Official Sports

Discussion in 'Referee' started by MetroFever, Jun 17, 2025.

  1. socal lurker

    socal lurker Member+

    May 30, 2009
    As someone who reffed when black was the only color refs wore, I have an affinity for it. But here in So Cal, so many games are in the sunny heat that people really prefer the lighter colors for that reason alone. And I find on many of the poorly lit fields, for night games, the black shirts can make it harder to see the AR in the corner (or find the R on the field). Black is ideal for a well lit field or a cool day—but I don’t ref on many of those.

    My wish when they eventually (hopefully not soon) do the next cycle is that USSF cares about the refs and drops to three colors. There is no reason for more. Keep the pink, the yellow, and the blue or black and be done with the excessive number of shirts.
     
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  2. AZOldRef

    AZOldRef Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    Agreed on black, I think it looks sharp. Especially at night - but as mentioned the field has to be well lit.

    Here in AZ it's often too hot to wear so most people don't buy black. My high school crew tries to wear it as much as we can.
     
  3. MetroFever

    MetroFever Member+

    Jun 3, 2001
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    #28 MetroFever, Jun 23, 2025
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2025
    Since the redesign, I have not had a single official hoping for new ones. Instead, we discuss how we can't believe that we used to officiate with the circus tent-like material they used to sell. It was a material that no man could duplicate.

    When I have anniversary notifications on my phone, my favorite photo is the one where it's snowing with a beautiful background of the stands with fans and it's snowing, wearing our sharp-looking black jerseys.

    There are a handful of referees who bought pink for tournaments and do it as a crew. They went to the point of buying one for a referee who refused and would occasionally join them. This is where even I draw the line. It started out as being for "Breast Cancer Awareness" and is now full-time on their website.


    I am ok with dropping the number from the current 6 (yes, I'll include pink) and dropping it to as low as 3. I'm sick of reaching out to my crew as the CR and someone telling me that they don't have red or blue in long sleeve and only have it in short sleeve on a cold day.

    It will never happen because of the USSF/OSI connection. Can you imagine the drop in revenue if they ever followed through with this?

    You and @AZOldRef have a legitimate reason for not wearing black more often, but it only applies to a handful of states. I'm in the Northeast, so outside of 3 months, it's a non-issue.

    FWIW, did anyone catch the MLS Next Cup finals this weekend? The crew in the U19 match is wearing black in a match that is in the 90's in Tennessee and required hydration breaks. Who thought that this was a brilliant idea?

    At this level, I'm guessing Triche/MLS Next told them what to wear since you had two teams wearing white and a very light green. If that was the case, there was no consideration for the health and well-being of the referees and hope someone who has inside info can prove me wrong.

    Unless someone on the crew forgot to pack their luggage with anything other than black, there is little common sense being used here:


    https://www.youtube.com/live/vidf-WkF6Wc?si=ZwE_POXjoaNorQRm
     
  4. RefGil

    RefGil Member

    Dec 10, 2010
    TWIAVBP. I wore my black so infrequently that I never did get around to buying the 2008-vintage "wide" stripe black. I still have my (c)2000 black pinstripe 100% polyester short sleeve in my bag, and I wear it maybe once every other year or so. And I'm in Michigan, so "it's too hot" isn't really a valid excuse. Many don't have it. It's very rare that the CR suggests it as an option, and when that happens, the third ref often doesn't have black.
     
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  5. Twotone Jones

    Twotone Jones Member

    United States
    Apr 12, 2023
    Let's not forget that OSI has changed the NISOA uniforms twice in the last 10 years, so they've made some revenue for themselves even though they haven't hit the "regular" USSF-registered referee with new uniforms (outside of the pink anyway). The first change came just before COVID and the 2nd change came when the NCAA mandated new uniforms for everyone.
     
  6. Soccer Dad & Ref

    Oct 19, 2017
    San Diego
    Is the black in the new fabric really hotter than other colors? Kids like to complain about their black jerseys, but these new dry fit fabrics seem cooler.
     
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  7. socal lurker

    socal lurker Member+

    May 30, 2009
    whether it is actually true or not, people think it is and don’t wear it.

    it is true that black will absorb more heat from the Sun because it is darker, whereas loghter colors reflect more of the Sun away. (Though I have also heard that dark colors can absorb more back from the body—no idea if that part is true.)
     
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  8. the_phoenix612

    Manchester United
    United States
    Sep 13, 2022
    Houston, TX
    Not in my experience.

    I'll die on the hill that pink jerseys are the sharpest option we have, though. Pink > black > red > blue > yellow > green
     
  9. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    Pink are absolutely best color. Unfortunately I won’t be buying it because I’m not giving them more money, but it’s the brightest and nicest by far

    For me it goes
    1. Pink - brightest, least threatening
    2. Black - most professional
    3. Yellow - bright and neutral
    4. Blue - too common
    5. Red - angry color, would be last if green didn’t exist
    6. Green - looks like vomit, ugly, field color, not to mention the fading
     
  10. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    Just noting, pink is not a USSF shirt color. If you look at the OSI site, it shows all of the USSF jerseys, for those who want to buy the official USSF shirts, and pink is not shown there.
     
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  11. MassachusettsRef

    MassachusettsRef Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 30, 2001
    Washington, DC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  12. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    Right
    https://officialsports.com/mens-ussf-pink-pro-shirt/
     
  13. MassachusettsRef

    MassachusettsRef Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 30, 2001
    Washington, DC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In addition to following the debate in the thread above...

    The pink jersey explicitly says it's optional (unlike the others) and it's nested under the "BCA & HD apparel" tab and then by itself under the USSF Referee Uniform tab.

    People can draw their own conclusions and it's pretty much a Rohrsach test at this point. As I said two years ago, while absolutely no one will ever get in trouble for wearing pink, it's also not an official color in the same way the other five are. USSF has given OSI the green light to create and market this with its logo, but hasn't sanctioned it as the official sixth color. I imagine for anyone who wants to wear pink, that's a distinction without a difference.
     
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  14. MetroFever

    MetroFever Member+

    Jun 3, 2001
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    FWIW, I tried to contact Capelli Sports based on two phone numbers found either on their website or on Google in the past 2 days.

    No one answers. Takes you to a voicemail that says "Our Offices are Currently Closed". The other number says "Voicemail Full". One of the two numbers mentions they prefer that you email about inquiries and that they'll get back to you within 3 days.

    Yikes.
     
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  15. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    I’m not going to get into the weeds about it. Obviously when you’ve had 5 official colors for decades, the random new one that comes up will be viewed less than the others

    But when you have the top professional league in the United States with an OSI contract with referees regularly wearing pink, that makes it just as official as the others to me.
     
  16. socal lurker

    socal lurker Member+

    May 30, 2009
    and yet you don’t have it :rolleyes:
     
  17. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    Yeah would be great to have it. Unfortunately I’m not spending $50 on a uniform especially when barely anyone has it so you’ll never use it
     
  18. socal lurker

    socal lurker Member+

    May 30, 2009
    Kinda my point. The opposite of:

     
  19. socal lurker

    socal lurker Member+

    May 30, 2009
    BBC has an article up about color. Apparently the countervailing effect of dark colors only impacts when the clothing is loose. So appears the black shirt should indeed be actually more hot on a hot day (well, I suppose unless you have a really sloppy oversized shirt!). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230802-what-is-the-best-clothing-to-keep-you-cool
     
  20. Baka_Shinpan

    Baka_Shinpan Member

    Mar 28, 2011
    Between the posts
    Club:
    Vegalta Sendai
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    No surprise there.
     
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  21. Kit

    Kit Member+

    Aug 30, 1999
    Herkimer, NY, USA
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm in the northeast too. I hate wearing the black. Even in the spring is too hot and it is hard to see at night.

    In my area, one of the big clubs is yellow so most of my local association uses green as our primary color.
     
  22. Kit

    Kit Member+

    Aug 30, 1999
    Herkimer, NY, USA
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    OSI did not change the NISOA uniforms twice in 10 years. NISOA changed their uniform once, and then a coupe years later, NCAA issued their designs that all college referees had to wear.
     
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  23. Twotone Jones

    Twotone Jones Member

    United States
    Apr 12, 2023
    Yes, and OSI benefited from both changes by selling new jerseys to NISOA and NCAA referees both times. Maybe they didn't re-design them but they sure as hell didn't say "No" to the re-designs either.
     
  24. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    I don't support changing the designs or colors again. But honestly the NCAA colors of yellow, orange and purple are pretty good from a non-conflicting standpoint. Getting just a few colors that are really rare for teams to use is much better than having a bunch of primary colors and common colors where at least one, sometimes two or even three conflict with team colors. Red, yellow, blue are all primary. Black is an extremely common one. Green is probably the least common.

    You have neon yellow, neon orange, neon purple, that's probably all you need. Or even throw in a neon pink to replace one of those
     
  25. RefGil

    RefGil Member

    Dec 10, 2010
    Or USSF picks a color and tells member clubs "Don't use this for your jersey colors, including keepers. If you do use it, phase it out."

    It's not like any basketball/pointyball/hockey/lacrosse teams would think of wearing black and white vertical stripes.
     
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