Illini Basketball Uniforms

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#151      
Fighter of the Nightman
Illini in Italy said:
I don't know brother, these look pretty outf'nstanding!

View attachment 39892
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They definitely do! I just wonder if they would look even better with these slightly slimmer letters and numbers:

90
 
#152      
mattcoldagelli
Fighter of the Nightman said:
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.
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They're probably asking, tbh. Someone mentioned it, but we know Bielema has some thoughts around building the brand - he wants orange helmets, and we had a smorgasbord of them (don't know how much Nike did or did not have to do with any of the various uniform tweaks we had last year.) He wanted a more traditional look, and we got classic shoulder stripes.

Holding out hope that he has some energy for the Final Boss: the Rebrand Font.
 
#153      
Fighter of the Nightman
mattcoldagelli said:
They're probably asking, tbh. Someone mentioned it, but we know Bielema has some thoughts around building the brand - he wants orange helmets, and we had a smorgasbord of them (don't know how much Nike did or did not have to do with any of the various uniform tweaks we had last year.) He wanted a more traditional look, and we got classic shoulder stripes.

Holding out hope that he has some energy for the Final Boss: the Rebrand Font.
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(And that he suddenly takes up an offseason interest in fixing our awful basketball uniforms) :ROFLMAO:

BB, the uniform hero we need.
 
#156      
Fighter of the Nightman
21ChampaignSt said:
I'm no designer but here are a few very rough navy Fighting Illini renderings. View attachment 39893
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Thank you (and would love your efforts for an orange or navy Script)!! While acknowledging the finished product would have a clearer white outline, I frickin' love that one on the far right ... that would be one of the best uniforms we have ever had, if not the best. "Blue jersey curse," be damned!

I am also now officially in the camp that as far as our navy uniforms go, the Flyin' Illini should definitely have orange letters/numbers and a white outline, while the navy Script should be the opposite.
 
#158      
Fighter of the Nightman
OrangeBlue98 said:
The one on the far right is the vision I have for the blue Flying Illini uniform, and this rendering confirms it. That would really look good.
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Also for those of us wishful thinkers who are really trying to visualize this, it should also be noted that the trim on the jersey and shorts would be a bit reversed. The thicker outsider stripe would be orange, with a very thin B/W/B stripe in the middle of the border. This rendering understandably uses the template from the orange jersey, which has a thicker blue border and a thin O/W/O stripe in the middle.

To summarize, the "actual" navy Flyin' Illini uniform would have more visible orange trim than this one, and I think it would look frickin' amazing. It is pretty crazy that Illinois Loyalty posters have effectively just done most of the job for Nike, and it would hit it out of the park, lol.
 
#159      
21ChampaignSt
chibar said:
paints a good picture. could be also interesting to try white type orange numbers and vice versa
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One for you
Screenshot 2025-02-21 at 2.34.59 PM.png


Fighter of the Nightman said:
Thank you (and would love your efforts for an orange or navy Script)!! While acknowledging the finished product would have a clearer white outline, I frickin' love that one on the far right ... that would be one of the best uniforms we have ever had, if not the best. "Blue jersey curse," be damned!

I am also now officially in the camp that as far as our navy uniforms go, the Flyin' Illini should definitely have orange letters/numbers and a white outline, while the navy Script should be the opposite.
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And one for you
Screenshot 2025-02-21 at 2.35.12 PM.png


Alright, now I'm Jonesin for some legit navy jerseys.
 
#163      
OrangeBlue98
21ChampaignSt said:
I'm no designer but here are a few very rough navy Fighting Illini renderings. View attachment 39893
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By the way, you can have 2/3 of the Nike fee. Execution is always a lot more important than the idea. :)

That navy/white script looks fantastic as well. My only suggestion would be to keep the white “diamond” on the shorts for some consistency and a little color contrast. Otherwise, that really looks good.

This is just too easy for the DIA and Nike to not do. We are doing all of their work for them right here.
 
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#164      
21ChampaignSt
OrangeBlue98 said:
By the way, you can have 2/3 of the Nike fee. Execution is always a lot more important than the idea. :)

That navy/white script looks fantastic as well. My only suggestion would be to keep the white “diamond” on the shorts for some consistency and a little color contrast. Otherwise, that really looks good.

This is just too easy for the DIA and Nike to not do. We are doing all of their work for them right here.
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As someone whose job it is to have ideas and work with another team to execute them, I begrudgingly agree.

I thought about keeping the diamond white but it gave me Bulls vibes. Couldn't find a good picture of the blues from the 70s, but best I can tell the diamond was navy.

1000007469.jpg

1000007468.jpg


After looking through the archives recently, I'm more convinced that the Fighting Illini jerseys are the way to go for our standard jerseys.

The scripts were only worn from 1977-1980. So it feels like we're honoring a specific team / era that really didn't accomplish that much. They returned as throwbacks in 2019, so we've worn the scripts for 10 years total. I've also mentioned this before but everyone had a script jersey in the 70s. It was the groovy thing to do. Although as we all agree, ours were and remain the best.

The Fighting Illini jerseys however, have been worn for 25 years (I think). 1981-1995 as our standards then 2005 and 2015 - 2025 as throwbacks. So not only do we have more history and equity with those jerseys, but we've worn those jerseys at least occasionally during most of our very best years.
 
#166      
Fuze
21ChampaignSt said:
After looking through the archives recently, I'm more convinced that the Fighting Illini jerseys are the way to go for our standard jerseys.

The scripts were only worn from 1977-1980. So it feels like we're honoring a specific team / era that really didn't accomplish that much. They returned as throwbacks in 2019, so we've worn the scripts for 10 years total. I've also mentioned this before but everyone had a script jersey in the 70s. It was the groovy thing to do. Although as we all agree, ours were and remain the best.

The Fighting Illini jerseys however, have been worn for 25 years (I think). 1981-1995 as our standards then 2005 and 2015 - 2025 as throwbacks. So not only do we have more history and equity with those jerseys, but we've worn those jerseys at least occasionally during most of our very best years.
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Agreed. As cool as a full set of Fighting Illini and Scripts would be, I think it's rather an unrealistic dream, especially considering how little Nike seems to care about the current state of our uniforms. When we eventually get a refresh, I honestly expect they stick with the current format of options. That being a main, 3 color-way set, an orange throwback, and a white throwback.

Using that format, I personally would hope for a full set of the updated Fighting Illini that's been talked about on here recently. Keep the script as the white throwback, and get a 2005 throwback for the orange one. Like you said, the Fighting Illini is the look we've used by far the most over the years and is still used, albeit with the current fonts and uniform templates, with both of the current men's and women's blues. It just makes sense to commit to it as our main look, especially considering how well it's aged. As for the throwbacks, the script just looks the cleanest in white IMO, and the orange is by far the more iconic look from the 2005 team. This set of 5 options would also cover pretty much every era of fundamental uniform design except for the last decade or so.
 
#167      
Fighter of the Nightman
Fuze said:
Agreed. As cool as a full set of Fighting Illini and Scripts would be, I think it's rather an unrealistic dream, especially considering how little Nike seems to care about the current state of our uniforms. When we eventually get a refresh, I honestly expect they stick with the current format of options. That being a main, 3 color-way set, an orange throwback, and a white throwback.

Using that format, I personally would hope for a full set of the updated Fighting Illini that's been talked about on here recently. Keep the script as the white throwback, and get a 2005 throwback for the orange one. Like you said, the Fighting Illini is the look we've used by far the most over the years and is still used, albeit with the current fonts and uniform templates, with both of the current men's and women's blues. It just makes sense to commit to it as our main look, especially considering how well it's aged. As for the throwbacks, the script just looks the cleanest in white IMO, and the orange is by far the more iconic look from the 2005 team. This set of 5 options would also cover pretty much every era of fundamental uniform design except for the last decade or so.
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But why? Why is that easier for Nike, and why on Earth would you prefer that?! If anything, let’s pick one of the throwbacks for all three colors (replacing our “main 3-color set”) and have just two of the other!
 
#168      
OrangeBlue98
Fuze said:
Agreed. As cool as a full set of Fighting Illini and Scripts would be, I think it's rather an unrealistic dream, especially considering how little Nike seems to care about the current state of our uniforms. When we eventually get a refresh, I honestly expect they stick with the current format of options. That being a main, 3 color-way set, an orange throwback, and a white throwback.

Using that format, I personally would hope for a full set of the updated Fighting Illini that's been talked about on here recently. Keep the script as the white throwback, and get a 2005 throwback for the orange one. Like you said, the Fighting Illini is the look we've used by far the most over the years and is still used, albeit with the current fonts and uniform templates, with both of the current men's and women's blues. It just makes sense to commit to it as our main look, especially considering how well it's aged. As for the throwbacks, the script just looks the cleanest in white IMO, and the orange is by far the more iconic look from the 2005 team. This set of 5 options would also cover pretty much every era of fundamental uniform design except for the last decade or so.
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If there was any incremental effort needed, I'd agree with you.

There isn't. We've done all the work.
 
#169      
Fighter of the Nightman
Siren GIF


I somehow stumbled upon video of us playing at Iowa in 1980 (first time I have ever seen video of their old fieldhouse!), and we are wearing the orange Script uniforms ... they're beauties, haha.

Actual Photo - 1980 Orange Script.png


Obviously quite blurry, haha, but you can see a LITTLE better when it's not paused. So then I got curious if that channel had any other videos, and I found one from 1981 where we have the first iteration of the navy Flyin' Illini uniforms but with orange font and a white outline, and I also loved this:

Actual Photo - 1981 Navy Flyin Illini.png


I have a feeling that if a color photo or video exists of our navy Script uniforms ... it is hiding in someone's basement and not online, haha.
 
#172      
OrangeBlue98
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Siren GIF


I somehow stumbled upon video of us playing at Iowa in 1980 (first time I have ever seen video of their old fieldhouse!), and we are wearing the orange Script uniforms ... they're beauties, haha.

View attachment 40014

Obviously quite blurry, haha, but you can see a LITTLE better when it's not paused. So then I got curious if that channel had any other videos, and I found one from 1981 where we have the first iteration of the navy Flyin' Illini uniforms but with orange font and a white outline, and I also loved this:

View attachment 40015

I have a feeling that if a color photo or video exists of our navy Script uniforms ... it is hiding in someone's basement and not online, haha.
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Man, someone at Nike's going to be perceived as an absolute genius if they would just look at this thread.
 
#173      
Fighter of the Nightman
OrangeBlue98 said:
Man, someone at Nike's going to be perceived as an absolute genius if they would just look at this thread.
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Seriously, lol. Some low-level intern could literally go to a higher-up in charge of college sports and say the following:

"Hey, I noticed that we actually sell a decent number of Illinois basketball jerseys."
"Okay?"
"But most of them are the two throwbacks we have."
"Yeah, and??"
"Well, why don't we just make those two throwbacks in all three of their jersey colors. It seems like we'd sell a lot of jerseys, they look cool and we already have the designs ready to go so it would be easy."
"Hmmm ... let me think that over."

Higher-up suggests it at a meeting, presenting it as his/her own idea, and it's a smash hit. Intern has bright future at Nike as one of the most demonstrably competent individuals on the team, lol. We're trying to make careers here!!
 
#175      
OrangeBlue98
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