The White Sox Aesthetic

[Tannerfan]

So I’m mostly a reader, not much of a poster. I’ve been reading the debates about Moncada and Rick Hahn. I check in on the game threads almost every game, and I read a lot about the prospects in the minors. 

But tonight I’d like to post a topic that I think should be discussed even though for many fans I think it’s probably a trivial matter. 

And that is the look of the team, especially as we enter into hopefully a new faze of being one of the better teams in baseball by 2020.

My first puzzlement is why does a team named the White Sox wear black socks? While most players wear their pants down to their shoes and sock color doesn’t matter, a number do go with the more traditional old school look of pants at the knees with high socks, and ours are the wrong color. Check out the Red Sox, they wear red ones! I think we should go with white so our next contending team has a look that supports our name.

I love the look of the home pinstripe whites, and the traditional road grades and find it frustrating that the team chooses to wear the black so called alternative jersey for so many games. Obviously I’m a traditionalist and I look at the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers and love the classic look they wear.  I’d love to see the White Sox go down that path and have an aesthetic that respects the long tradition of the game of baseball. 

I’m probably in the minority. Most here are younger and probably love the black jerseys. But I grew up with the late 60’s team looking traditional and classy and then had to live through all of the uniform nightmares of the 70’s and 80’s that includes some pretty awful teams.

So in conclusion it’s an off day, no game to watch and I thought I’d weigh in on my uniform obsession and see what other Sox Talkers think. 

Oh, I’d also love to see some changes to the park but I’ll save that for another day. 

[ron883]

I definitely think they are one of the most aesthetic teams, now and in the future. Moncada, Davidson, Delmonico, Yolmer, Gio, TA. All attractive. Then you've got Kopech waiting in the minors. 

[bmags]

I do kinda feel like jersey innovation is a part of the history and I don't like when that moves on to just be "nostalgia" instead of keeping up with trying to innovate there. But obviously, with reinsdorf he's erred toward some of the more classic looks.

[Dick Allen]

With as little as they wear anything but the black uniforms and 83's, it's like they have new ones when the break out the road grays and home pinstriipes.

[soxfan49]

They're alternates, not alternatives.

The Red Sox wear red jerseys too, not just white and gray.

Didn't they just get millions of dollars worth of renovations to the park?

[Bananarchy]

I wouldn't touch the pinstripes.  It's a great look and it has been with the team for almost three decades consecutively.  I do wish they would take a break from the solid black look.  I also could see the road grey getting an update even though we never seem to use them.

 

The only thing, however, I feel very strongly about with the White Sox "look" is the logo.  Don't change the logo.  The old english "Sox" is the best the team has had.

Edited August 10, 2018 by AustinIllini

[soxfan49]

21 minutes ago, AustinIllini said:

I wouldn't touch the pinstripes.  It's a great look and it has been with the team for almost three decades consecutively.  I do wish they would take a break from the solid black look.  I also could see the road grey getting an update even though we never seem to use them.

 

The only thing, however, I feel very strongly about with the White Sox "look" is the logo.  Don't change the logo.  The old english "Sox" is the best the team has had.

I could see them making a change to the grays how SF did. Putting the SOX in the corner with black piping up the buttons.

[35thstreetswarm]

10 hours ago, Tannerfan said:

So I’m mostly a reader, not much of a poster. I’ve been reading the debates about Moncada and Rick Hahn. I check in on the game threads almost every game, and I read a lot about the prospects in the minors. 

But tonight I’d like to post a topic that I think should be discussed even though for many fans I think it’s probably a trivial matter. 

And that is the look of the team, especially as we enter into hopefully a new faze of being one of the better teams in baseball by 2020.

My first puzzlement is why does a team named the White Sox wear black socks? While most players wear their pants down to their shoes and sock color doesn’t matter, a number do go with the more traditional old school look of pants at the knees with high socks, and ours are the wrong color. Check out the Red Sox, they wear red ones! I think we should go with white so our next contending team has a look that supports our name.

I love the look of the home pinstripe whites, and the traditional road grades and find it frustrating that the team chooses to wear the black so called alternative jersey for so many games. Obviously I’m a traditionalist and I look at the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers and love the classic look they wear.  I’d love to see the White Sox go down that path and have an aesthetic that respects the long tradition of the game of baseball. 

I’m probably in the minority. Most here are younger and probably love the black jerseys. But I grew up with the late 60’s team looking traditional and classy and then had to live through all of the uniform nightmares of the 70’s and 80’s that includes some pretty awful teams.

So in conclusion it’s an off day, no game to watch and I thought I’d weigh in on my uniform obsession and see what other Sox Talkers think. 

Oh, I’d also love to see some changes to the park but I’ll save that for another day. 

I think this is subject far from trivial!  I started a "Uniforms" thread last year and am obsessed with uniforms myself.  Though I take a less traditionalist approach than you, I am all in favor of the White Sox wearing white socks.  In fact, my proposal was to maximize the "white" in the uniform given our name, maybe even have a super clean "white-on-white" look ala the big three-era Miami Heat/current Vanderbilt baseball alternate.

I'd like to stick with the black and white color scheme and current logo, and would like to avoid the "default" baseball color scheme of red/blue/white.  I'm not a huge pinstripe fan.

 

Edited August 10, 2018 by 35thstreetswarm

[Bananarchy]

2 minutes ago, soxfan49 said:

I could see them making a change to the grays how SF did. Putting the SOX in the corner with black piping up the buttons.

Yeah.  It looks good for SF, but they also have a wordmark home jersey.  I'm not saying it's required, but I can see why the Sox would want one wordmark

[southsider2k5]

I am a big fan of the variety of jerseys through out the Sox history.  The fact that they have been so willing to experiment with different styles is really cool to me.  I have really loved a lot of the styles, including the ones we wear now, though they aren't my absolute favorites.  I also am one of the few people who hated the 83 block S-O-X style.  It is my absolute least favorite.  My modern favorite is actually the jersey we wore immediately after that.

[MEANS]

I also hate the '83 alts. Other than the team not wearing white socks, I feel the home/road and blk alts are all very solid. They could be improved with a few tweaks here and there: bring the diamond logo back, plus the black piping on the grey pants...

[Jose Abreu]

41 minutes ago, MEANS said:

I also hate the '83 alts. Other than the team not wearing white socks, I feel the home/road and blk alts are all very solid. They could be improved with a few tweaks here and there: bring the diamond logo back, plus the black piping on the grey pants...

I hate that the diamond logo has been replaced on the gray road jersey sleeves by the standard logo. It was a lot better looking before the change. 

[35thstreetswarm]

43 minutes ago, MEANS said:

I also hate the '83 alts. Other than the team not wearing white socks, I feel the home/road and blk alts are all very solid. They could be improved with a few tweaks here and there: bring the diamond logo back, plus the black piping on the grey pants...

So do I.  I always assumed they were brought back in an ironic, "so dated and bad they're funny" kind of way.  Only recently did I realize that the organization isn't joking.

[Bananarchy]

26 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

I hate that the diamond logo has been replaced on the gray road jersey sleeves by the standard logo. It was a lot better looking before the change. 

I agree.  The diamond sock is underutilized in our current look.  It's a solid logo

[soxfan49]

1 hour ago, AustinIllini said:

I agree.  The diamond sock is underutilized in our current look.  It's a solid logo

Nike released a shirt with it last year on its own and I loved it. Underutilized indeed. I had to buy it.

[bmags]

The spring training hats logo is really good, I think they should extend that out more first. 

[SpringfieldFan]

IMO white socks just don't look quite right on a white uniform, but I get that not having them doesn't make sense given the team's name. They did address this in the red pinstripe era. At that time they wore red socks (stirrups then), but due to the fact that there was another team called "Red Sox", they had the team logo itself embroidered (in white) on top part of the red sock. Interesting compromise there.

[Bananarchy]

21 minutes ago, bmags said:

The spring training hats logo is really good, I think they should extend that out more first. 

I'm for that as well, as long as it doesn't become the primary in place of the SOX

[southsider2k5]

22 minutes ago, bmags said:

The spring training hats logo is really good, I think they should extend that out more first. 

I LOVE this.  I bought that hat as soon as I could find it.  Dropping the block SOX and putting it on black was a stroke of genius.

[southsider2k5]

2 hours ago, MEANS said:

I also hate the '83 alts. Other than the team not wearing white socks, I feel the home/road and blk alts are all very solid. They could be improved with a few tweaks here and there: bring the diamond logo back, plus the black piping on the grey pants...

 

2 hours ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

So do I.  I always assumed they were brought back in an ironic, "so dated and bad they're funny" kind of way.  Only recently did I realize that the organization isn't joking.

Glad to see I am not alone!  Never got the excitement for the style.

[Bananarchy]

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

 

Glad to see I am not alone!  Never got the excitement for the style.

Yeah, it's awful.  Just stick with what we have.  

[MEANS]

It also drives me nuts because the logo from that ‘83 set is used on most vintage apparel as well. What did they wear that set for, like 5 seasons? I get that it’s the biggest deviation from the gothic SOX which has been used in various forms throughout the team’s identity but it’s just a horrible mark, like a pedestrian sign. 

 

I also love the SOX logo with the O and X tucked above and below the middle of the S. I’ve been working on an improved version of that for a little while.

[Wanne]

Bring back the sleeveless!!!!!!

I'd also like to see the 72 powder blues back for retro jerseys at some point too....

[Quin]

35 minutes ago, Wanne said:

Bring back the sleeveless!!!!!!

I'd also like to see the 72 powder blues back for retro jerseys at some point too....

1. Bring back the sleeveless.
2. Bring back the Diamond Sock logo
3. Rotate a different throwback / alternative  on Sundays, not just the '83. Have the '83s, then go to the '87s, then the Chris Sale Scissor Special, etc.
4. Craziest idea: Have a deal with the Bulls - Sox make a black jersey with red pinstripes while Bulls make a Sox inspired jersey. Wouldn't work with licensing most likely, but it'd be fun. Examples of what the Bulls would wear:
    

 

[Thad Bosley]

On 8/10/2018 at 12:04 AM, Tannerfan said:

So I’m mostly a reader, not much of a poster. I’ve been reading the debates about Moncada and Rick Hahn. I check in on the game threads almost every game, and I read a lot about the prospects in the minors. 

But tonight I’d like to post a topic that I think should be discussed even though for many fans I think it’s probably a trivial matter. 

And that is the look of the team, especially as we enter into hopefully a new faze of being one of the better teams in baseball by 2020.

My first puzzlement is why does a team named the White Sox wear black socks? While most players wear their pants down to their shoes and sock color doesn’t matter, a number do go with the more traditional old school look of pants at the knees with high socks, and ours are the wrong color. Check out the Red Sox, they wear red ones! I think we should go with white so our next contending team has a look that supports our name.

I love the look of the home pinstripe whites, and the traditional road grades and find it frustrating that the team chooses to wear the black so called alternative jersey for so many games. Obviously I’m a traditionalist and I look at the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers and love the classic look they wear.  I’d love to see the White Sox go down that path and have an aesthetic that respects the long tradition of the game of baseball. 

I’m probably in the minority. Most here are younger and probably love the black jerseys. But I grew up with the late 60’s team looking traditional and classy and then had to live through all of the uniform nightmares of the 70’s and 80’s that includes some pretty awful teams.

So in conclusion it’s an off day, no game to watch and I thought I’d weigh in on my uniform obsession and see what other Sox Talkers think. 

Oh, I’d also love to see some changes to the park but I’ll save that for another day. 

I think most of the flaws of the original design of “New Comiskey Park” were corrected with the renovations made in the early-to-mid 2000s.  The upper deck still isn’t great, given the steep pitch and the entrance being at the base of the deck rather than somewhere in the middle.  Outside of that, though, and somehow magically picking the park up and turning it around to face the city skyline, not sure what’s left to do outside of the typical updates each year.