City Colors

First look at Carolina Crown 2014,
courtesy of @DCIfan14

Last night, the reigning Drum Corps International world champions, Carolina Crown, held their preview show which was shown live online via Fan Network. Corps fans were excited to see what the 2014 program would hold, but there was similar fervor around what the new uniforms the champs would be wearing. After all, the corps had undergone a major change the year prior, changing from the cream uniforms that had accompanied their rise to prominence to becoming last year's #purplepantsband - clad in purple bottoms and a black top with a bold orange stripe and non-conventional hat. We were teased with the top and its stripe, now light blue, on the drum majors - who wear black pants - before the big reveal of the uniform as a whole.

The style mimics that of last year, and at first glance, I thought the pants were Carolina - as in Tar Heel - blue. A second look led me to realize that the shade was actually far closer to Crown's fellow Charlotte-area denizens, the Carolina Panthers. A cool synergy, I thought, until I saw the instrumentalists and the guard members together, pictured here.

Buzz City is back.

If you follow the NBA or are anywhere in North Carolina (and I'd imagine South Carolina as well), you're aware that through some shifting of mascots and rights, the team now formerly known as the Charlotte Bobcats will don the teal and purple worn in Charlotte until 2002, when the Hornets moved to New Orleans. There has been considerable buzz (yes, I know) surrounding a team that by and large elicited good feelings, spirit, and Starter jacket sales from the Charlotte populace. Given the considerable attention paid to the team's return, there's no way Crown didn't know what they were doing when picking these colors for their uniform. And frankly, as much as I can get behind the current iteration of Crown uniforms (I think that'll be another post for another time), I'm all for it. Perhaps they'll even connect with some casual fans in the area caught up in the local zeitgeist.

This isn't the first time a corps will intentionally invoke the local fanbase. A few years ago the Cascades added the lime green shade that appears in the uniforms of both the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders. And while corps don't change colors often, if you are going to switch it up, you might as well go with something that gibes well with the locals.