The Detroit Lions unveiled their modified logo and uniforms for the 2009 NFL season. Paul Lukas of Uniwatch fame recently gave his opinion of the redesign. Paul, for the most part, really didn’t care for the changes, mainly due to the black accent the Lions adopted this century. I usually agree with Paul’s views of uniforms, but in this case I differ quite a bit.

Personally, I don’t mind the black accent. Teams have been setting a trend the last decade or so in adding a third accent color — mainly to develop new uniforms to sell more of the stuff to the public. Black has become the most common accent teams have added. Its a smart move since black works with almost any combination, if done intelligently. For Detroit, there’s not many other options to go with their Honolulu blue and silver staples. A navy blue or indigo would probably work, but not much else. The major mistake the Lions made was the black alternate jersey, which was absolutely hideous. Other than that, it works in my opinion. Here’s my thoughts on the areas Paul broke down in his blog post:

Colors: I’m fine with the black accent as long as its not overdone. Paul completely hates it.

Logo: I think its an improvement, not that I thought the old one was that bad. It definitely has a more ferocious look, and I like the added detail that the old logo didn’t have. Again, I don’t mind the black accent.

Workmark: I don’t think the new workmark is as bad as Paul feels. It is a little soft, but I’ll give points in trying to come up with something unique. I do agree with Paul that the logo and workmark should be consistent with the black accent (or in Paul’s opinion, not have one at all).

Helmet, shirt and pants stripes: I grouped these all together because its virtually the same change — the stripes. I like the new stripes because the old with the black accents just didn’t work.

Jersey color and chest wordmark: A definite improvement. I’m glad they used the silver in there instead of the older blue/black look.

Uni numbers: This is the one thing I thing is an utter failure. The wave cut looks horrible and makes the numbers difficult to read. They should have stopped and rounding the corners and been done with it. This is a case of overdesigning that backfired.

Socks: I don’t like them. I personally miss the old striped socks that every team had. It tied the uniforms together by mimicking the shirt and pants striping. I have no idea why everyone went to solid socks, but this was a real missed opportunity.

Overall, I think the new logo and uniforms are an improvement. I really hope they burn the old black alternates, but I have a feeling those damn things will taint the field again. Its definitely a better modification than what we’ve seen from the NFL in recent seasons. I expected much worse.

Update: Speaking of much worse, the Jacksonville Jaguars unveiled new uniforms as well. Complete disaster. I am in complete agreement with Paul’s review. In fact, I hate it more than he does. This fits right in with the garbage uniforms that the NFL has puked out in recent years (Minnesota, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Seattle … need I go on).