11/05/24
September 13, 2002
The Geometries of Sports Branding.: From the AIGA Gain 2.0 (design) magazine, an interview with Thomas O'Grady, VP and Creative Director of NBA Entertainment. Lots of great stories on the design decisions that shape the NBA experience, including the creation of long shorts:
"The long pants came from Michael Jordan, which is a great story. Jordan would get tired because he played so many minutes when he was with the Bulls in the mid-‘80s, so by the third quarter he would be exhausted. He would be doing a lot of this leaning over and catching his breath. Eventually he was starting to grab his pants, to hold onto them because he was exhausted. As time when on, you could see that by the end of the game his pants were long because he had just stretched them. He finally asked Champion, the uniform manufacturer, for more length in his shorts, so that he could hang onto his shorts. The next thing you know, the kids see the longer shorts and everybody’s wearing longer shorts. He created a fashion without even knowing it."Hang on to your shorts!
posted by worldcup2002 to basketball at 01:08 PM - 4 comments
Amazing typo: "He created a fashion without even knowing it. It went out like wildfire, because number 22 was doing it." Mis-stating perhaps the most famous number in sports! I think this O'Grady fellow is kind of crazy. He also attributes the size & quickness improvements of NBA players to "genetics and natural evolution." And predicts that better athletes will lead to far higher scoring. Isn't scoring at an all time low?
posted by nacho at 07:15 PM on September 13, 2002
But I want to know who does the NFL uniform designs. Who thought up the awful road jerseys for Buffalo? They're uglier than XFL uniforms. And I'm still not sure about the Seahawks darker colors.
posted by shackbar at 12:36 AM on September 16, 2002
shackbar, you should post your comment as a thread. I bet there'd be a great discussion around that.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:44 AM on September 16, 2002
It's interesting that I've heard several different stories crediting different sources with creating longer shorts. One popular source was the Fab Five from Michigan.