Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Back to the Future



Actually, if you'd like to buy a jersey, don't click on the picture, click here instead.


Find more photos like this on Women's Professional Soccer


WPS unveiled all its uniforms last night at a fashion event in New York City. The Chicago Red Stars jersey design was inspired by Puma's 2005 Chicago Fire third strip which was a solid light blue jersey with four red stars across the chest. The main improvement we wanted to make to that jersey was the inclusion of a horizontal white band, which is finally included now in the Red Stars home jersey. While i was with the Fire, one of my final acts as team president was to try to convince adidas to keep the light blue "Chicago flag" jersey as either the team's away jersey or third jersey. i failed then, but am very pleased we were able to resurrect it here.

Both our home and away uniforms were misassembled for last night's New York City unveiling event and are erroneously shown as solids from top to bottom instead of the actual alternating blue and white to emulate the City of Chicago flag. In photo number 8 of the slide show above, Carli Lloyd should be wearing blue shorts and Nikki Krzysik should be wearing white shorts.

Fortunately, this is a one-time error that will be fixed when we start playing games!

i do believe the home blue/white/blue look that Lindsay Tarpley is modeling here has the chance to become an iconic look for the Chicago Red Stars.

The best news, though, is that the event received tremendous national coverage including this morning's appearance by Kristine Lilly and Hope Solo on The Today Show and the Red Stars jersey received praise in both its actual and erroneous combinations.

Here are some of the comments i received via email, text, Twitter, WPS Fan Zone and Facebook in the first couple hour after it was released:

Scott Viar: "Nice pic of Lindsay in the team gear."

David Herman: "Looks strangely similar to the third kit Puma put out three years ago - which was fabulous and classic - so, is it inspired or ...?!"

Diana Salisbury: "Nice jerseys!!!"

Nick Hawkins: "Awesome. :)"

Jim Kogutkiewicz: "Really like the white one. They look great, and they also put me in the mind of watching about three dozen Chicago Red Stars team cars chasing a couple of "blues brothers" through the streets of Chicago and crashing awesomely into support beams for El tracks."

Alex White: "strong, very strong."

Kenn Tomasch: "Love it. I didn't get the email, so I haven't seen the white one! But the blue one is aces."

Bryan Darger: "I dig the jerseys. My friend has the Chicago flag tattooed on his forearm-- it's a timeless image, and now everyone is just going to think he's a Red Stars fan. :-)"

Stuart Reid: "Outstanding!"

Deb Autry: "Oooh! Love em!"

Keith Lewis: "Really glad you did this. I was afraid you'd feel they shouldn't be done like this but I'm very pleased. They look fantastic."

Patrick Evans: "I think Lindsay will enjoy wearing Carolina blue again."

Lindsay Coffey: "sweet uniform!!! cant wait till game day!!!!!!! actually my whole team is coming...but i hope to have better seats than them since i'm a season ticket holder. haha"

Melissa Meyer: "The kits are great and all but where are Siriano's "interpretations?" So far, Chicago appears to be skort-free and for that I thank you."

Nick Buchel: "classy"

Kathryn Knapp: "Love the uniform Peter!!!"

Carmela Lopriore: "I <3 the jerseys!! Chicago has the best uniforms!!! Cristiane would look dazzling in one... Any word?"

Jeff McCrum: "Looks like you've been using the same design firm that cam up with my favorite blue Fire jersey... :)"

Josh Graning: "Easily the best kits in the league. Very nice."

Milan: "I love the Red Stars uniform! Just perfect. Well done Peter!"

Jack C: "Peter- the uni's rock- but I am pretty sure that's not you in the picture."

Brett: "Best uniform in the League. Good stuff."

Troy Garris: "Those jerseys are slick... Almost West Ham colors! I'll rock one!"

Robyn Vinje: "love them! can't wait to buy a replica!"

Karsten Roy: "Peter, I like the look! Looking forward to the season and taking our club players."

Colin Deval: "Great new kits for the team."

mikegonzalez: "The uniforms are absolutely perfect. Really, fantastic. I love them."

flatlander: "Very nice! It's also consistent with what you've done with the Red Stars brand so far, which is ..."

Lbaus: "That's hot!"

jcoria: "beautiful! simple, but not too simple. these will look great on the field."

joanofdark: "Why not sell the jersey she's modeling? Seriously, the long sleeves look top notch, but the site is selling SS. Nice! Really good. I guess I could live without a cloak. ;)"

thatkindagirl "Looks great! My daughter is ready to order one"

kornkid15: "those look amazing!"

MinnesotaSoccer: "Like it!"

Monika7: "SWEET!"

What do you think? Would you buy one? If you'd like to, you can order one at the Red Stars website.

12 comments:

Kenn Tomasch said...

PW - the all-blue is epic, you should wear it at least once. Blue/white/blue is nice, but the all-blue rocks.

peter said...

Thanks Kenn. The alternating colors better resemble the Chicago flag. i imagine the day will come though where the all blues may be worn.

Kenn Tomasch said...

Does the white stripe go all the way around?

Nicolino Di Benedetto said...

By far the best uniform in the league. What a shock that Chicago sets the standard in WPS ;)

Anonymous said...

The site mentions that the kits are only women's sizes. Will there be a men's version or will men just have to order a size or two larger?

diana said...

Are you kidding me with those skorts? It's not tennis we're playing here....it's soccer! Thank you for insisting on sHorts, PW!

Anonymous said...

Just found this comment here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2009/02/wps_unveils_uniforms.html?wprss=soccerinsider


The Chicago ones are just about the best kit in any sport I have ever seen. Makes the name (Red Stars) seem less Marxist. I get the name now.

peter said...

No men's sizes this year...hopefully next year. White stripe goes seam to seam in the front, not in the back.

Kenn Tomasch said...

In a way, it would be odd to have them available in men's cut.

I just bought one for my daughter, though. Don't tell her. :)

When she grows out of it, I can frame it and put it on the wall.

The Armchair Pundit said...

I like the monochrome looks better.

Boltgirl said...

A men's cut would be great, at least maybe in a replica t-shirt. I'm a woman, but have never had much luck stuffing my linebackerish shoulders into women's shirts.

They look fantastic, either way, and thank you thank you thank you for saying no to the skort.

Anonymous said...

I really want a mens version.

I've been trying to find that Fire design from 2005ish and it's nowhere to be found.