Chicago Bears Uniforms: Past, Present, and Possibly Future

The Chicago Bears have had iconic uniforms for so long, that it’s hard to remember a time when they didn’t look like they do today. But a lot of fans don’t know that the team started out with red and brown uniforms and then made a ton of small changes over the years to get to this uniform you see now.

So let’s review the history of the Chicago Bears uniforms to see what they could possibly do in the future. Watch the video above for a more detailed breakdown with images and footage. I’ve also created a few new designs that could work in the future.

1920’s

The franchise started out in 1920 in Decatur, Illinois and like most teams at the time they were named after a company, the Staley Manufacturing Company. The Decatur Staleys colors were red and brown with red jerseys that had brown strips of fabric sewn onto the front to help players hold the ball, because the ball was still pretty round and difficult to hold at the time.

In 1921 the team moved to Chicago and kept their look, but changed their name. They played at Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs played, so coming up with a team name was pretty simple. George Halas said, “if those guys are cubs then we’re bears” and the Bears name stuck. 

In 1923 Halas decides to change the teams colors to something closer to his college alma matter, the University of Illinois, so he goes with a dark navy and deep orange.

1930’s

The 1930’s is when the Bears started to really experiment with their uniforms to see what they liked. In 1931 the Bears decided to add a helmet design and they go with a pretty popular one for most teams at the time. Three stripes running down the helmet.

The next year in 1932 the Bears ditched the leather strips, possibly because the shape of the ball had changed so much, and went with a white jersey, with block numbers, and three stripes on their sleeves. These stripes will be apart of the Chicago Bears look from here on out.

They still had brown canvas pants and changed to blue socks with orange stripes.

A couple years later in 1934 the bears decided to have three different helmet color combinations to choose from. There was an all white helmet, all blue, and an orange helmet with blue highlights. The Bears also decided that they don’t need to wear canvas colored pants anymore and went with blue pants.

Just a couple years later, in 1936, the Bears decided that they wanted to bring the stripes back and added larger sleeve stripes, shoulder stripes, and increasing the stripes on their socks. Striped shoulder pads were nothing new at the time, but still these uniforms were not well liked when they were unveiled. People at the time described them to be in bad taste and “too loud”. We got to see what this would look like on modern players with these throwbacks in 2020.

After that big swing in 1936 the Bears decided to change to something a little bit more subdued. They kept the striped helmets, but went with orange jerseys, blue numbers, and blue pants. They also had a white jersey that they could change out and a look with an orange helmet, navy jerseys, and orange pants.

1940’s

By 1940 the Bears had removed the stripes from their helmets and were mostly wearing white jerseys with navy pants and orange alternate jerseys. They also added on a stripe to their pants for the first time, but instead of what they have now, they went with an orange stripe in the middle with white outlines to better match their sleeve stripes.

The next year, 1941, is where we start to see the Bears uniform really take shape. They went with white pants, navy jerseys, orange block numbers, and three orange stripes on the sleeve. This is a throwback look that many fans got to see later and are referred to as their monsters of the midway throwback.

Fans also kinda got to see their 1940’s orange alternates on thanksgiving in 2004, but it’s not an accurate throwback and the white C on the helmets isn’t era appropriate so I don’t count these.

1950’s

In 1950 the big change in the Bears uniform was moving on from their block numbers and switching over to the rounded numbers that they still wear today. They also changed the numbers to white with an orange outline.

In 1955 the Bears added a face mask to their look and it was gray because all face masks were gray back then.

In 1956 they put numbers on their sleeves because the NFL wanted teams to have numbers that people could see from the side while watching the game on TV. They’re still called “TV numbers to this day”.

In 1957 the NFL decided to make uniforms more standardized so it would be easier for fans watching on black and white TVs. So every team had to have a white away uniform and a color home uniform. We’re already getting pretty close to what the Bears currently wear with this 1957 look.

1960’s

In 1962 the Bears added a logo to their helmet for the first time. It was an all white wishbone C for Chicago. The wishbone C has a long history, but I won’t get into it here.

1970’s

It wasn’t until the 70’s that the Bears would see anymore uniform changes. In 1970 they added players names to the back of the jerseys and then in 1973 they changed the white C to an orange C with white outlines. I think this fits the uniform a lot better. It matches the stripes on the sleeves and brings all their colors to the helmet.

1980’s

In 1982 the Bears ditched the gray facemask and went with navy blue.

Then in 1983 George Halas passed away and the team honored him with a patch on their chest with his initials.

The next year the Bears would make this a permanent part of their uniform, by moving his initials to their left sleeve.

1990’s

No major changes happened throughout the rest of the 80’s or 90’s except changing up their away look with navy pants or white pants.

2000’s

In 2002 the Bears wore navy pants with their navy jersey for the first time. They ended up testing this look out a couple times, but only randomly.

In 2005 the Bears added an orange alternate.

2010’s

The last big changes to the Bears uniform happened in 2012. Reebok’s uniform contract had run out and the NFL decided to go with Nike for the very specific reason of: They gave us the most money.

At this point the Bears hadn’t had any uniform changes for almost 30 years and it was starting to show. With modern NFL uniform cuts the Bears TV numbers took up most of the space on their sleeves and their stripes had no room. Most players didn’t like the super long sleeves and would end up cutting them off so they only had one stripe. By 2012 most players were wearing fitted sleeves instead of droopy flappy ones, so the stripes would just get lost under the players pads.

So the Bears decided to use this template change as an opportunity for a uniform tweak. They gave the stripes the full shoulder cap and moved the TV numbers up to the shoulders. A much more clean and balanced look.

2020’s

In 2022 the Bears added an orange alternate helmet to go with their orange uniforms. As of 2024 there have been no new Chicago Bears uniform news.

Watch the video above for possible future looks or tweaks.