For me, summer means a lot of things...but one of my past times is trying to re-stock my Purdue gear collection during these desert months.  Last year's stuff is on clearance- so if you're cheap like me, it makes a great deal of sense to load the closet now.  I don't care much about my gear being the newest on the market, I just want it to be decent quality.

So a trip to a few stores yielded a few findings for me.  The first one is that the old train simply doesn't look great on a hat.  When I say "old" I mean the train that is coming at you that's drawn (poorly) in perspective view from left to right. Nike kind of lazily designed a new train (that was first used last year), that is completely symmetrical.  We touched on this a bit in 2012...a bit later, I designed and published a straight-on train that earned us a cease and desist letter from CLC. My point is- I get the idea, but I have thought since the newest train was released, that the execution was/is poor. But when I put on the white Nike hat with the asymmetrical train on the front, it became obvious why it was time to change the old train logo.  It looked like the hat was just crooked.  All that said, I ended up getting a motion P hat; to me that mark is superior to about any of the others on Purdue's logo sheet.

I also found a few football jerseys from last season that are now on clearance.  Hazell hinted at the uniforms getting a tweak...nothing too aggressive, but I haven't heard or seen any proof of what's to come.

Many coaches bring elements from previous schools to their new job...I don't think the modern, yet somehow outdated, MAC-style uniform will get any play in West LaLa, nor do I think any aOSU references will make their way onto Purdue unis in the future.  So now, I'm just curious.  I'm hoping that block numbers return to the uniforms as the NASCAR drafting-style numbers just don't work for me.  One thing seems fairly obvious: there will be no big reveal...so the tweak is probably little more than a small adjustment.  But if that's the case, why would Rob Henry's #15 be on clearance at Dick's Sporting Goods and at other retailers?  We'll find out in just a bit over a month, I guess.

Honestly, if they win with regularity, I'm pretty sure we'll all grow to accept and like whatever Hazell's boys get suited up in...which is probably why there's such a ground swell to get rid of the bad juju of the unis that the good guys wore while getting shellacked by the upper eschelon of the conference the past few seasons.

J has asked me to put together a post that shows some of the concepts I've been putting on Twitter...and I plan on doing so; I'm just not quite sure when it'll happen. Stay tuned- I can tell you're on the edge of your seats.