By: Bert Harbinson / August 19th, 2021
Continuing off of my last article about PHL II uniforms, here is the PHL III uniform breakdown. Like PHL II, Howell and Seattle were the only organizations that shed any light on how they presented themselves on the court. Howell had the same home, road, and throwback jerseys as PHL II but the Hammers completely flipped the script on their shorts. They got rid of the championship shorts due to no longer being the defending champion and added “heritage” and “legacy” shorts. The heritage shorts are black with thick orange trim and were worn just once at home. The legacy shorts are black with white sides and silver piping. Seattle had almost all the same jerseys and shorts as season II. The only difference was the addition of black shorts with white stripes down the side which were only worn in the team’s two playoff losses.
This time around, Fort Lauderdale’s cargo shorts were worn more than any other uniform piece: eight out of eight times. The Fortune uniform set was rather satisfying. The team knew what look they wanted and really stuck with it. They had two different white jerseys, one nearly all white and one with blue logos and lettering, a blue jersey, and a white to blue gradient jersey. The satisfying part is that all four jerseys were worn once at home and once on the road. Seattle had similarly satisfying jersey usage. The home whites were worn twice (at home), the road grays were worn twice (on the road), and the two alternate jerseys were both worn once in Seattle and once on the road.
Howell kept the same jersey method from season II: black at home, white on the road in the regular season, and yellow on the road in the postseason. Where they really put it through the spin cycle was with the shorts combos. Both the black and legacy shorts were paired with all three jerseys. The eight different uniforms worn by Howell set a PHL record. Anaheim again wore a different uniform every trip to Karaluz Court. However due to a four-game day in the middle of the season, the Bullsharks came out with the most worn uniform of the campaign with blue over gray pants for all four games.
Anaheim continued to be a uniform length pioneer in PHL III. Through their eleven games, the team wore pants four times, long sleeves three times, and no sleeves eight times. Like last season, Howell and Seattle’s white jerseys were 3/4 sleeves. Other than those two jerseys, the Fortune, Hammers, and Snakes only wore short sleeves and shorts.
Howell became the first team to focus on part of the uniform beyond the jerseys and shorts this season right out of the gate. On the first game day, the Hammers wore socks with President Benjamin Harrison on them against the Bullsharks and socks with President Lincoln on them against the Snakes, to commemorate Presidents’ Day. Team representatives have confirmed that these socks would’ve been worn for the PHL II Infinity Cup Final had the team made it (the Final took place two days before the holiday). After losing to Seattle in the Semi-Final, they had to wait until PHL III Opening Day (six days prior). Another Howell Hammers uniform oddity concerning their feet, took place this season as well; in the Final, the team wore blue sneakers for the first time in at least the modern era. Hammer has since said: “I didn’t want to wear them because blue isn’t a part of the Howell Hammer identity but those sneakers had much better grip than the black pair and with the rain that was coming down I needed every advantage I could get”.
Through 38 man-games, 19 different uniforms were featured in PHL III for an average of 2.00 games per uniform and 4.75 uniforms per team. The 15 different jerseys give an average of 2.53 games per jersey and 3.75 jerseys per team. The most worn jersey colors were blue (all shades)(x14), white (x9), and black (x7). Blue jerseys had the most wins at 10 (includes two blue gradient vs. light blue contests). Green and gray jerseys both went 0-2 while orange went 1-0. Anaheim wore navy when they won the Infinity Cup.
Teams went mono- uniform eight times. Anaheim wore navy over navy in all three games of the Final, Howell wore black over black on four occasions, and Seattle wore black over black in Seattle. Howell’s mono-black includes black over black, black over heritage shorts, and black over legacy shorts.
Looking ahead, PHL IV will be a significant season for uniforms. I’ve gotten intel that the two expansion teams, the Colorado Crushers and Youssuf Elbakry Basketball Team, both have uniforms with their logo on them. Howell will be holding a season-long uniform campaign consisting of four fauxback uniforms. These will be released throughout the season.
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