Posted on 01/27/2011 7:59:56 AM PST by martin_fierro
Now you see them ... uh, now you dont? The San Diego Padres unveiled their new camouflage jerseys on Tuesday and there's already some speculation that the team's attention to detail might prove to be a little too effective in 2011.
While the Padres have worn two other camouflage jerseys since adopting the tradition in 2000, the previous versions used bolder prints worn by the Army and Navy. These new threads are meant to honor the Marines, but the MARPAT (short for "Marine Pattern") was designed by a computer and it features smaller splotches that are much harder to detect.
"Digitial camouflage," it's often called.
While these jerseys probably won't play major visual tricks on our eyes it's not like the players are going to completely disappear from sight when framed against green grass a few Marines say the Padres' tribute to the military won't be as easy to recognize as it has been in the past (see past examples below).
In other words, this is camouflage in its truest sense. From a distance, these new uniforms might simply look brown or green or whatever color the fabric has morphed into at that moment.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The digital pattern creates no solid lines or edges and blurs the outline of the human profile. Even the seams have soft edges.
As a Marine wearing a MARPAT uniform moves around, the colors mesh with the background.
"Up close, they look great," said Jack Ensch, the Padres' retiring director of military affairs. "But they are going to blend in more on television and from the stands. Many fans aren't going to be able to tell that these are camouflage uniforms paying tribute to the military."
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(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
The Pittsburgh Pirates disappear every year, usually by the end of April.
Or just hiding from the wife!
That is awesome!
Too military.
Won’t be allowed to wear them in Communist Faggy SF to play the Giants. Too many will be “offended”....
Not as bas as blue uniforms on a blue field ...
That looks like a ghillie suit to me.
Whoa...sofa sniper
It might cause havoc if there were trees in the outfield at Petco Park
I can’t see anybody in the back row....
Is that a battlefield couch?
Tactical couch. It folds up into a 4”X4”X2” package that you can slip into a rucksack or trouser pocket.
We must have had these things when a few of us played wiffle ball in the back yard ... INVISIBLE MAN ON FIRST BASE!
The Madres need every advantage they can get.
What's the difference?
Reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch about how not to be seen.
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