The Eye of the Beholder: The 1971 Spanjian Catalog - Other Sports
The 1971 Spanjian catalog is the epitome of ugly commercial art directed toward football. So far, we have looked at the illustrations associated with three groups of football-related equipment.
However, Spanjian management did not limit its ugliness campaign to football; they spread their joy to other sports as well, so today we turn our attention to their offerings in those other sports. While there are multiple sports and each
Our first sport is baseball, where they displayed an offering as radical as the bright yellow togs worn by the Oakland A’s of the time. Spanjian claims to have introduced baseball’s first knit uniform. If you never sweated your baseballs off in a flannel baseball uniform, you should thank Spanjian for reducing your discomfort under the noonday sun. Whether you should thank them for their artwork is up to your sense of taste, or lack thereof.
Next, we have gymnastics, where Spanjian offered goods only in white, though you could get the neck and armhole trim in your team color.
Like the gymnastics uniforms, their soccer gear did not include the many stripe choices available with football jerseys and pants, but at least buyers could choose between stretch nylon and durene.
Basketball enjoyed a wider range of options. Spanjian claims they started the knit basketball uniform trend, and by 1971, they offered snazzy jerseys, pants, and warm-ups.
Teams went to the mat for Spanjian’s wrestling singlets and other gear. The addition of the wrestler’s weight class to the singlet was especially sweet.
Finally, their track uniforms allowed teams to run so fast, jump so high, and throw so far that they left themselves in a purple haze.
So, that’s it for our look at the 1971 Spanjian catalog. Tomorrow, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled football programming by looking at a high school playbook from 1914.
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Maybe I like these because I'm a chick?? Lol