Photo Uniform Histories of the Broncos, Seahawks

It’s Super Bowl Weekend! The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks will battle for the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night, a great opportunity for us to take a look back at their respective logo and uniform histories.

Both the Seahawks and Broncos current looks are the works of Nike, re-designed by the athletic wear company well before the days when it was just the accepted norm to have a company like Nike be the main drive behind a new logo and uniform package for a team.

Let’s start things off with the AFC Champion Denver Broncos, who began life in the American Football League in 1960…

DENVER BRONCOS UNIFORM HISTORY

For their first two seasons the Denver Broncos used a brown and gold colour scheme featuring a helmet with player numbers and those bizarre vertically striped socks.

In 1962 the Broncos debuted their famous blue and orange colour scheme and introduced their first ever helmet logo — a wild bucking horse

Blue gets a more prominent role in 1965 with trim added to the numbers, helmet, and on the sleeves

Their most familiar look and logo made it’s debut in 1967, worn for their first season in the NFL, four Super Bowl appearances in 12 years, and John Frikkin’ Elway. The helmet had no logo in 1967, the “D” decal was added in 1968, facemask colour changed from grey to white in 1975.

What’s the best way to ensure a radical re-design actually sticks around? Win back-to-back Super Bowls in your first two years with the new look. The Broncos adopted a new, fierce logo, darkened their blue, eliminated the orange jerseys in 1997.

Despite the two Super Bowl wins in the dark blue, the Broncos eventually switched back to their orange jerseys for the 2012 season. The road whites remained the same.

And now, moving on to the NFC Champions…

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS UNIFORM HISTORY

With a logo based off of local Native American imagery, the Seattle Seahawks made their NFL debut in 1976. For their first several seasons the Seahawks wore a grey facemask, switching to blue for the 1983 season.

A radical re-design courtesy the boys at Nike for the 2002 season saw the elimination of the grey helmet, the introduction of a shade of blue the Seahawks invented, and neon green alternate jerseys. — A radical re-design courtesy the boys at the NFL for the 2002 season saw the elimination of the grey helmet, the introduction of a shade of blue the Seahawks invented, and neon green alternate jerseys.

They may have brought back the grey to the logo but that was it as far as traditional moves in the Seahawks rebranding at the hands of Nike in 2012. Neon green pant stripes and number trim, patterns on the numbers, and a trip to Super Bowl XLVIII