Sports Design Blog

Shoes You Never Knew

All of you know that I was a big fan of the shoe biz in the 1980's. I've written many times about my favorite basketball styles from back in the day. Many of those shoes set the tone for the modern sports industry and were responsible for the boom in sports products that still exists today. Most of them, you know very well.

Today I wanted to take a look at some styles that may not be as memorable as the Air Jordan or the Pony City Wing. Some of them you may not remember, or may have blotted out of your mind. The first shoe on my list is the Kinney Official NBA shoe from 1977. Obviously this style existed long before the Air Jordan revolution took place. The Kinney NBA shoe featured all of the modern shoe technologies of 1977, and a beautiful gold suede and mesh. Inside the shoe you see a great NBA logo pattern and the NBA logo on the tongue. Just so it doesn't get confused with an Adidas shoe of the time, there are four stripes instead of three. Where else can you get an official NBA endorsed shoe for $18.99? This is a great forgettable shoe from the 1970's.

Next on the list of forgotten shoes is the official NCAA basketball shoe from International Shoe Company circa 1984. Born in the pre-Jordan era, but during the Nike Air Force and Converse Fastbreak eras, the NCAA shoe is one I'm sure you don't remember. With style names like the Phi Slamma Jamma and the Alley-Opp, these shoes were deigned to capture the true spirit of NCAA basketball, all for a surprisingly low price, as the ad states. It is pretty obvious why this shoe design did not go down in history with its brothers from that era.

The last shoe on our list today is another player endorsed shoe that didn't come with the hoopla of the Jordan or the Converse Weapon. I've written before about Ralph Sampson's Pumas and Akeem Olajuwan's LA Gears. This shoe is another obscure player endorsed model. I remember the KangaRoo being endorsed by Walter Payton, but I forgot that "the shoe with a pocket" was also the footwear of choice for Clyde "the Glide" Drexler. The KangaRoos Slam Dunks were supposed to let you out-jump, out-spin, out-pivot and out-class your opponent. Clyde could get up in the air, so his KangaRoos may have helped.  The KangaRoo logo is one of the most original from the time and is prominently featured on the side of the Glide.

So there you go, some basketball shoe treasures you may have forgotten about from the golden era of the basketball shoe business.

Uniform switchup in Mississippi

Last night's Kentucky vs. Mississippi State game in Starkville presented an odd uniform situation. The game was played on Mississippi State's home floor, but the team's were wearing uniforms opposite of what they would normally be wearing.

The Mississippi State crowd was dressed in a varying pattern of white and maroon shirts, while the basketball team was wearing a new set of black jerseys on their home court.

The Kentucky Wildcats took to the floor in their home whites. It was extremely odd seeing the Wildcats playing on the road in their white jerseys. The white uniforms just belong on the floor of Rupp and looked really strange on the road. I was looking forward to get a good look at the new Nike road blue uniform for the Cats, hoping that the graphics on the back would look less like a sweat stain on the players' backs than the art on the white one does.

It turned out to be a great basketball game, with an interesting uniform twist just to keep you on your toes.

Old School vs. New School: Gumball Helmets

Everyone who grew up in the glorious Sears Catalog days of NFL collecting remember the old school NFL gumball helmets. I've written before about some of those glorious gumball helmet designs from the 1970's. The technology back then was not nearly what we have today, so those helmets were extremely limited in what kind of decoration could be done to them. Every helmet utilized a decal on each side to create the team graphic and any team that needed a stripe over the top had a stripe decal as well. For teams like the Rams and the 1980's Bengals, this presented some issues.

Fast forward to today. Manufacturing technology has advanced in so many ways that the gumball helmets you buy today are far different than those from the past. The gumball helmet of today is definitely not your father's gumball helmet. Modern gumball helmets have no problem at all displaying the intricate graphics on some of the NFL's most complicated helmet designs. Tampo printing technology allows the current gumball helmet to accurately display the team graphics, even if they wrap over the top of the helmet. No longer do you have those die-cut decals, but graphics that are permanently printed on the helmet.

The basic shape of the old school gumball helmet was also a bit different than a real NFL helmet. The old school gumball helmet was somewhat flat on the sides and on the top in order to allow the decals to be placed on a flat surface. The facemask of old was a simple white two-bar design that snapped into place on each side of the helmet. As the old school gumball helmet evolved, you even started to see facemasks in colors. I used to keep a drawer full of helmets with the decals removed and various colored facemasks so I could customize them at any time.

Fast forward to today's new school gumball helmet. Today's helmet is shaped in a manner that is much more like that of a real helmet. Since the graphics are now pad printed, there is no need for the flat surfaces for decals, allowing for a much more realistic shape. Today's facemask is also much more detailed, with a realistic full-face design.

Today's helmets provide collector's with a much more realistic piece of memorabilia to collect, but there is something about an old school gumball helmet that just feels right. Despite their decoration and shape limitations, the old school gumball helmet was one of the most cherished of all sports collectibles for young NFL fans from the past.

Graphics Gone Wild! South Carolina's court graphics

I'm all for a good oversized logo on a basketball court. Most major colleges and NBA teams feature a big, oversized logo at center court. However, after watching a few games of the South Carolina Gamecocks on their home floor at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, I have seen center court graphics gone wild!

The center court logo at SC home games takes the concept to an entirely new level. The court doesn't just feature the huge SC Gamecock logo (which could probably initiate a discussion of its own), but also features additional lettering that creates a massive graphic that dominates the entire court. The Gamecock logo is surrounded by a huge arching SOUTH CAROLINA over the top of the mascot and the words Colonial Life Arena below. The graphic is so overpowering that it interferes with your ability to see the players on the television broadcast when they are over the graphics.

When the players come across midcourt, the additional letter graphics are so visually overpowering that you have trouble seeing the action on the court. The South Carolina word nearly stretches from the top of the key on one end of the court to the other. Like I said before, I'm all for the current trend of huge logos on basketball courts, but this one takes the concept way too far. The logo would look great standing alone, but the overpowering text makes watching a game on this floor very difficult.

Old School Design: Big Jim

In today's Old School Design, I wanted to take a look back at another must-have sports toy for those of us who grew up in the 1970's. In addition to our Evel Knievel Stunt Cycles, electronic vibrating football and Sears Catalog action figures, there was Big Jim. Big Jim was one of my childhood favorites (loved the name).

Big Jim was an action figure created by Mattel in the very early 1970's. The Big Jim doll could be put into many heroic roles, as a secret agent, astronaut or many other things. Most importantly, Big Jim could also be decked out in all kinds of sports gear. The action figure had a flexing bicep muscle and a metal strap that would pop off when his muscle flexed. He also had a lever on his back that allowed him to perform a karate chop. Big Jim was the ultimate male action hero.

The Big Jim sports pack included uniforms for basketball and football and came with all sorts of other sports related gear for Big Jim to wear. He originally came boxed in only his gym shorts, so you had to have the accessories to make him look good. The picture above to the left shows Big Jim in his extremely USC Trojans leaning football garb. Big Jim could play out any sports fantasy that a young boy could think of. In a basketball mood? Just put Big Jim in his basketball jersey and gym shoes and you were ready to go.

Though Big Jim was really more of an overall action hero than a sports figure, my early childhood Big Jim was always decked out as an athlete and was one of my favorite sports products from the 1970's.

Retro Bengals

Yesterday on Uni-Watch, there was a link provided by one of their contributors to a piece of footage from a game between the Bengals and the Browns from 1970. As you know, I have not hidden my fondness for the Bengals original uniforms. This footage provides a great look back at two teams who had the basic uniform set nailed down. You probably can't find two teams with a more simple look than the old school Bengals and Browns. (though the Browns sleeve stripes are a bit more ornate than their current version).

Seeing this great old video got me searching for some more examples of the old school Bengals look to satisfy my need to see it. In this classic clip that I found, not only do you get a look at the classic Bengals look, but you have snow and a shot of the New York Giants with a stripe over the top of their helmets. This is an absolutely outstanding trip back in time.

You can never get enough good looks at the old school Bengals and these videos provide a great look back at one of my favorite uni combos of all-time!