Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers! I hope everyone had a pleasant Wednesday.
A little less than a week after unveiling a new black helmet for the 2024 season, the Washington Huskies have followed that up with the unveiling of a new black jersey.
Even by college football standards, this has been an odd rollout. When the team unveiled the new black helmet (by itself) last week, I noted UW’s past history with black helmets and remarked that they had always been paired with black uniforms. At the time, I suggested it was likely a new black uniform was coming. Well, we can probably still expect new black pants, but the team chose 1) not to unveil them at this time and 2) the new jerseys weren’t released by the the team via dimly lit hype video with lots of quick cuts. In fact, at least to my knowledge, the team hasn’t produced a jersey hype video at all.
In another odd move, the team didn’t unveil the jerseys by showing them on players, but rather, have released a series of photos of what would more appropriately be termed fashion jerseys, since they’re retail versions and not in specific “football” cuts.
Let’s take a look.
Like the helmet, the jersey is black (and although it’s not confirmed we can surmise there will be a pair of black pants to go along with the jerseys). It features rather large block font numbers, rendered in gold, on the jersey front. The team will be playing in the B1G Conference for the foreseeable future, so it has the conference logo and maker’s mark on either side of the chest, above the number. On the base of the collar is the team’s purple “W” logo, outlined in gold. It replicates the logo shown on the new helmet.
Since this is a fashion jersey, it has actual sleeves, and upon those sleeves are stripes with a purple/gold/purple gold pattern, which mimics the striping on the helmet. I’m hoping that when (if) the new black pants are unveiled, they will also have this striping pattern.
The back of the jersey isn’t shown, but it is likely the NOB will be in a block gold font, and the numbers will be in the same style as seen on the front.
While the jersey (thankfully) does have TV numbers, rather than following the solid gold pattern seen on the front, these are “ghosted,” meaning they are black with a gold outline. While they are easy to discern here, I’m wondering how well they’ll actually show up on the field.
In case you didn’t click on the link at the top of this story, I’ll repeat what I said about the BFBS helmet/uni history here.
This is not the first time the Huskies have done BFBS. In 2013, they wore a BFBS uniform, including a black helmet, against Oregon (it was almost a Spy vs. Spy game).
That helmet was a matte finish with purple/gold stripes that truncated from front to back, and those helmets had the same purple/gold decal as the 2024 BFBS helmet.
In 2014 and 2015, they kept the same black matte shell but removed the stripes, wearing those helmets with a BFBS uniform.
They kept the same helmet and uniform for a 2016 game against USC, but swapped out the purple/gold decal for a Stars & Stripes decal.
They would dabble with some black accents on their purple helmets in 2018-19 (so BFBS although the helmet wasn’t black), which included a black “W” decal and black facemask.
And once again, in 2020, the team would wear another black helmet. In a game against Arizona, they’d introduce an all-new BFBS uniform to pair with the helmet. The helmet was again matte black with a purple/gold “W” decal. There were no stripes on the helmet.
So that’s their prior history with a black hat. In every case, they’ve worn a black uniform with it, so it’s at least likely (if not certain) that the team will pair the helmet with a BFBS uni. While the new helmet isn’t the first one with stripes, it is the first black helmet with the purple/gold/purple center stripe and a metallic gold cage.
Having now seen the jersey — and assuming the pants will not be solid black, but will have a stripe matching that on the helmet and the jersey sleeve (caps), this could be UW’s best-looking BFBS uniform. As you can see above, their previous looks either had purple numbers (hard to read) or, when they actually used white numbers, had plain black pants. Yes, it’s still BFBS, but if we are to rate it as just a uniform, it might be pretty decent looking on the field.
Honestly, UW has two really solid uniforms with their gold/purple/gold home classics and their gold/white/purple roads. Even when they go gold/purple/purple or gold/white/white, they still look good (and they Look Like The Huskies).
I know the kids and recruits (and probably many of the fans) like the BFBS look — and as I say, these uniforms aren’t designed to appeal to me. But for a school that went to the Natty last year, I’d wish they’d keep the alternate looks (and especially the BFBS) to an absolute minimum.
The team has not announced if or when the new uniforms will be worn, but let’s hope it’s just once and for a themed “blackout” game where fans can don all their black gear and pack the stadium.
Your thoughts?
How long is it going to be before we see Notre Dame or Penn State in all black uniforms? LOL
I can’t decide if BFBS or WFWS is the pumpkin spice of the uniform world.
GTGFTS
Game 4 1957 World Series
Down to the Yanks’ last out, Elston Howard homers of Warren Spahn to send the game to extras.
New York then takes the lead in the 10th after a Hank Bauer triple scores Tony Kubek.
Milwaukee reties the game when Johnny Logan doubles home Felix Mantilla. Eddie Mathews is the next batter up and ends the game with a homer to deep right to tie the Series at 2 and earn Spahn the complete game win.
Braves go on to win the Series in 7.
Ahh, black & khaki. What a beautiful combo.
What a dud.
GTGFTU looks like the 9/24/61 game from Pitt Stadium between the New York Giants & Pittsburgh Steelers. Giants won 17-14. The Steelers have numbers on their helmets, which were eliminated the next year with the introduction of the U.S. Steel logo on only one side which remains to this day. Looks like three Hall Of Famers in the picture too, Bobby Layne & John Henry Johnson of Pittsburgh & Sam Huff of the New York Giants.
I know it’s not popular among uni-watch regulars but Washington has been wearing black jerseys since at least 2010. Which means any current player would just assume it’s part of their rather standard look. Feels a bit to me like the Cardinals wearing powder blue on the road through the 80’s. I never once thought it was odd as a kid born in 1985.
Yeah, I think the solid black trend could be compared to the powder blue trend of MLB in the 80’s. I may be wrong, but I think the White Sox were the first to have powder blues? I think they did starting in 1964?
It’s just such an unattractive combo of colors and design IMHO. Black and gold (or tan?), looks fine, Purple and gold/tan, looks fine, but together, especially with black being primary, it’s just… fugly.
Love how the fans are dressed in that old NY-MIL photo. What a concept. A group of well-dressed adults. No clowns geared out in XXXL jerseys and facepaint.
Could be a big day for CFB uni releases/leaks. The CFB 25 video game just got a major update, so a lot of uniforms just got added, perhaps some that haven’t been released by the schools yet.
I wish. They put a list of the uniforms added and they’re still missing A LOT of the new uniforms. They seem to be pretty behind on adding uniforms.
Am I imagining this, or is there perhaps a new mini-trend of “TV numbers that don’t color match the front/back numbers”? I first noticed it with the latest Virginia Tech uniforms that had orange sleeve numbers, while the primaries were maroon or white.
I can’t for the life of me think of any previous examples (excepts perhaps on yoked jerseys). For what it’s worth, I actually think it’s kind of nice. Especially in a generation where TV numbers seem to be disappearing, it’s nice to see some designs trying to find ways to bring something new to the table.
VaTech is throwing it back to the late 90’s with the contrasting TV numbers. Mike Vick era.
Wear these with the purple and gold pants
This black jersey looks like it shouldn’t have made it out of the design phase.
The versions they previously used with purple numbers outlined in gold looked way better. (The ones with white numbers just look like TCU knockoffs.)
I’m wondering if the on field versions will use the shiny gold like the “Husky Royalty” set (only without the purple outline) and the replicas use the dull khaki gold (like what Under Armour did with Notre Dame’s “Blue Gray Sky” replica jerseys). Shiny gold will look better but won’t entirely fix the problems.
Also, and this isn’t limited to the black jersey, the number font UW has been using is terrible. If it’s going to be that close to standard athletic block font, just use standard athletic block font. The very slight angles on some of the corners of the 2 (and other numbers that would have rounded edges) just look sloppy, especially on the field when they just make it look like the jersey is oddly tailored or the numbers are sewn/printed somewhat askew.
I thought black alternates were really cool in the mid-1990s. Now they just look boring and uninspired.
This one is fine, I guess. I like it better than the 2013 version with the superfluous piping that was legally required at the time.
Whatever.
Please never, ever again use the term “Natty” as a shortened dorm National. It’s just awful and sounds so “Frat Boy”. And it makes me think back to basketball coach at Iowa State (?), that was caught partying at the sorority drinking some natty ice. So please, never, ever again!