The Worst Sports Uniforms Alive

Have you ever been watching a sporting event and were simply disgusted with your favorite team’s lack of fashion sense? Better yet, have you actually considered going into fashion just so that you could learn how to create better uniforms to replace the old ones? It doesn’t matter whether your favorite sports team is good on or off the field of play when it comes to fashion sense. Marketing departments have tried desperately over the years to come up with new uniforms that will either appeal to a new market or simply to stir up some controversy. Here are some of our choices for some of the worst sporting uniforms on the face of this planet.

Vancouver Canucks – 1978 – 1985

These jerseys were supposed to be used to scare the opposing team but instead scared anybody who paid to see this team play with these awful jerseys. It seemed like Halloween was everyday of the week for the Canucks and unfortunately it was. This jersey has become the standard in how not to design a jersey and how to think more carefully when deciding to mix colors together without thinking. The truly sad part is that the Vancouver Canucks still haven’t decided on a true jersey for this franchise ever since these jerseys existed but every year that the marketing team comes up with a new jersey that gets blasted by the media and the fans at least they can say, “Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as these jerseys!”

Denver Nuggets Road Jersey 1976 – 1998

The Denver Nuggets thought it would be a good idea to have a jersey that stood out from the rest of the teams in the NBA. Not only did this jersey help to identify the team on the court; it also helped to usher in a whole new lifestyle and community to NBA events. The rainbow colored jersey has now become a symbol for the gay & lesbian community. The team has since changed their jersey but the jersey still lives on and can be seen at many gay & lesbian parades still to this day.

Chicago White Sox Home Jersey – 1976

Man, what is it with the 1970s and bad jerseys? I sense a theme here. It’s pretty hard to mess up a baseball jersey. It’s a simple layout. Hat – buttoned shirt – pants. If you keep this combination you shouldn’t have many problems. Well, in 1976, the Chicago White Sox decided to ditch the pants and go with shorts instead. Not only was the team the laughing stock of the league but they also ended up being one of the worst White Sox teams to ever take the field. The shorts incident only lasted one game of a double header and the very next game they decided to put back the old pants and forget the incident ever took place.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Alternate Jersey – 1979

We’re not sure how the color orange is connected to pirates but we’re pretty sure that anything with orange is a no-no at this point. For a team that was already bad for a couple of seasons, you would think that the owner might say to himself “Hmm, could it be the jerseys?” The team must have had some serious self-image issues when they went on to the field because orange certainly isn’t the color that strikes fear in an opposing player’s eyes.

If anything, it only helps the other team’s defensive line be able to spot the quarterback that much easier. The problem with these uniforms wasn’t so much the orange jersey but the white helmets with a pirate logo smacked on to the sides of it. The logo wasn’t much to look at and only helped to reinforce the stereotype of a pirate walking the plank much like the success of this team at this moment. To the Buccaneers’ credit, their new flashy-red jerseys have since become some of the best looking jerseys in the league and only help their fans forget the jerseys that were known as the “puke-orange” jerseys.

Los Angeles Kings Alternate Jersey – 1995-1996

Who would have known that the Kings were on the verge of a great marketing campaign that was ahead of its time? Management thought that it would be a good idea to put a logo of a king on the front of their jerseys. The only problem with this idea (aside from the fact that the logo itself was ugly) is that the logo looks a little too similar to that other king from a popular fast food restaurant. In fact, The kings had a logo very similar to the image of the burger king that is often used in their ad campaigns and television commercials. This would be a great cross-promotional idea if the jerseys were still around but sadly they aren’t and if the kings were smart they should sue Burger King for trademark infringement for stealing their logo idea from them.

Denver Broncos Jersey – 1960-61

What can we say about these jerseys that hasn’t been said already? Mustard-colored jerseys with brown and yellow socks combinations? Perhaps the idea was that the colors would blend in with the color of the mud on the field for camouflage or to reduce grass stains? In any event, the higher-ups learned from their mistake by giving the team a whole new look the following season. How did the team respond to this gesture? By helping to get rid of the old jerseys the only way that they knew how. Solution: One large trash can, uniforms into the trash can, large fire to get rid of the old jerseys for good.

Arsenal Away Jersey 1990-1991

Soccer (or as the Europeans like to call it ”football”) isn’t excluded from our list. There have been some bad soccer jerseys over the years. What makes soccer uniforms even more repulsive is that they share the closest resemblance to actual wearable clothes and thus the average joe can be seen more often wearing these things on the streets then uniforms of other professional sports leagues. English Premier League’s Arsenal won several football titles in the 90s but you wouldn’t notice it from the look of their jerseys. Their jerseys screamed ”hide us” as opposed to ”Look at us the Champions!” . The shade of brown was perhaps a signal of the team’s grit or strength as opposed to more flashier colors but instead the jerseys looked more like a shade of vomit rather than a more dark and distinguished color that perhaps the team was going for.

Washington Bullets Jersey 1980-1997

This jersey is considered a classic throwback jersey by many fans and players alike. It’s either a jersey you’re going to love or hate depending on how you look at things. The jerseys were officially changed and renamed in 1997 after the owner of the team thought the name ”bullets” was too violent a name to officially represent the team. A contest was created to find a replacement and the team was officially renamed to the ”Wizards”. We don’t care what the team is called now but we are quite certain that anytime a team’s jersey resembles the colors of the country’s own flag that political colors and teams colors shouldn’t mix. Also,anytime your jersey has multiple colors striped down the jersey; that’s an automatic no-no for us. The logo itself was a bullet racing by a ball which we’re quite certain is not a great image to have with the NBA’s inner city youth.

FC Barcelona Away Jersey 1995-1997

Barcelona had one of the greatest soccer teams in the world as well as one of the greatest soccer players in Ronaldhino. So, then why did the pattern on their jerseys look like shingles for a roof? We’re also pretty certain that the color of the team’s jerseys is both the first and last time that a team will use some shade of aquamarine to represent their team ever again.

San Diego Padres Jersey 1970s

We’d like to end the horrible decade for sports jerseys that was the 1970s with the San Diego Padres. They’ve had so many bad uniforms over the years (anyone remember the camouflage army-styled one in the late 90s?) that it was hard to pick a winner. We chose their 1970s mustard colored jerseys because it displays not only how ugly they were but also how ugly they were in a decade when jerseys were bad to begin with. Their jerseys looked like a condiment for a hot dog and were simply not very appealing to the eye. We’re glad that they ditched these jerseys but their latest attempts at jersey design haven’t been any better.Are there any jerseys that we missed? Comment on the article and let us know which uniforms we may have missed in our list or that you feel should have been included.