Not much has changed in CFB uni-land — schools are still getting weird with it sometimes and rolling out special uniforms for the ‘croots. Washington is now an adidas school and had more gear available on day 1 than Tech did, so there’s that...anyway, let’s dive in.
Updates from the Home Front...
Here’s what the Yellow Jackets have in the wardrobe for 2019:
- Confirmed back: Gold helmet/white jersey (with gold numbers)/gold pants
NEW ERA is HERE #404theCULTURE
— Georgia Tech Football (@GeorgiaTechFB) August 28, 2019
@adidasFballUS
@CoachCollins
@calvinjohnsonjr
@UNISWAG pic.twitter.com/Mb2T5ZdX3M
- Assumedly back: white/white (navy numbers)/white
- NEW in 2019: “Cape Day” alternates (gold/gray/gray)
- Unknown: 2018 “fauxbacks” - it’s unclear if these are still in the rotation for Tech. It could be that the “Cape Day” alternates are this year’s replacement for 2018’s navy jerseys.
To review, here are Tech’s records in various combinations...
2018 Uniform Combinations
Combination | Record | Opponents |
---|---|---|
Combination | Record | Opponents |
Gold/White/Gold | 3-0 | Alcorn St, Bowling Green, UVA |
White/White/Navy | 1-0 | UNC |
White/White/White | 3-1 | Pitt, Louisville, VPISU, Miami |
Gold/Navy/White | 0-1 | Climpsun |
Gold/White/Navy | 0-1 | Duke |
Gold/Navy/Navy | 0-1 | Minnesota |
Gold/White/White | 0-2 | USF, Athens CC |
...and some interesting splits from last season:
2018 Uniform Splits
Situation | Record | Notes |
---|---|---|
Situation | Record | Notes |
Any use of Navy | 1-3 | |
Standard Adidas Sets | 6-1 | Gold/White/Gold and White/White/White |
Home | 4-2 | |
Away | 3-3 | |
Neutral Site | 0-1 | |
Gold Helmets | 3-5 | |
White Helmets | 4-1 | |
Gold Numerals | 3-0 | Not including navy jerseys |
Navy Numerals | 4-4 |
Uniforms aren’t predictive of anything, really so I can’t recommend you make gambling decisions based on this data. However, if you are a little ‘stitious, you’re gonna want to hope that Tech keeps it simple and wears the standard adidas sets often this year.
...And Around the Country
Here’s the #content you really came for.
Not featured, but worth of a mention: Miami, Mississippi State, Oregon, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Wisconsin
Michigan State
Kit: Green/Green/Lime
I would love to meet the Nike designer who was so consumed by their obsession with electric lime (yes, that’s what I’m calling that garish color) that they just had to include it in every element of this kit. If Nike really wanted to make electric lime the centerpiece of the jersey design (which I assume was the intention here), it should have removed the “STATE” on the front and made the jersey numbers lime. Don’t mismatch colors on the most visible part of the jersey.
Grade: F
Louisville
Kit: “Muhammed Ali Tribute” - White/White/White
The gloves turn a simple white jersey into something so, so much more.
Grade: A+
Arizona State
WKit: White/White/White
According to an #ASU spokesperson, the uniforms do not have anything to do with Pat Tillman, but they are made with sustainable materials. https://t.co/qKE3U8pLje
— azcentral sports (@azcsports) August 19, 2019
These may not be related to ASU legend Pat Tillman, but I am so here for sustainability in jersey production and that mono-colored Arizona state flag on the shoulders. That detail alone nets these an A, and Sun Devil Maroon looks great against a white basecoat.
Grade: A
Utah
Kit: Silver/Red/White(?)
Coming 11.16.2019... #CFB150 pic.twitter.com/5MHttvSX6S
— UtesEquipment (@UtesEquipment) August 13, 2019
The helmet is still TBA and the true color of the pants is unclear from the video, so I can’t completely cover these, but I do know this: the “UTES” on the shoulders is bad. Besides that ugliness, I don’t really like where the conference and maker logos are placed (although, that’s more of a problem with this year’s UA template than this particular jersey) and the CFB150 patch is forced into a weird high-shoulder spot because of those logo locations. This jersey is really peculiar — on first glance, it looks fine (heck, it looks great, especially if you don’t notice the shoulders), but as you look closer and closer at the details, it seems more and more like each individual element (the numbers, the patches, etc) doesn’t have enough room to breathe.
Grade: C
Hawaii
Kit: Black/Black/Black
Result: W 45-38 vs Arizona
We have actual football to talk about here! These were awesome — really liked the state graphic on one side of the helmet and the diamond/shark teeth bracelet pattern on the shoulders, pants, and helmet. The helmet stripe is a little too thick for my liking, but that pattern is just so...Hawaii. The diamonds are also cut out of the edges of the jersey numbers as well — again, awesome. This uniform matchup was also great — Hawaii’s all-black look looked great against Arizona’s all-white getup.
Grade: A
Grading the brands so far:
- Nike: Incomplete — No schools other than Oregon and Michigan State have gotten news about uniforms yet (at least, based on what I’ve seen). If you see something, say something (either in the comments below or on Twitter - @jakegrant98).
- Adidas: B — All of these were solid, except Mississippi State’s, which committed two cardinal sins: black for black’s sake and a computer motherboard-like pattern that seems out-of-place (despite it being for a good cause).
- UnderArmour: C+ — None of these alts (outside of Hawaii’s home kit) were good; they were all just ok at best.
The Curious Case of “Onyx Gray”
I promised the commentariat a fuller version of my thoughts on Georgia Tech’s new “Cape Day” uniforms, part of adidas’s new Strategy series and the culmination of a partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for their October 4th “Cape Day” event.
I’m going to quote myself since I captured part of said thoughts before:
(I)f you consider the uniforms from a non-GT-brand-focused/design-first lens, they’re great. Tech gold really pops against the metallic gray, and the sublimated honeycombs in the shoulders are a great touch.
And they really are great uniforms. The shiny Tech gold honeycomb pattern on the shoulders (and pants, as I’ve now realized) pairs well with the shade of “onyx gray” that adidas selected for the top, creating this sort of steely engineering/computer-y vibe to the uniforms — it’s very tech and very Tech. I could dedicate an entire paragraph to how excited I am about the return of the honeycomb (in limited quantities, of course) to Georgia Tech uniforms — I miss the pre-2018 honeycomb helmets of my youth on-campus college football experience dearly. The helmet design hasn’t been announced yet, but the usual gold base will remain, so I’m sure it will look great as well. Objectively, I’d give them an A (pending the helmet design).
BUT (and I will preface this by saying: full respect to CHOA — I highly encourage you to buy a gold cape and donate to the folks doing amazing work over there): I have one major problem with these kits — the reasoning for using “onyx gray” (and the origins of the Gray Devils story) is....murky at best.
Yes, it is a nitpick. Yes, I understand that it’s not a big deal in the larger scheme of things. Yes, they are great jerseys beyond the marketing speak for the color scheme.
But it’s a lot bigger than gray just not being in the school’s color palette. So much ink has been spilled railing against the various branding miscues that the Institute has made throughout recent memory that a similar amount of ink has been used to cover the triumphant simplification of Tech’s color palette to white and (finally, a singular shade of) gold. The massive investment made by the Georgia Tech Athletic Association to simplify its brand standards, bring them into the 21st century, and encourage Institute administration to begin making the same changes is barely a year and a half old, but has made significant inroads on campus already.
Given that effort, it follows that the appearance of a completely unrelated primary jersey color could be frustrating. The release of these alternate uniforms would not be as upsetting if Tech’s colors and brand (with regards to name and logo recognition) were well-established (by that I mean, this would be a normal thing like it is at most other schools), but that’s just not the reality on the Flats. I’m thankful that we now have an apparel partner that can put together top-tier designs and flashy uniforms for us, but staying within Tech’s new brand standards could have pushed the Athletic Association’s efforts to paint campus white and gold even further, especially with all of the built-up excitement for the football season.
But maybe I’m not the target audience for these — it’s often noted that new uniforms are buy-and-large a recruiting tactic to woo talent with the new and shiny (I mean heck, that’s how Oregon built itself as a sports brand). If recruits and the youths like them and they help Tech in the recruiting rankings — then, well, maybe I should hold my peace.
Read some more thoughts about Tech’s new uniforms here.
Prefer your hot takes in audio form? We covered these uniforms in the latest episode of Scions of the Southland, available here.
Got any uni thoughts? Let me know in the comments!