Hello. Paul here, with some unfortunate news: Due to a perfect storm of negative developments, I have reluctantly come to the unfortunate conclusion that continuing to publish Uni Watch is no longer viable. This will be the site’s final post.

Yes, I’m serious. And no, this isn’t a Halloween-related prank. Uni Watch is shutting down, for real.

I realize this news probably comes as a shock and that you no doubt have lots of questions, so let’s shift into Q&A mode:

When did you make the decision to do this?

Yesterday, although I’ve been thinking about it for a while.

What’s this about a “perfect storm” of bad developments?

Over the past year, Uni Watch has been hit by a number of difficult circumstances, including the following:

• The site’s revenue has been cut roughly in half since mid-May, due to an industry-wide ad slump that has affected many websites and ad-management companies. In addition, we no longer have the kind of big merch projects that we had when I was running the site (membership cards, the T-Shirt Club, the Pin Club, Naming Wrongs, etc.), all of which has put us in a difficult cash-flow situation.
• Web developer John Ekdahl — my partner on this site since its 2006 launch, and a minority owner of the Uni Watch business — is dealing with a serious chronic illness that has significantly curtailed his availability. This is one reason the site has been so buggy lately — John hasn’t been running at full capacity. When certain issues have arisen, I’ve either (a) asked John to address them and then felt guilty about it because he has more important things to be dealing with, or (b) often chosen to let them go unaddressed, because John’s health is obviously more important than Uni Watch. That in turn has put Phil in a difficult position, because it means he’s running a site that isn’t optimized for success.
• I don’t have the tech chops to fix the bugs, but there are things I could have done to address some other issues. I could have learned more about SEO and how to improve our traffic, for example, or contacted a few designers to work on some new merch projects, or developed some new Uni Watch Plus perks in the hopes that more UW+ sign-ups would offset the decline in ad revenue. And in a broader sense, I could have just been more diligent in my oversight of the site’s operations. But in the year and a half or so since I stepped away from the site, I’ve found that, quite honestly, my head and heart are no longer in Uni Watch mode. I don’t have the drive or enthusiasm that I once had, and my creative energies are now focused in other directions. Obviously, I love Uni Watch and am very proud of what we all created here, but my passion for this passion project just isn’t what it used to be.

In short: We have a declining financial situation, an absentee owner (me), and a compromised developer/tech guy (John). That’s not sustainable, and Uni Watch deserves better than to limp along under those conditions. There’s also another factor, which I’ll get to in a minute.

If you can’t be the owner that Uni Watch needs, why not sell it to someone else who can be a more engaged owner?

I’ve been trying to do that. Back in July, we listed Uni Watch for sale on Flippa, an online brokerage that helps people buy and sell websites. It’s been an interesting process (I’ve learned a lot!), and we’ve had discussions with several potential buyers. But I knew from the start that Uni Watch would be a tricky property to sell, because a new owner would be putting an awful lot of eggs in Phil’s basket. I mean, think about it: What happens if you buy Uni Watch and then something happens to Phil? There’s no heir apparent, no obvious successor, and you can’t just plug any old sportswriter in there because the subject matter is too niche-specific, so a new owner could be left with no way to recoup his investment. This situation, which is known as a key man risk (that’s one of the things I’ve learned along the way), scared away most of our potential buyers.

Despite that, we recently had productive negotiations with one potential buyer who was willing to take on that risk as long as we built some contingency provisions into the deal. He met with Phil, made sure they’d be comfortable working together, and so on. Although we still had some haggling to do and issues to iron out, I thought we might get there.

But then, about a week ago, Uni Watch unexpectedly got hit with a new expense — an expense that’s going to be prohibitively high, and might remain high for a protracted period if we stay in business. It’s complicated, but let’s just say that was the final piece of the perfect storm. Once that happened, the potential buyer bowed out (I don’t blame him), and I then decided that we’d reached the point where Uni Watch’s potential downside outweighed its shrinking upside. Maintaining operations is no longer tenable.

Will the site’s archive remain on the web?

No, unfortunately. Most of the archive — everything but the past few days’ worth of content — has already been taken down. The rest of the site, including this post, will be taken offline soon, probably around next Wednesday.

What about the Uni Watch Twitter and Facebook feeds?

Those have both been shut down.

What are you going to do for people who paid the $25 fee for Uni Watch Plus?

If you want a pro-rated refund of your $25 annual fee, send an email to uniwatchplus@mail.com. We’ll do our best to get refunds to everyone who requests them, although it may take a bit of time because John handles all the UW+ infrastructure and, as I mentioned, he’s dealing with a serious health issue. Please be patient — we want to do right by everyone.

If you’re willing to forego your pro-rated reimbursement, the funds would really help with our shutdown costs and other expenses. Thanks in advance to those of you who are willing to do this.

What’s going to happen to Phil?

The single worst thing about this, at least from my perspective, is that it pulls the rug out from under Phil. He’s done a great job of running the site for the past year and a half. He just got caught in that perfect storm.

I’ve encouraged him to start his own uni-centric site, or even write for SportsLogos.net, but of course that’s ultimately up to him. I suggest that you follow him on Twitter so you can stay up-to-date on any future plans he ends up announcing.

———

So that’s the story. I realize this is all very abrupt, and that many of you must feel blindsided. I’m truly sorry about that — the Uni Watch readership has always been very special, and I feel bad about springing this news on you without any warning. But it needs to happen now.

I want to thank our great editorial staff. Weekend editor Anthony Emerson and Ticker assistant Jamie Rathjen have both been part of the Uni Watch family since 2017. Ticker assistants Mike Engle and Susan Freeman are more recent additions to the staff, but prior to that they were both very active readers, commenters, and emailers dating back to at least 2010. Thanks, people — you all helped make Uni Watch a better place.

I also want to thank my longtime partner John Ekdahl. He first got in touch with me in 2005, when he was a reader of my ESPN column, and suggested that we partner on a daily blog. I had no idea how to build a website (blogs were still pretty new in those days), but John did. A few months later, we launched this site. I literally couldn’t have done that without him, and same goes for lots of other things that have taken place here over the years.

Most of all, I want to thank the great Phil Hecken. Before the inception of the blog in 2006, Phil read the Uni Watch column when it ran on Slate and ESPN. When the daily blog launched in 2006, Phil was one of the most prolific commenters, as well as a frequent emailer. In 2008 he became the weekend editor, and then deputy editor. When I decided to stop writing about uniforms last spring, I knew I could trust Phil to keep Uni Watch running smoothly. I’m sorry he won’t get the chance to keep doing so.

But I want to add here that Phil, aside from being a great uniform writer, is a great human being. He’s probably the most loyal, hard-working person I’ve ever known, and a trusted friend besides. Thanks for that, Phil.

I asked Phil if he’d like to share a few words as well, so let me hand the mic to him:

First and foremost, I want to thank Paul for taking a chance on a guy who started out as just a commenter and a fan of Paul’s groundbreaking efforts. He pretty much created the entire genre, and for 25-plus years it’s been a great and wonderful thing. I officially joined Uni Watch in 2008 as “Bench Coach” and, well … I never left.

I’m honestly still processing all of this, and I’m sure it won’t fully sink in until later this morning, when I instinctively search the internet and social media to try to find out which pants the Panthers will be wearing against the Packers. But right now, I’m still numb.

Since Paul handed the reins to me back in May of 2024, I’ve tried my best to bring you folks all the content you’ve known since Uni Watch first began, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Over the years — almost two decades’ worth — I’ve made many good friends through Uni Watch, and while I knew this would come to an end one day, I certainly didn’t expect that day to be today. To say that I’ll miss interacting with all of you and sharing our mutual passion for uniforms and the athletic aesthetic would be an understatement.

As far as my future plans? Right now, I honestly have no idea. I’d love to continue writing about uniforms, but I doubt very much I’ll try to start a new site or write for SportsLogos.net (never say never, though!). If there’s enough interest among the readers, I would definitely consider Substack, although I don’t know much about how to get started there, so I’d have to learn the ropes. I haven’t been on my personal Twitter account much lately, and I think I need to take a break from social media for a while, so email is best for now.

I also want to thank all you fine readers for all your support and feedback, and for helping me bring Uni Watch to you. I honestly couldn’t have done this without all of you.

If anyone wants to reach out to me — especially if you would be interested in having me create a Substack that’s all about the uniforms — my email is still phil.hecken@gmail.com.

Keep the Faith, PH

———

Thanks, Phil. That sound you hear in the background is a standing O.

And that, my friends, is a wrap. For the record, the very first Uni Watch column was published in *The Village Voice *on May 26, 1999; this final blog post is appearing on Oct. 31, 2025. That’s a span of 26 years, five months, and five days — not a bad run for a project that I initially thought would last a couple of years at the most.

Thank you — each and every one of you — for helping to make that 26-year run possible. You all Get It™. And as the saying goes, don’t be sad that it’s over; be happy that it happened. Peace. — Paul