PizzaHutParkingLot
- McPherson, KS
Kidding... But regardless, can someone on the board ask the players who decide these things to wear the throwbacks
Illini Basketball Uniforms
Kidding... But regardless, can someone on the board ask the players who decide these things to wear the throwbacks
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I cannot remember if he thought the font looked better, worse or the same on the baseball jerseys, but I vaguely remember @mattcoldagelli making some great points about the spacing a while back, haha. I will defer to his opinion!
But in general, it's SHOCKING how much classier, timeless and just all around better both "ILLINOIS" and "ILLINI" would look in either one of these fonts...
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73008578/231119_MBB_Southern_CAP141.0.jpg)
So IMO, it's not REALLY a question of how bad (or good) the 7LL7NO7S font is ... the more obvious and important question is why on Earth are we even letting it hang around when we have such obviously great and iconic alternatives slapping us in the face?? I'm sorry, but it's just a bad look for Nike, whether they are so oblivious they don't get it, too petty to admit their newer version is far inferior or just too stupid to think it's a big deal.
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
I cannot remember if he thought the font looked better, worse or the same on the baseball jerseys, but I vaguely remember @mattcoldagelli making some great points about the spacing a while back, haha. I will defer to his opinion!
But in general, it's SHOCKING how much classier, timeless and just all around better both "ILLINOIS" and "ILLINI" would look in either one of these fonts...
So IMO, it's not REALLY a question of how bad (or good) the 7LL7NO7S font is ... the more obvious and important question is why on Earth are we even letting it hang around when we have such obviously great and iconic alternatives slapping us in the face?? I'm sorry, but it's just a bad look for Nike, whether they are so oblivious they don't get it, too petty to admit their newer version is far inferior or just too stupid to think it's a big deal.
Come on...we are all sick of the font...but this is silly. Don't be a drama queen FOTNM.
texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
Speaking of drama queen, this is a great time for my yearly post to ditch that shield logo. Cool ideas behind it, terrible execution. Fight me.Come on...we are all sick of the font...but this is silly. Don't be a drama queen FOTNM.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
[sees font signal from @Fighter of the Nightman, answers the call]
I think I may have been using the baseball uniforms as a place to show why this font works a lot better for Mizzou than for us, and it basically just comes down to “Illinois” or “Illini” consisting of a lot skinny, straight letters and “Mizzou” or “Tigers” consisting of wider ones. You can take or leave the font from a stylistic standpoint, but objectively, they are able to “fill” the space with the letters they need most much more than we are.
By using a “motion” font, we’ve backed ourselves into a corner of it only working in a straight line. That penalizes you quite a bit many places, but maybe nowhere more so than on the front of a baseball jersey, where the minimized uniform number (or complete absence of one) gives you total freedom to arc the wordmark or have it move diagonally across the front.
These problems are all solved with a script font, as you take skinny letters (like I’s and L’s) and stretch them out with loops. Bonus for us that we’ve used it in the past, are using it now, and it looks fantastic. Every day we don’t make the script our primary look is a dumb day!
#SCRIPTOS
I think I may have been using the baseball uniforms as a place to show why this font works a lot better for Mizzou than for us, and it basically just comes down to “Illinois” or “Illini” consisting of a lot skinny, straight letters and “Mizzou” or “Tigers” consisting of wider ones. You can take or leave the font from a stylistic standpoint, but objectively, they are able to “fill” the space with the letters they need most much more than we are.
By using a “motion” font, we’ve backed ourselves into a corner of it only working in a straight line. That penalizes you quite a bit many places, but maybe nowhere more so than on the front of a baseball jersey, where the minimized uniform number (or complete absence of one) gives you total freedom to arc the wordmark or have it move diagonally across the front.
These problems are all solved with a script font, as you take skinny letters (like I’s and L’s) and stretch them out with loops. Bonus for us that we’ve used it in the past, are using it now, and it looks fantastic. Every day we don’t make the script our primary look is a dumb day!
#SCRIPTOS
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Lol, I actually stole this from @altgeld88 IIRC!Come on...we are all sick of the font...but this is silly. Don't be a drama queen FOTNM.
Also, semi-OT point as we consider what jerseys could look cool ... why is it SO difficult to find a good picture of the navy Flyin' Illini jerseys up close? It seems like we wore them a ton in team photos in that period...
... but it has proven next to impossible to find a good in-game photo. The best I can ever find is this one, and the lighting makes them look discolored:
Did we just not wear them very often? I think a modern "remake" of these jerseys like we have in orange would look REALLY good. One thing I will give Nike total credit for is slightly touching up the 1989 orange ones to look even better with just some slight alterations:
Last edited:
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
Speaking of drama queen, this is a great time for my yearly post to ditch that shield logo. Cool ideas behind it, terrible execution. Fight me.
*immediately orders Shield flag
texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
I think these are mid - at best. Though, I would be open to seeing what a modern revision looks like.Lol, I actually stole this from @altgeld88 IIRC!
Also, semi-OT point as we consider what jerseys could look cool ... why is it SO difficult to find a good picture of the navy Flyin' Illini jerseys up close? It seems like we wore them a ton in team photos in that period...
... but it has proven next to impossible to find a good in-game photo. The best I can ever find is this one, and the lighting makes them look discolored:
Did we just not wear them very often? I think a modern "remake" of these jerseys like we have in orange would look REALLY good.
texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
*immediately orders Shield flag
Unfortunately I don’t see the modern font going away anytime soon. Nike is stubborn and I feel they’ll want to keep a brand consistency across all sports. The football team doesn’t use them on their unis, however the new turf field uses it in the end zones. Other athletics teams use them as well. I highly doubt we do a rebrand only ten years later from the one we have now. I totally agree that we need to get away from it as it doesn’t give us a unique identity that we previously had. We have a great history of great looking uniforms and I’m holding out hope that when we get new uniforms we trend away from it. Would love to see something like these, although I would prefer a little more color.I cannot remember if he thought the font looked better, worse or the same on the baseball jerseys, but I vaguely remember @mattcoldagelli making some great points about the spacing a while back, haha. I will defer to his opinion!
But in general, it's SHOCKING how much classier, timeless and just all around better both "ILLINOIS" and "ILLINI" would look in either one of these fonts...
So IMO, it's not REALLY a question of how bad (or good) the 7LL7NO7S font is ... the more obvious and important question is why on Earth are we even letting it hang around when we have such obviously great and iconic alternatives slapping us in the face?? I'm sorry, but it's just a bad look for Nike, whether they are so oblivious they don't get it, too petty to admit their newer version is far inferior or just too stupid to think it's a big deal.
Attachments
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
We wore them a LOT. In fact, if I remember correctly, we first wore the orange version of this uniform at home against Northwestern back in 1989 and people went bananas over it.Lol, I actually stole this from @altgeld88 IIRC!
Also, semi-OT point as we consider what jerseys could look cool ... why is it SO difficult to find a good picture of the navy Flyin' Illini jerseys up close? It seems like we wore them a ton in team photos in that period...
... but it has proven next to impossible to find a good in-game photo. The best I can ever find is this one, and the lighting makes them look discolored:
Did we just not wear them very often? I think a modern "remake" of these jerseys like we have in orange would look REALLY good.
While I certainly don’t claim to be a graphic design expert, the “thin letters” concept makes a lot of sense. Compare “ILLINOIS” (five thin letters out of eight) to “KANSAS” (six letters, all wide). The reason why I like the script now that I’ve seen this concept is it makes three of those five letters wide.
Since “Illinois” and “Illini” have some natural barriers to overcome, fonts that widen those letters-like the script-do seem to be more visually appealing.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
@Fighter of the Nightman: we wore those block road blues regularly in the '80s. Those were our road unis. We had only home block whites and road block blues. The orange kit didn't exist until (IIRC) the 1988-89 season.Lol, I actually stole this from @altgeld88 IIRC!
Also, semi-OT point as we consider what jerseys could look cool ... why is it SO difficult to find a good picture of the navy Flyin' Illini jerseys up close? It seems like we wore them a ton in team photos in that period...
... but it has proven next to impossible to find a good in-game photo. The best I can ever find is this one, and the lighting makes them look discolored:
Did we just not wear them very often? I think a modern "remake" of these jerseys like we have in orange would look REALLY good. One thing I will give Nike total credit for is slightly touching up the 1989 orange ones to look even better with just some slight alterations:
I have good photos of those blue unis in game context at home but am at the office now. Will load them tonight in case anyone's interested unless someone beats me to it. Here's one I recall from an SI article when we lost in WL to Purdue in '84. Efrem, Doug, and Scott looking on as Jim Rowinski takes the rock to the hole. (BTW, love the leather Converse high tops our guys are wearing. Had several pairs of those bad boys in high school and college.)
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I think a "cleaned up" version of these (i.e., with similar stylistic and proportional changes shown above with the orange versions) could possibly have white lettering with an orange outline (instead of the opposite in this pic) and a bit more subtle trim, and it would be a homerun!
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Yep. Interesting how in '83-'84 (and earlier IIRC) the lettering and numbers were orange and later they were white.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I thought I had some old color photos here at home of the block FI blue road jerseys that the team began wearing in 1980 but all I can find so far are some B&W photos of old games against Ohio State in Columbus that I saw as a kid and, during the long boredom of COVID isolation, downloaded from the OSU student newspaper archives. Both the home and away block FI jerseys had orange lettering until '85 when these switched to white lettering.
Anyway, FWIW, photos below with the years noted. The 1977 shows the road script "Illinois" in blue. We apparently switched to orange road script unis in '78 (L-to-R in '78 photo: Levi Cobb, OSU's Herb Williams and Kelvin Ransey, Eddie Johnson, and either Audie Matthews or Mark Smith.) That's Mark Smith flushin' it in the epic '79 MSU game.
Anyway, FWIW, photos below with the years noted. The 1977 shows the road script "Illinois" in blue. We apparently switched to orange road script unis in '78 (L-to-R in '78 photo: Levi Cobb, OSU's Herb Williams and Kelvin Ransey, Eddie Johnson, and either Audie Matthews or Mark Smith.) That's Mark Smith flushin' it in the epic '79 MSU game.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
^ That is awesome!! Would LOVE to see what the Navy Scripts looked like in color … come ON, Nike/DIA!!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I predict regular orange against ISU's regular white tonight.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Aaaaaaaaathank you
But why?! Are the alternate throwbacks not allowed??
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
Not so fast, champ. I'm happy we won in them, but not even close