I was looking for a bit of feedback regarding the new grey pinstriped officiating shirts. I work in 3 college conferences as well as high school ball. Only one of the college conferences I'm in is considering making the change to grey, and they're looking for feedback from other officials. I happen to like the look of the new shirts, but I can understand the concerns of other officials who don't want to buy a new wardrobe just to work a few games per year in this conference. On the other hand, if this is the beginning of a trend towards grey, why not be at the forefront? A few years ago, there was great resistance to going to v-necks, and now, collared shirts are hard to find. Any thoughts/impressions?

Grey shirts are NOT permitted under ncaa 2-1.2 and this is being enforced apparently.

Here's the email I received just today:

Sounds like you shouldn't need to invest in a grey shirt this year. I had already ordered 3 and had to cancel the order. Oh well

So you got your money back then?

As far as I know, the charge was never put through. I will check my statement when it comes this month to be sure, though.

I'd like to go to it for all levels...The black and white stripes are getting old....As far as the cost of new equipment....the only ones complaining, are the ones that think they are going to get rich from officiating.

(So quit your whining and get back in your box)

I personally do not like the grey shirt, we've been wearing up hear for years, and we're trying to get the stipes put in as our uniform. Its difficult to tell if stiped shirts were made by different manufacturers, but with the grey shirt, it comes in different shades, and with a 2 or 3-man crew, if each person is wearing a different colour, it looks awful.

Agreed.

I personally hope and support the change to stripes.

Hockey, football, lacrosse use stripes. So should Ontario basketball.

Texas is considering it for next year. The majority at the taso.org web site favor it. I think it will ultimately come down to what the NCAA decides. We do so much the same way as the college.

Alberta Officials recently went to Stripes from an old awful grey "disco" shirt we used.

Stripes look great, better material and looks a hell of a lot better on some of the heavier officials (me included)

And Tim part of the reason for that is because we have alot of college officials in the upper ranks of TASO. Ellinger, and guys like that. It was brought up in our local regional meetings in our chapter a few weeks ago that grey is a "softer color". They've found that stripes seem to really excite people. Grey is softer and not stand outish I guess. I persoanlly favor the grey shirt. I think it gives a cleaner look to the officials and actually keeps us from standing out so mcuh from the players(kids) which is where the focus belongs. I do some theatrical lighting work on the side ( i focus mainly in proffesional audio but work with our lighitng crew often) and one thing I learned is soft and hard colors... Certain times u want softer colors on the cyc so that it projects a better image of otthers thing on stage. Where I am going with this im not sure other than grey is a softer color compared to black and white.

Thats my $.05 worth.

We were originally put in striped shirts(many moons ago at the dawn of basketball) so that we would stand out from the players. The idea was to have the officials wear a standard shirt that was completely distinctive, and one that the players could easily identify on the floor. The idea was that a player could instantly identify everyone on the floor, and thus not throw the ball away. That's why the teams must wear solid colours that contrast, and we get to wear something completely different(as that Hall of Fame official,Monty Python,would say.

I've seen in some older basketball movies (hoosiers come to mind) the officials wearing grey with white shoes and white bow ties almost ... course this probably wasnt the most historically accurte rendition. Im not against stripes. Grey stands out just as much as stripes its just not as - out there i guess you could say. NBA offiicals stand out pretty well from the players. Even in the NBADL where the jerserys for the players arent as bright and flashy. Persoanl prefrance i guess. As far as I know they'res only two real manufactures of the grey shirt- honigs and Cliff Kleen but i could be wrong. Everyone in my association pretty much buys from the same supplier so color matching wouldnt be that big of a deal.

Look closely, in the hoosiers movie, the refs are wearing striped shirts, its just the stripes are very thin.