MG12 Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 The Jayhawks' football season officially ended over the weekend, and KU was easily one of the worst dressed teams in college football.The University of Kansas is known first for it's long history of college basketball, but KU also has a proud football tradition. While the program as a whole has not been as memorable as it's basketball counterparts, the football team has had it's share of on-the-field successes. The team never looked or played better than their 2007 season with culminated in an Orange Bowl victory.Since '07, the uniform has undergone a few tweaks. Mark Mangino was released as coach of the team in 2009, and the red stripe was removed from the helmet. Player names were removed from the back of the jersey and then reintroduced the following year. The occasional alternate or throwback jersey were made, but the biggest uniform changes took place for the 2013 season. Early this summer, KU and Adidas previewed a series of 5 helmets, but none of which featured the familiar Trajan font KU logo. Four of the five helmets featured KU's Jayhawk logo, while the fifth helmet was designed to be a throw-back helmet honoring the 1961 team. As KU officially unveiled the team's 2013 uniforms in September, the helmet offering was paired back. The black and powder blue helmet were removed, leaving a white and blue helmet with the current Jayhawk logo, and a red helmet with the 1941 Jayhawk. The uniforms were met with mixed reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 On-the-field, KU's 2013 uniform set seemed pretty uninspired. There is a good mix of elements, but they don't seem to work well together in these uniforms. The Jayhawk logo by itself is an iconic symbol for the university, and works well on basketball uniforms, but doesn't translate to football the same way. The logo looks too cartoony on a football helmet and seems oddly out of place. The inclusion of a red helmet and red pants seemed like a step in the wrong direction. The team's new gray uniform elements sound promising, but the results were pretty generic. I tend to think that there were some bright spots. The all-white uniform worn against Rice were a nice change for KU. The white pants and white helmet paired with a blue jersey were a sharp look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicfurth Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 That's all true. So what was your idea for fixing them? Png or jpg are both acceptable formats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy! Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Remember the good old days when teams had one helmet, one home set and one road set? "I secretly hope people like that hydroplane into a wall." - Dennis "Big Sexy" Ittner POTD - 7/3/14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 I've created several concept options that I was hoping to run past everyone. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 And of course you have to have some flashy alternate uniform to excite the fan-base and draw recruits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattb6 Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 I like most of it (especially the main helmets, I love the finish on them), but not a fan of the "flashy alternates". It actually looks pretty cool, but not for KU. I know you weren't trying to make them nice, just make them look like something adidas would throw out in our faces. Really love the template BTW. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 I like most of it (especially the main helmets, I love the finish on them), but not a fan of the "flashy alternates". It actually looks pretty cool, but not for KU. I know you weren't trying to make them nice, just make them look like something adidas would throw out in our faces. Really love the template BTW.I appreciate that. The finish on the primary helmet was intended to be similar to the matte metallic finish on the Minnesota Vikings helmets.As for the template, I started with the Nike Pro Combat template, but that imagery has been so over-used, and i thought it would be best to use Adidas imagery, unfortunately the helmet/hand image was from Nike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spearhead Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 And of course you have to have some flashy alternate uniform to excite the fan-base and draw recruits.These are not an improvement on KU's current choices and "flashy" is not how I would refer to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmiller5 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Big KU fan here. First of all, I like how you go back to the KU helmet. The Jayhawk just doesn't look that good on a helmet. I also like the contrasting shoulders. My only suggestions are to add blue pants (esp. when wearing white jersey) and make the helmet stripe thicker to match the thick pant stripe. I'm also not sure about the black facemask. It doesn't look bad, I just don't know how well it goes with the rest of the concept. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 3, 2013 Author Share Posted December 3, 2013 Big KU fan here. First of all, I like how you go back to the KU helmet. The Jayhawk just doesn't look that good on a helmet. I also like the contrasting shoulders. My only suggestions are to add blue pants (esp. when wearing white jersey) and make the helmet stripe thicker to match the thick pant stripe. I'm also not sure about the black facemask. It doesn't look bad, I just don't know how well it goes with the rest of the concept. Good job. Good comments, I will have to take a look at some blue pants paired with the white jerseys. I know what you mean about the black facemask. I have always struggled with the gray facemasks that the team has worn for years. I thought they looked a little out-dated and the black might be a nice refresh. As for the helmet stripe, I initially started with the helmet side view images, and used the Riddell Revolution helmets. Several teams widen the center stripe to match the contour lines of that helmet. It looked great in side view, but looked too wide in other views. What are your thoughts on this (replica) Ohio State helmet, is the center stripe too wide? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmiller5 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Hmm. I wasn't thinking of anything that thick. I was thinking of the width of the white-out helmet (except with the area between the two thin blue stripes filled in). That being said, I think the really thick could work because it would match the shoulders of the jersey. Then both helmets and jerseys would really be two-tone.I understand wanting to stay away from gray facemasks. They wouldn't look good with a modern uniform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 3, 2013 Author Share Posted December 3, 2013 I added blue pants, white shoes and widened the helmet center stripe. However I didn't widen it to the Riddell Revolution width. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmiller5 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djruggs Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 I've created several concept options that I was hoping to run past everyone. I'd love to hear your thoughts.Can I get a link to this template please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRicSlick Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 As a KU fan, I loved the red helmet, but the smiling jayhawk did look out of place on the football helmet. And I long for the day of the KU wordmark returning to the helmet. This concept is wonderful and I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 As a KU fan, I loved the red helmet, but the smiling jayhawk did look out of place on the football helmet. And I long for the day of the KU wordmark returning to the helmet. This concept is wonderful and I love it.A solid red alternate helmet could look pretty sharp. I played with incorporating blue elements (center strip, neck bumper), but it started looking too patriotic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicfurth Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I'd keep KU as a blue/red team if that makes sense. The red helmet is... Ok but not great. I'd stay with blue. The jerseys aren't bad. I'd leave off the yoke on the home. If you still liked the yoke I'd only have it on the red alternate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG12 Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 I'd keep KU as a blue/red team if that makes sense. The red helmet is... Ok but not great. I'd stay with blue.The jerseys aren't bad. I'd leave off the yoke on the home. If you still liked the yoke I'd only have it on the red alternate.I agree with you about the red helmet. I have had some other thoughts regarding the helmet and hope to post something soon.Regarding the yoke, I initially started working with imagery of the Wisconsin alternate uniform that featured a shoulder yoke. I thought the yoke would be a nice way to incorporate a secondary color into the uniform. Some of the issues I have with KU's 2013 uniforms was that jerseys were all solid colors and limited the ability to incorporate a secondary color. When red was incorporated, the result solid red pants, or helmet.As I worked on these uniform concepts, KU debuted their basketball uniforms which feature a similar shoulder yoke detail. Adding the shoulder yoke to the football jerseys would be an interesting way to tie the two team's aesthetics together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmiller5 Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I agree with your post. I like when KU emphasizes red a bit more. I love their blue and red color scheme (of course this is probably because I have always been a huge KU fan), and there really aren't many other teams with these colors. The red yoke on the home uniform helps tie in other red elements so they could wear red helmets or pants without it looking bad. When they wore their red helmets with their blue uniform this year it didn't look good; with a red yoke it would have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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