Hawks dazzle with new graphite duds

The unveiling may have taken place on April 1, but when it comes to their new uniforms the Boise Hawks are 100% serious.

The Hawks, Class A Short-Season affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, held an Opening Night fashion show of sorts at a local sports bar to show the public the look they will be sporting in 2013 and beyond. Thogh the team has kept their home color scheme of Corn Silk, Desert Red, Tennessee Orange and Tampa Bay Green intact, notable changes abound. The Hawks' road jerseys are graphite (see below, right), making them the first professional baseball club to feature this metallic hue.

"[The graphite] is a deeper color than charcoal gray, and it matches well with the green and orange," said Mike Safford, the Hawks' broadcaster and baseball information manager. "And the thread of the uniforms has a metallic look, so when the sun hits them they're going to shimmer a little bit."

Perhaps the most important element of the new look is a scratch mark logo depicting the havoc a pair of Hawk claws can wreak. The scratch mark, which Safford describes as "a bit more edgy" than what the team has done in the past, appears on the home and road uniform sleeves and will also serve as an alternate cap logo the Hawks will wear on special occasions. The scratch mark is complemented by a logo depicting a baseball in the clutches of a Hawk's talons, which also appears on both the home and road uniforms. Perhaps most ostentatious, however, is a batting practice jersey which features a huge orange "B" on the chest and no other letters or numbering.

Safford said that the motivation for the new duds, created by the Minor League design veterans at Brandiose, was simple: the Hawks had had their previous set of uniforms for the past six years and, therefore, they "needed new uniforms anyway."

"The thought process was 'Well, let's rebrand ourselves but at the same time stick with what works,'" he said. "This gives us more to put out there, for the fans to buy and the kids to enjoy."