The Virginia Tech Hokies were supposed to unveil their new uniforms for 2024 today, but unfortunately, the EA Sports NCAA 25 video game sprung a leak yesterday, and their uniforms were revealed prematurely.
So the school released them late yesterday afternoon, much to their chagrin. As of last night, there was no hype video (thankfully) and the school only released a series of few photographs of the uniforms. But they tell us all we need to know.
There will be two new uniforms for 2024: a home and a road. Let’s take a look-see:
The home is shown as an all-maroon uniform, while the road is all white. In the past, VaTech have mixed and matched their maroon and white elements (and also had orange jerseys and pants), so hopefully these will be mixed and matched as well.
Immediately, we can see the major difference between the prior set and these. The new uniforms have dumped the oddly-shaped shoulder stripes, and while the new uniforms have the same number fonts, those too are different: the white (road) jersey will have maroon numbers — with a subtle “Hokie Stone” pattern — with a white and orange outline. Similarly, the maroon jerseys will feature white numbers, with a maroon and orange outline.
Here’s a comparison of the old and new uniforms:
Aside from the collar/shoulder stripe removal, the old uniforms did not feature TV numbers, but the new uniforms will, and they’ll do it in contrasting colors.
The home jersey will have orange numbers outlined in maroon and white, while the road jersey will also have orange numbers, and those will be outlined in white and maroon.
The jersey backs — which the school has assured us will have nameplates — feature the same numbers style and fonts as the front of the jersey, and both will have the subtle Hokie Stone pattern contained within.
Both jerseys will have maroon collars. The “VT” logo will appear at the base of the collar. Both sets of pants are stripeless, but (unfortunately) each will contain the wordmark “HOKIES” on the front of the right hip.
The white helmets are almost identical to those worn last year, and the maroon helmets are plain, with no helmet stripe. The white buckets will have white masks, and the maroons will have maroon. Both helmets have “TECH” written on the nose bumpers.
It is possible there will be additional jerseys, helmets or uniforms yet to be unveiled. The orange jersey and pants proved popular among fans, and they could be added to the lineup at a later date.
Almost every college that has unveiled new uniforms for 2024 has — at least in my opinion — improved upon their previous looks. VT has definitely improved the jersey, finally jettisoning those oddly shaped shoulder stripes. Their previous set of pants were also stripeless, so keeping them that way is a lateral move. About the only complaint I have about these is the addition of the unnecessary “HOKIES” wordmark on the right hip of the pants. And while I generally don’t like the gimmicky nature of the Hokie Stone sublimation on the jersey numbers, the pattern is so subtle that it won’t be seen from any distance.
I like these a LOT, and if they do introduce orange shirts and pants, hopefully they will follow the same template as the new ones.
Your thoughts?
Seems like the pendulum is swinging back to minimalist unit (looking at Iowa State and Mississippi State). But these are just meh
I would say they’re the slightest bit above “meh”, but just barely.
I like the return to different colored numerals like they used to have and hope the switch the pants colors up.
As a Hokie alum, I’m quite pleased with the update. The maroon jersey reminds me of the late Big East era and the maroon collar on the white jersey reminds me of the early ACC era. The return of the TV numbers is also welcome. Also, I personally hope there’s no full orange jersey, pants, or helmet. Let Clemson and others have that.
These are an upgrade, especially losing those awful shoulder stripes.
The orange sleeve numbers seem a bit out of place. Otherwise, I think these are an improvement on their previous caped look.
The Contrasting sleeve numbers are a throwback to the Michael Vick era, these are basically a modern take on that uniform – which as a VT alum I absolutely love. link
serious question to virginia tech alumni, could the program be succesfull and just be like because the mike vick era was so profound, lets cement that home and away from that era? Would going in on a traditional penn state or alabama uniform counter culture work
Our current head coach was a graduate assistant under Frank Beamer in the mid 90’s and came to us from Penn State, so I think he prefers a classic look. At the same time, we as a university don’t necessarily have the century of winning tradition that a Penn State or Alabama have. So I think this modern take on our most successful era is a perfect blend. I can definitely see us holding on to this set for a while (especially if we get back to winning consistently) and having a one-off/special uniform thrown in here and there, kind of like Ohio State has been doing lately.
Michael Vick is my favourite NFL player of all time, but that doesn’t make the numbers any better for me.
I always loved that when they did it back in the Vick era. Glad it’s back
thank you Kevin for the detailed explanation!
They do look better, though I wish they’d go away from the all-whites. Either go maroon-white-white OR go maroon-white-maroon. I guess I’m not big on the white helmet.
Love the jerseys! Especially the mismatched colors of the TV numbers. It’s a call to the Vick era with a new twist with the Hokie Stone. Once again, please don’t stick with the mono-crap all season. Once or twice a year for big games, I can see. But the maroon jerseys/white pants looked so good years ago.
I like but don’t love these uniforms. I like that the maroon helmets (a) don’t have the stripe and (b) have flecks. That’s what the Hokies should look like! The white helmet is superfluous.
As far as the uniforms, I’ve always liked the Tyrod era uniforms (link below) more than the Vick era uniforms, but these aren’t bad. My biggest complaint is that the Hokie Stone pattern is too busy, but you probably won’t see it on the field. I LOVE Hokie Stone (I have several around my house), but I never think it works well as a uniform element.
link
These were definitely not the uniforms I was expecting to pop up when I read “Tyrod era”, lol. I figured it would’ve been the tail end of the Marcus Vick piping extravaganza look, or that odd side panel/insert look that directly followed. The LSU stripes were never my favorite, but I can respect that it’s a classic look. I consider this makeover an improvement, but I wish they would’ve ditched the curved number font–I’ve always felt like it’s better suited for UVA–but it’s a branding deal for the university, so I get it. Just glad to see Tech finally look like Tech again.
These are definitely an upgrade. Maybe, one day, they will return to to look they had during the Tyrone Drakeford era (mid 90s), which is the era when they looked their best.
Here is what Nike fails to realize.
Most fans don’t want to buy a new gimmick jersey every few years. They want to buy jerseys for the players they like. This is why you always see tons of old jerseys being worn, despite teams changing uniforms.
I would much rather replace the same pattern/style/template/chassis jersey with a different name and number, then buy a jersey thinking it is going to be obsolete in a few years because the uniforms changed
Nike isn’t dictating to Va Tech, or any team, on when to change their uniforms. That’s a school decision.
Especially considering that teams have only been able to sell actual current player jerseys for a couple years, and I’m not sure what stadiums/tailgates MG goes to but alt jerseys and new designs sell. To your point, it’s the main reason some schools shake up their looks often.
Nike (annd every other manufacturer) isn’t dumb, they do it because there’s demand to support it. Most people aren’t going to keep buying the same design with new numbers and names (I’m sure some crazy fans do, but what’s the point of having multiple different bama jerseys that all look the same instead of just one home/away?).
He’ll just look at euro soccer these days, teams get a new design every year. They do it because it works
those numbers… not a fan. just go back to the michael vick era uniforms and call it a day.
As an alum, I am generally pleased. I never liked the old set, so even if I have my nits to pick, they are a significant upgrade. The Hokie Stone thing is a little played out at this point, but I trust it won’t be overly visible. And I don’t think the number font works particularly well here, but it was part of the big Nike “rebrand” in 2016 so I think we are stuck with it for the foreseeable future. But overall, it’s a big upgrade.
Interesting that they are using the older Nike template for a new uni. Personally, that was my favorite template, it had the right amount of stitching to where the front of the jersey didn’t have any weird seams, the triangle collar thing looked good and created a clean, concise spot for the NFL shield/college team logo. Not a fan of the mini-flywire collar look the FUSE template has, but at least it’s not as bad as full blown flywire. I do love the look of the modern Nike templates with the more classic, clean uniforms. I think it’s a good blend of both worlds.
Lol, nevermind, I see it’s the new template after all. I wish I could edit/delete comments on here, lol.
I welcome the orange numbers, but I’ll miss the shoulder stripes.
And please mix these unis up instead of going mono.
I didn’t mind the shoulder stripes, but they were associated with our worst teams in 30 years so they had to go. They will definitely mix-and-match – we historically only go all maroon for big games.
The stripes didn’t have anything to do with the record, though.
I definitely understand that, I’m just saying that the design reminds many fans about an era of VT football they they would love to forget. So many fans reminisce over the 1998-2003 uniforms that this new design is based on not necessarily because it was a good or timeless look, but because they’re what we wore when we went to the national championship game. In many peoples eyes, the best uniform is the winningest one.
I’m glad you and I understand that.
I wish more fans would.
Looks like we’re one of the few that liked the shoulder stripes! I don’t think it would work for most teams but it looked good on VT.
Hype video now available: link
The old white helmet had an orange stripe in the middle with maroon stripes on each side. The new white helmet has the maroon stripe in the middle with orange stripes on each side. Also, the proportions of the stripes are different. The old helmet had a wider center stripe and thinner side stripes, while the new helmet stripes are more similar in thickness.
A distressing lack of orange. I love the number font but not the pattern (so, basically, I like the numbers from last year better- just wish one set was orange). That being said, I’m not a VT alum, so they don’t mean anything special to me like they would for alumni/die-hard fans.
More better than worse.
The Hokie Stone is gimmicky and can’t be seen from the stands or on TV but it is subtle yet present, if that makes sense.
The V-cowl/stripes around the shoulders are gone, which is a win by default.
The mismatched numbers are a nice callback to the days of Mike Vick and Beamerball, a little touch that brings more than it should.
As bespoke fonts go, this one is legible and not overwrought, Hokie Stone notwithstanding. Better than what Nike did for UVA.
There’s enough orange with the maroon that I don’t think it needs any more. VT has such a unique color palette, I would leave this as is and call it a day.
Huge improvement. These look so much more vivid. The old ones were very drab.
The old collar striping might have looked good in some initial concept art but it didn’t work in execution on the field.
The new outlined numbers pop much better and I like the return to the orange sleeve numbers. Reminds me of the ones Vick wore (though obviously with an updated font). The hokiestone is gimmicky but you’re not going to really notice on TV unless they do closeups and the light catches it just right. I think a detail like that will make the players feel like they’re wearing something special.
Getting a little annoying that every new veiling is double and triple mono-unis.
You can still have symmetry when the jersey matches the socks and the helmets match the pants. Not to mention symmetry among the striping on a helmet, sleeves, pants AND socks.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the minimalist look by taking away all the little garbage things on the jerseys. But come on, let’s mix and match some colors again.
I think and hope that these unveilings are just to show the possible options and leave the viewer to mix and match the items in their head. Some of these schools would need dozens of kids to model every permutation of helmet, face mask, jersey and pants.
Anyone have any idea when these may be available to buy?