Good Morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it! Welcome to the start of the Labor Day weekend — I hope everyone has a safe and fruitful one.
We’ve known since January that the Colorado Buffaloes would have new uniforms this year, but — in really, what is almost shocking these days — the team did not unveil their uniforms before their game last evening against North Dakota State. No unveiling. No hype video. Nothing.
I guess Coach Prime really is kicking it old school. For those too young to remember, there was a time in the not too distant past when teams would get new uniforms every couple of years, and you wouldn’t know it until they took the field for their first game of the season. But in this social media driven society in which we now find ourselves, not unveiling a uniform prior to its debut is almost unheard of.
Well…not quite. Technically the Buffs did release a hype video, but it was created as the team was coming out of the tunnel for last night’s game. And it focuses exclusively on the new jersey and helmet.
Take a closer look 🥶#GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/ILzT6MSXzm
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) August 29, 2024
So let’s take a more in-depth look at the new uniforms.
As you can see in the video, the black helmet now has a white facemask. It is highly glossy, and has the CU Buffs logo in a metallic gold finish on the sides. And since the video focused on the sleeve caps, you can see those now feature Boulder’s Flatirons, which are the reddish-brown sandstone formations that make up a portion of Boulder’s foothills on the west side of town.
I am not normally a fan of a design on a sleeve cap, but I think the rendering of the Flatirons here is tremendous. It doesn’t overpower the sleeve, but it’s also actually visible at some distance. And the graphic is very well done. It would be a shame if they tried to repeat that somewhere else on the uniform.
The jersey is solid black, and on the front, there are the (new) Big XII conference logo and interlocking CU logo, both in black and outlined in gold. The maker’s mark is white. Beneath the logos, “COLORADO” is spelled out in large white letters, while the numbers are a reflective gold, outlined in white. The jerseys have the Flatirons on the sleeve caps, and TV numbers are on the shoulders (also in reflective gold outlined in white).
If you look a bit more closely at the first photo from the two directly above, you’ll notice there is a white “D” above the maker’s mark. Players on Coach Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes can receive either a “D” or an “L” on their uniforms. This started when Sanders took over as HC last season, and the “D” stands for “Dog(s)” and the “L” is for “Leader(s).” Should you require more information on the “D” and “L” designations, feel free to click here.
The rear of the jersey features player NOB in block white lettering, which sits atop some giant rear numbers (Right now, Jim Vilk is preparing to do a a strikethru to change to “properly sized”). Those numbers follow the style and pattern of the front and TV numbers, which are also composed of a reflective gold number.
Unfortunately, almost none of the still photos I’ve seen actually show just how shiny/reflective the numbers are. This one photo below is the best one I’ve found. But I watched most of the game and I can assure you, they are quite reflecive.
In the shots you’ve seen so far, the pants appear to be solid black. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the case. If we zoom in on the sides of the pants, we notice the Flatiron pattern that looks so good on the sleeve caps is repeated on the pants, almost the entire length of the pants, and rendered vertically. Ugh.
The whole point of the graphic is to depict the Flatirons horizontally, as they might appear, ya know, in a vista. Of course, the problem gets solved if the player is sitting.
For most of the time they’re on the field, though, the players aren’t sitting. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a graphic used both so well and so poorly on the same uniform. If there is any good news about the pants graphics, it’s that they are visible, but not jarringly so, on the field and in action. If you didn’t know what the graphic depicts, you couldn’t tell when players were in motion.
SHEDEUR TO JIMMY HORN JR. FOR A 69-YARD TOUCHDOWN 😱 pic.twitter.com/0obguiDY6K
— ESPN (@espn) August 30, 2024
In tight video shots (as seen at the end of the play below), the Flatirons graphics are visible, but they don’t actually look as bad as you might think. But still, this feature seems like one they could have dropped in favor of stripeless black pants (a prospect I don’t take lightly).
SHEDEUR SANDERS TO TRAVIS HUNTER FOR SIX 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Kbl5F95luX
— ESPN (@espn) August 30, 2024
You can also get a sense in that video of just how reflective the numbers are.
More photos here.
From the waist up, this is a fantastic new uniform. I’m not terribly enthused about the metallic numbers, but they worked well, especially since they can be seen from the moon. The “COLORADO” wordmark, a holdover from the previous set, is still too big, but they’ve had it for a while now, so I’m kind of used to it. But I really REALLY like the depiction of the Flatirons on the sleeve caps. Note to the Denver Broncos: THIS is how you show mountains. Unfortunately, the designers took it a tad too far by including that design on the pants legs. Remove that, and this one is a really great uniform. I still like it, but with just a couple tweaks, it goes from pretty great to really great.
In 2023, the Buffaloes wore different combinations of old uniforms and some very basic new looks, but the team hasn’t had a full set of new uniforms since 2015. The Buffaloes have been in black, silver or white tops with those three colors and gold as pants colors. So this year the team will have at least a new road uniform and likely some alternates. The uniforms worn last night were our first look at any of the new uniforms for the season. I’m sure the SMUW guys will keep a look out for any and all future uniform debuts.
Your thoughts?
I believe Colorado was playing North Dakota State
They key to evaluating these unis is not whether they look good when a player is standing, running, or sitting down, but whether they look good in that fraction of a second they flash before my eyes as I change the channel to see who else is playing.
Nailed it. Jerseys looked good, pants looked busy.
As a buff fan and faculty member I’m meh about the new duds. Deon promised new unis and I thought we’d see something really new. I love the sleeves, but the uni is not cohesive, it’s like they threw a couple of different designs together with no sense of the whole.
“Right now, Jim Vilk is preparing to do a a strikethru to change to “properly sized””
Lol!
Properly sized numbers, white facemasks popping on a black helmet… very nice, Buffaloes.
What does the s2s stand for? Assuming one (if not both) of the s’s stands for Sanders.
“In his [Lance Carl, Director of Player Development] new role, he immediately created the S2S (shoulder-to-shoulder) mentoring program, matching freshmen and redshirt freshmen student-athletes with local and national local football alumni. This unique undertaking has been developed, among several reasons, but most notably to provide guidance, direction, support and increased access to opportunities beyond the playing field, to improve the transition experience for the younger Buffs and introduces and establishes a deeper connection to the tradition and history of CU football.”
Shoulder to Shoulder
S2S stands for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” and is a mentoring program for the Buffs. The program matches freshmen and redshirt freshmen student-athletes with local and national football alumni. (Lance Carl, a football coach at the University of Colorado, created the program.)
I didn’t mention it specifically for this article because they’ve worn it on the nose bumper before link
Those Flatirons make me want to find an old Atari Battlezone arcade game! link
I didn’t realize, until I saw the sleeve caps last night, that Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is located in Boulder, Colorado. I thought he tried to keep that a secret.
I was thinking of Tempest.
Takes me back!
To each their own. I don’t like the sleeve or pants pattern at all, and as is always the case, had they paired this with gold pants, it would be so much more attractive.
Old man comment #2: One game in, and I’m already sick of the “Coach PRIME” BS. He has an f-ing name.
“Prime” is just as much a name as is “Dabo.”
Except “Dabo” is a nickname he’s had most of his life, and I don’t recall hearing “Coach Dabo”. Prime is his self-bestowed moniker from adulthood. Maybe that’s splitting hairs, but…
colorado is the coolest football team right now.
Leave it to Deion to take a great set of uniforms and ruin them. Those last night were awful from head to toe.
Love the Flatirons on the sleeves. And the fact they managed to do it without them looking like lightening bolts instead… Take note Broncos!
I was prepared to gripe about the fad of every Utah and Colorado team adopting mountains as a theme, but these actually look nice. Not upset about the sideways mountain range on the pants, it’s an artistic motif, not a photo of actual mountains.
Deion needs to throw it back to 1990 with this beautiful set. link
You presume that any uniform manufacturer can successfully produce shiny pants these days. Sigh.
I think you’re being too hard on the pants design. I don’t think it’s Hey, look at the sideways mountains on our legs, but just continuing the slick look on the shoulders. I thought it looked pretty cool in action. Didn’t distract and even added some balance. Much better than plain black pants, and just a little touch of new instead of stripes. White facemask and shiny numbers looked excellent, too.
Coach Prime had the Flatirons on his headset! I thought that was a nice touch.
GTGFTU: Seattle Mariners vs Milwaukee Brewers June 25, 2010
Final score: SEA: 3, MIL: 8 at Miller Park
Love the Flatirons design! Having climbed them, would love to get that design on a T-shirt.
Nothing too impressive about these uniforms. The only positive is a matte helmet isn’t being used. The gold helmet/black jersey/gold pants with stripes look way better.
Slightly modern twist on classic Colorado uniforms. Assuming a gold helmet and pants are part of the overall set I think it’s a solid upgrade.
The mountains look like Atari Asteroids. Another all black uni. Blah.
Colorado had some of the nicest uniforms in college football before 2015 when they decided to start messing with them. That was a big downgrade. These are basically a lateral move from the set they are replacing.
A huge improvement! These look great. As long as they don’t wear Guardian Caps…
I don’t like how the white trim competes with the black/gold scheme.
I do like the idea of what they’ve got on the shoulders, which is possibly more successful than the Broncos take on the idea, but I still think it could have been executed better and I do not like the orientation on the pants.
There’s a thing in Geographic Information Systems called TIN (triangular area networks), which is a way of rendering three-dimensional elevation surfaces using a mosaic of triangles. It looks like they’ve approached that here, but having the mosaic made up only of triangles would look much better, rather than a mixture of polygons as they’ve done here.
I said this about Colorado State’s uniforms, but for these teams putting mountains on their stuff, I’d like to see less generic mountain peaks and more specific peaks that actually exist in the area, although they’ve made at least some attempt to replicate the characteristics of the Flatirons at least.
CU has classic gold/black/gold uniforms that are so good, it’s hard to really improve on them, especially that helmet.
GTGFTS:
League Championship Series Game 3 Played on Monday, October 18, 2021 (N) at Fenway Park
Boston 12
Houston 3