Designing Colby College Football’s New Uniforms

Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday. We made it.

Once again, my deepest thanks to Paul and the UW crew for their assistance this week, and to all you fine readers for all your kind thoughts. It is greatly appreciated.

Today I’m joined by long-time reader and uniform designer Sawyer Busny. You may recall Paul featured Sawyer’s design work last May, when he took us through his men’s lacrosse jersey designs for the Colby College Mules. But his true dream was to design the uniforms for the Mules’ football team. That’s about to become a reality this fall, when Sawyer’s football designs will make their debut on field!

(As an aside, some of you readers know I graduated from Hamilton College, which was then, and still is, one of Colby’s football rivals in the New England Small College Athletic Conference — NESCAC — so that made this article even more interesting!)

Here now is Sawyer to take you through his entire design process. I think you’re going to really enjoy this one!

• • • • •Designing Colby College Football’s New Uniforms
by Sawyer Busny

I love uniforms. Especially football uniforms.

Since my freshman year at Colby College, I’ve been sketching, designing, and photoshopping new concepts for Colby Football (and countless other teams). I walked onto the team in 2021, and while I’ve loved playing the game, I’ve also been just as obsessed with the aesthetics of it – the way a team looks when it steps onto the field.

Over the last four years, outside of football and my studies, I worked across Colby Athletics helping to build out the brand, creating social media content, designing graphics, posters, banners, t-shirts, and even tournament brackets. But uniform design was always my true passion. I have been extremely grateful to have the opportunity to design uniforms across Colby and the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Designing football uniforms was always my dream, and for a long time, Colby Football’s uniforms were nothing special.

The Adidas sets we wore were loose-fitting, lacked any real identity, and featured a small, hard-to-read wordmark and tiny numbers that even made it hard for fans to follow who was on the field. My teammates would complain every year, “We need new uniforms.” I agreed. And while we waited, I kept working, refining my skills, and building concept after concept, just in case the opportunity ever came.

__________Pitching the Idea

That opportunity came right after my senior season. One week after our final game, the conversation about new uniforms officially started and I was ready.

I put together a full pitch presentation for our coaching staff. I outlined the issues with our current uniforms, compared us to the rest of the NESCAC (where nearly every other team had upgraded their look), and proposed a set of goals for what Colby’s next uniform set should look like:

• A uniform that stands out in the conference

• Legible numbers for fans and stream viewers

• More Colby branding across the jersey

• A look that players feel good wearing

I also showed how we could accomplish this: consistent striping, larger wordmarks and numbers, unique Mule logos, and even helmet decal options. My goal was to make sure Colby had a look that players felt confident wearing every Saturday as well as being attractive to recruits.

__________The Under Armour Call

Thanksgiving break had just started when I got a text from a rep at a third-party company that works directly with major uniform manufacturers. These types of reps essentially act as a bridge between schools and companies like Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour, making the process smoother.

The rep told me that, in his opinion, Under Armour was the best fit for us not only from a branding and performance standpoint, but also logistically. Their availability, pricing, and customization process fit exactly what we needed. They were also offering their new uniform chassis: the ARMR 037, the same uniform used by Notre Dame. Our equipment manager (who I’d worked closely with throughout the process) shared this belief.

A week later, I was on a Zoom call with the third-party rep and a representative from Under Armour. We talked through every detail: lead times, design feasibility, color matching, the number of jerseys and pants, and what our financial limitations were.

One of the more surreal moments was screen-sharing mockups I had created and walking the UA rep through the reasons behind each element: why we wanted TV numbers, why we needed a larger “COLBY” wordmark, and how the silver pants would tie back to our metallic silver helmets.

Click here to view the presentation.

Because I’d earned trust from my coaches over time both as a player and as someone who’d taken on a lot of creative responsibilities for the program, I was allowed to spearhead the design side of things. It’s not every day that a student-athlete gets to present uniform specs to a national brand rep, but it was a conversation I had unknowingly prepared for over the last four years.

__________Breaking Down the Deck

The presentation I gave to our coaching staff was something I had quietly worked on for months. Titled “Colby Football Uniform Redesign 2025,” the deck laid out exactly what I believed needed to change and how to fix it.

Here’s what it covered:

The Problems:

Right up front, I listed four main issues with our current uniforms:

• Minimal Striping – No visual identity

• No Consistency – Different elements clashing across jersey/pants/helmet

• Small Wordmark – “COLBY” barely noticeable

• Small Numbers – Hard to read, especially in photos and live streams

The Goals:

Then came the core design principles:

• Create a unique identity within the NESCAC

• Be immediately recognizable on the field

• Improve visibility for fans and media

• Prioritize player comfort and pride

NESCAC Uniform Research:

I broke down every other team in our conference by brand, year of last update, and style. Nearly every other program had been upgraded since 2022 with several having three full uniforms and mixing in unique striping or logo placement. This comparison helped drive home the point that Colby was falling behind.

Solutions:

I offered actionable suggestions to meet each goal:

• Sleeve striping to create identity

• Larger fonts for the wordmark and numbers

• Custom patches (e.g. NESCAC logo)

• Mule branding and helmet decal options

• More combinations to give the team flexibility

There were also uniform mockups for home, away, and a future alternate plus potential helmet tweaks like a side Mule logo or a “Colby C” rear decal.

__________Making It Happen

After a couple of weeks of back and forth, the decision was made: we would order home and away jerseys, along with silver pants, for the 2025 season. Then, in 2026, we’d add an alternate jersey and two more pant options to expand our mix-and-match capabilities.

This was a big change. From 2019 to 2024, Colby Football only wore blue and white, and the silver pants (which matched our helmets) had basically disappeared. We’re bringing them back in 2025 and it’s a nod to both the past and the future of our look.

Some elements from my original concept didn’t make the final cut. The Mule logo on the back collar was removed to cut costs. And TV numbers were taken off because our coaches felt they would clash with the helmet numbers. That’s part of the process; compromise happens. Additionally, by conference rule, the NESCAC logo can only be green or white, so the patch on the white uniform is green. But I’m still incredibly proud of how the final product turned out.

__________The Final Design

The final design is clean, bold, and unmistakably Colby. It features:

• A larger, bolder “COLBY” across the chest

• Consistent striping on the sleeves and pants

• Larger numbers for clarity and legibility

• A classic silver pant with modern tailoring

• Room for future alternates and brand elements

Even with the changes, the DNA of the original concept is intact. The new look feels like a proper identity for our team, something that connects players, fans, and recruits.

__________Reflection

To have been trusted with something this meaningful during my senior year, and to see it all come to life for next season, has been incredible. I am so grateful to my coaches for the opportunity as well as our equipment manager. And when the Mules run out in 2025, they’ll do so looking like a team with a brand. This was by far the coolest project I’ve gotten to work on at Colby and I can’t wait to watch them in action next season.

• • • • •Thanks Sawyer! Wow, this is fantastic — and what an outstanding job you’re done!!! And what’s even better is that when it comes to uniforms, you totally Get It­™. Hopefully when football season in the NESCAC starts up, you can rejoin us once the uniforms hit the field for real.

Readers? What say you? I’m sure you have some questions or thoughts, so please let him know down in the comments below.