The Davis pants are considerably lighter. I could wear those in any weather -- they are truly like baseball or basketball pants.

Personally, I prefer them in cold weather, too. I'd rather put cold gear on under the pants then have the pants themselves be hot.

You guys in Texas might since you use NCAA rules but I've heard one of the things in the movement is to differentiate each level- the NFL has their thing (Can't wait to see what Nike designs them in 2012), college will migrate to the 2" stripe (Honig's has to get rid of all that backstock somehow) and us peons down at the HS level will keep what we have- 1".

I imagine college will also have a pant stripe somewhere between what the NFL has (4") and HS.

Can't remember where I heard or read all this but it was sometime last fall or late summer.

The Honigs pants are not any more heavy than the pants you wear during the baseball season and we certainly umpire is hotter weather at times than we ever will in most football games in this part of the country. Maybe the first week on an afternoon, but I do not work many football games in near 100 degree weather. That being said this is a college issue right now. I am not sure the high school associations are just going to drop knickers right now.

Peace

I've long been impressed by the fashion industry and their ability to generate continual revenue by simply declaring that something "different" was better than what everyone already had. Not selling enough skirts, raise (or lower) the hem line several inches and tell everyone who has a closet full of the old hem line, that anything NOT with the new hem line is "out of style".

It's always worked with women, and has been successful with young males, who spend more on cologne, bath wash, hair gel in a month than their fathers did in a decade. I can remember when a pair of canvass Keds enabled people to play basketball, jog, walk, climb, play and be comfortable all in the same pair of sneakers.

Soon we'll be able to replace all our white knickers with black pants with white stripes. Of course changing the width of the stripes will enable the fashion gurus to dictate changing everyone's inventory periodically. For a while we'll have different fabrics for different weather conditions, until eventually the idea of winter undergarments comes full circle. Strange that these new miracle fibers (stain resistant, water proof, wind resistance, etc.) only presently come in black?

Maybe some day they figure out how to make them in white, and maybe even different shapes, like knickers (to more clearly differentiate officials from the other people on the playing field). These fashion people may be a lot of things, but they absolutely aren't dumb. I guess the marketplace has changed, used to be officials didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how fashionable they might have looked. I wonder if anybody, other than other officials, pays any attention to the width of the stripes or the color of the pants (or knickers). No matter, other officials are the only ones the fashion industry has to convince.

I agree, but this will travel downhill in the next few years. We're already barely wearing the knickers now. We've gone to shorts for subvarsity games in warm weather and I'm contemplating wearing them for varsity games as it's allowed here.

Oh please, lets not go back to black shorts. I do like the black pants and my R and I agreed that we were going to wear them all year next year irregardless of any decisions. But please no shorts.

My crewmates refused to wear white shorts, but they've embraced black ones. Go figure.

I thought white shorts were lacrosse. Isn't football all black shorts -- where they are worn?

Ohio switched to black shorts optional just last season. 2011 will have black shorts only, and (still) only for subvarsity.

It's regional. When I lived in the south, it was black. Here, it was white. Last year the rule interpreters said black was OK and then the state office came around a month later with a bulletin that said THEY'D never said that. When I emailed the interpreter about this, he never returned my email. Since we spent money on the black shorts on the word of a rep of the state, we continued wearing them, as did everyone else I know.

We switched to black this past season. I had always advocated black, until I saw a color game photo of myself. I failed to realize just how ghostly pale I was/am. :eek:

I wear shorts when working outside and had been to the beach with my child a couple of weeks prior to the season starting so its not like I wasn't getting any sun.

We've gone with black shorts, black ankle socks, and of course, black shoes. Maybe white socks would have helped in the transition :confused:

While we're on shorts, shorts are passe' in softball so the age old coaches shorts we all know are dead. The only brands I can find online now are Honig's and another brand carried by some official suppliers called Teamwork. Both are cut pretty tight across the seat and seem rather cheap.

Any ideas?

In South Dakota, they have mandated the black pants for inclimate weather only. We had some crews who were wearing them for all games, and the SDHSAA came out and said that if this continued that we would no longer be able to wear the black pants at all. I'm hoping this changes as our crew loves the black pants. As far as the shorts go, they would come in handy to clean up any beer spills on the trip home from the game. Other than that, they'd be pretty much useless.

As far as the white hat being the crew chief, I'll say this. Anyone who attempts to sit in the front seat other than me when riding to or from the game is in BIG trouble !!! :D :D :D

As Rich said, it is regional. In my old association in California, we wore white shorts. Here we wear black.

Agreed. layering is best. The Smitty slacks we purchased are no heavier than the Honigs basketball slacks I were.

No. In NC, we have the option of black or white shorts in subvarsity. In fact, black shorts were only allowed as an option two years ago.

I bought a new pair of knickers this past season and never even took them out of the plastic. Guess I will need to wear them for the 2011 season, otherwise they could end up being a waste.