Go Green! Go Black. Go... Gold?

 My initial reaction to Nike's Pro Combat uni designs for MSU was disbelief.  Not outrage per se but just, really?  Gold helmets? Somebody with the university signed off on that? (Turns out the players actually asked for a new design and then gave them a final thumbs up.)

The Fighting Spartans?

However, I wanted to wait a couple days before taking a side on this very bold design.  And my side is against. Sorry, they're ugly. The black on green is awful.  Throw in the alien looking gold and it's a mess.  I find the gloves perplexing too given that a player could easily be penalized for making that gesture in a game.  I do like the helmet but more as a novelty.  It looks like something you would give to a coach or booster to put on their mantle.

Looks like dogshit. And not the good kind.

But there is more beyond the radical design, that kind of pisses me off on this subject. A year or so ago, Nike and the University quietly unveiled a new design for the Spartan helmet logo.  The backlash was pretty quick and pretty fierce and as a result the new design quietly went away.  Then before the season, the uniform design that the football team wore last year (and still wears mostly unchanged) was unveiled featuring mostly innocuous changes to the pant and helmet stripes and logo/ number font.  But sneakily a new bronze accent color was added (really it was brown).  It was largely shrugged off though because it wasn't very visible nor did it have that big an effect on the overall appearance.  But now, the accent color that nobody asked for has been transformed into metallic gold and thrust upon the team and its fans as if it were always a part of the school's tradition. And with the ever present (and frankly, lazy) black no less.  Nike has effectively pulled an end around in its quest to Nikify MSU.

Why couldn't Nike create something like this? 

This.

I found this design while doing a little research for this post. I absolutely love it. It pains me a little that they were designed by a UM guy (aka TheZuba.com). But you have to give him credit for a great design and for repping Michigan, as in "the state of".  Heck, I'll even admit that his designs for the wolverine helmet look pretty cool.

Note the wolverine head watermark on the right helmet.

For a little more commentary on ALL of the Nike Pro Combat designs, check out Uni Watch blog's take on ESPN.com.

All the pics of the new Michigan State unis

So I couldn't find a good source that showed all the views of the new Michigan State "Nike Pro Combat" uniforms that will be worn during the game against Michigan so I decided to compile them all here. A special shout goes out to the internet for making it possible. I may comment later but for now here they are...

Save the Post Office?

Yahoo! News and The Daily Ticker are reporting that the U.S. Post Office faces an $11 billion (with a B) shortfall this year and may be forced to close up the shop without more cash or drastic restructuring.

Won't happen. But that is a heck of a way to get our collective attention. I support the post office as much as I can. I still mail a fair amount of my bills out of sheer stubbornness. When I have an item to ship for Swap.com, eBay or Amazon, I choose the P.O. over UPS or FedEx. Come to think of it, I just canceled my Netflix streaming service in favor of their by-mail only service.

But after hearing the news about how much cash the USPS is losing, I ask myself whether my choice is a good one or not. Am I right to place value in patriotically supporting this service despite the shortcomings of its long-term operations? Or am I merely helping to prop up their sales and string them along just a little bit longer? Don't get me wrong, if UPS or FedEx were measurably cheaper or more convenient, I'd take my business to them but they're not so I still enjoy my occasional runs to the P.O.

With the bailout word getting thrown around one thing seems obvious to me: That if this isn't quashed it could get turned into an election issue. Whether some sort of bailout happens or if the USPS fails (again, it won't), all fingers will point at the current presidential administration despite the fact that strictly-speaking the USPS isn't even a governmental agency nor do its problems have anything to do with any recent presidential or legislative action.