The Virginia Tech Hokies, who earlier this year had introduced two really nice new uniforms (one white and one maroon), have now completed the trifecta, if you will, introducing a new set of orange uniforms, and they will debut those this evening when they play Boston College.
Boston College 07 | 10.17.24
Celebrating 30 years of Thursday Night Football in Blacksburg 🎉#ThisIsHome | #OrangeEffect pic.twitter.com/x6Q93BwMEW
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) October 16, 2024
Naturally, the new uniforms were accompained by a short short hype video:
Wait, did you guys want Orange unis? 🤔#ThisIsHome | #OrangeEffect pic.twitter.com/OKkloQiNIe
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) October 16, 2024
Let’s take a look at the details.
Both the jersey and pants are bright orange. They will pair the new uniform with their previously unveiled white helmet.
The jersey is solid orange, with the ACC logo on the right upper chest, the Hokie Bird logo at the base of the collar, and the maker’s mark on the opposite chest. “VIRGINIA TECH” is written in white in the University’s bespoke font, and beneath the wordmark is the jersey number. The number font is also bespoke and rendered in white, with a “hokie stone” pattern (similar to that on the maroon and white jerseys). The white number is outlined in orange and maroon.
Like the white and maroon jerseys, these feature TV numbers in contrasting color on the sleeve caps. The orange jersey’s numbers are maroon, outlined in orange and white.
The jersey back has NOB in white block lettering, with the player number in the same style as on the front of the shirt.
Like the jersey, the pants are stripeless and solid orange. They feature “HOKIES” in white on the right hip and a maker’s mark on the left side.
This, too, is consistent with the style of the white and maroon pants.
As part of the post on X, Virginia Tech included the hashtag #OrangeEffect, which is in reference to the four “effect games” announced by the school this season. Earlier this season, the team had a “White Effect” game against Rutgers, and tonight’s game will be the “Orange Effect” game. The team will have a “Maroon Effect” game against Georgia Tech the Saturday after this, and then finally a “Stripe Effect” game in November against Clemson. The “effect games” refer to the color the Hokies are asking fans to wear during the select games. According to the school,
Hokie Effect is a program through the Undergraduate Student Senate (USS) that designs and sells spirit shirts for football and basketball games at Virginia Tech. The Hokie Effect games encourage fans to wear a certain color in order to show school spirit and create a blanketed color effect throughout the stadium. The best way to do this is to wear the Hokie Effect t-shirt. The purchase of a single Hokie Effect shirt helps fund student-athlete initiatives and the undergraduate student government.
The intent is similar to other colleges who “stripe the stadium” to produce different colors for different sections. The Orange Effect hopes to have most of the attendees wearing orange.
While I prefer the new uniforms to the previous set, it would have been nice for some striping somewhere, but I do like them. In fact, when the maroon and white uniforms were unveiled, I stated then:
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.
And indeed they have. I also love the shade of orange the Hokies use, but thankfully it’s contained to the jersey and pants. Pairing these with the white helmets is a good call. And since the new orange uniforms follow the same pattern as the maroon and white, I am hopeful they will mix and match the orange pants and jerseys with the maroon and white uniforms (as has been done previously). Although the Hokies have bucked the recent trend of adding proper striping, not every team must have stripes. Maroon and orange is an excellent (if underrated) color combo, and orange is one of my favorite colors, so naturally I like what they’ve done here. I’m looking forward to seeing them on the gridiron this evening!
Your thoughts?
White helmet trend getting old and clashes with this. Rather see the burgundy lid. Unless a team has traditional white helmet and I rather not see it
I tend to agree about teams sticking to one color helmet (especially Virginia Tech and their maroon helmet!), but I actually think it looks too busy with maroon-orange-orange. Yes, these uniforms are SO much better than the current ones, but you get the idea.
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This uniform is fun for Orange Effect, but I don’t intrinsically like it. The lack of a pant stripe looks especially naked with the orange pants. With that being said, it’s acceptable as a one off. I do think that orange looks better with a white helmet as opposed to a maroon lid. A small detail that I like: the Hokie head logo in the collar! The maroon and white versions have a “VT” logo on the collar.
P.S. – I’m so happy that you did a full article on this uniform!
Yet another mono-combo….. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can go with the “no pant striping” due to fact that back when this uniform design was in place during the Vick era, they didn’t have pant striping. But every new uniform combo coming out being mono is just tiresome.
Love the collar logo, but I don’t like white/orange/orange pairing.
Collar logo is great!!!!!!!!!
Looks too much like the Miami Hurricanes’ orange duds.
LET’S GO!
HOKIES!!!
Now they need to have a game wearing the maroon helmet, white jersey, and orange pants. That should be a good look
Orange mono, looks like an orange popsicle. You know, the ones no one wanted to eat.
Or maybe, the Candy Corn/Harvest Corn look, depending upon who is wearing it.
VT alum here, I like them. Overall I prefer the no-text-on-chest format of the maroon and white jerseys, but I don’t mind them changing it up for an alternate. And the turkey logo on the collar is nice touch. Not a big fan of mono but whattaya gonna do.
What is the history behind Va Tech’s TV numbers being orange (or in this case maroon) while the main front and back numbers are white?
It is a nice little quirk for them, is there a reason for it?
It’s something they did back in the Michael Vick era, although I don’t know whether there was any particular reason for it then.
Not bad but it needs striping on the pants to match the helmet in a way. White pants with identical striping to the helmet would have been perfect.