Paul Lukas and UniWatch retiring in May

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

I know that there is a segment of SoSH who is into UniWatch and Paul Lukas, but I haven't seen anything about his announcement last Tuesday where he is stepping away from the blog/community that he created and cultivated and handing the reigns to weekend UniWatcher Phil Hecken.

The times that I've corresponded with Lukas, he's been incredibly nice, so I'm glad that he's getting out while he can. It seems like the last few years of sports uniforms (ads on jerseys, countless designs) have been weighing on the guy and he doesn't appear to enjoy it anymore. It's one of my first stops every day and while I'm not wild about how he writes, I don't think that any news has ever gotten by him. Hecken isn't too bad either, so I think that this should be in good hands. My main problem with the UniWatch universe are the commenters, I can't recall them ever really liking any redesign and they take joy in finding fault in the smallest places (like a score bug using a logo from last year instead of the current year).

I probably won't follow Paul to his new endeavors--I don't subscribe to his Substack--but I wish him luck in whatever he does. Twenty five years is a long time to read someone and I think I'm going to miss him.

 

[loshjott]

I follow him on Twitter and his attention to detail is amazing. The obscure unis he finds (or, people send him) are mind boggling sometimes. I love that he sells UniWatch unstitch gizmos.

 

[dirtynine]

I will echo the fact that he’s a really nice and genuine person in correspondence. I think the uniform thing was just one of many angles that captivate Paul, and it’s the only one that really took off and allowed him to build a career on his own terms, so he’s been all in for a long time - but it’s not like he’s obsessed with only that. If you’ve followed his work you constantly see him shoehorning in all kinds of other content that fascinates him and I think at this point he just wants to spend more time with / on other interesting aspects of his life.

I do find him a touch precious about change, aesthetically - I feel like my taste continues to evolve, and his does not - but on the whole he’s a good writer, has a great sense of what works sartorially, and has a knack for putting context on decades of interesting history at the nexus of design, sports and apparel. I’m sure whatever he gets into next will be interesting.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

I do find him a touch precious about change, aesthetically - I feel like my taste continues to evolve, and his does not -

I think that whether most uni-watchers want to admit it or not, what they grew up with is their preferred aesthetic. For example, I started getting into sports in the late 80s and what teams wore during those times is kind of my default. I like baseball teams to have white home uniforms and grey away. I'm not wild about the colored jerseys and they've been around since the 90s. It still makes me do a double take to see the Bruins playing in the Garden wearing black. Even though I think it makes sense for baseball and basketball teams to have the same colored shirts and pants/shorts, when I see it on the gridiron, it doesn't look right.

But at the same time I get that sports evolves and fashion evolves even faster. Would I like all 30 baseball teams to have two uniforms? And for hockey teams to wear white at home and dark on the road? And for NBA teams to stop releaseing new uniforms ever single year. And for the NFL to have contrasting pants/jerseys? Probably, it would seem "right" to me. But things change and a lot of this stuff isn't for me, any more than the Astros Tequilla Sunrise uniforms were for my grandfather--and I love those things.

Like you said, Paul was a bit precious about change -- but the commenters are even more precious. We can't stop time or go back, we have to keep marching along -- even if we're dressed stupidly.

 

[Cotillion]

I always enjoyed his takes and insights. Didn’t always agree as you said we all have different aesthetics.

 

[astrozombie]

I read him way back in the Page 2 days and enjoyed it. His attention to detail was amazing. I admittedly tailed off when it seemed like a lot of the observations were things like "the Cavs are going to use asymmetrical dual piping down the shorts, rather than symmetrical". I was interested in weird, retro or new jerseys; some of the other stuff was just a bit too obsessive for me. Good luck to him in his future endeavors.

 

[The Jogger]

I've been a fan of Paul's since the Beer Frame days. I met him once at a reading -- great guy. I'll miss his stuff, and look forward to seeing what's next for him.