Sports Apparel Facts

Custom team uniforms and other team apparel are essential to a sports team’s identity. Not only does this kind of apparel allow players to distinguish their teammates from opponents during game play, but it also helps build a sports club’s brand and fandom.

Fun Sports Apparel Facts:

• The Cleveland Indians were the first Major League baseball team to have numbered athletic uniforms when they took the field in 1916.
• Shin guards were invented in 1874 by English soccer player Samuel Widdowson.
• Henry Austin was the first person to wear shorts at Wimbledon. When he did so, in 1932, it is said that he shocked Queen Mary.
• In 1976, the Chicago White Sox became the first and only MLB team to ever wear shorts.
• The iconic New York Yankees’ logo was designed by Tiffany and Co. It was originally used for the NYPD’s Medal of Valor in 1877, but was adopted by the baseball team when NYC’s police chief became part-owner of the Yankees.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers’ logo is featured on only one side of their helmet.
• The Dallas Cowboys never wear their blue home jerseys because they are believed to bring bad luck. Rather, they have worn their white athletic apparel for all but one home game since 1971.
• When baseball players first began wearing uniform numbers in the 1920’s and 30’s, the numbers themselves were not actually all that important. In fact, Chuck Klein and Ernie Lombardi each wore 10 different numbers throughout their careers.
• Number 44, worn by both Jim Brown and Ernie Davis at Syracuse University, is so highly regarded that every university phone number now begins with 44.
• Braves pitcher Andy Messersmith wore a uniform with the word “CHANNEL” before his number 17 instead of his last name, in order to advertise for Ted Turner’s television station, Channel 17.
• Utah Jazz player John Stockton was the last NBA player to regularly wear short shorts, earning him the nickname “king of the short shorts.”
• In baseball, a pitcher’s glove can be any color except for gray or white because it makes it too easy to camouflage the ball.
• Japanese baseball players will not wear the number four jersey because the number, pronounced shi, also means death.

Athletic uniforms have gone through many changes since the establishment of professional sports in the United States and around the world. As long as fashion continues to evolve, so will sports apparel.

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