You’ll recall in July, the University of Hawai’i (UH) and Uni Watch partnered on a contest to design a special edition uniform for the Rainbow Wahine Basketball Program. The winner will receive a cash prize of $1,500, roundtrip airfare for one to Honolulu and accommodations, for the basketball game slated for January 25, where the winning design will be worn and showcased to hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.
Following the submissions, UH narrowed the competition to eight finalists:
If you’d like to see all the submissions, I will link to them as they appeared on UW.
To see the submissions of Part I, Click Here
To see the submissions of Part II, Click Here.
To see the submissions of Part III, Click Here.
To see the submissions of Part IV, Click Here.
To see the submissions of Part V, Click Here.
To see the submissions of Part VI, Click Here.
The University of Hawai’i has finally announced the winner: Isaac Daggett from Colorado Springs, whose “sUHrf City” design was selected from more than 125 entries submitted from over 20 states and five countries.
The uniform design will be showcased by the Rainbow Wahine during “Beeman’s Bigger Bash,” scheduled for January 25, 2025 as UH will wear the uniforms in their game against UC Irvine.
The event, themed around O’ahu’s famous surfing spots near the UH Manoa campus, will feature a jersey auction to benefit the women’s basketball program. The athletics department also hopes to set a new attendance record for a women’s basketball game that night.
Laura Beeman, the Head Coach of the Women’s Basketball Team, said, “We never imagined the jersey design contest would attract so much attention. Thank you to Uni Watch for your support and all the fans for your submissions and passion. We are incredibly excited to wear the winning design on January 25th and invite all the entrants from around the world to join us and celebrate.”
Eric Mathews, Director of Marketing and Fan Experience, added, “We’re ecstatic about the turnout for our Aloha Spirit Uniform Collection – Fan Edition – contest especially with it centered around women’s basketball. Beeman’s Bigger Bash on January 25th will be a memorable night as the team wears these uniforms, along with so many fun plans for the night, including a bobblehead giveaway featuring head coach Laura Beeman. The University of Hawai‘i has a reputation amongst fans across the world of being ‘cool’ and we’re doing everything we can to live up to that and being trendsetters in the industry.”
Big congratulations go out to Isaac Daggett for his winning design.
Isaac has been a long-time Uni Watch reader, currently an undecided freshman at the University of Wyoming, and notes that UW has “great content, and it allowed me to explore creativity across the industry. I’ve always been interested in graphic design and have been drawing logos and uniforms for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until the last couple of years, when I was gifted a graphic design program, that I started creating logos and designs with a more professional appearance.”
About his design, Isaac said, “I’ve always loved surfboard design and striping, and I thought a surfboard theme fit perfectly with Hawai’i. I was partially inspired by the LA Angels City Connect uniforms, which have a similar stripe on one side. Creating the arched ‘Hawai’i’ script from scratch was a bit challenging. I didn’t have much experience with lettering, so it was a new and difficult, but fun, process.”
When notified his concept was selected as the winning design, Isaac said, “I was really excited. I had low expectations coming in—it was just something I did for fun—so winning was surreal. My dad and I always talk about what we’d do if we could design uniforms, so to actually have a design chosen is pretty awesome.”
Once again, a big congratulations to Isaac! I also want to thank every entrant for their participation, and to all the readers for offering their feedback. This was a really great contest, and I hope to partner with UH again. And I’d also once again like to express my deep thanks to KC Smurthwaite, who has served as the point-person for this entire contest, and who originally approached Uni Watch with the idea to team up. Thanks, KC!
Once the uniform has been created, we’ll feature it on Uni Watch, and of course, will follow up with UH and Isaac following the January 25th game!
Isaac’s was my fave too. Congratulations to all Isaac, UW, UH and all the participants for a really cool effort and partnership on making all this happen
Love this design! Can’t wait to see it in action.
I purposely scrolled slow so I wouldn’t see the winner. I pondered and thought Isaac’s was the best submission out of the many great ones. Congrats Issac!!!
*Isaac smh I shouldn’y Uniwatch while working lol
That’s awesome! Way to go, Issac!
Congrats Isaac! Great uni!!
Congratulations, Isaac! You are living the dream.
Not surrprised that this was the winner. We’re in an era of extreme minimalism in uniform design, and most of the other finalists harkened back to the 90’s when basketball uniforms were allowed to be fun.
Congrats on this well-deserved honor, Isaac!
Once again, great work Isaac… but THANK YOU to the UW community for making this a success!
The contest was fun to participate in and to follow. Congrats Isaac! The arched script Hawaii is a classic as is the rainbow and you got them both in! And Phil, what a great Uni Watch achievement. Will be checking out the UH women online and maybe in some EspnU on cable.
Congrats Isaac!! Fantastic work
Tremendous Isaac, enjoy your success!
Great job! Good looking design, nice and simple yes, but that doesn’t have to be a negative.
Congrats Isaac!!! Also, congrats Phil love what you are doing with the site.
Thanks pcjames!
Such an amazing contest!!! Congrats Isaac!!!
Good winning design, congrats to Isaac. Next step: have the man’s team wear a version of this design as well.
Great submissions by all and congratulations Isaac on your winning design!
Awesome! Isaac’s was my fave.