B. Anthony Kimble

Over the course of 3 sons (now 26,24,20) I coached approx. 25 youth teams and 300+ kids. It was an amazing experience in every way. I decided to write about it for the first time. Excerpt #39 below 👇: Kids love cool uniforms.  That worked well for me because I enjoyed conceiving and designing them. I had a partner in crime for all of our football and baseball uniform designs who delighted - along with me - in all of the details: Pantone numbers, fonts, logos, letter and number sizes/placements, tackle-twill vs. iron-on, single-layer numbers vs. 2-layer outlined, sublimation, fabrics, stickers etc.  He would take my ideas and turn them into reality.   The underlying objective was to create something that the players would be excited about.  If they were energized by the uniforms, then we were on the right track.   Each season, we set out to create something a little different than the year before.   The variety, style and sleekness that the Oregon Ducks ushered into uniform fashion was a trend that we were influenced by.  Oregon and @Nike were pushing the envelope and many schools (including Stanford) were getting creative.  We followed that movement and tried to innovate each year. In our league, the team provides the entire game uniform to their players - everything besides their helmet and pads.  So, helmet stickers, jerseys, pants and socks is the traditional provision.  We added a personalized, dri-fit undershirt and also something unique to our team called “spats”.   Regarding the game jerseys, we made those sacred.  The only time our players could wear their game jersey was in the actual games.  Game jerseys could never be worn to practice, in a scrimmage, or to school.  The concept was to make them distinctive and of singular purpose - for games only. However, in our community, kids love to wear their “team gear” to school.  And we encouraged that (as it spurred team camaraderie and pride) especially on a gameday if the game was played during the week, or on Friday if the game was Saturday or Sunday.   Accordingly, we created the dri-fit shirts with a team slogan or logo on the front and the players jersey number and surname conspicuously displayed for the players to wear to school and around the neighborhood.    The “spats” were inspired by Walter Payton.  “Sweetness” himself always taped up his shoes in a “spat” design that made him look like the most graceful player on the field.  In fact, he was!  I admired his look and I thought it would be fun for our teams to emulate Walter’s style.  We wore them each year and they distinguished our uniform from all others. Lastly was the helmet stickers.  We used a company to buy those (the logos, the stripes, the bumper stickers, the numbers) each year.  Except for our first year as The Cardinal.  Prior to that season, I was introduced to a former Stanford running back named @AKimble5 through a close friend who knew him through business circles in Houston.   I explained to Anthony that we were going to be the Stanford Cardinal.  He liked that idea a lot.  And he (very) generously offered to get us REAL helmet decals from his contacts in the Stanford equipment room.  And he did it! Those stickers were magical (literally) and they gave me the opportunity to personally introduce Anthony to our team and also to explain to our players that we were getting something very unique and very valuable.  And that we had a “real” Stanford player going out of his way for us and also rooting for - and showing interest in- our program.  It made a huge impression on our players & parents.  Bottom line, the objective of the uniforms was to excite the players and to make them feel like they were a part of something high-quality, “cool”, imaginative and aesthetically pleasing.  And when the players wore the uniforms, we wanted them to feel self-assured, distinguished and part of something important.