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Blue Bombers’ “Signature Look” adds camo, but leaves out gold and takes Twitter criticism

Andrew Bucholtz

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers unveiled their new "Signature Look" third uniform Tuesday, and created a bit of a firestorm in the process.

While all of the new jerseys released so far (B.C., Saskatchewan, Toronto and Ottawa) have had some critics, the Bombers' new attire has faced a much larger flood of criticism, particularly on Twitter. The new look (which will be worn in a game first Friday, Aug 22 against Montreal) brings in light blue camouflage patterns for the helmets, shoulders and the side of the pants, and it includes a much bigger front logo (similar to the Argonauts' new design) but the rest of the uniform is navy blue, leaving many wondering about where the team's traditional gold has gone. That's not the only thing these new jerseys have been blasted for, either. Here's some of the criticism these have received:

The reaction hasn't been all negative, though. Some media and fans are on board with the redesign:

And defensive end Jason Vega called it "amazing" when he saw a preview:

Here's a video on what went into the design of this uniform:

From this corner, it's not a terrible look, especially for an alternate jersey. The camouflage is certainly unique by CFL standards, and at least it fits with the general colour scheme of the team. (It's notable that the Blue Bombers aren't a team named after the military, though, but rather after "Brown Bomber" Joe Louis.) The helmets in particular are pretty cool, and the big logo on the front is an interesting change from the team's typical jerseys (which themselves are pretty good). It's the omission of gold that's perhaps the biggest downside here, but it's notable that teams don't always include all of their colours; B.C. has been well-known for orange and black over the years, but has left black off all jerseys but their third ones, and the Ottawa Redblacks don't have much red on anything but their third jersey. These aren't jerseys that are going to set back the CFL or anything, and even those who hate them will only have to put up with them for a couple of games a year, if that, so they're still probably not a bad move overall. It's interesting that these have taken so much more heat than any other alternate jersey so far, though.