Wow. Seriously? One step forward two steps back. ******** Andy and his navy blue. ******** everything about him and what he stands for.
The jersey is beautiful. Thank God the white stripe is back! I re-upped my season tix and said it was because of this (it's certainly not the results on the field). At least if they trot out the navy shorts, we can bitch and moan enough to get them to wear red ones. That's a much easier fix than changing a whole jersey in a 2 year cycle.
From the footyheadlines article for people that didn't click the link: And this is my opinion on the matter:
What are the odds that the white stripe is part of the Valspar logo? I won't believe it until the first game of the year. Always a chance for blue home jersey.
Valspar's "logo" is simply their name in their font. It would also be unlikely a sponsor would go from armpit to armpit (jokes aside).
It was blank at the Anniversary party. And I think that "logo" is their "word mark", although don't quote me on that.
This jersey design was set in stone long before the Fire knew who the sponsor would be. Same goes for the Quaker blue bar across the chest. Valspar has nothing to do with the white stripe returning just as Quaker had nothing to do with the blue stripe. That and the gradient jerseys were all Andy -- we know this, at least in the case of the gradient -- because Quaker's own brand guidelines explicitly state that the Quaker logo must be featured on a solid background. Quaker was just as displeased with the current primary as most of the fan base and didn't get to see it until it was too late. The return of the white stripe is about Andy being sick of getting shit on for the jersey with him telling multiple Fire staff that he "got out of the blue jerseys what he wanted". Whatever that actually means.
which seriously bodes ill for this GM thing being anything other more than rearranging deck chairs...
All of this is pretty much exactly what I've heard from various sources, too. EDIT: The main reason the game against Colorado (the blackout) was so "full" was the team had been targeting ticket sales for that game for months, because they were going to have a potential sponsor (Valspar) in the house.
Looks like I can finally update my Fire jersey next year! ...just kidding. I'm not giving Hauptman any money. I'll stick with my Best Buy shirt.
We have sponsors now. The only time you will see FIRE again is if nobody wants to pay the team anymore. It is a business afterall. Even Barca has a price with Qatar money.
Well, of course, but that was not my point. These jerseys are much nicer than what we have had since then. The "Fire" and "Chicago" words are secondary. Maybe Andrew Hauptman should have contacted his friend at NBC/Universal and had "Chicago Fire" be our jersey sponsor. Then, everybody would be happy.
I blame the Adidas triple stripe in part. It looked terrible on the sleeves, it looks even worse coming down from the armpits. In terms of being modeled after firefighter's suits, carrying the thick white stripe onto the sleeves helps, but to be honest, I think it looks ugly. Beyond that, I don't think it looks any worse than the 2001 version. The stripe seems a little narrower, but I'd have to see a real jersey and not just a computer model to judge that for sure.