Under Armour is getting closer to unveiling Northwestern's new football uniforms, and while that news on the surface may not excite you, Northwestern athletics released an absolutely fascinating video looking into UA's design process across all 19 sports. It's must-watch material.
Thoughts:
- First of all, this is really, really cool. Northwestern's teams should look really cool across all sports.
- This dude has lots and lots of pictures on his wall, and it looks like a lot of them are of NU's iconic Deering Library. (Thank goodness they didn't let him go to Tech.) It looks like he's taking cues from that, as well as the gothic font on most campus buildings.
- There's also some glimpses of other NU buildings in there - I spot Alice Millar Chapel and University Hall.
- The most comforting thing in there is the phrase "reclaim the stripe!" on a sticky tag on the board. Last year Adidas busted out probably my favorite uniforms in Northwestern's time with them, and the coolest part of them was the long-absent Northwestern striping on the sleeves. Looks like Under Armour is going to follow through on that.
- The designer points out that ivy will factor in somehow, which is intriguing, possibly in a bad way.
- Lotsa photos of old-timey NU players like Otto Graham on the board, which is cool, especially for the Northwestern striping thing.
- Peep the word "quaecumque" on one sticky tag - you probably recognize it as the first word of Northwestern's motto.
It's hard for a uniform nerd not to be excited about this whole thing. Adidas' jerseys often seemed derivative, like they took their model from one other school and just threw purple on it - I'm looking at you, USC shoulder strap thingies from like five years ago. They sorta switched this up last year by sending NU out in brand new jerseys, throwbacks, and alternates all year long, but that seemed like a last-ditch effort to keep NU. This looks like anything but a template uniform: there's literally a dude whose job it is to make sure Northwestern's uniforms are cool and awesome, and he has a gigantic board with pictures of Northwestern on it, and that makes me happy.