Analyzing the Uniform Colors of Professional Team Sports in South Korea

초록

Although an extensive body of research exists on sports uniform colors in the West, there is a dearth of research on South Korean sports uniforms, especially in the domain of professional team sports. This study aims to identify and analyze the colors of sports uniforms of 56 professional teams listed on the Korea Professional Sports Association (KPSA) for a range of team sports (e.g. football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and golf). The number of colors of each team’s uniform and the ordinal ranking of these colors were recorded and analyzed. Furthermore, the number of colors and parent company colors were grouped by gender and league. Overall, 80.4 % of the teams preferred three to four colors with white, black, blue, and red being the most popular colors. Every team's primary, secondary, or graphic logo colors on their uniforms included white. The gender variable was partially significant, emphasizing culturally significant colors such as pink. The parent company’s color showed a significant connection with the team’s uniform colors. This result was related to the historical origins of South Korean professional team sports and their unique relationship with chaebols. Based on the findings, this study concludes that visibility and contrast factors, as well as historical aspects relating to the concept of glocalization play an important role in the color choices of South Korean team uniforms.

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