Although many of the players on these clubs were de facto professionals, the first openly all-professional team was the Cincinnati "Red Stockings", an amateur team that turned professional and began a successful barnstorming tour in 1869. The fame of this team spelled the end of the high-level amateur version of the game. It was followed by a second "National Association", that of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) during 1871–1875, with an increasing number of local clubs and for the first time, professional franchise teams. The Cincinnati Red Stockings team's newfangled uniform of knee-length "knickers" with bright colored high-topped socks or stockings also inspired the use of team colors serving a dual role as a team nickname for the sportswriters of the day, who could add variety to their prose by referring to, e.g., the Hartford club or "Hartfords" alternately as the "Dark Blues" based on their obvious characteristic clothing. None of these early 'color' nicknames were official or used by the teams themselves, however. According to the Association and then the League, the teams were simply e.g. the "Brooklyn B. B. C."