Shief
- Champaign Area
Love seeing the jersey and helmet colors and stripes match with the OOW combo. Hope that we see this and the OOB combo from time-to-time.
Illinois Football Uniforms
- Status
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I'm not so hot to trot on the O/O/B (I felt the times we wore it with the Beckman Era uniforms just looked a little off, but that's obviously JMO), but I am dying to see O/O/W. I will totally admit that this set of uniforms takes the all-orange look to heights we have never seen before, and it absolutely blows anything previously away. However, I still think O/O/W might look better for two main reasons:
1. I will always think this is one of the single sharpest uniform combos we ever rocked during the Zook Era, and I would love to see it updated with our current set. Something about the white pants just gave it this really sharp look that is a tad more understated than going straight-up all-orange, and I think the Zook Era uniforms, especially, really demonstrated this well ... the first pic vs. Wisconsin just looks so much more "overdone" than the second two pictures. Again, our current uniform with the B/W/B stripes did a LOT to soften that issue, but I would still like to see the white pants used some time this year.
2. While I have been a very vocal critic of our O/W/W look on the road (I'm pretty firmly in the camp that if you are going all-white, you have to go all the way ... having a white uniform and white pants but then a colored helmet just looks so goofy to me), I actually love our white pants in isolation, as the B/O/B striping against the white backdrop just looks so crisp and clean. So in short, I like the white pants a lot but I just feel the only time they will really "work" is with the orange uniforms ... and we never get to see that, lol.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
Fighter’s content is hypothetical peanut butter on a spoon, and some of us are dogs.
Wow , it's all clearer now to me..............it really really is..........
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I spent so much of my Illini fandom only thinking in wishful hypotheticals, so I guess it comes naturally!Fighter’s content is hypothetical peanut butter on a spoon, and some of us are dogs.
It feels nice to actually have on-field success that warrants talk of things like a Memorial Stadium renovation!TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Actually I have a theory, that I want to test out later, about why infamous slant ILLINOIS helmets are so popular with the kiddos.
I think it is because white letters is a lot easier to read on the current orange helmets than navy letters are.
For example in a vacuum I think that the Butkus era helmets are the retro orange helmets. However during the TV broadcast on the Purdue game, the numbers on the helmet did not look that great at all.
Also was the shade of orange used during the 60s lighter or is it the effect of the tech at the time.
I think it is because white letters is a lot easier to read on the current orange helmets than navy letters are.
For example in a vacuum I think that the Butkus era helmets are the retro orange helmets. However during the TV broadcast on the Purdue game, the numbers on the helmet did not look that great at all.
Also was the shade of orange used during the 60s lighter or is it the effect of the tech at the time.
I kinda doubt it. I think it’s mostly that the younger folks grew up with that as the helmet logo of our youth. When I think Illini football I think Juice Williams, Kurt Kittner. Older folks probably like that arched look quite a lot because it resonates with what they remember from their early days of Illini fandom.
Guess that makes me (and some others) oldest Illini fans that were fans during the Butkus years. That's why I, for one, like the numbered helmet so much.
Agreed. I personally have come around to the arched helmet as my favorite. The helmet striping is super unique and the arched word looks really good on new helmet layout. If it had a white facemask it would be perfect in my opinion.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Which is probably why I’m a bigger fan of the arched Illini in blue. My fandom was cemented in the 1983-1990 years, and of course that started with the 1983 Rose Bowl season (I was 7, and I have some memories of the big games that year).
As I’ve said on here before, I’m a fan of multiple decals on an orange base helmet. I’d also save the script Illinois for really big games (ideally the Orange Out and bowl games only). But I’d love to see us use the arched Illini a lot more than the block I when using a navy decal.
What about orange face mask with arched illini?
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
On the subject of the color of the letters: I do think that it greatly helps the ILLINIOS helmet. Back at the end of the Zook and beginning of the Beckman era, I couldn't wait for the ILLINOIS to be retired, and I think it 100% had to do with the blue outline around the letters. I just felt like it was such a stale look, which when paired with our uniforms which used a dreadfully old Nike template by that time, made us look like a complete afterthought that was fitting of a bottom-feeder conference program.
However, I then came to really appreciate the late 90s early 2000s version of the helmet, because the lack of a blue outline made all the difference in the world. IMO, the outline was "muting" the logo, because your brain is playing a trick on you which makes the white look darker because of the navy outline. I think this is maybe more necessary on the script Illinois helmets, because the cursive script needs the outline to help make each letter more distinguishable. Meanwhile the all white on orange look by comparison absolutely pops without the "muting" by the outline, and because the letters are so sharp and the corners pointy, they do not need an outline. So when they brought back the 90s/early 2000s version of this helmet, I was overwhelmed with joy because I just think it looks so good and distinctly Illinois.
As I have stated before, I think the letter coloring on the helmet impacts how well the helmet pairs with a given uniform set. If I made the decisions on uniforms for every game, I would create the general rule for pairing helmets:
Home Navy Jerseys - Arched Illini Helmet
Home Orange and Road White Jerseys - ILLINOIS helmet
Homecoming - Butkus era with numbers helmet
Bowl Game - Script Illinois helmet (ideally with a rose underlying the script)
Idk what do you think? I don’t hate it, but I do think there’s not enough white. I think a white facemask balances out the large white presence in the numbers. Ties together better.
But I really don’t hate it. I think the Gray just has no elements other than nostalgia that make it work with the uniform. Don’t ask me why baseless Gray masks work for the 49ers, the Colts, etc. I have no idea, but they do. I just think they feel forced in our application.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
We missed up so badly not wearing the blue pants with the Arched ILLINI helmets last year.
Nice rendering! I like it and should they ever roll those out they’d be pretty good, but I think it would look better if they got rid of the orange and white piping on the shoulders. I do like the look on the ‘83 team, but overall I’m impartial on face mask color for arched illini, which I think is the best design.
Edit: impartial EXCEPT for blue. No blue face masks like in the Moeller era.
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redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
Not gonna lie, I’m not a huge fan of the orange facemasks….
Same, it’s an awful look
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Agreed. Add the script only for the Orange Out and postseason. White decal for white and orange jerseys, blue for blue jerseys. Use the white face mask all the time.
The only exception I’d make is to match the blue decal for blue pants on the road (and I’d only do BPOTR once a season at most).
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I vote for the blue... my all-time favorites!
I put these together a bit ago just for fun. I know we retired the column logo a while ago and it was always an education piece rather than athletics, but I always thought that the columns were just this awesome unique piece of UIUC imagery. I stuck the script wordmark over them, overhauled the uniforms, and added an 1867 helmet bumper.
Would we ever go with these? No. But dang it I made these from scratch and wanted someone to see them lol
Would we ever go with these? No. But dang it I made these from scratch and wanted someone to see them lol
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I hate the UCLA stripes we use on our current unis, if only we Bret would've picked the OG horizontal stripes for the rebrand
. They look amazing in this concept. I also would love to see the block numbers without an outline- Status