Welcome to Uni Watch on Substack!

A message for my new subscribers.

(Graphic by Paul)

Hello! If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you recently subscribed to Uni Watch here on Substack. Big thanks to all of you who’ve subscribed, and doubleplusthanks to those of you who voluntarily paid to subscribe even though there’s no paywall on this content (at least for now). I’m grateful for your support.

We’ll be getting started soon with new content. Meanwhile, here are some things to keep in mind about this latest version of Uni Watch:

• If you haven’t already done so, check out the new Uni Watch home page. You can use the navigation bar — the one underneath the Uni Watch script near the top of the page — to check out the “About” page, the “Projects” pages, the archive, and so on.

• I’ve done my best to proofread all those new pages, but it’s entirely possible — maybe even probable — that I missed a few typos. If you spot anything that looks amiss, please email me so I can make the proper fix. I want the site to be as clean as possible. Thanks!

• The archive currently consists of about two dozen posts that I wrote over the past few months for the Uni Watch blog (which will be shutting down at the end of July). I’ve ported those posts over here to provide a sense of continuity.

• I’ll be posting here occasionally, with no set schedule. There might be several posts one week and then no posts the following week. My hope is that this will make every post feel like a nice surprise when it arrives in your in-box.

• Speaking of which: People often describe Substack as a newsletter platform, but I prefer to think of it as a blogging platform that also sends out email reminders. Or to put it another way: As a subscriber, you will receive every new Uni Watch post via email, but that doesn’t mean you have to read the emailed versions of the posts. If you click on the headline at the top of the emailed article (for this post that you’re reading right now, it’s “Welcome to Uni Watch on Substack!”), it will take you to the web version of the article, which usually has better formatting than the emailed version. Think of it this way: The emailed version lets you know there’s a new article to read, but the web version provides the best reading experience for that article. (The experience is even better if you read the article on a computer instead of on your phone, but I realize that’s probably a losing battle at this point.)

You can click on the headline (as indicated by the orange arrow) to go from the emailed version of a post to the web version. You’ll get the same text, but a better reading experience. (Screen shot from Substack)

• “Liking” (or “hearting”) an article is helpful from an algorithmic standpoint, plus it makes your friendly uniform columnist happy. So if you like what you’re reading here, go ahead and click that heart icon!

• There are no ads on Substack, so you’ll always have a clean, uncluttered reading experience.

• All content here on Uni Watch is free for now. If things go well over the first few weeks, I may add a paywall, just so I’m not working for free. If you’re currently a free subscriber and would like to support my work by upgrading to a paid subscription now, even though it’s not yet required, you can do that here (thank you!).

• I’ve tried to spread the word about Uni Watch’s move to Substack, but Uni Watch no longer has a presence on social media, and I’m not very active on social myself these days, so lots of people out there probably aren’t aware of this new chapter in Uni Watch’s existence. If you could help spread the word, share links via social media or by emailing friends, etc., that would help to re-establish our comm-uni-ty. Thanks!

• I’m not really looking to do big merch projects these days, but some basic Uni Watch products are available here. I’m also selling off some old uniform style guides and catalogs and a pair of unique Uni Watch football helmets. And hey, if you’re really feeling ambitious, Uni Watch itself is for sale!

• As many of you know, I have another Substack, called Inconspicuous Consumption, which is sort of like Uni Watch for everything other than sports. You can check it out here.

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I think that’s it for now. I’ll publish our first new article early next week. Meanwhile, if you have questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to respond. Thanks again for following Uni Watch to its new home.

Uni Watch, created by Paul Lukas, has been covering the world of athletics aesthetics since 1999.