Design Identity | Football Uniforms

[Wreck07]

Most of the uniform debates that we see here and elsewhere center around the use of our colors. I do not want to discuss that in this thread; there are numerous other threads dedicated to that discussion.

I would like to discuss the idea of design identity and consistency in our football jerseys. Basically, are our uniforms recognizable as “Georgia Tech Uniforms” when logos and wordmarks are not visible? If someone from Des Moines turns on the TV on a random Thursday night, can they quickly identify that Georgia Tech is playing?

Contrary to a lot of the arguments that I hear, Georgia Tech does actually have a pretty recognizable design identity through the years. Whether we had white or gold helmets, navy or black accents, gold or mustard pants, there are a few things that stand out when you look at our uniforms throughout history.

What stands out to you in these images? Here’s what I see:

• Stripes on sleeves – no matter what era, color, or style, our uniforms have stripes on the sleeve. While this isn’t exactly unique to Tech, we are one of the few teams that carried it on through the 90s and 2000s. In virtually every scenario, there were at least two stripes. If two stripes, they were the other two colors (out of our three) overlaid onto the jersey color.
• All three colors are always present – I have not found any jerseys that do not contain all three of our colors. Even if the jersey is predominately two colors, the third color is used to accent the others.
• Piping on pants – While I didn’t include many photos of the pants, most of the pants I have found have piping along the side. Once again, the pants include all three of our colors

While I don’t love it, I would be much more inclined to appreciate the mix-and-match approach that we have taken to our weekly jerseys. If recruits really prefer our tertiary colors, fine. Use them. But I worry about losing our identity and becoming totally unrecognizable to the general public if we fail to keep some consistency across all of our jerseys.

I believe if we adopted a few of these key design elements, we could (1) preserve our identity and therefore stay recognizable to the neutral, while still (2) mixing up our jerseys every game to excite players and recruits. Heck, we could even flip between black and navy!

What do you think? Do you think this matters?

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

I think the thing that is most recognizable to me is the striping on the pants. Like you said, the three stripes down the side are something that comes with most uniforms throughout Tech history. Navy/Black, white, navy/black is just our traditional piping. To me, Adidas gave us the blueprint of how a classic GT uniform should look when they made the Blackwatch uniforms. To me, that template is what we could build our entire uniform set off of. Maybe that's why they are so popular with the fans? They are classic, relatable, and minus the navy/black controversy, that's a Tech uniform. I personally liked what Adidas gave us when we switched, but I would love if we went to that template for the foreseeable future. To me, we could still keep our options open by having multiple combinations if we switched. We could do like we do now with a white/blue and white/gold top, a navy top, a gold top, and a black top. We could scrap the navy pants and go with white or gold pants, and keep the white helmet in addition to the classic gold. Plenty of combinations for the students to choose from. I also think having the white space between the gold outline and navy numerals is a great look like we did back in the 90's. Something about having that space between the outline and the number looks so good to me.

 

[Wreck07]

I think the thing that is most recognizable to me is the striping on the pants. Like you said, the three stripes down the side are something that comes with most uniforms throughout Tech history. Navy/Black, white, navy/black is just our traditional piping. To me, Adidas gave us the blueprint of how a classic GT uniform should look when they made the Blackwatch uniforms. To me, that template is what we could build our entire uniform set off of. Maybe that's why they are so popular with the fans? They are classic, relatable, and minus the navy/black controversy, that's a Tech uniform. I personally liked what Adidas gave us when we switched, but I would love if we went to that template for the foreseeable future. To me, we could still keep our options open by having multiple combinations if we switched. We could do like we do now with a white/blue and white/gold top, a navy top, a gold top, and a black top. We could scrap the navy pants and go with white or gold pants, and keep the white helmet in addition to the classic gold. Plenty of combinations for the students to choose from. I also think having the white space between the gold outline and navy numerals is a great look like we did back in the 90's. Something about having that space between the outline and the number looks so good to me.

Agree on the blackwatch from last year. I can't image recruits thought those were "too classic". I'd love that to be the template.

 

[JacketOff]

Putting the traditional stripes back on the sleeves and pants would go a long way for me liking all of our combinations. I think the biggest reason I’m not a huge fan of the navy jersey or pants is because they look dull and drab. Having the traditional stripes would really just complete the look more IMO.

When Notre Dame played Wisconsin this year they wore some alternates, and it was gold/navy/gold with Tech’s navy/white/navy stripe on the pants. Multiple people on Twitter condemned those unis because they look more like GT than ND

Those pants are the single most important part of the GT football uniform identity. You can keep the same striping template with the white pants:

And with navy/black pants

And for the love of God can we update the font for the names on the backs of the jerseys!?!? It looks so bad. I’m not a huge fan of the number font either, but it’s much better than the name font.










https://twitter.com/zackmyers11/status/1061429598674665472?s=21

 

[Wreck07]

Wow that's great. Evidence that the piping really does make gold & navy look more like Tech.

I think that is one of my largest issues with the MBS UNC look, or any other gold and navy looks (that exclude white)...Notre Dame has one of the strongest uniform IDs, and if we keep putting navy and gold together, we will look like them. Or the Naval Academy.

 

[HurricaneJacket]

Traditional pant striping (not the stinger stripes) and shoulder flashes/striping would go a long way in unifying the look. Then like OP said, colors become less obnoxiously different.

I'm all for using the blackwatch or 2013 VT jerseys as a template.

 

[wesgt123]

Supersize would be perfect for this thread lol

 

[RyanS12]

Black watch uni needs to be worn at all times! Black tops at home and get a white for away games and leave it alone. Forever! Period!! The end!!!

 

[forensicbuzz]

Black watch uni needs to be worn at all times! Black tops at home and get a white for away games and leave it alone. Forever! Period!! The end!!!

yeah...um,,,no.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

White at home applies to Tech and LSU only. Too much of an identity trademark to surrender. Know your football history.

In general, Tech has taken the whole uniform, branding, unique and special identity they once had and pissed it away. Most football fans over 20 years of age who have any familiarity with the history of Georgia Tech football, know what our traditional uniform is. It is/was the best looking uniform in football history and what did we do? Well, we went to every possible foolish measure to screw that up with a plethora of silly and butt-ugly alternatives known to man.

Collins is obsessed with branding but he, Stansbury, and the powers that be have taken no action to take the simplest measure to take advantage of making our traditional uniform a standard part of our branding. (see Penn State, Alabama, and Michigan). Keep it simple stupid.

Go Jackets!

 

[Lexjacket]

My first Tech game in 1961. Most companies in America will tell you new branding gimmicks do not work (ask Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola). The biggest part of college football is Tradition, and the most successful marketing is WINNING.https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675034212_Stan-Cann_Georgia-Tech_Rice-Owls_Grant-Field_American-football-match

 

[dressedcheeseside]

We can be like Oregon and have an identity of no identity.

 

[presjacket]

We must really suck if we have a uniform thread in the middle of the season.

 

[JacketOff]

We must really suck if we have a uniform thread in the middle of the season.

Or it’s just something interesting to talk about since it’s been 14 days since Georgia Tech played a football game

 

[Root4GT]

This is basically a thread for Old Farts, I am one but we as a program do not have the National Stature or presence to have a traditional look of any kind matter.

 

[jojatk]

White at home applies to Tech and LSU only. Too much of an identity trademark to surrender. Know your football history.

In general, Tech has taken the whole uniform, branding, unique and special identity they once had and pissed it away. Most football fans over 20 years of age who have any familiarity with the history of Georgia Tech football, know what our traditional uniform is. It is/was the best looking uniform in football history and what did we do? Well, we went to every possible foolish measure to screw that up with a plethora of silly and butt-ugly alternatives known to man.

Collins is obsessed with branding but he, Stansbury, and the powers that be have taken no action to take the simplest measure to take advantage of making our traditional uniform a standard part of our branding. (see Penn State, Alabama, and Michigan). Keep it simple stupid.

Go Jackets!

I’ve only been a GT fan since 1984 when I started as a freshman so my history with the football program doesn’t go back terribly far. But in that entire span of time I don’t think there has been any identity of GT football associated with the uniforms.

I don’t say that with the intention of stirring up an argument or be critical of anyone else’s POV. I just haven’t seen anything other than the GT emblem on the helmet that, to me, has ever been uniquely GT about our uniforms. I’ll admit that growing up I was more of a college basketball fan than a college football fan but I couldn’t have told you what GTs uniforms were. I could tell you Texas, Penn St, ND, Nebraska, Ohio St, UCLA, USCw (not USCe), UGA, Bama, Oklahoma, FSU, UNC (because of basketball), Miami (they were really good at the time, not so much anymore), maybe Florida, Michigan, and a couple of others. Most of the rest you could slap a school mascot or symbol on whatever uniform or helmet they were wearing and that was how I identified them. So when folks talk about our branding or identity as something we’ve given up or lost even in the last 20-25 years I just don’t see it. Whatever branding or identity the football program had from a uniform perspective seems to have been abandoned long ago. I don’t have a problem being wrong. I’m open for other perspectives and would welcome them.

 

[SteamWhistle]

This is basically a thread for Old Farts, I am one but we as a program do not have the National Stature or presence to have a traditional look of any kind matter.

It’s funny when people bring up Bama and Penn St, we aren’t even close.

 

[UgaBlows]

Supersize would be perfect for this thread lol

No thank you

 

[forensicbuzz]

White at home applies to Tech and LSU only. Too much of an identity trademark to surrender. Know your football history.

In general, Tech has taken the whole uniform, branding, unique and special identity they once had and pissed it away. Most football fans over 20 years of age who have any familiarity with the history of Georgia Tech football, know what our traditional uniform is. It is/was the best looking uniform in football history and what did we do? Well, we went to every possible foolish measure to screw that up with a plethora of silly and butt-ugly alternatives known to man.

Collins is obsessed with branding but he, Stansbury, and the powers that be have taken no action to take the simplest measure to take advantage of making our traditional uniform a standard part of our branding. (see Penn State, Alabama, and Michigan). Keep it simple stupid.

Go Jackets!

Well…that’s one opinion.

 

[jojatk]

It’s funny when people bring up Bama and Penn St, we aren’t even close.

Yeah when I brought them up that was exactly my point. In my entire GT fanhood there hasn’t been an iconic GT uniform look that everyone just knows is GT vs teams like PSU and Bama who are recognized.