2013 on the left, 2014 on the right, Photo credit: USA Today

2013 on the left, 2014 on the right, Photo credit: USA Today

Here we are at week 10 of the NFL season, and we finally see the Eagles in their proper Midnight Green jerseys. At length, I explained that color matching was hard, especially when multiple fabrics are in play, and the final result is… perhaps by choice, not exactly a match to the previous jerseys. The metallic fleck is gone, so there is an even more noticeable change between the plastic, metallic painted helmet and the jersey.

And, even if it doesn’t match, it’s an improvement! I’ve long been on the record that metallic midnight green looks generically “darkish” in all but the brightest 1PM games. Matte fabric gives much more diffuse reflected light which generally makes the fabrics more vibrant, especially for dark colors, oddly enough. (the 49ers now matte “gold” pants, on the other hand, look like dirty khakis.) Now, if they can move those helmets into matte colors, too…

For the actual color itself, the variation in lighting and video settings makes an accurate analysis difficult, see below, but in motion, it seems sufficiently “Midnight Green-“ish to me, despite the obvious mismatch to their previous jerseys.

Also taken tonight.

Also taken tonight. See just how much the angle and lighting (not to mention video settings) can affect the appearance of color.

Some notes for completeness’ sake:

1. The Eagles had  a BLACKOUT!!!, a bye, and two road games in the last four weeks, so, in fairness, Nike was late (no pre-season, no beginning of the season, missed the week 6 commitment), but it’s not clear if week 10 availability is fully Nike-related or just a reality of the team’s schedule.

2. My previous guess that the metallic aspect of their jerseys was what tripped up Nike was incorrect. Nike did what Nike does and moved the Eagles to a completely matte version of midnight green.

3. The custom aspect of the midnight green color was the source of the difficulty. As Kyle says, “midnight green isn’t a color”… unless the Eagles gave up on metallic fabrics after Nike proved incapable after some amount of trial and error. I’m admittedly  grasping at straws here, but the real story will likely never come out.

4. The Eagles are currently pounding the Panthers 31-7 before the first half is even over. Yes, that is more important…

5. To be clear, I don’t consider the difficulty in color matching to be an excuse for Nike to not have jerseys available in time for the season opener. Color matching is a problem that money can solve… and it’s Nike. Come on!

6. Equally important, the Panthers are one of the few teams who (still) have not switched to Nike’s template (also, the Packers), and they’re basically wearing Reebok uniforms with Nike logos on them. Look at that metallic sheen while it lasts!