such as front and back) per submission.

Failure to abide by the rules will result in disqualification. Entries received after the deadline will not be accepted.

That’s it.

Big thanks to the Griffins for again selecting Uni Watch readers to participate in their alternate jersey process. You should know what to do, so get crackin’ — but if you have any questions either post them in the comments below or e-mail me at the above address (phil[dot]hecken[at]gmail[dot]com). OK? OK!

New Sixers Uni Dropping Today?

We’ve seen a few “leaks” in the past week or so, with nothing yet confirmed, but it looks like the Philadelphia 76ers might be releasing a new uni today, as evidenced by this tweet:

It’s cryptic, yes, but the date of 08.01 is crystal clear. There’s a good article on The Sixer Sense that deconstructs what could be a throwback (a way back) uniform coming — and it actually posts a tweet sent to Paul — from Philadelphia 76ers Prexy Chris Heck — on the Fourth of July which also hints at what the new throwback could be:

If that is in fact a new throwback, I for one will be pretty pumped. That’s a gorgeous uni.

Meanwhile, a little birdie tells me the Grizz may also be unveiling a new uni or two today (or possibly tomorrow), so stay tuned.

Looks like the NBA uni reveals will be heating up again this August.

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

The game has returned! At least for a trial basis, but I got a lot of positive response to its return, so we’ll see how long we keep this one going.

Today’s scoreboard comes from reader Steve Dodell.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

There’s a bit of information on the scoreboard that’s been “blacked” out, as that would make this way too easy, but even without that you should be able to get it. It’s kind of an important date in history, so be sure to note that in your reply.

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date & location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

If you guys like this, please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

IMPORTANT lapel pin update: Paul here. Greetings from Northern Ireland, where I’m on vacation.

The good news is that the Uni Watch lapel pins have proven to be very popular. The bad news is that this resulted in me spending way too much time wrapping pins in bubble wrap, addressing padded mailers, and going to the post office. So I’ve outsourced the fulfillment of this item to Teespring — the same company that does our T-shirts.

These are literally the exact same pins — I just sent the inventory to Teespring and they’ll handle the shipping. You can order them here.

The Ticker

By Alex Hider

Baseball News : Marlins P Wei-Yin Chin stepped to the plate in a helmet without a logo last night (thanks to all who shared). … OF Franmil Reyes came up San Diego and has a Padres tattoo — but he got traded to the Indians on Tuesday (from @DDberry24). … P Trevor Bauer will wear No. 27 with the Reds. He wore No. 47 when he was in Cleveland (from Mike Chamernik). … Speaking of the Reds, @FittedsFlannels mocked a series of Reds throwback-inspired uniforms for the impending Nike takeover. … Staying in Cincy, the Redlegs inspired this formal petition for baseball teams to drop the sleeves under vest jerseys (from Jason Hillyer). … Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has designed a line of Cubs merchandise for ComplexCon in Chicago (from John Cerone). … The Elizabethtown Twins will wear Star Wars jerseys on Aug. 10 (from Nicholas Badders). … What if Yankees players really did have to ‘earn their pinstripes’? (thanks, Brinke).

NFL News : 49ers TE George Kittle gave his 2018 Pro Bowl jersey to his LeVar Woods, his college tight ends coach at the University of Iowa (from Phil). … Madden NFL 20 and Nike gifted Seahawks LB Bobby Wagner a pair of gold cleats for being one of the few players to be rated a 99 overall in the game (from Joshua Bates).

College Football News : Oregon’s 2019 candy green jerseys have reportedly leaked, and it appears they’ll be using a new Nike template. SportsLogos.net has a good recap of all the changes. … It appears as if Bowling Green is bringing back a full helmet stripe this season. They’ve been using a truncated stripe in recent years (from @NoelBlaha). … Here’s how the College Football 150 patch will look on Ohio State’s jerseys (from Ian Lee). … Here are new number assignments for the University of Kentucky (from Josh Hinton). … Here’s your first look at the new CMU Chippewas football unis.

Hockey News : This slideshow includes some renderings of the Calgary Flames’ planned new arena (from Kary Klismet). … The Hurricanes are holding a fan vote to determine the name of a new ‘Canes-themed beer (from @OlegKvasha).

NBA News : Lakers C Anthony Davis says he picked his new number, 3, by toggling from NBA 2K’s create-a-player option and seeing how each number looked on the Lakers’ jerseys. … The Sixers’ 1973-74 shows SF Allan Bristow wearing No. 35. But @Ianmurray7 notes that he’s never seen Bristow wear that number, and Basketball Reference backs that up.

Soccer News : Manchester City will wear a retro-inspired kit (ad free!) on Sunday in the Charity Shield game to celebrate the club’s 125th anniversary (from Alex Evans). … It appears Atlanta United will unveil some sort of camo jersey tomorrow. … New jerseys for NCAA D-III Cabrini University in Pennsylvania (from Shea McCormick). … For the latest on many more kit unveilings, head to Josh Hinton‘s and Ed Zelaski’s Twitter feeds.