Earlier this morning, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs unveiled new uniforms via video. Like most hype videos, it’s shot under odd lighting, with lots of quick cutaways, and we never really get to see a full 360° view of the full uniform.
Our new threads are here! #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/yMncW803UG
— TCU Football (@TCUFootball) June 17, 2024
As you can see, the team will have three extremely minimalist uniforms for 2024. They are shown as mono-white, mono-purple, and mono-black. TCU has in the past mixed and matched their helmets/jerseys/pants, so it’s possible these will also be mixed and matched. But for the unveil, only three mono uniforms were shown.
All three uniforms are very plain, having removed all striping and collar decoration from their previous set. Whereas the previous set featured contrasting color sleeves and collars, the new sets are devoid of that. Jerseys feature a solid color block with only numbers (and NOB) in contrasting color.
PURPLE
WHITE
BLACK
As noted above, gone from all three jerseys was the most distinctive element of the TCU identity: the collar spikes which were present on all three jerseys.
The helmets at one time had a wide center stripe, although those were removed in their last update. Each helmet looks to have sublimated toad skin.
In addition to the black, white and purple helmets, the team will also have a silver chrome option.
In keeping with the very minimalist theme, there is a tiny “TCU” wordmark found on the front base of the collar on each jersey.
Some quick shots of the NOB also show each jersey will have “Carter Boys” on the back of the collar, above the NOB.
Carter Boys was the name of a “Hard Knocks” style documentary hosted on ESPN+ in 2022.
Here’s one more look at the white and black uniforms.
There is one very interesting aspect to the new uniforms: the jerseys are shown without the “XII” logo (which lends more credence to the possibility of the Big XII being rebranded for the fall). Interesting that the logo isn’t present.
The first live action look at the new uni will be Friday August 30th when the Horned Frogs travel to California to take on the Stanford Cardinal to open the 2024 season.
Usually when we see uniforms unveiled via hype video, they usual disclaimer is “we’ll need to see them on the field” but in this case, the unis are WYSIWYG — what you see is what you get. While the trend in football (both in the pros and college) has been towards more minimalist and monochrome, both Baylor and WVU added striping for the 2024 season. TCU would have done well to follow that lead. My only hope is that they at least mix and match the different elements throughout the season.
Should more photos become available, I’ll update this post.
Your thoughts on the new look TCU uniforms?
I dig them. Purple-White-Purple would be the best combo, IMHO.
I’ll be the first to say it… THESE LOOK CLEAN ;)
I don’t have to watch the hype video to know they put way more effort into that than they did designing the uniforms.
Lazy. Uninspired. Unoriginal. Boring.
At least West Virginia made a great looking BFBS uniform. This one? Pfff.
“Classic” college football uniforms from the 60’s and 70’s tended to be incredibly boring. I prefer the 1990’s as a general template but that’s almost assuredly because I was born in the mid 80’s. Everything new is old and this design style shall too pass.
Never a fan of monochrome unis in football. Hope there is some mixing of the different elements.
I think these are actually a downgrade. The previous set was probably too busy, but it kinda fit the personality of that team…and they were more visually interesting than these. Keeping some sort of striping would have helped tremendously, as would some visual mixing and matching. Not terrible, but maybe too far the other way. They miss that sweet spot between too much and not enough, IMHO.
MAJOR downgrade. The spikes around the collar will be sorely missed by my generation and younger. They were just the right amount of flair for the uniform, and unique to them. They would’ve looked TREMENDOUS with that new frog-skin chrome purple helmet.
Proofreading:
In the 2nd paragraph: “…the team will three extremely minimalist uniforms for 2024.” There seems to be a word missing between ‘will’ and ‘three’.
Thanks. Fixed.
It’s the details that make a difference. It’s too bad the trend towards “clean” is removing critical design elements that are unique to a particular team or school.
Looks to me like these are blank uniform templates that someone forgot to add details to. Terrible.
Such a dud… hence the last minute Sunday evening “hey, we have big news tomorrow at 8:17am”… Chrome lid is sooooo Baylor 2015.
There is an ongoing trend happening here in uniform unveilings that needs to be stopped immediately.
I understand when players are on recruiting visits they may want to cross their arms, especially if they aren’t wearing “their” number, however, if you are unveiling uniforms, the marquee image needs to show the numbers, and show them clearly. Players shouldn’t be flexing or posing. They should be in football positions. 3 point stances, etc.
We need to see how these uniforms will read on the field, not obscured in a studio when the views should be most clear. Just another example of Nike, Adidas, etc, worrying more about how to sell more merchandise rather than build something practical.
Amen. Thank you.
Yeah, but where’s the screaming guy?
My least favorite one is where the do the flex thing. They’re basically showing how uniforms look when you’re taunting your opponent after a big play, which is…something.
I prefer these to the last set, but would have preferred something in the middle? Maybe they could have toned down the spikes in a similar way to what Florida State has done with their unis in toning down some of the louder aspects.
Or even go back to to understated triangles from the LT days? I think that era was their best look.
The most infuriating thing about this set is that the TCU logo on the visor doesn’t match the purple color of the uniform. Also, bring back the LT triangles around the collar.
plain shorts are horrendous.
I’m sorry, they didn’t have to do a hype video when it kinda has the same look as the previous. It’s literally more of the same but with tweaks.
Another not great uni update that will get updated in short order, rinse and repeat.
I like the number font, and I’m actually quite fond of the chrome helmet. Otherwise, these are a bit of a snoozefest. Having said that, they could be interesting with some mix-and-matching. Black helmet-white jersey-purple pants might not look terrible.
Well, at least we know what the 5 looks like on their uniform. Will be interesting to see how the other numbers show out.
Looks like a generic “we didn’t have the rights to the real ones” video game uni.
The addition-by-subtraction is they didn’t use a modern stripe that doesn’t make it all the way down or around. Remember when Mississippi State wore real football socks for like two seasons? That kind of thing would help these boring uniforms out—all the purple, white socks with chunky stripes.
Major upgrade
Going forward can you just use one or two pics that show the set? More to the point, do not include any pictures of players posing with arms up, yelling, holding football in the foreground, pointing, etc? none of that. Ideally it would only be pics of uniforms. If those arent available, maybe just a link to where one can see this lame nonsense if one wants to.
This way everyone can get the update, without the burden of seeing the contrived horseshit; if one is unfortunate enough to be in the target demographic- they can knock themselves by going and looking at the pictures.
Just a thought
God, what a terrible uniform.
Why do I feel like Nike is trolling us? After many of us in the comm-uni-ty have complained for years about Nike’s penchant for incongruous overdesign, I can almost hear them saying, “Oh, so you want us to design ‘simpler’ uniforms? Hear you go, suckers!”
Absolutely boring, unimaginative, and uninspired. I absolutely hate pants with no stripes. I don’t see the preoccupation with these glorified practice uniforms.
As the article said, normally, we’d need to see them on the field.
These, I’d prefer not to.
It’s kits like this that make me glad I could never get all that into college football; I likely won’t come across these again until highlight videos during the NFL Draft.
Just a thought now we have a new regime… Where there are typos and people point them out, does every future reader need to read them? Can the proofreading be quietly actioned and the comment removed? As a reader of the sites, I’m interested in people’s views on the uniforms and couldn’t begin to think how many typos being pointed out and “fixed” I’ve had to read over the years to get to those comments…
The white uniform set gives me Kansas State vibes. The helmets are the best part of these uniforms. I concur with others that these are just a little too plain and “blah”. Maybe they will look better when mixed and matched, but I doubt it. I personally liked how TCU similarly to Ok St had a design around the collar area, instead of the plain color that they are now going with
“sublimated toad skin” are not words you see together every day
Pretty sure they have 5 helmets with this set that they unveiled:
Black
Purple
White
Regular Chrome
Purple Chrome
Appears that the regular purple lid doesn’t have the print on it that the chrome one does.
came here to say this. Looks like 5 helmets, 3 jerseys, 3 pants
While I think there is a chance the conference could rebrand as a way to inject some revenue, the fact the jerseys are missing the Big 12 patch is unrelated to that issue. Whenever Nike teams update jerseys, they are often provided initial samples with the #55 and the team NOB instead of a player name. The jerseys usually omit the conference patch as that is added by the team. There are lots of examples of this. I’ve also seen a few examples with the year used as the number (ie a #24 jersey for 2024).
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I wonder if Nike forgot about this, like the Penske File on Seinfeld, and then someone reminded them but they didn’t have time to do anything so they just put out these generic uniforms. Also I know the lighting appears bad, but the silver numbers on the purple jerseys are hard to make out.
TCU over the years had a series of garish uniforms, including some doozies:
link
This is not my taste, but it did define the team’s aesthetic identity. I actually came to like some of them. Except for the toad skin, stripe these are soulless.
Misplaced comma:
Except for the toad skin stripe, these are soulless.
Fort Worth: Cowtown is a wowtown with a walkable downtown!
iykyk
Nice unis. But where are their bicycles?
Great practice uniforms you’ve got there TCU.
Not minimalist enough! Carter Boys? Remove. Number outlines? Remove. TCU on the collar? Remove. The purple uniform? Get rid of it. Make sure they only wear mono white or mono black, which the players will LOVE by the way, and make sure there is a jury on the sidelines to judge individual in-game flexing, shouting, finger waving and folding arms (points added for nodding at the same time). Those jury scores will eventually decide the outcome of the game. I just love college football in 2024!
These are solid if they did some mixing and matching instead of dumb monochromes.
Wow. Nike really outdid themselves with these. Only question: Did they spend 10 or 20 seconds coming up with this amazing set?
By the way, looks liking cycling shorts are here to stay. Sigh.