We are kinda lucky here, we can wear whatever we want nisoa, USSF, Adidas, etc as long as all three referees match. We have been informally told to not wear two stripe socks, however I carry both with me since some officials don't own three stripe.
Stop, just stop. The real problem is that the styles change and the new ones are impossible to get. The USSF and OSI could easily have made shirts more comfortable and breathable without changing the striping pattern or adding green as a color. I'm telling you, no one outside the referee community notices what you're wearing. There hasn't been a requirement that the styles match so if the biggest problem you see with a referee is an old shirt, you're not in a bad place. The original stripes were out there for at least 10 years. The new styles have been similar enough to exist side by side. Its not hurting anyone for the old ones to stick around and fade.
What outrageous thing are you going to say next! That the world won't end if sleeve lengths don't match!
Good lord, I'm not advocating we change the uniform every other year but they aren't always going to stay the same. Styles update it's just the way things are. I can tell you right now that despite what you may think, I've had plenty of conversations with coaches that say the exact opposite of what you do. They notice immediately when a referee comes dressed looking like a dumpster fire full of old laundry. They take notice of professional appearance. Does that relate specifically to the style, no but certainly wearing a 17 year old thin stripe yellow is going to show its age and will be noticed.
Lol. Nope! We are suppose to be levied a fine. But we have such a high demand for referees and a low supply of them. They are rarely levied.
If you don't like that we can wear the colored stripes, take that up with New York State. In New York, we also wear NIOSA uniforms for high school too. When I first started high school, the official high school uniform was the all-black with the white collar and white cuffs. When New York adopted the NIOSA uniform, we actually had to change our local chapter's constitution. It used to read that referees will wear all-black jerseys. Now it says that referees will wear whatever uniform is adopted by New York State that way we don't have to go through the whole process of changing our local chaopter's constitution everytime that there is a uniform style change. I have been told that before I joined, if you officiated girls' games, the uniform was the basketball/football/hockey black-and-white stripes!
My mother-in-law got me Score jerseys. Here is a comparison of Score short sleeve and OSI long sleeve. Note that both are adult medium. The Score is 4 inches wider in the chest than OSI. The sleeve is also 3 inches bigger on the Score shirt. I just laid out the new Score medium with the old OSI large and the chest on the Score medium is a hair larger. The final difference is the side panels. The holes are a bit bigger on the Score and the stripes are darker on the Score. All in all, the colors are very close. The cut being the same or worse than the old version makes the Score shirts a no sale for me. I'd rather have 1 OSI that fits my body than 2 Score that make me look like 20 lbs heavier and a sail for a boat.
So it looks like Score still hasn't fixed their sizing issue. About 5 years ago I ordered 2 pairs of Score shorts in size Large. They both say L on the tag but one is so baggy that I had to have it altered while the other one was so "form fitting" it made me feel like a gigolo from the 70's.
S till waiting for delivery of the back ordered, red, blue and gold jerseys. The black long sleeve has loose cuffs at the wrist and they are in my opinion the arms are short for long sleeves. otherwise they fit nicely and the style is very nice.
Final Decision is selling their version now (but don't look for it on their old website): https://www.soccerplususa.com/store/cat/REF/Referee http://www.ebay.com/itm/Soccer-Refe...LE-/112349663579?_trksid=p2385738.m2548.l4275
Anyone know about LS from alternate vendors? It sounds like Score's old school fit would work well with three layers of insulation underneath...
Am I just seeing things or are the pockets on the colors other than yellow much wider apart? Like no room between them and the sleeve.
The red and green certainly look that way to me on the soccerplususa site. In the ebay listing the pockets on the red look further apart from the center, the green not so much.
The LS I picked up from ProTime has about an extra 1 to 1 1/2" on either side in the torso compared to the OSI SS. Also about an extra 1 1/2" of sleeve width at the armpit.
There are soccer stores in Los Angeles called "Soccer One" that sell their own off-brand ref gear under the "Team Ref" label. I saw their version of the new jerseys on a recent visit. Everything looks very good in comparison to the OSI except that on the yellow jersey (the only one they had), the black printing on the sleeves and collar is more of a very dark green. Assuming they can get this fixed to a true black (like the OSI), it could be a very economical alternative to the OSI. They were selling for $25.
Here's the "Fold-a-Goal" (or "Foal-a-Goal") black and blue. They were only $20 each, and since I've only worn my current black and blue two or three times over the years, I decided to just get cheap jerseys just in case. I do like the logo-free look.
For those that referee the USFF variant of futsal, they have updated their uniform as well. We can no longer just wear the US Soccer uniform we have to wear the new US Futsal uniform. https://exorasports.com/shop/usff-referee-kit/ Great more uniforms
Just an FYI, if you are still trying to get OSI sizes that say they are on back order, you need to call rather than order online. They said the back order list doesn't work if you do the order online, only over the phone. If you order over the phone you'll be on the list and they will ship as soon as they come in which is about every other week right now.
They also can't take AMEX over the phone, but can online I think we should get our semi famous singer/songwriter referee Leland Grant to write an 'Ode to OSI'...
Which is not to say that your order will ship in two weeks. When I called mine in a about a month ago they were still saying late Spring. Hopefully they will get caught up soon.
I thought about calling them up to point out that Spring is essentially done around here, but I didn't want to get pushed down to the bottom of the list for my insolence.
If you have a TV game, they'll ship them immediately. Surely if someone records part of your next game on their phone and then streams it to a TV later to watch, that counts right?