New uniform material and more? (official)

[SayWhat]

Michigan fans asked this same question. Colors are very specific w/ different hues, even if it’s subtle. Nike has our true hue, just like they had Michigan’s true hue. These color palettes are designated by name & patent. Adidas had to re-create our hue just like they did Michigan. Michigan went from Maize to “Sun” Yellow which was much more bright.

Our Orange is more bright than before, & our green is also brighter w/ a bit of a shimmer. That’s probably the closest they’ll get.

We've had a gamut of color selections in the past well before we were ever Nike. Colors back then (decades past) weren't anywhere near as refined as they can be today, so this true hue Nike thing is just Nike's take on our color scheme.

It's like paint of any kind. I have a close friend who has a very successful body shop and the amount of colors with such subtle differences to the naked eye (if you can even see a difference) is astounding. Then there's other factors when applying, where, shades from angles, shadows, etc. I was interested in how they did all that so I spend half a day watching them do some work. Expensive *** paint and machinery to just mix the colors.

Taking it to a fabric, in uniforms, all of them are going to adhere and look different unless your quality control is so absurd down to sourcing of every fiber with strict testing, etc, there will be changes. Again, very close, but even seasonal changes in fields of suppliers can alter the pigmentation.

Anyhow, yes, Nike has their color. I've heard you say this before, but what makes you think it's the one?

 

[Calinative]

Wish we would have just stuck with doing smoke grey instead of having black uniforms tbh, I mean I like them, but I think its a little played out. But maybe thats just cause I'm a Raider fan that is annoyed everyone is just trying to steal black as one of their main/alt unis and think its annoying...

 

[PalyCane]

Sir, I will NEVER question you on issues of personal taste. If you like adidas better than Nike, that is fine.

However, I'm not a fan of the two Beta Blake/adidas fan boys perpetuating false myths about what happened in the Nike/adidas switchover. I, too, was once told false stories about bad-bad Nike and good-good adidas, and it took me some time to discover the truth.

And for the record, I have ALWAYS hated the clam. I have ripped the stitching off of hats that had a clam. I was clear, from the beginning, that this was a ploy by Nike to make more money by avoiding a royalty payment to John Routh. I understand the aesthetics of why they did it, if you can look at the logo, it is definitely more modern than the "cartoon" Sebastian. If Nike had (a) done a less "stretched out" Ibis, and (b) not tried to sideline John Routh's "cartoon" Ibis, I would have been OK with it all.

And the Russell/Nike colors are better than the adidas colors.

On the question of Nike jerseys...

I'm older, so I can remember more than Pro Combat...

1. I loved this jersey, which was the first big change under Nike:
View attachment 294493


2. I also loved this jersey, which made it two strong versions right from the time Nike took over:
View attachment 294494


3. I make a lot of joking reference to the "bra strap" jersey, because it is such a funny nickname, but It's definitely not a bad jersey. Looks better coming at you than it does from behind, but it's probably not as memorable as its predecessor:
View attachment 294495


4. This is where it starts to get a bit harder. Again, I'm not as happy with these as I am with the three prior versions. Again, the front looks better than the back. I feel like the lines could have been cleaner (but notice the AWESOME v-neck logo), and you can especially tell when you see "knockoff" jerseys from this era, where the stripes on the front and back are HUGE and ugly. So these just seemed like there was some missed potential. And if you remove the front/back stripes and put a tri-stripe on the sleeves instead of numbers, you essentially have a recent adidas template:
View attachment 294496


5. DID NOT LIKE:
View attachment 294498
View attachment 294499


6. VERY MUCH LIKED:
View attachment 294501


7. Not bad - I think these get slammed because they were the last jerseys. I'd make the neck collar green smaller, and the shoulder green stripes smoother/curvier, but it's not a bad design (though I have ALWAYS hated the clam).
View attachment 294502

Appreciate the thoughtful response. Like you, I go back to the early '80s with the team.

My biggest quarrel with the Nike kits in pics 2-7 is that it took us away from our branded look. Every iconic program has a branded look that's decades in the making.

Nike didn't ***** with the trad look for other iconic programs, but they did with us. Alabama didn't change, nor did Texas, USC, FSU, OSU, LSU, UGA, Mich, etc, etc. Nike never went away from the classic look for all those other programs. But Nike changed our branded look pretty radically not only with the uniforms, but also stuff like the "Clam". We stopped looking like the U imo

I believe our classic, traditional graphics were a big part of the creation of our brand. Nike took us away from that. Adidas brought it back. Hence my preference for Adidas

Bottom line for me: Any apparel company that outfits us can play around the edges, but our look should be based on trad '80s/90s, '95-'98 Nike and recent Adidas graphics.

 

[Calinative]

Anyhow, yes, Nike has their color. I've heard you say this before, but what makes you think it's the one?

Look to your premise for the answer lol

 

[PalyCane]

Honest question though - don't we have patented legit pantone colors for our orange/green? By hue, are you referring to having that pantone base color, but just the warmth/coolness of the colors? There have been some Nike things in the past where I felt like they either went too dark w/the Green and too washed out w/the Orange, just like some people are angry about the Adidas stuff not having the "true hue". I also feel like it varies with fan apparel vs team issue stuff, and even simply with weather conditions...high/low light, sun or rain, etc...

Fully agree with this. Early Nike colors were appropriately vibrant whereas their later green and orange went very wrong.

The U's stated color inspiration is the tropical orange tree:

Too many of Nike's post-classic uniforms for us moreso looked like soylent green and rust belt orange, and not close to orange fruit and green leaves. As it states on our website, our colors are tropical and vibrant.

 

[Glow]

Wish we would have just stuck with doing smoke grey instead of having black uniforms tbh, I mean I like them, but I think its a little played out. But maybe thats just cause I'm a Raider fan that is annoyed everyone is just trying to steal black as one of their main/alt unis and think its annoying...

The recruits like the jerseys but black is a big enough departure that they can just copy the Miami Heat Vice uniform color scheme they don't need to bother with orange or green the same way the Heat don't bother putting red in the Vice Nights jersey.

 

[mcnaire2004]

Bottom line for me: Any apparel company that outfits us can play around the edges, but our look should be based on trad '80s/90s, '95-'98 Nike and recent Adidas graphics.

We could rotate championship based jerseys and make everyone a little happy

 

[Rellyrell]

Appreciate the thoughtful response. Like you, I go back to the early '80s with the team.

My biggest quarrel with the Nike kits in pics 2-7 is that it took us away from our branded look. Every iconic program has a branded look that's decades in the making.

Nike didn't ***** with the trad look for other iconic programs, but they did with us. Alabama didn't change, nor did Texas, USC, FSU, OSU, LSU, UGA, Mich, etc, etc. Nike never went away from the classic look for all those other programs. But Nike changed our branded look pretty radically not only with the uniforms, but also stuff like the "Clam". We stopped looking like the U imo

I believe our classic, traditional graphics were a big part of the creation of our brand. Nike took us away from that. Adidas brought it back. Hence my preference for Adidas

Bottom line for me: Any apparel company that outfits us can play around the edges, but our look should be based on trad '80s/90s, '95-'98 Nike and recent Adidas graphics.

I hate to break the news to u, but Miami doesn’t have a traditional look, never has. I’ve looked through our uniform history and it’s a stark contrast to the teams u listed above. Those uniforms have remained the same besides minor changes to size of numbers, adding numbers, name plates, and size of shoulder pad stripes.

I’m not sure when this idea came about that Miami is a “traditional” school. We’ve never been a traditional school.

 

[Manfred_Cane]

I hate to break the news to u, but Miami doesn’t have a traditional look, never has. I’ve looked through our uniform history and it’s a stark contrast to the teams u listed above. Those uniforms have remained the same besides minor changes to size of numbers, adding numbers, name plates, and size of shoulder pad stripes.

I’m not sure when this idea came about that Miami is a “traditional” school. We’ve never been a traditional school.

You mentioned Mich & Adidas earlier in this thread and I'm too lazy to go back and find it, however, I'm remembering how dirty Adidas did Michigan with some of those jerseys they gave them back then lmao Shoelace would've looked so much better in Jordan than the **** Adidas had given them at the time

 

[Rellyrell]

We've had a gamut of color selections in the past well before we were ever Nike. Colors back then (decades past) weren't anywhere near as refined as they can be today, so this true hue Nike thing is just Nike's take on our color scheme.

It's like paint of any kind. I have a close friend who has a very successful body shop and the amount of colors with such subtle differences to the naked eye (if you can even see a difference) is astounding. Then there's other factors when applying, where, shades from angles, shadows, etc. I was interested in how they did all that so I spend half a day watching them do some work. Expensive *** paint and machinery to just mix the colors.

Taking it to a fabric, in uniforms, all of them are going to adhere and look different unless your quality control is so absurd down to sourcing of every fiber with strict testing, etc, there will be changes. Again, very close, but even seasonal changes in fields of suppliers can alter the pigmentation.

Anyhow, yes, Nike has their color. I've heard you say this before, but what makes you think it's the one?

First off u r right, even when Nike bright back older silhouettes of their shoes, the color palette can be slightly off to the trained eye, which is why dead stock originals that r flawless sell & appreciate 5x the value of retros.

However, addressing ur direct ?, when Nike became the outfitter of both Miami & UofM, the two original schools, they were given full proprietorship of the designs, including the color palettes. Understand, these were landmark & historic moments in, not just college athletics, but athletics in general. Colors, in itself, cannot be patented, but very specific color palettes can, & it can be unique to a company. ****, u can even see it in crayons; go get a green crayon from Crayola & go get a green crayon from a knock off brand & see the difference.

The same went for Tennessee’s Orange; Adidas was their first sponsor in that they were given full proprietorship over designs. One of UTenn’s fans gripe when the switch to Nike first happen was that the shade of Orange that was unique to UTenn changed. They felt their orange was too similar to other Nike programs that wore orange. They were right, & something I, too, noticed.

The original UTenn Orange was this wear combo of Tangerine, Light, & Dark Orange & it had a very specific palette # assigned to it which is owned by Adidas. Nike had to recreate that Orange & it’s a darker version. They’ve lightened it up in the last couple yrs, but it’s still not hitting like that OG joint.

****, even when Nike took over UofM again, the Maize palette had to be recreated (this goes back to the retro vs. dead stock statement). They actually had to rename & rebrand it, if I’m not mistaken. It was the closest color to Maize since they had the original specs, but it’s not “quite” Maize. Far better than the sun yellow, but probably 1/4 shade off of the OG maize.

 

[Rellyrell]

You mentioned Mich & Adidas earlier in this thread and I'm too lazy to go back and find it, however, I'm remembering how dirty Adidas did Michigan with some of those jerseys they gave them back then lmao Shoelace would've looked so much better in Jordan than the **** Adidas had given them at the time

Correct, & that’s when I took notice. B Edwards is my frat bro, & I have a lot of connections to UofM through my frat bros, & my lil cousin being alums.

I became very skeptical of Adidas’ way of business b/c of UofM. They were done downright dirty, b/c UofM was supposed to be a big get. The problem? UofM wasn’t giving Adidas bang for its buck. At the time, UofM had the biggest contract in college sports, ****; their contract is still bigger than ours & that was from yesteryear.

They were given mix-matched jerseys (I also saw that during last season where some of our players had the old Adidas logo, & some didn’t have name plates attached - I called it out in one of the game day threads). From what I was told, shoes weren’t properly fitted, causing lower leg issues, practice jerseys were sent in for repairs and literal stitches put in it. UofM had the red carpet initially rolled out for them, and then eventually…it came to a bitter end.

The first thing Harbaugh said when taking the job was that Adidas had to go. He said in order to elevate their brand, they needed to return to Nike. That was apart of his negotiations. Once Charles Woodson, a Jordan Brand Athlete, found out what was happening, he reached out to MJ to see if this was something he & the brand would be willing to do to separate themselves from other schools, & MJ gave his blessing. UofM ushered in the JB for football.

 

[Manfred_Cane]

Correct, & that’s when I took notice. B Edwards is my frat bro, & I have a lot of connections to UofM through my frat bros, & my lil cousin being alums.

I became very skeptical of Adidas’ way of business b/c of UofM. They were done downright dirty, b/c UofM was supposed to be a big get. The problem? UofM wasn’t giving Adidas bang for its buck. At the time, UofM had the biggest contract in college sports, ****; their contract is still bigger than ours & that was from yesteryear.

They were given mix-matched jerseys (I also saw that during last season where some of our players had the old Adidas logo, & some didn’t have name plates attached - I called it out in one of the game day threads). From what I was told, shoes weren’t properly fitted, causing lower leg issues, practice jerseys were sent in for repairs and literal stitches put in it. UofM had the red carpet initially rolled out for them, and then eventually…it came to a bitter end.

The first thing Harbaugh said when taking the job was that Adidas had to go. He said in order to elevate their brand, they needed to return to Nike. That was apart of his negotiations. Once Charles Woodson, a Jordan Brand Athlete, found out what was happening, he reached out to MJ to see if this was something he & the brand would be willing to do to separate themselves from other schools, & MJ gave his blessing. UofM ushered in the JB for football.

They took some of the cleanest jerseys and just decided to go nut job with some of the designs. One of them looked like a twin of the WVU jerseys back then. White with the blue shoulders. White with the blue and yellow shoulders. Blue with the yellow numbers striped. The severely bad throwbacks vs Notre Dame. ******* awful.


I'm jealous Harbaugh told adidas to **** off and we haven't done the same (yet).

 

[Rellyrell]

Under Diaz we were changing our uniforms every game. Alternating the Orange, Green and Black. Same with pants on the road.

Are we not going to rotate orange over white, white over orange, green over white, white over green, storm troopers, & a Miami Night jersey?

I’m trying to follow the logic here b/c it sure look like, from that video, that’s going to be our combos, which would match what went under Diaz, too. Lol. The only thing is we won’t be having the Parley’s like we did under Diaz. Also, I believe he had us rocking all orange a couple of times.

 

[PalyCane]

I hate to break the news to u, but Miami doesn’t have a traditional look, never has. I’ve looked through our uniform history and it’s a stark contrast to the teams u listed above. Those uniforms have remained the same besides minor changes to size of numbers, adding numbers, name plates, and size of shoulder pad stripes.

I’m not sure when this idea came about that Miami is a “traditional” school. We’ve never been a traditional school.

Pre-1983 that's absolutely true. UM uniforms were all over the place.

That said, I consider the uniform style we won our first 4 NC's in to be our traditional and classic look starting with the '83 uniform below. And that's what we've got going on now with Adidas in a modernized form.

This is our classic and traditional look in my view. And our 2024 uniforms play off it perfectly imo.

 

[Rellyrell]

Pre-1983 that's absolutely true. UM uniforms were all over the place.

That said, I consider the uniform style we won our first 4 NC's in to be our traditional and classic look starting with the '83 uniform below. And that's what we've got going on now with Adidas in a modernized form.

This is our classic and traditional look in my view. And our 2024 uniforms play off it perfectly imo.

View attachment 294544

I figured u would say this, b/c this uniform = our dominance, so I get it. Now, we just need some good memories attached to this design vs. mingling in nostalgia.

 

[9oh4Cane]

I like the improvements to the uniforms but I’m ready for us to go back to Nike (or JB). Let’s not forget the first uniforms with adidas were an abomination and it took them 9 years to get it right. We have the right guys running the show now that can work with Nike if they try to come at us with some wacky ****, I’m not worried about that.

Bottom line is stuff like this does matter and we are a Nike school. Just as mentioned above regarding Habaugh/Michigan, it’s time to elevate the brand. Adidas does not belong in football and especially not UM football - it belongs in soccer, tennis, and women sports.

 

[kyle_schick]

Definitely looks like we're getting a new Miami Nights type jersey. Hopefully they lose the neon bull**** and go more towards the original ones.

Every single recruit wears the current nights set.

It's very popular

 

[Calinative]

The recruits like the jerseys but black is a big enough departure that they can just copy the Miami Heat Vice uniform color scheme they don't need to bother with orange or green the same way the Heat don't bother putting red in the Vice Nights jersey.

Like I'd just do this:

 

[Bender]

To be quite mfing honest, I don't care about design that much. I care about functionality and comfortability and usage way more over design (unless it's ugly as ****).

And if you prefer Adidas over Nike in that regard, we need to have a conversation. Like, asap.

 

[HurricaneOmeezy]

That particular adidas jersey is WAAAAY more embarrassing than the Nike jersey.

Knock the bra straps, sure, but that particular Nike jersey was actually better than several of its predecessors (regular AND alternate).

The 2014 Nike uni’s were our best since the 2000-2003 iteration, I’ll always stand by that. Our players and coaches chose a few dumb color combos that season, but the actually jersey design, tech, quality was unmatched.

Those few games we wore the traditional orange on whites were fire. I felt like those jerseys legit looked like NFL jerseys, they were awesome. I also remember the all whites, paratrooper look that year….FIRE