Illinois Football Uniforms

Fighter of the Nightman · Friday at 4:55 PM

Well, to switch the conversation a little bit away from sponsor patches, here's Chat GPT's work showing us what our standard combo while wearing the orange jerseys during the Zook Era would look like.

Current - O/O/O

---> Zook Era Look - O/O/W

I have to say, I was always very vocal that we should wear the white pants with the orange uniform, but now I am less sure. I still like it, as I just think the striping pattern on our white pants REALLY pops and I strongly oppose wearing white pants on the road, so ... this is one of our only opportunities, given that! However, our current all-orange look is just light years better than any previous all-orange uniform, and I have to say it doesn't look any worse to me in comparison!

I think if forced to choose, I would support O/O/W for day games and O/O/O under the lights.

lstewart53x3 · Friday at 5:12 PM

Fighter of the Nightman said:
Well, to switch the conversation a little bit away from sponsor patches, here's Chat GPT's work showing us what our standard combo while wearing the orange jerseys during the Zook Era would look like.

Current - O/O/O
View attachment 51042

---> Zook Era Look - O/O/W
View attachment 51043

I have to say, I was always very vocal that we should wear the white pants with the orange uniform, but now I am less sure. I still like it, as I just think the striping pattern on our white pants REALLY pops and I strongly oppose wearing white pants on the road, so ... this is one of our only opportunities, given that! However, our current all-orange look is just light years better than any previous all-orange uniform, and I have to say it doesn't look any worse to me in comparison!

I think if forced to choose, I would support O/O/W for day games and O/O/O under the lights.

I actually like the white pants a lot more than I thought I would.

IlliniCaboose · Friday at 6:08 PM

I've always said to burn all our white pants, and this confirms it again.

Illiniguy74 · Saturday at 4:50 AM

IlliniCaboose said:
I've always said to burn all our white pants, and this confirms it again.

I, on the other hand, hate the Creamsicle set..

RabidDawgClassic · Saturday at 9:26 AM

IlliniCaboose said:
I've always said to burn all our white pants, and this confirms it again.

Illiniguy74 said:
I, on the other hand, hate the Creamsicle set..

I’m a blue tops, orange pants guy.

mattcoldagelli · Sunday at 10:54 AM

IlliniCaboose said:
God, that numeral font is so terrible. Holding these unis back from being upper tier in the big ten.

On a fundamental human level, I need to know that Bret knows this.

Mr. Tibbs · Sunday at 1:16 PM

mattcoldagelli said:
On a fundamental human level, I need to know that Bret knows this.

i’m not a fan of our number font at all , but it’s not a deal killer like Nebraska’s or Baltimore Ravens from 15 years ago

TentakilRex · Sunday at 6:49 PM

So far we don't have a new Nike shoe...

https://www.nike.com/w/zoom-vomero-college-teams-shoes-2wq2gz7gee1zy7ok

It isn't the Pegasus which is the biggie and featuring, but this is getting grim.

GraingerGremlin · 2026-08-03T20:50:34-0500

Coach B announced a Hail to the Blue out for the Nebraska game on Friday night game 11/6 via instagram. Is it the first of its kind? Excited to see how an all-navy Memorial Stadium will look under the lights. Also assume we're going to go B/B/B, which will be a good contrast to Nebraska's red undertones.

CaptainCrutch · 2026-08-03T21:26:37-0500

No offense to Brett but having a “blue out” against a red team with a fanbase that travels really well seems like a risk. The red’s gonna stick out like a sore thumb where it would have washed out in a sea of orange. Nebraska fans are insufferable so I’m expecting them to eat that up.

Probably means they’ll use the uniforms from the bow game though - sign me the F up for that!

Firks30 · 2026-08-04T11:46:09-0500

TentakilRex said:
So far we don't have a new Nike shoe...

https://www.nike.com/w/zoom-vomero-college-teams-shoes-2wq2gz7gee1zy7ok

It isn't the Pegasus which is the biggie and featuring, but this is getting grim.

Look at the new blue and white practice jerseys. No Nike Swoosh on them. The Orange QB ones have it, but not the white and blues, like they did in the past. I fear bad news is coming. Our current basketball uni's are elite and the football ones aren't far behind. Would be a bummer to leave those behind, but cash is king and Adidas is handing out way more in NIL deals compared to Nike currently (unless you're OSU/Mich/Bama, etc).

Fighter of the Nightman · 2026-08-04T12:53:41-0500

GraingerGremlin said:
Coach B announced a Hail to the Blue out for the Nebraska game on Friday night game 11/6 via instagram. Is it the first of its kind? Excited to see how an all-navy Memorial Stadium will look under the lights. Also assume we're going to go B/B/B, which will be a good contrast to Nebraska's red undertones.

I too am excited to see this. While the all-orange definitely pops under the lights (the 2024 Kansas atmosphere is still so elite in my mind!), the navy looked so good at the Music City Bowl. Two pictures from several years ago could give us a little hint at what this might look like, as we wore navy jerseys and navy pants in the Michigan screw-job game of 2000 under the lights (but no navy helmet), and our crowds just used to be a lot more navy-heavy in general:

CaptainCrutch said:
No offense to Brett but having a “blue out” against a red team with a fanbase that travels really well seems like a risk. The red’s gonna stick out like a sore thumb where it would have washed out in a sea of orange. Nebraska fans are insufferable so I’m expecting them to eat that up.

Probably means they’ll use the uniforms from the bow game though - sign me the F up for that!

This ... unfortunately is a good point, haha. Would have been ideal to have this as a night game vs. a Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern, etc., but alas we do not have many options. With that said, a couple things give me optimism:

1) Our attendance is much, much better than some of the Nebraska games of the past where their fans could scoop up dirt cheap tickets quite easily. Our season ticket base continues to grow at super impressive rates, and we can now regularly count on 55K+ tickets sold to Illini fans vs. Big Ten opponents ... that number was literally closer to 25K when Brett got here, haha. And we have not played them in Champaign on a Saturday since 2021, so a lot of our memories of Nebraska fans flooding the place are simply outdated to the new fan dynamics.

2) The Friday night will probably help dilute the Nebraska contingent, IMO. The last time they played here was on a Friday night in 2023 (a game we would all sooner forget...), and it was easily one of our lowest attended games that year, which does not indicate a lot of Huskers showed up. That Nebraska game drew 46.7K, and our next two home games would draw 54.2K and 53.2K, respectively.

lstewart53x3 · 2026-08-04T13:09:00-0500

Fighter of the Nightman said:
I too am excited to see this. While the all-orange definitely pops under the lights (the 2024 Kansas atmosphere is still so elite in my mind!), the navy looked so good at the Music City Bowl. Two pictures from several years ago could give us a little hint at what this might look like, as we wore navy jerseys and navy pants in the Michigan screw-job game of 2000 under the lights (but no navy helmet), and our crowds just used to be a lot more navy-heavy in general:

This ... unfortunately is a good point, haha. Would have been ideal to have this as a night game vs. a Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern, etc., but alas we do not have many options. With that said, a couple things give me optimism:

1) Our attendance is much, much better than some of the Nebraska games of the past where their fans could scoop up dirt cheap tickets quite easily. Our season ticket base continues to grow at super impressive rates, and we can now regularly count on 55K+ tickets sold to Illini fans vs. Big Ten opponents ... that number was literally closer to 25K when Brett got here, haha. And we have not played them in Champaign on a Saturday since 2021, so a lot of our memories of Nebraska fans flooding the place are simply outdated to the new fan dynamics.

2) The Friday night will probably help dilute the Nebraska contingent, IMO. The last time they played here was on a Friday night in 2023 (a game we would all sooner forget...), and it was easily one of our lowest attended games that year, which does not indicate a lot of Huskers showed up. That Nebraska game drew 46.7K, and our next two home games would draw 54.2K and 53.2K, respectively.

I like the all blue with the orange helmets more than the blues.

CaptainCrutch · 2026-08-04T13:45:57-0500

Fighter of the Nightman said:
I too am excited to see this. While the all-orange definitely pops under the lights (the 2024 Kansas atmosphere is still so elite in my mind!), the navy looked so good at the Music City Bowl. Two pictures from several years ago could give us a little hint at what this might look like, as we wore navy jerseys and navy pants in the Michigan screw-job game of 2000 under the lights (but no navy helmet), and our crowds just used to be a lot more navy-heavy in general:

This ... unfortunately is a good point, haha. Would have been ideal to have this as a night game vs. a Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern, etc., but alas we do not have many options. With that said, a couple things give me optimism:

1) Our attendance is much, much better than some of the Nebraska games of the past where their fans could scoop up dirt cheap tickets quite easily. Our season ticket base continues to grow at super impressive rates, and we can now regularly count on 55K+ tickets sold to Illini fans vs. Big Ten opponents ... that number was literally closer to 25K when Brett got here, haha. And we have not played them in Champaign on a Saturday since 2021, so a lot of our memories of Nebraska fans flooding the place are simply outdated to the new fan dynamics.

2) The Friday night will probably help dilute the Nebraska contingent, IMO. The last time they played here was on a Friday night in 2023 (a game we would all sooner forget...), and it was easily one of our lowest attended games that year, which does not indicate a lot of Huskers showed up. That Nebraska game drew 46.7K, and our next two home games would draw 54.2K and 53.2K, respectively.

Hell ya - this is the analysis I come for.