College Football 2014 Season

[Webfooter]

I kinda figured Oregon would use those, even being the home team. There is no way Nike was going to show the jersey a few weeks ago and then not use it this season as long as Oregon was still playing.

Had the same feeling. But it also makes you question why they'd make the home version of their CFP uniforms full of school colors and then not carry it over onto the away version. I think this is a classic case of Nike overthinking something so simple.

[WSU151]

I'm going to argue that for a special game, a game that will be replayed for years, that this shouldn't be the time to dress up. It is possible for them to wear school colors and also wear some state of the art new uniforms. It doesn't have to be completely devoid of color.

This will be the finest athletic moment in school history and they won't be wearing their colors.

It's pretty amazing that Nike will do all of this amazing BS about representing the "jaws of the stadium" or tilting the logo (not really) 27 degrees for 27 bowl games, but they don't understand the importance of frickin' school colors.

That's a great point. Although give them a chance, and Nike will tell you that the uniforms represent key features of the University of Oregon campus, like the gray represents the sidewalks, the black represents the lamp posts, and white represents columns and window accents of historic buildings...with this new moisture wicking technology...you can sense you're already on campus.

Well, when Notre Dame pulls this stunt (end zone lines tilted 43° towards the man in the pointy hat at the Vatican), no one says boo. Nike does it and people flip out.

I think a few of us rolled our eyes when Notre Dame did that.

[WSU151]

I'll say this in Oregon's favor...they are probably the only team in sports today to make black/gray alternates truly work, as in when I see this, even though I don't see school colors, I say, "yeah, that looks like Oregon." I don't struggle to make sense of it or try to find the rationale behind it like the Lakers' black, Kentucky's black (and gray), Golden State's dark gray, Miami's "Hurricane gray," the Celtics' black (and gray), etc., I just accept it. Oregon has embraced the use of neutrals and alternate shades of green & yellow to the point where they'd literally have to walk out in another color entirely for me not to recognize them (which is why I didn't care for the breast cancer uniforms). Oregon's alternates work because unlike just about every other sports team out there, they're not just a money grab, they're not just following the crowd, they're not just shoved out there on a whim, they're not fashion jerseys. This is their identity, it's what they do, and they've embraced that totally.

For me, I have to respect that. If you're going to prance about in alternates all willy-nilly, then you'd better commit to doing so on a regular basis. If you're bold enough to deviate from your colors during the regular season, then you should be bold enough to do it when the games actually matter. If not, then you don't have any business wearing alternates at all.

a) All the other alternates use a traditional color of some kind (other than grayscale shades)

b.) I would disagree with the last sentence.

[BrandMooreArt]

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

what an intelligent rebuttal. i've totally changed my opinion. . . .

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

"Their identity is consistent... consistently different" sounds like a joke someone would make at Oregon's expense, not a straight-faced argument in their favor.

why does consistency have to mean consistently the same? look at it this way: what do you expect from Oregon? it's change, and wearing a different uniform every game. they always deliver on that, that is being consistently different.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Yeah but they could do that all that while incorporating an amount of green and/or gold. The football team is fully aligned with the school...if they were an independent semi-pro team, then your analysis would be spot on. But there really is no reason to wear gray, white, and black.

And the thing is...all of their winged helmets and jerseys look stunning in green and gold...when they go school colors, they are my favorite college football uniforms...and when they add in a tiny bit of metallic silver and black to accent the green and gold, it's awesome.

they can do it this way with neutral colors and not lose anything. adding in athletic yellow and kelly green doesn't make their identity and better, memorable, or recognizable. theres enough consistency in shape/form, type, logo, and even texture, that the element of color just isnt needed. they've been doing this since 2006, and it hasn't broken them. it's made them what they are now.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Branding at it's finest is having your fans in the stands, sideline staff/coaches etc, and players all wearing scarlet & gray. Not to mention getting to wear your home uniform because your uniform supplier is forcing the higher seed into wearing a bland silver/white combo to push merchandise sales.

thats not brand, it's identity. and it represents a totally different brand than Oregon.

[WSU151]

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

what an intelligent rebuttal. i've totally changed my opinion. . . .

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

"Their identity is consistent... consistently different" sounds like a joke someone would make at Oregon's expense, not a straight-faced argument in their favor.

why does consistency have to mean consistently the same? look at it this way: what do you expect from Oregon? it's change, and wearing a different uniform every game. they always deliver on that, that is being consistently different.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Yeah but they could do that all that while incorporating an amount of green and/or gold. The football team is fully aligned with the school...if they were an independent semi-pro team, then your analysis would be spot on. But there really is no reason to wear gray, white, and black.

And the thing is...all of their winged helmets and jerseys look stunning in green and gold...when they go school colors, they are my favorite college football uniforms...and when they add in a tiny bit of metallic silver and black to accent the green and gold, it's awesome.

they can do it this way with neutral colors and not lose anything. adding in athletic yellow and kelly green doesn't make their identity and better, memorable, or recognizable. theres enough consistency in shape/form, type, logo, and even texture, that the element of color just isnt needed. they've been doing this since 2006, and it hasn't broken them. it's made them what they are now.

I respectfully disagree. School colors do make it better and more recognizable, and the memorable factor only depends on if they win.

[mjd77]

I kinda figured Oregon would use those, even being the home team. There is no way Nike was going to show the jersey a few weeks ago and then not use it this season as long as Oregon was still playing.

Had the same feeling. But it also makes you question why they'd make the home version of their CFP uniforms full of school colors and then not carry it over onto the away version. I think this is a classic case of Nike overthinking something so simple.

I doubt they'll do it, but using that uniform and wearing yellow or green socks and green shoes would be pretty cool looking.

[martymcfry]

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

what an intelligent rebuttal. i've totally changed my opinion. . . .

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

"Their identity is consistent... consistently different" sounds like a joke someone would make at Oregon's expense, not a straight-faced argument in their favor.

why does consistency have to mean consistently the same? look at it this way: what do you expect from Oregon? it's change, and wearing a different uniform every game. they always deliver on that, that is being consistently different.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Yeah but they could do that all that while incorporating an amount of green and/or gold. The football team is fully aligned with the school...if they were an independent semi-pro team, then your analysis would be spot on. But there really is no reason to wear gray, white, and black.

And the thing is...all of their winged helmets and jerseys look stunning in green and gold...when they go school colors, they are my favorite college football uniforms...and when they add in a tiny bit of metallic silver and black to accent the green and gold, it's awesome.

they can do it this way with neutral colors and not lose anything. adding in athletic yellow and kelly green doesn't make their identity and better, memorable, or recognizable. theres enough consistency in shape/form, type, logo, and even texture, that the element of color just isnt needed. they've been doing this since 2006, and it hasn't broken them. it's made them what they are now.

I respectfully disagree. School colors do make it better and more recognizable

I disagree as well. A team needs up to four colors they use consistently to have an identity, and IMO black and silver shouldn't be part of the Duck's.

[oldschoolvikings]

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Pretty nice comment, BrandM.

You know, I wouldn't really argue with any of this from a strict marketing/branding standpoint. The whole Nike/Oregon marriage has been quite a lesson in identifying a specific target audience and basically taking complete control of that group. On the CFB level, Nike/Oregon owns the whole bro-culture market (I'm guessing if you looked up the most popular on-line comments for each Oregon uniform debut, the number one description would be "sick" followed by a half dozen exclamation points), which is why, although it's obviously an impressive strategy, it still feels vaguely duchey to me.

What it comes down to, I guess, is two things. One, Nike/Oregon has done a great job of identifying their target demographic, and two... it ain't me.

[oldschoolvikings]

Just close your eyes and imagine how amazing this green/white/green combination would look against tOSU's silver/red/silver. F'n shame.

[guest23]

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

what an intelligent rebuttal. i've totally changed my opinion. . . .

^ Yeah, that's a whole lot of nonsense.

"Their identity is consistent... consistently different" sounds like a joke someone would make at Oregon's expense, not a straight-faced argument in their favor.

why does consistency have to mean consistently the same? look at it this way: what do you expect from Oregon? it's change, and wearing a different uniform every game. they always deliver on that, that is being consistently different.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Yeah but they could do that all that while incorporating an amount of green and/or gold. The football team is fully aligned with the school...if they were an independent semi-pro team, then your analysis would be spot on. But there really is no reason to wear gray, white, and black.

And the thing is...all of their winged helmets and jerseys look stunning in green and gold...when they go school colors, they are my favorite college football uniforms...and when they add in a tiny bit of metallic silver and black to accent the green and gold, it's awesome.

they can do it this way with neutral colors and not lose anything. adding in athletic yellow and kelly green doesn't make their identity and better, memorable, or recognizable. theres enough consistency in shape/form, type, logo, and even texture, that the element of color just isnt needed. they've been doing this since 2006, and it hasn't broken them. it's made them what they are now.

the white and gray Oregon uniform is a great option for them. if you think they should wear something they've worn before, you don't know their primary uniform direction; dont wear the same thing twice (this includes socks, cleats, gloves, combos). there is no reason for them to wear their school colors every week and especially not for this game (its a special occasion; dress up). the Oregon football program has it's own palette (greens and yellows which are variations of school Pantone swatches) and they are always recognizable. no one will confuse them for anyone else and just because they're wearing gray pants doesnt mean they "look like OSU". c'mon, now.

Oregon football has one of the strongest brands in CFB because their identity is consistent (consistently different in color combos while sticking to the same palette and the shapes in the uni never change) and they do what they preach which is variations of "blaze your own path", "do things better", and it's sold with phrases like "tradition never changes, champions do".

Oregon/Nike doesnt care what a school "should" do. they're here now because they dared to be different and create a new niche. Chip Kelly has the same approach to the game, and they're just caring on those philosophies. instead of criticizing Oregon for what they've done and what you think they should do, you should sit back and watch the show, learn from it, because this is branding at it's finest.

Branding at it's finest is having your fans in the stands, sideline staff/coaches etc, and players all wearing scarlet & gray. Not to mention getting to wear your home uniform because your uniform supplier is forcing the higher seed into wearing a bland silver/white combo to push merchandise sales.

thats not brand, it's identity. and it represents a totally different brand than Oregon.

The team dressed in Scarlet/red and an iconic football uniform represents the osu brand perfectly. Wearing a glorified fashion jersey and a uniform devoid of color represents the nike brand perfectly.

[Xist2inspire]

I'll say this in Oregon's favor...they are probably the only team in sports today to make black/gray alternates truly work, as in when I see this, even though I don't see school colors, I say, "yeah, that looks like Oregon." I don't struggle to make sense of it or try to find the rationale behind it like the Lakers' black, Kentucky's black (and gray), Golden State's dark gray, Miami's "Hurricane gray," the Celtics' black (and gray), etc., I just accept it. Oregon has embraced the use of neutrals and alternate shades of green & yellow to the point where they'd literally have to walk out in another color entirely for me not to recognize them (which is why I didn't care for the breast cancer uniforms). Oregon's alternates work because unlike just about every other sports team out there, they're not just a money grab, they're not just following the crowd, they're not just shoved out there on a whim, they're not fashion jerseys. This is their identity, it's what they do, and they've embraced that totally.

For me, I have to respect that. If you're going to prance about in alternates all willy-nilly, then you'd better commit to doing so on a regular basis. If you're bold enough to deviate from your colors during the regular season, then you should be bold enough to do it when the games actually matter. If not, then you don't have any business wearing alternates at all.

a) All the other alternates use a traditional color of some kind (other than grayscale shades)

b.) I would disagree with the last sentence.

A.) Still, the primary color on those jerseys is a neutral that hasn't been used as such before, and in some cases, has never been used in any capacity prior. Few have used "at least they're still wearing some traditional colors" as a defense for those jerseys.

B.) That was probably poor wording on my part, sorry. What I meant to get across is that if you're going to wear alternates that don't primarily feature team/school colors, then you'd better stick to it, otherwise why even do it in the first place? It becomes just a gimmick then, and there's no better way to dilute an identity than by using cheap gimmicks at a whim. Oregon has proven that what they do is not a gimmick, because they continue to do it regardless of the situation. And that's something that I don't see the majority of other teams doing with their alts.

[CLEstones]

I get the hate for Oregon... But I agree with whoever said "if you are going to be bold enough to wear non-school colors in the regular season, you better be brave enough to wear them in the post season."

That being said, can we just look at the cup half full. At least Adidas wasn't in charge of these uniforms. We might be looking at Oregon in green and yellow... Just yellow down the entire left side and green down the entire right side.

[Burmy]

Many Ducks fans posted this in response to the criticism:

[shaydre1019]

The team dressed in Scarlet/red and an iconic football uniform represents the osu brand perfectly. Wearing a glorified fashion jersey and a uniform devoid of color represents the nike brand perfectly.

Absolutely true. One program is built on tradition and their uniforms are a reflection of that. The other program is new and is built on doing things differently. Cutting edge facilities, uniforms, offensive philosophy, all fall under modern so it makes sense that their uniforms would too. Even then, they're not super crazy uniforms, they're actually fairly simple: shoulder pattern, sleeve logo, single outline number. The different textures and patterns are what give the set s modern twist.

[razorback447]

Many Ducks fans posted this in response to the criticism:

Love it.

[martymcfry]

Many Ducks fans posted this in response to the criticism:

That's true, but it doesn't mean the "tradition" of Oregon using green and yellow should be disposed of.

[JPDesign]

That's exactly what it means. This is their new "tradition."

[Sport]

So in the school's greatest athletic moment they won't be wearing a stitch of school color? For the rest of time whenever video and photos of this game are shown they'll be shown in grey and white. I think that's a huge mistake and I wouldn't like it if I was an Oregon alum.

I don't care if their identity is that they constantly change their identity. This moment is too big for that. Wear your colors. It is possible to both wear green and yellow and wear cutting edge uniforms they've never worn before. They've proven that time and again.

[TheRicSlick]

So in the school's greatest athletic moment they won't be wearing a stitch of school color? For the rest of time whenever video and photos of this game are shown they'll be shown in grey and white. I think that's a huge mistake and I wouldn't like it if I was an Oregon alum.

I don't care if their identity is that they constantly change their identity. This moment is too big for that. Wear your colors. It is possible to both wear green and yellow and wear cutting edge uniforms they've never worn before. They've proven that time and again.

McCarthy, are you forgetting that Oregon didn't wear school colors in the 2011 BCS NCG, perhaps the biggest achievement for Oregon at the time. Not wearing school colors in the biggest games is kinda Oregon's thing.

[DPHF]

Many Ducks fans posted this in response to the criticism:

Tradition has a scary mascot... like a Buckeye.