Welcome to this website’s off-season sports sartorial content. We are counting down the world’s top 50 most iconic sports uniforms. Only current uniforms apply, we are not including one-off or alternate uniforms. Let’s stick to the basics.

#15

San Francisco 49ers

We are in the no. 15 spot of the countdown and the 6th NFL team to make the list are the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners began as a franchise all the way back in 1946 with white helmets and pants between simple red jerseys. The next season they adopted tan helmets and pants before switching to silver helmets and pants and then red helmets for the next several years.

By the mid-1950’s the 49ers adopted three white stripes on the jersey sleeves, used both silver and white pants, and had introduced black drop shadows on the white player numbers. The team then bizarrely went back to their original uniform for 1956 then transitioned to gold helmet and pants for 1957-58 before changing to silver helmets and pants again.

For 1962, the interlocking “SF” logo was introduced to the silver helmets for the first time.

In 1964, the template for the modern San Francisco uniform was created. Gold pants, red jerseys with plain white trim, and gold helmets with a red/white/red center stripe between the logo. For more than 3 decades, the team kept the same exact home uniform with any changes basically being imperceptible.

During the 1996 season, the team wore jerseys with the helmet logo across the shoulder stripes complete with drop shadow numbers and white pants. The helmets also featured a gold outline enclosed by a thicker black outline on the logo, plus a switch to a black/red/black striping pattern. They kept this look for 1997 and then switched back to gold pants with this template from 1998 through the 2008 season.

For 2009, the Niners reverted back to their more familiar old-school red jerseys with no drop shadow, changed the helmet stripe back, but also kept the modern logo with the gold and black outline. This is the way San Francisco has looked ever since for the last 15 seasons with the addition of the small “49ers” script in white just above the player number included.

It’s been a clean and fresh look that is instantly recognizable.