2014 uniforms

TheSilasSonRising

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Many have implied & said that it helps recruiting, attracts better S/As, etc.

So if true, and we have benefitted from this theory, Heaven help us.

I personally just care about the record first and foremost.
 
Atomic Jacket

Atomic Jacket

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Mediocrity breeds uniform discussions. There, I said it. There is a psychological reason that uniforms become a hot topic at Georgia Tech, and that reason is that the team is perpetually mediocre. When a team is excellent, and maintains that excellence over many seasons, fans do not want the uniform to change. The uniform becomes symbolic of the excellence they see in performance on the field. You do not see fans of the upper tier SEC and Big Ten teams clamoring for uniform changes or quibbling over details. These fans will tolerate "special" uniforms on occasion, but the normal uniform should look very close to what they've seen for years. Yes, I know someone will point out Oregon. The west coast mentality is different, and you have to understand that culture. But for the rest of the country, what I say rings true.

Fans of teams that are mediocre subconsciously project their desire for change in the performance of the team onto the uniform. If the uniforms look different, they don't remind the fans of the history of disappointments. They symbolize a fresh start, an new beginning, an erasure of the past. Details take on an exaggerated importance. If the team could just get the shade of gold correct, they subconsciously believe, then the team would get its act together. If the stripes were angled just so... if the numeric font was tweaked just a bit... then the team would be hammering out championships right and left.

I have to chuckle every time I see a uniform discussion or hear a fan begin ranting about uniforms. I know what's going on in the mind of the fan, and in a way, it's kind of pathetic.
 
jeffgt14

jeffgt14

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Atomic Jacket said:
Mediocrity breeds uniform discussions. There, I said it. There is a psychological reason that uniforms become a hot topic at Georgia Tech, and that reason is that the team is perpetually mediocre. When a team is excellent, and maintains that excellence over many seasons, fans do not want the uniform to change. The uniform becomes symbolic of the excellence they see in performance on the field. You do not see fans of the upper tier SEC and Big Ten teams clamoring for uniform changes or quibbling over details. These fans will tolerate "special" uniforms on occasion, but the normal uniform should look very close to what they've seen for years. Yes, I know someone will point out Oregon. The west coast mentality is different, and you have to understand that culture. But for the rest of the country, what I say rings true.

Fans of teams that are mediocre subconsciously project their desire for change in the performance of the team onto the uniform. If the uniforms look different, they don't remind the fans of the history of disappointments. They symbolize a fresh start, an new beginning, an erasure of the past. Details take on an exaggerated importance. If the team could just get the shade of gold correct, they subconsciously believe, then the team would get its act together. If the stripes were angled just so... if the numeric font was tweaked just a bit... then the team would be hammering out championships right and left.

I have to chuckle every time I see a uniform discussion or hear a fan begin ranting about uniforms. I know what's going on in the mind of the fan, and in a way, it's kind of pathetic.
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I don't think anyone cares that much about the uniform. I think it's primarily a boredom offseason conversion.
 
Whiskey_Clear

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Think you may be projecting what isn't actually there Atomic. In my experience the majority of fans, of most schools (outside of Orgeon) typically hate changes to traditional unis and deride those changes. There are a few exceptions but not many IMO. Most of the exceptions are for one offs. Permanent changes to unis are typically not liked IMO.
 
Lexjacket

Lexjacket

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Atomic Jacket said:
Mediocrity breeds uniform discussions. There, I said it. There is a psychological reason that uniforms become a hot topic at Georgia Tech, and that reason is that the team is perpetually mediocre. When a team is excellent, and maintains that excellence over many seasons, fans do not want the uniform to change. The uniform becomes symbolic of the excellence they see in performance on the field. You do not see fans of the upper tier SEC and Big Ten teams clamoring for uniform changes or quibbling over details. These fans will tolerate "special" uniforms on occasion, but the normal uniform should look very close to what they've seen for years. Yes, I know someone will point out Oregon. The west coast mentality is different, and you have to understand that culture. But for the rest of the country, what I say rings true.

Fans of teams that are mediocre subconsciously project their desire for change in the performance of the team onto the uniform. If the uniforms look different, they don't remind the fans of the history of disappointments. They symbolize a fresh start, an new beginning, an erasure of the past. Details take on an exaggerated importance. If the team could just get the shade of gold correct, they subconsciously believe, then the team would get its act together. If the stripes were angled just so... if the numeric font was tweaked just a bit... then the team would be hammering out championships right and left.

I have to chuckle every time I see a uniform discussion or hear a fan begin ranting about uniforms. I know what's going on in the mind of the fan, and in a way, it's kind of pathetic.
Click to expand...


I bow to the 'Greater Intellect' and ask forgiveness to my pathetic self. :rolleyes:
 
GTJason

GTJason

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The MD alums response to the constant changing of football uniforms: We have a football team?

In all honesty the 5 of their fans who care about football love the constant change. It doesn't hurt that Under Armour is a "cool" brand and a huge presence in the DMV area
 
IEEEWreck

IEEEWreck

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656
Atomic Jacket said:
Mediocrity breeds uniform discussions. There, I said it. There is a psychological reason that uniforms become a hot topic at Georgia Tech, and that reason is that the team is perpetually mediocre. When a team is excellent, and maintains that excellence over many seasons, fans do not want the uniform to change. The uniform becomes symbolic of the excellence they see in performance on the field. You do not see fans of the upper tier SEC and Big Ten teams clamoring for uniform changes or quibbling over details. These fans will tolerate "special" uniforms on occasion, but the normal uniform should look very close to what they've seen for years. Yes, I know someone will point out Oregon. The west coast mentality is different, and you have to understand that culture. But for the rest of the country, what I say rings true.

Fans of teams that are mediocre subconsciously project their desire for change in the performance of the team onto the uniform. If the uniforms look different, they don't remind the fans of the history of disappointments. They symbolize a fresh start, an new beginning, an erasure of the past. Details take on an exaggerated importance. If the team could just get the shade of gold correct, they subconsciously believe, then the team would get its act together. If the stripes were angled just so... if the numeric font was tweaked just a bit... then the team would be hammering out championships right and left.

I have to chuckle every time I see a uniform discussion or hear a fan begin ranting about uniforms. I know what's going on in the mind of the fan, and in a way, it's kind of pathetic.
Click to expand...

Eh, I think you have to understand the unique position of GT in history. In terms of brand equity, GT has Coke levels of history and buy-in. Erasure of the past is exactly why people get upset about uniforms. If UGA comes out with a modified red, or Florida puts gator leather patterns on their pants, no one really cares because there's no particular stable look at those places. The current team doesn't look like the '80 team, but neither did the '90 team. So what?

At GT, we have enormous mythology built on top of enormous history around the eras of Heisman and Dodd. If we have a slightly different old gold on our helmets,, well, that's a Problem because that's not the Right old gold (that Dodd's teams wore, usually.) I have a suspicion that while victories make people less inclined to criticism in general, the same folks would be as disturbed or moreso if we won a NC in hex pattern unis because then history would have to add something that breaks with the image of a GT team to the litany of glories.

Any folks old enough to have been active at the right times want to chime in? Were people still talking about uniforms in 90? Was there an epidemic of sartorial criticism when we were actually performing poorly?

My bet is that we're just really, really unusually invested in image here at Tech in a way that maybe three or four other schools in the nation share. For my two cents, my fiancee's extended family is full of ND fans, and they have a similar dissatisfaction at heretical uniform changes (however slight.)
 
CuseJacket

CuseJacket

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I hear a lot of folks reference the GT brand and the history behind the uniform. This is just my 2 cents in response to that. Hopefully this resonates with a few folks.

Context - I'm in my 30's and enrolled at GT in 2002. Pre-GT I spent my first 18 years in Syracuse, went to almost every 'Cuse home game, and watched football non-stop on Saturdays. As a result I consider myself more than just an average college football fan with some representative, outside perspective. I chose GT in part due to its relevance in college football and college basketball.

Before coming to GT -
  • I had no idea what a traditional GT uniform looked like
  • I had no idea GT always wore white at home and on the road
  • I had no idea who Bobby Dodd was
  • I had no idea GT had 4 national championships

There are a lot of variables that might have changed that. If I had grown up in the southeast in the era of (primarily) local game-watching options, perhaps I would understand. Perhaps I would have learned those things with age, who knows. I'm sure some believe this is an "ignorant yankee" attitude. Really though I hope this just comes across as another perspective, and I believe the four bullet points above likely reflect what the majority of college football fans across the country understand as well (especially those who grew up in the 80's or later).

For the record, I like the uniforms in the poster. The point is, unless folks just want old uniforms for the sake of identifying with our fellow GT fans, I don't see much of a reason to hang our hats on "our identity" which few identify with. All of this is even more true when we start posturing about what 18-year-old, ESPN/FS1/RSN/BIG Network/PAC Network-era recruits like, which is ultimately who the new designs are targeting.
 
IEEEWreck

IEEEWreck

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CuseJacket said:
I hear a lot of folks reference the GT brand and the history behind the uniform. This is just my 2 cents in response to that. Hopefully this resonates with a few folks.

Context - I'm in my 30's and enrolled at GT in 2002. Pre-GT I spent my first 18 years in Syracuse, went to almost every 'Cuse home game, and watched football non-stop on Saturdays. As a result I consider myself more than just an average college football fan with some representative, outside perspective. I chose GT in part due to its relevance in college football and college basketball.

Before coming to GT -
  • I had no idea what a traditional GT uniform looked like
  • I had no idea GT always wore white at home and on the road
  • I had no idea who Bobby Dodd was
  • I had no idea GT had 4 national championships

I realize there are a lot of variables that might have changed that. If I had grown up in the southeast in the era of (primarily) local game-watching options, perhaps I would understand. Perhaps I would have learned those things with age, who knows. I'm sure some believe this is an "ignorant yankee" attitude. Really though I hope this just comes across as another perspective, and I believe the four bullet points above likely reflect what the majority of college football fans across the country understand as well (especially those who grew up in the 80's or later).

For the record, I like the uniforms in the poster. The point is, unless folks just want old uniforms for the sake of identifying with our fellow GT fans, I don't see much of a reason to hang our hats on "our identity" which few identify with. All of this is even more true when we start posturing about what 18-year-old, ESPN/FS1/RSN/BIG Network/PAC Network-era recruits like, which is ultimately who the new designs are targeting.
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That's fascinating, because I'm from Atlanta, the son of a GT EE, and pretty caught up in the mythos but pretty much agree with you about uniforms. Slightly different shades don't perturb me, and I actually really like the hex pattern. It's... appropriately nerdy. Our look should honor the history, but reflect the present reality as well. That reality is a dynamic, well regarded, cutting edge engineering school. For that reason I'm not super sentimental about 60's looking uniforms.

That said, my viewpoint is entirely inconsistent if you were to ask about academic rigor and recruiting integrity.
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

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I have a little bit of graphic design training, from GT no less. I don't like the bubble wrap designs not for the idea, but for the execution. I think a really good graphic designer can take the hex pattern and do a really great design that doesn't completely abandon the traditional look or look amateurish. Nike did a fantastic job with the Alabama jersey where they found a balance between tradition and the modern, sleek look. That's the direction we need to go in.

Nike-2010-Pro-Combat-Football-Uniforms-Alabama-3.jpg
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

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I could see taking our traditional jerseys and adding a very subtle, barely recognizable background hex pattern on the numerals ala Bama's combat uni's. No depth tricks to the cells that make them look like bubble wrap.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

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Whiskey_Clear said:
And the players and recruits like the honeycomb. Guess Russell has better taste (where it counts) than us old fogeys :)
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Let's get this straight. :)

Russell has not shown overall good taste in the past several years. A little bit here and a tad there but overall they have failed although someone sure seems to have gotten the message of late.
 
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