Los Angeles Rams Finally Release Puzzling New Uniforms

Over a month after the other six National Football League teams with change on their mind started to unveil new uniforms and nearly a month after their new tenant-mates in SoFi Stadium raised the standard of uniforms to a new level, the Los Angeles Rams have arrived to the new uniform party in the NFL. Unfortunately, they can’t use the excuse of being “fashionably late” since they will be showing up to this particular party with the worst look of the entire bunch.

Let’s start off with the positives for the Rams and their new look: Their new helmet is alright. The best part about the helmet is the fact that the new shade of Royal blue actually matches the shade of blue on the jerseys. This has been a weird inconsistency for the Rams when it comes to their throwback uniforms since they were considered “current” uniforms all the way back when they unveiled them in 1973. The helmets were always a darker shade of blue than the jerseys were, so it’s good to see the Rams finally add a royal blue helmet to their uniform catalog. It’s still a downgrade from the previous ram horn helmets but it does have a nifty color scheme going for it and the paint finish is excellent and alluring to the eye.

So while the helmets could be considered a success, the rest of the uniform set is anything but. One of the first things to catch your eye on any football uniform is the numbering and the Rams went with a look where they ported over the worst part of their logo to the most prominent part of their uniform. The yellow-to-white gradient that was present on the primary logo’s ram horn is present on the numbers. It’s an extremely baffling decision to make, when one of the alternatives (which would have been to simply leave the numbers yellow and leave it at that) would have gone a long way towards helping this uniform out. All-yellow numbers (and striping, since the gradient is present on the pants stripes for the all-blue set as well) would’ve been a much better look here. Instead, the Rams have fallen into the same trap that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays fell into during their inaugural season back in the 1990s.

Then there’s the “Bone” uniform which will serve as the away look for the Rams. It’s not quite white but not quite gray — the Rams claim that it’s based upon both the color of an actual ram horn and the color of the Los Angeles sand. Either way, it’s definitely an intriguing look in theory. In execution, it’s a bit weird. While there’s no gradient, there are still even more confusing design decisions going on here. The barely-there ram horn on the sleeves has been reversed for some reason and the yellow-and-white ram horn does no favors to compliment the rest of the Bone-colored jersey, with the only real distinction coming when it crosses through the blue numbers. Also, the numbers may not have a gradient but they do have both a reflective application and the custom font is clearly an off-shoot of the ram horn logo. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that element on its own but it’s still a bit puzzling that the Rams would go without a gradient on one uniform and have one on another.

However, the strangest part of this Bone uniform is the usage of white as a color. Both the Royal and Bone uniforms have front patches on the left-hand side and while the blue jersey has a blue patch with partial yellow stitching, the Bone uniform has a white patch with partial yellow stitching. The white is clearly distinctive from the rest of the Bone jersey and with the triple-stacked wordmark being used for this patch, it comes off looking like the uniform is sporting a “Hi, My Name Is…” nametag. That’s partially why the patch is so distinctive on a white background while the other uses of white seem to just blend in and are almost invisible — if the white is present with blue, then it’s easy to notice but white with yellow doesn’t do a good enough job of “popping” off the rest of the uniform. Overall, the Bone uniform is just an extremely strange uniform that would be perfect if its role was simply to be an aimless alternate. Instead, this is the primary road uniform and it’s not a good look at all.

The Rams teased that there are going to be two more uniforms coming in 2021 and 2022. However, any excitement regarding those new looks has been greatly diminished following the release of these uniforms. It’s a uniform that has some good ideas but it just doesn’t look good at all when it’s actually brought to life. It’s the ultimate example of something looking good on paper but not in reality. The sketches that the team released look amazing and it’s clear that the design team and the Rams figured that they had a good thing going.

Unfortunately, it didn’t translate well when coming into the real world and it’s a bit of a shame for the Rams since they’ve spent such a long time trying to sort out their identity, even before they went ahead with their new uniforms. It’s especially a shame when you consider that their neighbors are going to have arguably the best look in the NFL after unveiling their new look last month. The Chargers did a perfect job of honoring their past and bringing it into the present with their new look, while a lot of what the Rams wanted to do ended up getting lost in translation. We might be hearing from the Rams again in about five or six years when they become eligible to switch their look up again.