New Illinois Football Uniforms

[leedsunited]

Um... Michigan's white jersey has the God-awful Nike piping on it.

As for these abortions - sad to see that even a Big 10 school can walk away from a traditional look for $$.

I doubt we'll ever see PSU pull some of this piping b.s., but never say never.

As for the Illinois duds, middling unis for a middling program.

[KJTALBOT]

We haven't seen the helmet yet.

If it does have the circle I logo, the change will be worth it.

[tBBP]

Um... Michigan's white jersey has the God-awful Nike piping on it.

As for these abortions - sad to see that even a Big 10 school can walk away from a traditional look for $$.

I doubt we'll ever see PSU pull some of this piping b.s., but never say never.

As for the Illinois duds, middling unis for a middling program.

Penn State with stripes or pipng?

Yeah--over JoePa's dead body. (Yeah I know he like 486 yrs old, but that man ain't going no where no time soon.) He'd be able to see those Nike people coming from about 1200 miles away with them 4-inch-thick spectacles. Ain't no way nann stripe or pipe (save for the lone helmet stripe) makin its way NEAR a PSU football uni under JoePa's charge.

Not happenin'. Just ain't happenin.

[STL FANATIC]

I'm guessing the helmet isn't changing. I just bought season tickets and got the promotional schedule poster, and the centerpiece image is the helmet (from last year) being raised into the air.

That's probably unfortunate, because I would like to see the Circle-I logo on the helmet.

I actually don't mind the ILLINOIS script helmet, but it is a little boring. It's gonna look really bad with this new (already bad) design though.

I did get a response from AD Ron Guenther, but I don't think it means much.

Dear Justin,

Thank you for your email. I appreciate your thoughts.

Since I only mentioned my name at the end, I do think he actually read my email though.

Maybe if he heard other complaints that might help, but I'm not sure.

[TurnTwo]

I'm in the minority that likes these unis. But then again, I'm a sucker for orange and blue (my school colors).

[BawlmerOreos]

Um... Michigan's white jersey has the God-awful Nike piping on it.

As for these abortions - sad to see that even a Big 10 school can walk away from a traditional look for $$.

I doubt we'll ever see PSU pull some of this piping b.s., but never say never.

As for the Illinois duds, middling unis for a middling program.

Penn State with stripes or pipng?

Yeah--over JoePa's dead body. (Yeah I know he like 486 yrs old, but that man ain't going no where no time soon.) He'd be able to see those Nike people coming from about 1200 miles away with them 4-inch-thick spectacles. Ain't no way nann stripe or pipe (save for the lone helmet stripe) makin its way NEAR a PSU football uni under JoePa's charge.

Not happenin'. Just ain't happenin.

Amen! says this PSU alum.

No way you'll ever see piping on the Penn State unis. I wouldn't mind seeing a blue stripe down the sides of the pants to match the helmet (ala Oakland Raiders.) BUT THAT'S IT!!!!

WE ARE... BOR-ING. And proud of it.

[Korkie]

We haven't seen the helmet yet.

If it does have the circle I logo, the change will be worth it.

Personally, I hope not. I guess I'm in the minority, but I love the Illinois script on the helmets. I loved it when the Giants did it and I love it that Illinois uses it. I hope they don't get rid of it.

[jimsimo]

I kind of liked their 1980s Rose Bowl era look myself. Would be neat to see a modernized look like that.

Of course, I think it had the world "illini" on the helmet, so the PC/Sensitivity Nazis wouldn't allow it.

[KJTALBOT]

I'm disappointed they lost the Houston Astros Red (i.e. ORANGE) pants.

[hrivnak]

Thinking about it from a business standpoint, these unis suck even harder, cuz who wants to wear that jersey with the weird striping at the bottom? They will only look "right" when worn with the pants, but fans won't be wearing the pants too. Bad move for jersey sales.

The way those are hanging there, they look like wetsuits.

[STL FANATIC]

Thinking about it from a business standpoint, these unis suck even harder, cuz who wants to wear that jersey with the weird striping at the bottom? They will only look "right" when worn with the pants, but fans won't be wearing the pants too. Bad move for jersey sales.

The way those are hanging there, they look like wetsuits.

Actually, I think they look alright for fans. I'm kinda interested in having on to wear to games, but I just hate them for the team.

I mean, when those are worn those stripes are gonna just about be on the side of the jersey, not way up in the front.

[BRice16]

I'm not an Illinois fan, but these uniforms are their best in my opinion:

[STL FANATIC]

I do like those BRice. The striping on the white didn't quite work right for me, but it wouldn't have taken much to fix that.

On the color they just made it a navy and orange stripe. On the sleeves they just didn't recolor from the navy jersey to the white jersey. If they'd have just made it a navy stripe then an orange stripe, this set would have been an absolutely awesome set.

Well, the didn't need to wear them with the navy pants. Orange pants would have been the better choice.

[BRice16]

While searching for the pic of Kittner, I found one of them in all-blue. Can't understand why they had blue pants at all. May be my Tennessee bias showing thru, but Orange pants and an occasional all-white would be the way to go.

As I recall, 'Cuse had basically the same set, only with drop-shadow numbers. I always thought those were pretty sharp as well. Their new set is ok, at least they weren't "cloned" by the swoosh. Yet another reason I'm glad my school is with the company with the three stripes...

[TheOldRoman]

I do like those BRice. The striping on the white didn't quite work right for me, but it wouldn't have taken much to fix that.

On the color they just made it a navy and orange stripe. On the sleeves they just didn't recolor from the navy jersey to the white jersey. If they'd have just made it a navy stripe then an orange stripe, this set would have been an absolutely awesome set.

Well, the didn't need to wear them with the navy pants. Orange pants would have been the better choice.

I disagree about the stripes on the white jersey. They work because the stripes are exactly the same as on the home jerseys. That is why it looks good.

Let me also say that, for several years, Illinois had white pants with this ensemble, and they were extremely sharp. During this time period, Illinois was among the best dressed in college football. The jerseys were nice, and they were also high quality - sewn on numbers/letters, traditional football cut on a substantial fabric (as opposed to the screen printing, see-through high school quality fabric, Broncos-cut garbage of the last three years). They also wore these with pro style high navy socks. They also had a gorgeous set of white socks with the same stripe patern of the sleeves. They looked like a professional, classy team instead of a high school.

Down with Nike.

[STL FANATIC]

Yeah, I always used to see 'Cuse highlights on ESPN and think for a second that they were the Illini. I prefered the Illini's numbers without the shadow (or outline) though. Cuse didn't get screwed by Nike modernization, but I'm of the opinion that they got highly screwed by retro. I guess retro tends to be a somewhat clean football look so, it's not as bad, but Syracuse new retro uniforms break as many or more of my personal fundamentals of design as the new Illini jerseys do.

I personally don't think the Illini ever needed any set of pants besides orange. If you can have just one set of pants (not counting white, because that requires an all white look), I think teams, specifically with traditional styles, should do it.

But yeah, I'd seen the all blue look. I'm pretty sure they did it last year, and while looking for pics I THINK I saw that they had done an all blue look even with the older set (the one BRice and I posted pics of). It's pretty meh.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen them with white pants. I just can't remember. I don't know that I'd care for them though. White with blue just wouldn't look right, and white on white especially would look awkward.

And now the realization that that's the kinda crap I'm gonna have to watch next year...ewww...

[STL FANATIC]

I disagree about the stripes on the white jersey. They work because the stripes are exactly the same as on the home jerseys. That is why it looks good.

Ya know, the more I look at those white jerseys, I do like the sleeves. And yes, I understand why it works.

My problem was that the collar did not match. It went to just a two stripe navy/orange pattern instead of navy/white/orange.

Now I've decided that instead of making the sleeves match the collar, the collar should be changed to match the sleeves.

Too bad that look is long gone.

I suppose I should also say, that I like the current helmet, or at least last years helmet, with the navy outline on the ILLINOIS better than I did the non-outlined version that was used with those uniforms.

[TheOldRoman]

Yeah, I always used to see 'Cuse highlights on ESPN and think for a second that they were the Illini. I prefered the Illini's numbers without the shadow (or outline) though. Cuse didn't get screwed by Nike modernization, but I'm of the opinion that they got highly screwed by retro. I guess retro tends to be a somewhat clean football look so, it's not as bad, but Syracuse new retro uniforms break as many or more of my personal fundamentals of design as the new Illini jerseys do.

I personally don't think the Illini ever needed any set of pants besides orange. If you can have just one set of pants (not counting white, because that requires an all white look), I think teams, specifically with traditional styles, should do it.

But yeah, I'd seen the all blue look. I'm pretty sure they did it last year, and while looking for pics I THINK I saw that they had done an all blue look even with the older set (the one BRice and I posted pics of). It's pretty meh.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen them with white pants. I just can't remember. I don't know that I'd care for them though. White with blue just wouldn't look right, and white on white especially would look awkward.

And now the realization that that's the kinda crap I'm gonna have to watch next year...ewww...

Yes, they did wear blue on blue last year. They also wore it at least once with the old set. I saw clips of them wearing all blue at home against Michigan circa 2000.

As for the white pants, they looked really good. I loved the orange pants, but the whites from that era looked great when worn every once in a while. Not only did the white pants look good with the navy, but also the white.

[STL FANATIC]

Looking for Illinois pictures that had nothing to do with sports, I came accross these photos from 1987.

http://uiphotos.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/sear...ay1987&type=key

It's not gonna let me post any, so you'll have to check the link.

Interesting look there. It's decent, but not quite as good as the look BRice brought up.

[STL FANATIC]

Found a lot more right here:

http://uiphotos.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/sear...lGames&type=key

Looks to be from the same era as those '87 uniforms, I dunno whether these are from '87. The previous post's pictures are from thier 1987 picture day.

There is a navy jersey-white pants look, a navy jersey-navy pants look, an orange jerseys-white pants look, and I see the classic navy jersey-orange pants look.

This photo here shows something that I just recently found out the Illini used to do. They used to put little Chief logos (the circle logo) on the helmet as reward stickers. Looks cool, too bad that will probably never be allowed to come back.