All Things New Gopher Uniforms/Helmets Thread: UPDATED 1/20 with New Uniforms!!!

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It amazes me how much uniforms plays in many recruits' decision.
 


remove the piping from current jersey and put a single stripe down the pants and I'm happy. Not a big fan of the piping going across the butt.
 

Rosemountian said:
I love when threads about costumes are happening
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Costumes? Sorry, this is about uniforms. I seem to forget from time-to-time that you are the all-knowing Gopherholer. What would you like to talk about Rose? The South Suburban conference? How your favorite team has Michigan Unis but is named the Irish?
 

Anyone here read the uni-watch blog? The a couple weeks ago they featured the Gophers in their "50 Years Ago This Week". The last one was for the Iowa v Gophers game.

Here is the text with links from that.

How ‘bout that. Gophers the one and only TV game two weeks in a row, this time against the other Big Team powerhouse. … Gophers changed their road unis as much as anyone, switching to gold pants and adding UCLA jersey stripes/loops. … Not a bad idea; their first roads with that set were a tad nondescript. … Iowa in their typical Iowa look, using the standard template that had been employed by the Steelers, Packers, Oklahoma, Michigan State and plenty of others (including Minnesota) in the early 1950s. … The players? HB Bill Munsey was drafted by the Detroit Lions, but spent four seasons with the B.C. Lions. … Cloyd Webb? Oh, man, one of my favorite college players ever. … Played DE, too, cuz most players still played on both sides of the ball. … Drafted by Bears and Bills; signed with Bills but also ended up in CFL. … Had short career that included a few games for Winnipeg and then a year or two with Hamilton.

I guess the point that I'm making is that we changed our uniforms a lot, even in the good old days.
 


Ok. This always comes up. People always spew their own opinions about which uniforms look good. I'll do it too:

- Love the current maroon. By strict definition the hex color for maroon can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_(color) . I think it's closer to our current shade than the old one (which was far too reddish)
- Love the current gold. Don't change em. People complain "It's more yellow than gold!!!" Really? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_(color) To me the main, first color under gold looks more like our current shade than anything we used before. "Old Gold," "Metallic Gold," etc aren't our colors. The brighter shade pops in the stands, looks good on clothing (I'd actually wear a marigold colored sweatshirt, not an old gold one), and works well on the web and communications (not a tacky looking metallic color).
- Favorite looks are Maroon on top Gold on bottom (home) with the Gold/Maroon switchup for special home games. Not a huge fan of the all-gold since it is just too much on a team (not different than the all-blue Boise on an all-blue field or the neon green Oregon unis). For comparison, I love the home gold jerseys on maroon breezers in hockey.
- For the road I like the Gold pants White jersey. That may just be me. I'm not a fan of all-whites (where are our 2 primary colors) or maroon pants (white on maroon looks too much like Harvard or some maroon/white colored team).
- Helmets - always maroon with a block M on it. Classic. That's where the maroon can come from on road unis with white jersey and gold pants.
- Have a few fun combos for really big games and to attract the attention of recruits.
- Do NOT change the block M. Yes, it's gone through several iterations but we finally have a regal, classic, symmetrical logo that NO ONE else uses. Michigan's M looks very very similar to Missouri, Montana State, and Mississippi State's. We have picked shades of maroon and gold as well as a logo to brand ourselves around. Let's build on that. Create an identity that can help drive awareness, apparel sales, consistent designs on campus, etc.

However, as I stated, a lot of those things are simply MY opinions. I don't necessarily think our uniforms need to stay the same every game, every year, since we've NEVER had a tradition of consistent uniforms for years. I like what I like but if a new combo or look on the helmets gets enough media and recruiting attention to bring people here, so be it.

Right now I think we're stuck in the middle. We don't change often enough or have weird enough jerseys (Oregon, Maryland, OkSt, etc) to get our image to that's what people know us for, and we don't have tradition in uniforms (PSU, Alabama, Mich, etc) to have that be "our thing," either. The latter is going to be tough to do since we don't have the history, but the former makes my eyes bleed. How do we avoid being a "me too" school by having uniforms like Oregon yet still get kid's attention??
 

DuluthGopher said:
I get everyone's opinion on what they should look like. But there was an article, I believe in SI, stating how the Oregon program turned around once they started taking more risks with their uniforms. Additionally, recruits admitted that one of the main reasons why they picked that school was because of the uniforms. I'm not saying that if ours were cooler we would have L. James here right now but I'm just stating that they need to take into account the taste of 18 year old men/kids. I'm not saying we need to do anything extreme like them, but we aren't Penn St or any of those other schools who haven't changed their uni's over the years. Whatever they decide to do, it won't make everyone happy. But if it means we might get a couple kids at least interested in us because we look sharp when we are on the field, I say we do that. Let's be honest, most of the fan base for the Gophers is an older demographic, so chances are when these new uniforms come out, it might annoy the older people or it will not be attracted to the younger people. An 18 year old and a 65 year old have very different fashion tastes. That being said, I agree that Kill doesn't seem like the type of guy who will do something drastic to the uniforms so it'll be interesting to see what he decides to do.
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+1. This is exactly it.
 

We can talk about this until we're blue in the face, but the fact is it really does not matter what we think/like. As others have said, the only people that have to like the uniforms are recruits and players. They're the ones playing in them, and they're the ones we're trying to attract to the U of M. Look at Maryland, the overwhelming consensus of the entire country is 75% of their uniforms looks like someone threw up on a jersey, but they players like them because they are completely different than anything any other school is wearing. Obviously that hasn't helped on the field as of yet for the Terps, but it catches recruits eyes at the very least.
 

RailBaronYarr said:
- For the road I like the Gold pants White jersey.
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When is the last time we went with that look? Was it all they way back to 2007 before the current uniform set was developed? It seems to me we have only gone with white or maroon pants on the road for 3 or 4 seasons now.
 



I still think it is kind of sad that someone would list one of the main reasons they chose a school is because of the uni's, but that's just my opinion.

Everyone keeps brining up Oregon started winning when they went to these crazy uni's. However, everyone keeps forgetting to mention the fact Phil Knight has dropped almost a billion into the football program over the last decade which is when they really started becoming an up and coming football power. It is the same thing at Okie State, Picken's dropped how many hundreds of millions into their program and all of a sudden they are the number two team in the country when all they have ever been before that is a fringe bowl team like the Gophers.
 

olythegoalie31 said:
We can talk about this until we're blue in the face, but the fact is it really does not matter what we think/like. As others have said, the only people that have to like the uniforms are recruits and players. They're the ones playing in them, and they're the ones we're trying to attract to the U of M. Look at Maryland, the overwhelming consensus of the entire country is 75% of their uniforms looks like someone threw up on a jersey, but they players like them because they are completely different than anything any other school is wearing. Obviously that hasn't helped on the field as of yet for the Terps, but it catches recruits eyes at the very least.
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I know its early, but it looks like the guady uni's has helped them solidify their #11 ranking in the ACC ahead of Wake. Maybe the recruits are blinded!!!! ;>)
 

SMU GOPHS FAN said:
I still think it is kind of sad that someone would list one of the main reasons they chose a school is because of the uni's, but that's just my opinion.

Everyone keeps brining up Oregon started winning when they went to these crazy uni's. However, everyone keeps forgetting to mention the fact Phil Knight has dropped almost a billion into the football program over the last decade which is when they really started becoming an up and coming football power. It is the same thing at Okie State, Picken's dropped how many hundreds of millions into their program and all of a sudden they are the number two team in the country when all they have ever been before that is a fringe bowl team like the Gophers.
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+19
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
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I know its early, but it looks like the guady uni's has helped them solidify their #11 ranking in the ACC ahead of Wake. Maybe the recruits are blinded!!!! ;>)
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I based my statement off of the current players' thoughts about their new uni's. Winning obviously helps above all else. With that said, I did say it catches recruits' eyes, but never said anything about their signatures ;)
 



Bayfieldgopher said:
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I know its early, but it looks like the guady uni's has helped them solidify their #11 ranking in the ACC ahead of Wake. Maybe the recruits are blinded!!!! ;>)
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Plus Randy "22-26 in the Big East" Edsall is their coach...they will not win.
 

olythegoalie31 said:
Obviously that hasn't helped on the field as of yet for the Terps, but it catches recruits eyes at the very least.
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They're hideous and not helping recruiting.

top 5 Rivals classes:
1. Texas, same uniforms every year
2. Michigan, same uniforms every year
3. Florida State, same
4. Florida, more or less same
5. Alabama, same

Fact of the matter is that recruits aren't going to pick a school based on the uniform.
 

The 1960 unis are the best. Keep it simple, timeless, and clean.

If clown costumes were the secret to success in recruiting, the bottom of the sagarin rankings wouldn't be littered with gaudy uniforms.
 

NateDawgUM said:
They're hideous and not helping recruiting.

top 5 Rivals classes:
1. Texas, same uniforms every year
2. Michigan, same uniforms every year
3. Florida State, same
4. Florida, more or less same
5. Alabama, same

Fact of the matter is that recruits aren't going to pick a school based on the uniform.
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It's easy to use that list seeing as those are five of the most prestigious schools in the country. Their success has nothing to do with uniforms. Obviously I wasn't saying that the schools with the coolest uniforms would be the most successful. My point was uniforms can increase visibility amongst recruits. Does it necessarily guarantee success? No, but uniforms should be geared more towards recruits and not necessarily the likes and dislikes of alumni and fans.
 

I just hope they continue to have Minnesota across the chest on the Jersey. I do not like the nameless front Jersey's, I just hope they keep Minnesota spelled across the front of the chest. Like current color combos just boot the thin piping or Broncos look. If your going to copy an NFL team why not copy a classic look like the Jets current uniforms instead of copying the Denver Broncos.
 

I would like to see them use the throwbacks one home game per year. I consider the unis worn against NDSU in the Mason era to be the throwbacks. They would wear the historic unis in one of the historic trophy games. WI or Iowa one year, Michigan the next.
Put the coaches in throwback sweatshirts too.
 

They aren't going to go with the 60s uniforms, ugly as ugly can be.
 



supadupafly said:
i believe usc's color is referred to as a dark burgundy as opposed to maroon. see my avatar for the maroon color corcoran1 is referring to. i would like to see that be the shade of maroon the football team uses as well.
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Myself,I'm more concerned with what's inside the uniforms rather than what shade of maroon they are,or if there is piping on the pants.
 

I hope not. The all-maroons look great and the standard maroon and gold looks great. Tweaks are usually ugly, as with the white claw stripes on the shoulders of the Nebraska uniforms. That uniform was a classic - leave well enough alone!

Road uniforms could use more gold, maybe - they are blah. But home duds look just fine.
 

This has probably been brought up before, but who decides the uniform combo before each game? Coach Kill, or do the players vote, or what?

(I believe the Twin's uniforms are decided by the starting pitcher that day)
 

OOOH, more talk about the uniforms as if that will win a game. More focus on the talent upgrade that this signing class will offer. When we played Minnesota in the mid sixties they featured the same gold or wheat colored pants home and away. They had white jereseys on the road with Maroon numbers and White Helmets with the Maroon and Golden striping. At home the same wheat colored pants and dark Maroon jerseys. If changing the uniforms will change the team I would think 40 years of uniform changes have done very little. The one thing Coach Kill could do is take the names off the jerseys. And make a statement we play as team.
 

Do you know why we wore gold pants back in the day? Bierman picked gold because it blended in with the football, thus giving us an advantage. So if gaudy jerseys and millions of combinations of them will give us any kind of advantage today, I'm with those who say go for it.

And to say we didn't change our jerseys back in the day is foolish. I already posted about it. We changed are jersey's in the 60's as much as any team.

Our team is having another bad year, I see nothing wrong with discussing what the jerseys, colors, helmets look like. I just wish people would start posting some pics.
 



This isn't a black or white thing. Just because Oregon's unis attracted recruits, doesn't mean that method will work for us. Nor does the fact that Alabama's a top program mean uniforms mean nothing. It's been documented that uniforms are A FACTOR in recruiting. If Kill believes that they're a factor, whether he personally cares or not, then he will likely go the route of something that will appeal to a younger demographic. If we continue to be a Nike school, we'll probably get weird looking ones anyway lol.
 

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