Professional sports teams make a ton of cash off sales of their uniforms. Fans of particular teams will buy the shirts no matter what they look like. Thinking about it one night I came to the realization that not all professional sports shirts are made equally. Some are great while others are hideous. It is surprising that ugly ones slip through the cracks as plenty of money and research time go into designing them. Fashion disasters have been part of professional sports history forever.
So I thought that I would rank the top 5 all-time best and worst professional sports uniforms. Now, there are many professional leagues throughout the world, so in the aim of keeping things as simple as possible I decided to limit the leagues to those operating in North American – NHL, NFL, MLB, and NBA. That adds up to 122 professional sports teams from those leagues and hundreds of years to select from. The only other stipulation was that the team had to wear the uniform for more than one season.
The envelope please…
Top 5 Best Uniforms in Professional Sports:
1) New York Yankees – forever: No matter what you think about this universally hated team you have to admit that their uniform is nice. There are other pinstriped uniforms out there but they do it best. Even the colours and logo, which was designed by Tiffanys, are great.
2) Chicago Bears – 1949 – present: Not the orange one! The blue with white and orange (home) and white with blue and orange (away) is what I am talking about. It is an old-school look without being totally out dated. Classic. The horizontal lines on their socks are cool. Even the look of their helmets is classic. Should never change their uniforms.
3) Montreal Canadiens – 1917– present: The C that encircles the H has become synonymous with the most famous of the NHL teams. A simple shirt with a logo that stands for “Canadian Hockey”. Iconic and a reminder of where the game originated. Ideal balance of red, white and blue. Standard bearers for the league. C’est manifique!
2) Boston Celtics – forever: As far as green uniforms go this is the best bar none. White and emerald green all over. “Celtics” on the front and a shamrock on the back. Nothing much has changed over the years and nothing needs to.
1) Pittsburgh Steelers – 1968 – present: The uniform really represent the blue collar city known for steel production. It is strong and menacing. Love that the logo only appears on one side of the helmet.
Top 5 Worst Uniforms in Professional Sports:
5) Detroit Pistons – 1996-2000: They rode the wave of popularity that teal had in the 1990s. It was hideous. And that logo? A chess piece on fire? Really? That is the best they could come up with?
4) Houston Astros – 1975-1979: A rainbow of different hues of orange…what were they thinking? With that colour scheme they looked a bit like fast food employees. On top of that there is a star on the front. Why?
3) Denver Nuggets – 1981-1993: Another uniform with a rainbow on it. It looks a bit like when we used to leave the television on too long or when stations went off the air. On top of that the rainbow is joined by a skyline of the city. Can you say eyesore?
2)Vancouver Canucks – 1978-1985: Another weird colour choice. Did they think they looked intimidating? I do have to admit that it took courage to wear that flying V around the neck.
1)Tampa Bay Devil Rays – 1998-2000: The Florida team has had a few bad uniforms but this was the worst. With a multi-coloured logo across the chest it is beyond rescuing. Supposed to represent the colours of the sea and ended up looking like a bad airbrush painting from the 1970s.
