Personally I like the white on white – much prefer the team names over the company names so much of Japan’s sporting world is occupied with.

I don’t think anyone would come up with that design unless they were protected by lifetime employment.

Could be worse, though. While the new threads are a step down, they’re still better than what most NPB teams have. We’ve mentioned Chiba’s goofy away strips, among other ill-advised uniforms, but every time I watch baseball reports or see the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, I thank my lucky stars that my team doesn’t have giant billboards on their uniforms spelling the full name of the team with a color scheme and stripe pattern to match the owners’ dull corporate logo. And all that in black and yellow! “Tacky” doesn’t begin to explain it.

Sadly, the Swallows are sliding toward the ugly end of things, though.

For baseball uniforms, there’s a simple rule: Don’t get fancy. Uniforms are not the place to try out your latest bit of whimsy. I won’t call the new threads a complete disaster, but whoever designed them should clearly be fired immediately.

A couple of weeks have gone by and I still don’t like these uniforms. I’m boycotting the home opener this year, sorry.

Not only cheering, there were regulars who bought the CD. I was embarrassed to see that I was the only male over 10 in the Fan Club section to ignore them when they were out there flattering the gents for their sartorial tastes and flogging their CD.

DDS was irritating and made the Swallows look pathetic. Even without the extra cash, I’s rather they weren’t there. Leave that silly crap to the Giants.

But most of the regulars around us cheered them regardless. It seems eye candy/shiny hotpants are seen as more of a positive than money towards improving the team/organisation, but what do I know eh?

I, like yourself Garrett, hope they will be far from Jingu come 2009, but I have an inkling they’ll be back………..

It is a little odd that they’ve got two manufacturers in to make the uniforms, but this is the Swallows so nothing should really come as a surprise. And regardless, it’s BEAMS that’s to blame for the blandness of the new threads.

Last year’s uniforms were made by Descente. Looks like they lost the contract altogether this time.