New Hawks revealed, judgement yet to come

Before looking at anything else, watch the video below. I know most of the people coming to my blog have seen the new duds on other sites, but take a look at that clip on NFL.COM before taking another look at the kits.

So, I haven't really formed a full opinion on these. I've got a few aspects I REALLY like, and some I'm merely lukewarm on.

By the way, pictures get bigger if you click on them, just in case you want a closer look.

HELMET:

The feathering on the front is a nice touch. It's not too garish yet still brings something unique. The helmets are probably the one spot where I unequivocally love the replacement of the lighter blue in favor of "Seahawks Navy". Do I regret they didn't go with silver helmets? Sure. But I'm more than satisfied with the final result.

The logo didn't connect in the back of the old helmets, which I always felt was a missed opportunity. They do now, and it's a much more cohesive look. And the addition of "Seattle" to the bottom of the helmet is also a positive addition. I still feel green on the bottom stripe of the logo is a missed opportunity, and it's especially evident here. A splash of green in the back would have (I hate this phrase, but...) brought the thing together.
One complaint: the feathering from the front comes to a point right above where the Seahawks logos meet, creating something of a mullet look. Might have been good to fade that pattern out on the way back so that it doesn't stand out so much in the back.

More after the break

Uniforms:

Home:

My first impression is that it sort of looks like the San Diego Chargers uniforms from a few years ago, before they went back to powder blue. Deep blues with white (in this case grey) and splashes of bright color on the shoulders and pant legs (the Lime Green is easy to mistake for yellow). 

It's when I look a little closer that I start to feel a lot better about the whole thing. The numbers are pretty much exactly what I wanted, being grey/silver with green accents. The numbers are textured with a Native American feather pattern also depicted throughout the jersey (including in green around the collar).  Putting the team name up on the left shoulder is a good, classy look that I think will age well. 

The most noticeable splash of green is right on the tip of the shoulder, with the Nike logo replacing the Seahawk from the old kits. I definitely miss the shoulder logo, which originated in the '76 kits as a complete wrap around. I would have liked to see that touch return, as one of the more unique aspects in Seahawks history. It's still a good look though, and may have actually been nodded to in the white kits (I'll get to that a little later). Notice the texturing on the green strip around the neck. If you count the feathers, you'll notice there are 12 of them. There are also 12 feathers down each pants leg. Each are wonderful nods to the 12th man, but if you watched the video linked at the very top of this post, you'll know there is an even better one on the inside of the neck (no pictures available). 

Again, the numbers adopted the grey/silver rather than going boring white, as do the player letters. Giving the name the same neon green highlight that the numbers got are the only change I would make. I've heard comments that the numbers are too big but I don't think they're actually that much longer than the Reebok jerseys from last year. 

There's the 12 feathers along the leg. The all-blue kit looks better than I thought it would, and MUCH better than the Reebok versions did. But I still would prefer they used one of the other pants colors. 

Just not this one. There's no white in the jersey, so having white pants in the same ensemble makes the white (and therefore the crotch) stand out more than I think Nike intended. 

If I were Pete Carroll (Does the QB have any say on what kit is worn?) this would be the combo I would use most of the time. The grey/silver pants are a nice callback to the Seahawks' olden days and mesh with the rest of the uniform. The darker socks look better also.

Since I found out about the new uniform about six hours ago, I've largely come around on it. It doesn't necessarily look the way it would have had I been in charge of designing it, but there are some really cool aspects and I'll be proud to wear it on gameday. I especially love the nods to the 12th man and the number designs. 

Away:

I woke up fully expecting to hate the white jerseys. I pretty much always hate white jerseys. They're just so boring. So imagine my surprise when I found myself actually thinking well of this option. That said, I'm not going to show the white shirt/white pants pairing, because it is just a terrible, terrible look.

I think it's the numbers that make the white likable. The old kits had blue numbers with lighter blue borders. Other than that, the only color they used to have were a little bit of blue on the sleeves. This one has textured blue numbers with green trim, and is paired with the horizontal blue up on the shoulders as well as blue numbers on the shoulders. With the blue pants, it's a good away uniform. In fact, now that I think about it, I really like the new blue (and alternate) pants, and would have liked to take a look at them with the reebok jerseys. 

This is my favorite part of the white jerseys, and one that may or may not be a consious nod to the old seahawks uniforms. Lets see if you can spot it without me telling you.

See it yet? What about... now?

I honestly CANNOT look at the shoulder/sleeve of the white uniform without seeing the eye of the Seahawks logo. CANNOT do it. And I LOVE it. I don't even care if Nike did it on purpose or not. If not, then it's a great unintentional touch among a number of great intentional touches. 

While it doesn't really mesh with the white jersey, the grey pants are at least a better option than the white ones. 

Alternate:

It's difficult to differentiate between the white and grey/silver kits at first glance, making me wish they would have either made more apparent changes to it or simply made grey/silver the away kit (not sure if that's even allowed). That said, I think these will look a lot more distinctive in person, and I imagine they will be pretty slick. 

I really look forward to this pairing.

Gear:

Nowhere are the faults of the new logo more apparent than on the gloves. It just looks so bland in the face of all that green. Someone please photoshop some Emerald into the bottom stripe of that logo for me. And give me a green jersey alternate while we're at it. So I don't necessarily want anyone making this hand signal at the cameras during a game, but if they didn't have the logo on them, I'd love the gloves. I still do. They are a great little splash of color on an otherwise nearly colorless overall look. 

I wish they made a non-cleat version of this shoe, because I'd love to own such a beautiful piece of art. Like with the gloves, it adds just a little more green to keep the team from looking like the Seattle Pandas. 

Verdict:

I have warmed up to the whole package over the course of the day, and I imagine I will continue to over the course of the year. There's a few things I would have changed or added if I were in charge, but overall I'm pretty happy with the product. The blues are different but equal, the whites are far and away better than they were before, and the grey/silvers bring something new to the package. Our logo is too bland, but the new kits make lemon out of lemonade in that regard, finding a way to make a couple of boring colors interesting and fresh. As long as they never EVER use the white pants, all will be well. And if anyone is reading this and interested in future birthday/Christmas presents, I would love to wear any of these to a future game.