"Nike took the decade off." Ain't that the truth.
Illini Basketball Uniforms
- Status
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Your daily reminder that our default uniforms are utter trash.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
We now have a color version of the mythical blue Flying Illini uniforms with orange lettering and white trim.
Take our current orange alternates and use this color scheme (but in our current color shades). Make it so, please.
Take our current orange alternates and use this color scheme (but in our current color shades). Make it so, please.
hooraybeer
- Peoria, IL
if anyone has examples of worse P5 default uniforms i’d love to see them.
I’ve noticed that Clemson Basketball is in a very similar boat to us in terms of their uniform situation. Their defaults are very minimalist and uninspired, while having great looking throwbacks that completely trump their defaults.
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
Whoever is in charge of serifs at Nike needs to be stopped, it's not too late
Yes these are just alternates, but at least Nike isn't doing this:
And yes, these are actual uniforms used in actual games.
EDIT: Also I think Miami (FL) has worse or at least equally bad defaults.
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OMG…those look like track and field designs from the 20s or 30s.
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LOL their defaults look a lot like our defaults.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Okay, I don't know whose came first ... but this is WAY more hilarious of a knockoff than any comparison to Syracuse on the football side of things!
Seriously, whether it's the players, the staff, the DIA, Nike, etc .... it doesn't matter. The fact that any human being could look at these two uniforms and think, "I really like that second one a lot better" is truly mind boggling, and I worry for the individuals who feel this way.
At least if it's the players or coaches driving this, we can just simply conclude that they all apparently have awful taste, lol. If it's Nike, though ... that's a fireable offense, like this is YOUR JOB!!
Praying this is the last year with this set. Nike better be cooking up something special for us. I do have a question if anyone knows the answer. In terms of uniform design, does the university itself design the uniforms and it gets supplied by Nike, or is it the other way around where Nike designs them and it gets approved by the university?Okay, I don't know whose came first ... but this is WAY more hilarious of a knockoff than any comparison to Syracuse on the football side of things!
Seriously, whether it's the players, the staff, the DIA, Nike, etc .... it doesn't matter. The fact that any human being could look at these two uniforms and think, "I really like that second one a lot better" is truly mind boggling, and I worry for the individuals who feel this way.
At least if it's the players or coaches driving this, we can just simply conclude that they all apparently have awful taste, lol. If it's Nike, though ... that's a fireable offense, like this is YOUR JOB!!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
This is a great question, and I have no idea. It seems so frustratingly random, lol! For context, coming into this season this was our "current status" as far as program prestige since the 2019-20 season when we turned this thing around:
- Coming off of an Elite Eight, BTT championship and top 10 finish
- 3 Big Ten championship banners in the last 4 seasons
- First/second best record in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons
- Ranked in the top 20 at some point in each of the past 5 seasons
- 3 All-Americans in the last 4 seasons, including TSJ last year
- 2 NBA draft picks in the last 4 seasons, including TSJ last year
- Completely reloaded roster, including 2 projected NBA draft picks after this season and a stud Illinois Mr. Basketball recruit
The point? We had been a consistently successful and recognizable basketball brand for 5 years now and looked to be reloading yet again. And NOTHING on the uniform front, not even a throwback to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2005 team?! It just seems so odd, especially considering...
1. We got these uniforms randomly cooked up for us after we'd just missed the NCAA Tournament 3 out of the last 4 years...
2. We got these added coming off of a losing season and 5 straight years missing the NCAA Tournament....
3. We were surprised with these in a season where we'd missed SIX NCAA Tournaments in a row and hadn't had a winning record in Big Ten play for NINE YEARS!
But now that we have been consistently good, attendance is up, viewer ratings are up, the success/exposure is comparatively through the roof ... and Nike forgets we exist??
- Seventh year in a row with the same uniforms that no one likes?
- No new throwbacks in five years now, even though they're the only uniforms that anyone likes?
- Forget actually being creative and getting us Orange/Navy Script or Navy Flyin' Illini ... they can't even dig up the White Flyin' Illini throwbacks that THEY'VE ALREADY MADE and throw us that bone?!
Lol, it is just so oddly pathetic. I know I probably complain about this too much, but there are only three possibilities:
1. Someone at Nike or a decision maker in the DIA actually genuinely thinks our current default/regular uniforms are a home run, and they don't want to mess with it.
2. The DIA is totally complacent and hasn't pushed Nike for an update in SEVEN years - a stretch abnormally long compared to your average switch of every 2-4 years from 2006 to 2019.
3. Nike inexplicably is putting less effort and thought into our uniforms than they were when we were an objectively terrible program.
I refuse to believe #1 ... I have too much faith in humanity, lol. I am also very skeptical of #2, considering what a great job the DIA did with the football uniforms and all of the throwback/new helmets last season. So, that leaves #3 ... and while it's the most believable, it ALSO makes no sense!!
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
Hanlon's Razor, my friend.
I think the point A-to-point B connection you are imagining between "team winning" and "team getting new uniforms" probably does not exist. Would be willing to wager it comes down to something as banal as somebody changed jobs or something and we're just not getting new ideas as regularly as we once did.
Everything @mattcoldagelli said plus I also think it's safe to assume that at Nike, they're probably not putting a ton of thought into NCAA uniforms generally. I mean, Nike is designing jerseys for all NBA teams, all NFL teams, all MLB teams, and some of the biggest national and club soccer teams in the world, as well as tons of individual deals with some of the most famous professional athletes in the world, who have their own clothes and shoe lines.This is a great question, and I have no idea. It seems so frustratingly random, lol! For context, coming into this season this was our "current status" as far as program prestige since the 2019-20 season when we turned this thing around:
- Coming off of an Elite Eight, BTT championship and top 10 finish
- 3 Big Ten championship banners in the last 4 seasons
- First/second best record in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons
- Ranked in the top 20 at some point in each of the past 5 seasons
- 3 All-Americans in the last 4 seasons, including TSJ last year
- 2 NBA draft picks in the last 4 seasons, including TSJ last year
- Completely reloaded roster, including 2 projected NBA draft picks after this season and a stud Illinois Mr. Basketball recruit
The point? We had been a consistently successful and recognizable basketball brand for 5 years now and looked to be reloading yet again. And NOTHING on the uniform front, not even a throwback to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2005 team?! It just seems so odd, especially considering...
1. We got these uniforms randomly cooked up for us after we'd just missed the NCAA Tournament 3 out of the last 4 years...
2. We got these added coming off of a losing season and 5 straight years missing the NCAA Tournament....
3. We were surprised with these in a season where we'd missed SIX NCAA Tournaments in a row and hadn't had a winning record in Big Ten play for NINE YEARS!
But now that we have been consistently good, attendance is up, viewer ratings are up, the success/exposure is comparatively through the roof ... and Nike forgets we exist??
- Seventh year in a row with the same uniforms that no one likes?
- No new throwbacks in five years now, even though they're the only uniforms that anyone likes?
- Forget actually being creative and getting us Orange/Navy Script or Navy Flyin' Illini ... they can't even dig up the White Flyin' Illini throwbacks that THEY'VE ALREADY MADE and throw us that bone?!
Lol, it is just so oddly pathetic. I know I probably complain about this too much, but there are only three possibilities:
1. Someone at Nike or a decision maker in the DIA actually genuinely thinks our current default/regular uniforms are a home run, and they don't want to mess with it.
2. The DIA is totally complacent and hasn't pushed Nike for an update in SEVEN years - a stretch abnormally long compared to your average switch of every 2-4 years from 2006 to 2019.
3. Nike inexplicably is putting less effort and thought into our uniforms than they were when we were an objectively terrible program.
I refuse to believe #1 ... I have too much faith in humanity, lol. I am also very skeptical of #2, considering what a great job the DIA did with the football uniforms and all of the throwback/new helmets last season. So, that leaves #3 ... and while it's the most believable, it ALSO makes no sense!!
Even at Adidas they just came out with those new alternates (which are awful) and it was basically just the same format for a bunch of teams. They didn't put any individual effort into any one of those uniforms.
NCAA basketball generally is small potatoes to Nike, and then add in that there are several high profile college brands that are always going to consume more of Nike's efforts than us (UNC, Duke, Texas). I think the answer is a modified version of your #1:
1. Nobody at Nike has time for or
Throwing it out there as probably an unlikely but still possible alternative. People in our program are just superstitious as hell, and since the current set came in the year things "officially" got turned around, they're hesitant to change the uniforms. We know they're already superstitious about us losing in the blues, so this possibility doesn't seem too far-fetched.
Considering how this season's gone, maybe this offseason is the perfect time to break away from the superstition, and we can initiate getting a full set of the modernized flying Illini as our main set.
Considering how this season's gone, maybe this offseason is the perfect time to break away from the superstition, and we can initiate getting a full set of the modernized flying Illini as our main set.
I've thrown this out there jokingly too. We also rolled with the same jerseys from about 2000 to 2006 which worked out pretty well for us. So maybe there is some unwritten rule or superstitious belief held by our DIA that you don't change jerseys when things are going well.
Yeah I don't think it's that deep Nike probably just doesn't care a ton. Also, unlike Bielema who seems to really care about the uniforms, I don't think Underwood cares much. Underwood seems to hate gaudy (we know he hated the zig zags on his first uniform so they basically gave him stock uniforms for his second season) and he probably thinks the current ones are fine and isn't raising much stink. But we definitely need some new ones ASAP.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I would probably agree with this, which is why it's still pretty frustrating given we already have the uniform template(s) to use. All you have to do is adjust the colors.
It really is this simple.
Scripts - Keep the white "diamond" and blue block I on all three shorts. In addition to the current white (main)/blue (lettering)/orange (trim), have blue/white/orange and orange/blue/white.
Flying Illini - Keep the orange/white/blue. Add white/blue/orange (1989 color scheme) and blue/orange/white (early 1980s color scheme). Maybe go with an orange block I on these just to differentiate them from the blue block I on the scripts.
There, I just did Nike's job. Whatever you would pay someone to do a full uniform design, just pay me 10-20% of that and we'll call it good.
But in all seriousness, there's zero incremental effort needed for this. The uniform templates are there. Just change the colors to our current color shades.Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
Just pay this man!I would probably agree with this, which is why it's still pretty frustrating given we already have the uniform template(s) to use. All you have to do is adjust the colors.
It really is this simple.
Scripts - Keep the white "diamond" and blue block I on all three shorts. In addition to the current white (main)/blue (lettering)/orange (trim), have blue/white/orange and orange/blue/white.
Flying Illini - Keep the orange/white/blue. Add white/blue/orange (1989 color scheme) and blue/orange/white (early 1980s color scheme). Maybe go with an orange block I on these just to differentiate them from the blue block I on the scripts.
There, I just did Nike's job. Whatever you would pay someone to do a full uniform design, just pay me 10-20% of that and we'll call it good.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I don't necessarily doubt this, but why are other schools like Mizzou getting complete sets of throwbacks? This is what leads me to believe that the DIA isn't necessarily advocating for ourselves at all.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Agreed! And I provide the following templates for anyone who is way more talented than I am with color replacement, haha. Someone whip us up that navy Flyin' Illini and navy Script renderings!!Just pay this man!
P.S. I know we already have seen the white Flyin' Illini set in the Groce years, but the numbers are way blockier and look worse than our orange set ... so it would also be cool to see a version of the white Flyin' Illini with the better-looking modern proportions. We have also seen a picture of the orange Script from some exhibit case at SFC that has been posted here, but it would be cool to also see the shorts!
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I hope someone with those skills can do this! Unfortunately, in this situation I’m much more in the skill set of “this is what I want to see”. Someone else will have to fulfill “this is how you do it.”
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Same, lol. Like I know how to use the color replacement tool in MS Paint, but I am pretty sure it only works on a "simple" PNG image. In those pictures, the "white" of the Script uniform is a ton of different shades of whites that are like each their own pixels or whatever, so it would take forever and end up looking like garbage if I tried, haha.I hope someone with those skills can do this! Unfortunately, in this situation I’m much more in the skill set of “this is what I want to see”. Someone else will have to fulfill “this is how you do it.”
How to do anything better than that is WAY beyond my expertise, but I was hoping if I could at least post those renderings (i.e., not actual photographs of players but rather drawings), it might be easier for someone more talented to work with! I remember a poster doing very good renderings of potential football uniforms a few years back before the new ones were announced, and I wish I could remember his/her name.
Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
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