Swallows Throwback Cap

That's neat that Japanese teams are finally realizing that "throwback" paraphenalia is something that fans like and will spend their hard-earned money on. Maybe it's just me, but I think Yakult's old caps were a lighter shade of blue. Since switching to the newer "YS" logo, it seems like the blue color has become closer to navy while the old color looked like royal blue.

I liked Hanshin's throwback look again this season, but Hanshin should realize that white is worn at home and grey/blue is worn on the road. It was weird when they played Softbank at Fukuoka and both teams wore white with black and yellow trim. It seemed like a spring training intrasquad game.

Hanshin's been pretty weird with their uniforms before. When they played the Yanks in an exhibition game one year, Hanshin wore their Yankee-like home uniform while the Yankees wore their home jerseys as well. Why?

Still, it's fun to see the throwback jerseys from iconic eras, keep 'em coming (but wear them smarter, Tigers).

Let's talk about the Marines vs. Tigers in Marine Stadium. Here's what we get:

Tigers: White uniform, black pinstripes, black team name across shirt, black hats, white bills.

Marines: White Uniform, black pinstripes, black team logo on left breast, black hats, black bills.

Hanshin - get the uniform thing worked out - and for the love of Monte Cristo, baby blue!?

The simple answer to the Hanshin pinstripes uniform question is that the Tigers took a decision to let fans who wouldn't normally see the pinstripes see them during the inter-league series, hence the reversal. They also wanted to let the Koshien fans see their blue inter-league uniforms, which incidently are retro. It's nice to see a team thinking about the inter-league series as special.

Got that cap a year or so ago and agree with you about the fit. Much too shallow for me so I ended up giving it to my girlfriend. Nice cap all the same though.

The Swallows have a nice range of retro stuff on their on-line store.

- The Swallows have a nice range of retro stuff on their on-line store.

Yes they do. The only problem is they are often sold out of particular items and delivery takes a couple of weeks. The shopping cart looks a little basic, too. If you add to that the small photos and the inadequate descriptions, then the store doesn't rate very highly in my book.

But they do have nice stuff.

Ah. You should try their Rakuten shop. Much better then their older on-line store. They have bigger pictures of the products, too. As for descriptions, how much of a description do you need for simple Jerseys/T-shirts/Caps? Surely the pictures are all you need!

Either way, their on-line and general merchandising has improve immensely in the last couple of years.

Right - so there's more than one official on-line store. Interesting. Somewhat confusing, too.

Yes the pictures are bigger, as you say. But as far as descriptions are concerned, well, those throwback caps are too small as you and hillsy mention. So I think it would be a nice touch to explain that the sizes are smaller than average.

Size is a big issue as you can't try the item on, and generally Japanese on-line stores (baseball and others) don't always explain this well. The "free" size that they often use varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and from team to team. It can be hit or miss.

Texture, cap construction, material, quality of embroidery, screenprinting, or sublimation on T-shirts - all those are other things that often need to be explained but often aren't. The picture's just the start.

I see. I guess it's just that I buy so much stuff on-line that I pretty much know what size will fit me.

With regard to Swallows goods, most of the newer stuff is of good size (i.e. the L sized T-shirts are ample fit for me, and I'm a pretty big 190cm in height). Some of the older Yakult T-shirts were a little too small for comfort and not of the highest quality. But it's worth noting that all of the clothing in the current Yakult range is of a very good quality and will last you a long time. Again an improvement on past years.

But I agree that caps are a little different and difficult to buy on-line. The best Yakult cap they sell is the New-Era adjustable cap - great fit and great quality.

Man, I should get a job working for the Swallows marketing department!

- Man, I should get a job working for the Swallows marketing department!

I'll second that.