College Basketball Unis - Nike going PLATINUM



Courtesy: Nike, Uniwatch


If you have been watching college basketball, you may have noticed that random teams are wearing gray this year.  In the past, Texas, WVU, UConn, Ohio State, Georgetown among others have gone gray.  Hell, last night, Purdue went gray or a gray/gold set.

Today, Nike whipped out new grey "Platinum" uniforms for their "Elite" schools.  The universities include: Arizona, UConn, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Syracuse.  The women have also been included with Baylor and UConn getting the platinum treatment as well.  What they all have in common (besides final fours as a Nike school)?  None of the teams have gray in their school colors.  Syracuse fans have been all up in arms since the gray has been rumored.  They see as their school should wear orange and not a color of their rivals (Georgetown).  Well, their worst nightmare is here.  Here are what the unis look like.  I couldn't really find any good pictures, but the best come from this Lost Letterman post.

Arizona:
Worn: vs. UCLA (2/25)

UCONN:
Worn: vs. Notre Dame (1/29)

Duke:
Worn: vs. Maryland (2/11)...take that Under Armour

Florida:
Worn: vs. Tennessee (2/11)

Kentucky:
Worn: vs. Tennessee (1/31)

UNC:
Worn: vs. Maryland (2/29)...take that Under Armour

Syracuse:
Worn: vs. USF (2/22)

I don't mind adding a grey uniform, but once again, Nike makes a template and the teams look all the same (as in they are Team Nike).  I like the name on the front of jersey but one of my pet peeves is white numbers on a light color jersey.  Grey shirts should be treated as white and have a darker color for the number.

For the case of Duke, Syracuse and Kentucky, their school-specific pattern is kept but I have no idea why Nike wouldn't release pictures of the uniforms where you can actually see the details.  Also, they have stars above their numbers on the back with the number of championships (with the year inside the star) and the names are under the numbers.

All their "new" uniforms on manikins are in some weird dim lighted future dimension or something.  Whatever...with so many games, a team could have more uniforms than Oregon and if you can sell jerseys and shorts, why not have every team with a pair of unis with their school colors, black, white and grey?  And then "special" uniforms for a random game and then a "special" March Madness jersey, and then a new jersey with all the newest technology and sweat-whisking fabric?  And you cannot forget a special throwback.  You know when Ohio State gets a new uni, I'm all over the new shorts.  So I guess it works.

With a lot more detail and better commentary, check out my guy Paul Lukas at Uni Watch.

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