[Dutch Alex]

O.K., so the shops do well by selling more uniforms if the federations change every two to five years. But, at least here in Europe, most sport federations are having trouble keeping the head financial above water-level. They have less income and provide us, umpires, with the uniforms. So who's the idiot?

Let's have a look to law-men and the battle forces; they also wear uniforms. How often do they change the uniforms? Is that to give the officers a choice what to wear? I think not! Last time the dutch police changed the uniform was the first time in over 30! years. The dutch army, navy and air-force only add specific parts to their collection. Mostly only for safety reasons...

Two weeks ago I had two games at a tournament. One, of 8, umpire didn't found the time in 5 months time to collect his new uniform at the fed.'s-office. He mailed the complete group to bring also the old dark blue shirts. Then we got an extra mail by our UIC, to bring also our ESF-uniform. Since we were all ESF-licenced, we all have that uniform aswell. And we had to bring the new black. I ended up having 6 top shirts and 6 T-shirts to wear underneath. Only had two games. My 9 year old son declared me for a fool! During the games I wore only the black shirts! We ended up to have a split in 2 crews of 4 each. one crew wore blue, the other black...

I must look dressed well as an umpire. Ironed T-shirts, pressed pants, shiny shoes. I don't need to look cool. The best umpire, is a saying over-here, is the one you don't notice! After the games, the athletes mustn't know who the umpire was simply 'cause they had no reason to pay any attention to him (M/F). Do your job and still be invisible.
I don't need any choice in color to go with the weather. If it's cold: add the wind-breaker and extra shirts underneath. If it's hot, bad luck and enjoy the sun! Just add sun-cream/blocker and ditto glasses and lots of water. We have no Texas-summers, 25C is mostly the maximum temperature...