The 2014 Illini Nike Uniforms and Rebrand

[Double Down]

When you go to the Nike website and go to their collegiate fan shop they have a big banner that pops up that says "Nike's Teams" and has this below it:

Not to keep piling on here, but it does seem kind of strange that Nike is not at all promoting a team that they just rebranded a year ago. I mean you have to DIG on the Nike website to find any kind of an Illini advertisement/product... They clearly don't value Illinois like some may think they do.

They might not value Illinois because Illinois might not be bringing in the $$$. I graduated a couple of years ago from Illinois and I can tell you that school spirit for our athletic programs is incredibly dismal. I know for sure that greek life cares more about getting blacked out at bars for block than the actual score of the football game streaming on the TVs. The bars don't even play the games sound because that's how little amount of people in the bar are actually interested in the game.

I don't want to be the glass is half empty type of guy but if our teams were competitive, we wouldn't be complaining. Winning = pride = people wanting to rep the Illini gear = sales.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

How much worse are we than Oregon St or Washington St?

And aren't Iowa and Minnesota and Kansas State and Virginia Tech better? It is a weird list.

At the end of the day though, we're not moving up Nike's order without winning, and Adidas and Under Armour, whatever their benefits may be, don't have the ability to push schools in the same way. So the point is kind of moot.

There is a bit of sentimentality over the fact that Illinois and Nike is one of the longest relationships of this kind in all of college sports, and I still believe Nike are the gold standard in the industry. But the two moving parts that matter are money and the ongoing shoe wars in youth basketball.

If another company is going to come along and pay us more and give us a better inside edge at quality talent, we should do it. If not, we should suck it up and deal with Nike's slights knowing that it's not personal, it's just business.

And given that the Mac Irvin Fire, Meanstreets, Simeon, Morgan Park, Whitney Young, so many of the big entities we deal with all wear Nike, that part of it seems pretty clear.

 

[AutoPoster 3000]

When you go to the Nike website and go to their collegiate fan shop they have a big banner that pops up that says "Nike's Teams" and has this below it:

Not to keep piling on here, but it does seem kind of strange that Nike is not at all promoting a team that they just rebranded a year ago. I mean you have to DIG on the Nike website to find any kind of an Illini advertisement/product... They clearly don't value Illinois like some may think they do.

I'm guessing that, other than the prestige programs that have to be there, they probably considered aesthetics for the purpose of making the visual look cool. Our redesigned primary logo is a little slicker than the old one but we're still talking about basically an orange vertical line. Considering that four other B1G Nike teams are also left out, I don't see much to read into there.

 

[Dan]

Notice anything different about the midfield logo? #Illini #Rebrand
https://twitter.com/IlliniFootball/status/633282417395154944

 

[Illinnoying Orange]

Looks good. Much better than last year.

 

[idoc13]

Midfield looks nice. Just a year too late.

I guess that's not bad for Illinois standards.

 

[illiniman711]

They might not value Illinois because Illinois might not be bringing in the $$$. I graduated a couple of years ago from Illinois and I can tell you that school spirit for our athletic programs is incredibly dismal. I know for sure that greek life cares more about getting blacked out at bars for block than the actual score of the football game streaming on the TVs. The bars don't even play the games sound because that's how little amount of people in the bar are actually interested in the game.

I don't want to be the glass is half empty type of guy but if our teams were competitive, we wouldn't be complaining. Winning = pride = people wanting to rep the Illini gear = sales.

Never understood the, let's get drunk at a bar rather than tailgate fad. I always had more fun tailgating at schools I visited rather than drinking in our bars.

 

[theanonymousillini]

Notice anything different about the midfield logo? #Illini #Rebrand
https://twitter.com/IlliniFootball/status/633282417395154944

Looking good!

 

[redwingillini11]

That looks great, should have been there last year!!!

 

[GRV1974]

Looks fantastic! Now, if they could just make the end zones this same orange, we'd be all set.

 

[wILL-INI]

Looks fantastic! Now, if they could just make the end zones this same orange, we'd be all set.

The endzones are this same orange.

The turf co. only has this color of orange. Granted neither of these are the new orange.

 

[BZuppke]

It looks great. Let's win some games.

 

[Illinnoying Orange]

The endzones are this same orange.

The turf co. only has this color of orange. Granted neither of these are the new orange.

It looks better than the new orange.

 

[wILL-INI]

It looks better than the new orange.

No arguments here... orange > peachy

 

[GRV1974]

The endzones are this same orange.

The turf co. only has this color of orange. Granted neither of these are the new orange.

Nope. Look at the 3rd picture down with the scoreboard in the background. You can see that the end zones are much lighter. The I logo at midfield is a good orange, and they should match it with that.

 

[HsvIllini]

Nope. Look at the 3rd picture down with the scoreboard in the background. You can see that the end zones are much lighter. The I logo at midfield is a good orange, and they should match it with that.

That's not a good picture to go by based on the angle and distance away - they could very well be the same color and just look different in that picture. You would need an aerial view to tell for sure.

 

[bear51]

I will say that in person The buses look GREAT, Grange Grove Looks Awesome, and the stadium looks fantastic. I have no complaints about any of it and it all gives me chills. I will admit I drink a big glass off Orange Kool-Aid every morning and I'm proud of it.

 

[HsvIllini]

While on the topic of the football field, while I get the spirit of it, this just looks bad. Maybe it's just me, but the strip down the "banner" where they added the Heart of Dallas Bowl looks tacky:

Illini Football ‏@IlliniFootball 8m

New addition on the south end zone. Glad to have you here @HODBowl! #Illini ��

 

[DrewD007]

While on the topic of the football field, while I get the spirit of it, this just looks bad. Maybe it's just me, but the strip down the "banner" where they added the Heart of Dallas Bowl looks tacky:

I'm not sure why it looks like that since I think the whole thing is new. If I recall
correctly the bowl banner was blue last season.

Also did they update the block I on the scoreboard? I want to say they did, but honestly cannot tell from the pictures.

 

[HsvIllini]

I'm not sure why it looks like that since I think the whole thing is new. If I recall
correctly the bowl banner was blue last season.

It's odd because there was a tweet that said it was new, but I saw another picture of the other end and it clearly doesn't have the strip. Strange.

 

[GilThorpe]

geez, you guys are picky. Its not perfect, but I could not care less about that. Its 100% better than what we had before.

 

[HsvIllini]

geez, you guys are picky. Its not perfect, but I could not care less about that. Its 100% better than what we had before.

Well, if you're going to go to the trouble to put up a new one, it shouldn't look like you just tacked something on the end afterwards. I don't think there's anything picky about that - it looks bad.

 

[GRV1974]

Well, if you're going to go to the trouble to put up a new one, it shouldn't look like you just tacked something on the end afterwards. I don't think there's anything picky about that - it looks bad.

I see no strip. That's not a good picture to go by based on the angle and distance away. You would need an aerial view to tell for sure.

 

[Illinnoying Orange]

The nit picking is getting a bit intense.

Our current stadium look exceeds the recent status of our program.

Everything about the look of the stadium is great and when our on field product catches up it will be a thing of beauty.

 

[ilphotog]

For those who like to nitpick, one of the "L"'s on the back side of the scoreboard was broken during a storm in June. The Orange plastic cover that has the bulbs behind it, half of it is missing. Not sure when it will get fixed.