White Pants After Labor Day?

I'm hardly one to be a fashion critic, but there's something about these Indiana Tech uniforms that make me smile. I don't know if the it's the colours, the stripes, or both, but I am a fan of what the Warriors wear. Frankly, more stripes in hockey to break up the monochromatic look of a lot jerseys should be employed in hockey, but I'm not designing jerseys. In any case, you'd normally see these two players - forwards Allison Greene and Carys Wytinck - skating in these striped uniforms at most games, but Indiana Tech women's hockey introduced an alterate uniform this year that seems like an equipment manager's nightmare. While it's already a struggle to keep white jerseys white thanks to pucks, sticks, and boards coming into contact with them regularly, the Warriors may have taken it one step too far.

There are two thoughts on the "no white pants after Labor Day" rule that apparently exists in fashion. The first is that white pants are associated with summer while the changing of the season to autumn brings out the cooler, darker colours of autumn. The second is that the upper-class and wealthy would wear white to distinguish themselves from the working class in the summer. Regardless of reasons, the rule is stupid and it hasn't been followed for some time now. Of course, none of this has anything to do with hockey.

White breezers haven't been seen in hockey often, and only one team is really remembered for having worn them. The 1974-75 Washington Capitals wore the white breezers seen to the right for just four games of their inaugural season before switching to blue breezers for the remainder of the campaign. While there's no official reason for getting rid of the white breezers, former Capitals forward Mike Lalonde told Sports Illustrated's Alex Prewitt, "The problem with that was, in one of the exhibition games, Mike Marson, a black player, didn't wear long underwear. When these white pants got wet, it was like he had nothing on. That put an end to the white pants."

Obviously, uniform technology and manufacturing has gotten better since 1974, but defender Hailey Anderson is wearing the Indiana Tech Warriors alterate uniform from this season. There's a lot of white on that uniform and they're clearly wearing white breezers, so one has to wonder how those breezers stand up to water if a player were to fall on the ice after the resurfacing had been done. We know there are puddles left behind at times by some ice resurfacers, so my hope is that the Warriors have better and/or more water-resistant material for their breezers than the Capitals did back in 1974. I'm not saying there were any wardrobe malfunctions at Warriors games this season, but I'm guessing the players are wearing shells over their normal hockey pants.

White pants aside, the monochromatic look is never good for hockey, and this all-white version of the Warriors just needs more colour. The stripes stand out nicely on Indiana Tech's normal white jerseys thanks to the contrasting colours, so going away from that look makes no sense. Why mess with something that works so well? I feel like the Warriors were aiming for the Strange Brew look with these uniforms. Yes, there's enough orange to break up segments of the uniform, but there needs to be a dark colour for contrast. Without it, these uniforms feel incomplete.

I would be proud to wear an Indiana Tech striped jersey, but the alternate jersey leaves a lot to be desired in this writer's opinion. Of course, you may have a better eye for fashion than I do, so leave a comment below: does the all-white Indiana Tech Warriors uniform work for you? I'd be interested in seeing the reaction to this very hard-to-keep-clean hockey uniform that Indiana Tech wore!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!