Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

In the recent vids I've watched the suits seemed design to CAMOFLAGE
the racers. I never really did know who Newell was while I watched his
race! The amount of major color in the suits plus the stripes make
several of them just blur together.

I wonder if distinctive suits---and attractive ones---would help in
PR. I suppose it's a common refrain.

We all know how in the most popular sports one often can't tell who
your heroes are... And it's common for the color schemes of their
outfits to have little/no meaning. (NOT!)

Then there are those BIBS. They're huge---they also cover up A LOT of
the torso, the main part of the suit, giving all the racers this
dominant theme of a white chest.

The bibs do NOT make the skiers or their suits look good. But does
that matter? I think the attractiveness of the skiers would stand out
more with smaller bibs or a really downplayed number set-up. They
should pick ONE attractive way to ID players then let the other stuff
fall away. (Ah, but there has to be a BIG AD on the bibs, too... Just
like in the NBA?) NASCAR seems to be able to integrate hot graphic
design in with easy car ID.

In this age of high-tech it's only natural for a glamor sport to have
its players in skintight suits all wearing SMOCKS for bibs...yeah,
right.

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

Picture the poor timekeeper standing knee deep in trailside snow at a forest trail
crossroad somewhere at the back of beyond. He needs to record bib numbers.

His 'site' is just at the point where the racer now has a long straight reasonably
downhill run and is in a skating tuck with hands obscuring the front number and the
back number facing the sky on his rounded back.
I've been there. You can only shout for 'Bib number' and hope for an answer.

Those dreadful handkerchief panels and thin tape ties were the worst. Invariably the
racer passed me with one side undone or the whole thing wrapped round his neck.

Watching the new fuller bibs on TV the bib number is a lot easier to pick out on the
TV screen, it tends to stay put around the racers waist and it can be pulled down
with one hand after a fall.

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:23:33 +0000, dardruba
wrote:

Picture the poor timekeeper standing knee deep in trailside snow at a forest trail
crossroad somewhere at the back of beyond. He needs to record bib numbers.

His 'site' is just at the point where the racer now has a long straight reasonably
downhill run and is in a skating tuck with hands obscuring the front number and the
back number facing the sky on his rounded back.
I've been there. You can only shout for 'Bib number' and hope for an answer.

Those dreadful handkerchief panels and thin tape ties were the worst. Invariably the
racer passed me with one side undone or the whole thing wrapped round his neck.

Watching the new fuller bibs on TV the bib number is a lot easier to pick out on the
TV screen, it tends to stay put around the racers waist and it can be pulled down
with one hand after a fall.

Our local skiing assocation got some nice full bibs used at local
events this year. They are not televised...
http://www.jt10000.com/galleries/sac...anga084327.htm

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

On Mar 17, 7:43 pm, John Forrest Tomlinson
wrote:
On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:23:33 +0000, dardruba
wrote:

Picture the poor timekeeper standing knee deep in trailside snow at a forest trail
crossroad somewhere at the back of beyond. He needs to record bib numbers.

NASCAR keeps track pretty easily.

But then I meant WC events. Are they designed for the timers or for
public appeal?

Chips could replace bibs.

Then we could see the skiers and the suits...and if they were nicely
designed we'd want to see them and could easily distinguish our heroes
in them.

--JP

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

Jeff, you should be in sports marketing or running some high-level
sporting events.

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

Chips could replace bibs.

This past Friday, I volunteered for the first time to work at a ski
race. My assignment was to record bib numbers at the finish line. We
had a total of 6 people working at the finish line (2 teams of 3
people), but we were told that our work was essentially redundant, just
as a backup in case of a failure of the electronic timing system (being
provided by the same outfit as was used at the 2002 Olympic Games).

So, no, chips will not replace bibs.

Moreover, the announcer used bib numbers for his non-stop commentary.

Lew Lasher
Cambridge, Massachusetts and Stowe, Vermont

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

On Mar 18, 2:15 am, "Jeff Potter (of OutYourBackdoor.com)"
wrote:

But then I meant WC events. Are they designed for the timers or for
public appeal?

Chips could replace bibs.

On World Cup events bibs have nothing to do with timing for long long
time. They are using chips for quite some time now, so bib plays no
role in that. But they still play huge role in other things.
Commentators (including those on TV) rely on bibs to comment what's
happening on track, spectators can recognize skiers this way (not
everyone recognize all skiers just by their technique of skiing), and
if nothing else, I can caption photos easier, if I see their start
number :)

So even if they look bad, I'm still happy they are keeping them :)

Take care,
Primoz
http://www.photo.si

Whining about WC team suit design and big "smock" bibs...
 

So even if they look bad, I'm still happy they are keeping them :)

Maybe there's a way they could put numbers on uniforms, or wear
numbers, that wasn't so ugly. (Assign a number to the skier at start
of season?)

To go along with any of this, as I said before, having uniforms that
could be distinguished or which had some meaning, might also help.

Take care,
Primozhttp://www.photo.si