The Official 2020 Color Debate Thread

[chris975d]

Buy gold/sand gear when we get it. That's the best advice I can offer, and that's what I actually do. Again, all of this is pretty logical to anyone dealing with the apparel industry. Gold isn't ever going to be made/offered in large quantities as an apparel color choice. Especially when it can't match our helmets. We chose "sand"/tan/khaki instead as our textile/cloth equivalent. So we have two pretty bland colors for our apparel choices if we stay with our primary colors (tan or white). Because how many fans would wear something like this (I would, but I don't mind being a little loud with my wardrobe)??

That (or sand/tan) is not something any apparel company is going to make much of (again, talk to the industry), when they can make navy, or even white, which is our other color, and one we actually do have a lot of offerings in, but the issue with white is that it's just plain. And most people don't even think of it as a primary color for a sports team, instead it's typically an accent/secondary/tertiary color.

Let's look at any other sports team that uses gold (true gold, not a yellow/cheddar version) as a primary color...find a lot of gold apparel for them. Heck, let's look at probably the largest fanbase (i.e, customer base) of a gold team there is...Notre Dame. Primary colors are gold and blue. And they don't even get anywhere close to a 50/50 split of gold to blue apparel. It's like 90% blue.
If they can't get/sell a lot of gold, when it's one of their primary colors, we aren't going to either. So when we do get gold, we as a fanbase need to not be cheap and buy it. That's how we get more. But I'd never, ever expect it to be even close to 10-20% of what we are offered. We get a lot of white, our other primary color, but no one gets excited about buying a white shirt. It looks generic. And no one is going to buy white pants, or white jackets, etc. But, conveniently enough for apparel companies, we have navy blue as an accessory color. And let's go back to the reasoning the Dallas Cowboys moved from royal to navy...

Quote:
When shopping for Cowboys gear, all you see is navy, white and silver. No royal blue. There’s a reason for that, and it directly impacted Dallas’ decision to shift from royal to navy.

“Navy has been more popular in retail, and for us when we do so much of our sideline products, whether it’s polos or hats or T-shirts, a lot of that royal color – which is what the Cowboys used to be – has kind of transitioned to navy just because it does so much better at retail,” McCord said.

 

[Gold1]

Well I am talking to acquaintances and colleagues in the apparel industry. For example, buyers for Dicks Sporting Goods as one example. They buy more navy, even when an item is offered in gold as well, because all industry data shows it sells better. Yes, even when it’s GT specific. Again, you can argue it all you want, but I am coming from a standpoint of this being part of my career, as well as the others I’m talking to and mentioning g here. I’m really not sure you are coming from to be able to say that people/reps working for Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, Dicks Sporting Goods, even our GT bookstore, etc are wrong?

You can argue it all you want as well but GT has never been “navy blue”. No team just decides to change their colors because a color is easier to wear casually or because that’s what Adidas prefers. We are talking about our school colors and what you wear to games and stuff. Also tbh nobody knows the sales of gold apparel because Adidas does not make gold apparel.

 

[MidtownJacket]

They didn't pick the CHoA jersey. This is a photo from the photo shoot revealing the special uniform for each team that participated in Adidas "Strategy" uniform promotion.

https://uni-watch.com/2019/08/20/adidas-unveils-new-strategy-unis-for-7-schools/

If you follow your link, then scroll down, you see the strategy Jersey was the one we used for CHOA.

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[chris975d]

You can argue it all you want as well but GT has never been “navy blue”. No team just decides to change their colors because a color is easier to wear casually or because that’s what Adidas prefers. We are talking about our school colors and what you wear to games and stuff. Also tbh nobody knows the sales of gold apparel because Adidas does not make gold apparel.

And there’s a reason they don’t make much gold apparel. There’s little incentive or return. And again, we (GT fans) are simply not a large enough customer base to change manufacturing habits. It’s almost as if the apparel licensing industry has data in that... But hey, I get it that you know more than the people running the companies and making the decisions, so maybe at some point they will see it your way. I hope so. I’d like more gold choices myself.

 

[Gold1]

And there’s a reason they don’t make much gold apparel. There’s little incentive or return. And again, we (GT fans) are simply not a large enough customer base to change manufacturing habits. It’s almost as if the apparel licensing industry has data in that... But hey, I get it that you know more than the people running the companies and making the decisions, so maybe at some point they will see it your way. I hope so. I’d like more gold choices myself.

Haha maybe after the survey the GTAA did a few moths ago that said the fans want more gold gear, has Adidas make more gold apparel for this next round of gear being released. Guess we can just wait and see

 

[MonroeJacket]

Ruh roh...


https://www.adidas.com/us/college_gear

Guessing this isn’t going to thrill some of the people here, but can you find the Yellow Jackets pictured above?

I actually think it’s kinda cool that they picked the CHoA jersey, but man would have been nice to be in white and gold there.


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Did no one notice that pic was taken in Bobby Dodd?

 

[chris975d]

Haha maybe after the survey the GTAA did a few moths ago that said the fans want more gold gear, has Adidas make more gold apparel for this next round of gear being released. Guess we can just wait and see

Let’s also not over exaggerate the fact that Adidas did, in fact offer gold (sand) gear this year. Almost everything they offered in navy they offered in sand. This is just a quick pic of stuff stored in the spare bedroom, and not all of my sand Adidas gear, but this was all since the beginning of 2019 football season.

There’s also the gold Adidas GameMode hoodie offered, and a few other pieces in my main closet.

And gold gear was pretty readily available this year from a multitude of vendors. Again, this isn’t all my stuff, but what’s here in this bedroom. My main closet has more, and there’s about 60 hats around here too. Photographed here was all this past sports season. Every bit of it.

 

[chris975d]

Haha maybe after the survey the GTAA did a few moths ago that said the fans want more gold gear, has Adidas make more gold apparel for this next round of gear being released. Guess we can just wait and see

That’s a possibility. Most apparel companies run about 12-18 months out on production. So if they make any changes from that survey, we can probably expect to see (or not) an increase in gold/sand this coming football season. When I’m meeting with apparel reps to see the samples, we are looking at Spring/Summer 2021 wit many companies now, placing prebooks for those colorways/styles. So any changes from resulting from that survey could very well not be showing yet.

 

[chris975d]

Let’s also not over exaggerate the fact that Adidas did, in fact offer gold (sand) gear this year. Almost everything they offered in navy they offered in sand. This is just a quick pic of stuff stored in the spare bedroom, and not all of my sand Adidas gear, but this was all since the beginning of 2019 football season.

There’s also the gold Adidas GameMode hoodie offered, and a few other pieces in my main closet.

And gold gear was pretty readily available this year from a multitude of vendors. Again, this isn’t all my stuff, but what’s here in this bedroom. My main closet has more, and there’s about 60 hats around here too. Photographed here was all this past sports season. Every bit of it.

I should clarify. When I say this isn’t “all my stuff”, I mean all inclusive of my gold gear. It is in fact all “mine”, meaning I own it.

 

[chris975d]

Did no one notice that pic was taken in Bobby Dodd?

Yeah, that whole photo shoot was. Even the individual photos for those teams’ uniforms shown were all done in BDS.

 

[Gold1]

That’s a possibility. Most apparel companies run about 12-18 months out on production. So if they make any changes from that survey, we can probably expect to see (or not) an increase in gold/sand this coming football season. When I’m meeting with apparel reps to see the samples, we are looking at Spring/Summer 2021 wit many companies now, placing prebooks for those colorways/styles. So any changes from resulting from that survey could very well not be showing yet.

appreciate the back and forth but at the end of the day GT is the white and gold and Adidas should make our apparel and uniforms geared for that unique color combo.

 

[chris975d]

appreciate the back and forth but at the end of the day GT is the white and gold and Adidas should make our apparel and uniforms geared for that unique color combo.

Lol. What’s all the apparel I just posted? Pink? They have made some. About the ratio I’d expect, honestly. Again, look at other, larger fan base teams that have gold as a main color. Not a lot of it. So we are probably on par with other gold wearing teams, given the demand level for our product as a whole. And again, we do have a lot of white, our other main color. We just also happen to have a LOAD of stuff in our secondary/tertiary color of navy. Lol.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Lol. What’s all the apparel I just posted? Pink? They have made some. About the ratio I’d expect, honestly. Again, look at other, larger fan base teams that have gold as a main color. Not a lot of it. So we are probably on par with other gold wearing teams, given the demand level for our product as a whole. And again, we do have a lot of white, our other main color. We just also happen to have a LOAD of stuff in our secondary/tertiary color of navy. Lol.

Other than ND, which probably has a good deal of green gear, do you know any other school who has an abundance of articles in their secondary/tertiary color?

 

[chris975d]

Other than ND, which probably has a good deal of green gear, do you know any other school who has an abundance of articles in their secondary/tertiary color?

I’d say lots of schools that have white base apparel, when white isn’t a primary color. I don’t try to keep up with that many schools and their primary vs secondary colors, so I can’t answer that for sure. I do see online and in person a load of Duke stuff in a dark gray/charcoal and even black, and I’m almost positive neither are even a secondary or tertiary color.

We do have to keep in mind that we do get a lot of white gear, and even though it’s kind of bland (that’s white for you), it’s technically a main color. I’m fact on the bookstore’s Adidas page right now(our bookstore gets the vast majority of gold apparel relative to other retail outlets, in a lot of items, gets the gold exclusively), the total of the number of gold tops and white tops (our primary colors) outnumbers the number of navy tops. Granted, navy is the most numerous single color.

I’m all for gold gear. Yes, it’s probably kind of unique that we have so much apparel in a “secondary” color. I totally get that. But again, we have gold as a main color. No team that has gold as a main color has a lot of gold apparel. It just doesn’t happen. For a reason. And judging from the photos above, I’m constantly looking for it to buy. Lol.

 

[Gold1]

Lol. What’s all the apparel I just posted? Pink? They have made some. About the ratio I’d expect, honestly. Again, look at other, larger fan base teams that have gold as a main color. Not a lot of it. So we are probably on par with other gold wearing teams, given the demand level for our product as a whole. And again, we do have a lot of white, our other main color. We just also happen to have a LOAD of stuff in our secondary/tertiary color of navy. Lol.

This is the color debate thread so I don’t feel ashamed posting so much about this haha. We are one of if not the ONLY team that has gold as our real primary color and it’s a real chance to have a unique looking brand. If the program and Adidas would just fully embrace White and Gold for us we’d have one unique brand. I was trying to end it on a good note lol

 

[chris975d]

This is the color debate thread so I don’t feel ashamed posting so much about this haha. We are one of if not the ONLY team that has gold as our real primary color and it’s a real chance to have a unique looking brand. If the program and Adidas would just fully embrace White and Gold for us we’d have one unique brand. I was trying to end it on a good note lol

Again, I get it. And I was actually going to post kind of what you just said. Of all the teams that I can think of that use a true metallic gold as a primary color (ND, FSU, Vandy, Wake, Purdue, South Florida, Pitt for a while, got to be some others), every one uses that “primary” gold in a secondary/lesser fashion to the other primary color...i.e., the technically primary gold actually is used almost as an accessory color to the other main color. It’s tough to use a true gold as a primary/predominant color. So using that formula/pattern, if you will, our gear would actually be mostly white (our non gold primary color), with gold complimenting that. Wake/vandy/Purdue are typically black with gold highlights, FSU is garnet with gold accents, ND is navy with gold accents, etc.

And I agree, we could be different and embrace gold as the MAIN primary. But we didn’t, for whatever reason. It may very well have been driven by the apparel companies saying they didn’t want to make that much gold. That I don’t know. And we as a school opened Pandora’s box when we made navy even an option, as any/all apparel companies are usually gonna jump on that.

 

[JacketOff]

Other than ND, which probably has a good deal of green gear, do you know any other school who has an abundance of articles in their secondary/tertiary color?

I made an entire post about that point. The overwhelming majority of schools offer more secondary/tertiary color options because most primary colors are very garish. Even the schools that have the most options for their primary color are only 50/50 at best between primary and secondary/tertiary options. But while I’m at it. Let’s add some pro teams to the list:

• New Orleans Saints - well known for being black and gold. Tell me how many gold items you can find here: https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/t-shirts/o-1361+t-03048131+d-19449179+z-9-518235594 I found 1 sweatshirt, and that’s it. There were more gold Drew Brees Pro Bowl jerseys than there are anything licensed by the Saints that’s gold. Hell, there’s more St. Patty’s day green than there is gold.
  
• Green Bay Packers - the notorious “green and gold.” Tell me how many gold items you find here. It’s nonexistent. https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/green-bay-packers/t-shirts/o-1361+t-14482498+d-08227968+z-9-3473478673
• San Francisco 49ers - there’s more black and grey than there is red/cherry/crimson or whatever they call their color red. No gold https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/san-fr...s/o-1305+t-92591541+d-31665713+z-9-1443087807
• Oakland A’s - another green and “gold” team. Notorious for wearing many combinations featuring gold/yellow in their heyday. No gold retail items https://www.fanatics.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/men/o-1243+t-81454422+ga-34+z-9046-1042093185

This isn’t just about teams that feature gold. Look at the items in my old post. Most teams offer at least 50/50 in retail items for secondary vs primary color options. Why? Once again, because nobody(tic) wants to wear bright orange, gold/yellow, red, burgundy, on a regular basis.

I don’t think anybody is saying the fan base wants blue as the “main” color. The argument here is that more people would rather wear navy than gold on an everyday basis. This is true for most team apparel, whether you believe it or not. However, most fan bases do wear the “primary” color to games. Nobody wants to wear bright red, orange, yellow, gold, etc. that includes Tech fans. Most team shops offer more options in colors that aren’t as garish as most primary colors are. Examples:

• Alabama: a ton of gray with some black and white. A lot of faded out crimson to stand out less: https://www.universitysupplystore.com/shop_product_list.asp?catalog_id=454&catalog_name=VC1TaGlydHM
• Georgia: lots of black, gray, and white. A good mix of red, but still probably 50-50 red vs. everything else at most. https://shop.georgiadogs.com/georgia-bulldogs/t-shirts/t-45848885+d-08886880+z-86-2442026738
• Tennessee: a common theme here. A lot of gray, black, and white. More secondary color options than orange. Nobody wants to wear bright orange on a daily basis. https://shop.utsports.com/tennessee-volunteers/t-shirts/t-35240723+d-20888057+z-994-2553027878
• Clemson: a lot of purple, gray, white, and some black. More orange offerings than Tennessee, but still maybe only 50-50 orange vs. everything else. https://shop.clemsontigers.com/clem...ts/t-12261297+ga-89+d-75001357+z-96-538144089
  
• Miami: added them for an adidas comparison. More black than anything. Hardly any orange, about the same amount of green as white and gray. https://www.shopmiamihurricanes.com/miami-hurricanes/t-shirts/t-78200515+d-75333580+z-88-1694328970
• Wake Forest: added to compare gold presence. There’s basically none. Almost exclusively black, which makes sense because black is a popular retail color anyway. Some white and gray, but probably close to 90% black or dark gray. https://www.wakeforestshop.com/wake...shirts/t-24482292+d-20445780+z-989-3994630135
• Georgia Tech: mostly Navy. Some gray, very little gold or white. I will say, there definitely needs to be more white and gold available, but if people don’t buy, there’s no reason stores should sell it. https://www.ramblinwreckstore.com/g...ageSize=72&pageNumber=2&sortOption=TopSellers
• Missouri: another gold/yellow comparison. Basically no gold/yellow, a ton of black https://www.fanatics.com/college/missouri-tigers/t-shirts/o-27+t-45422083+d-64335724+z-93-3893985644
• Florida State: gold comparison. Non existent. Although, there’s more garnet than Bama has crimson https://shop.seminoles.com/florida-state-seminoles/t-shirts/t-45389609+d-08114602+z-87-620546197

 

[chris975d]

I made an entire post about that point. The overwhelming majority of schools offer more secondary/tertiary color options because most primary colors are very garish. Even the schools that have the most options for their primary color are only 50/50 at best between primary and secondary/tertiary options. But while I’m at it. Let’s add some pro teams to the list:

• New Orleans Saints - well known for being black and gold. Tell me how many gold items you can find here: https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/t-shirts/o-1361+t-03048131+d-19449179+z-9-518235594 I found 1 sweatshirt, and that’s it. There were more gold Drew Brees Pro Bowl jerseys than there are anything licensed by the Saints that’s gold. Hell, there’s more St. Patty’s day green than there is gold.
  
• Green Bay Packers - the notorious “green and gold.” Tell me how many gold items you find here. It’s nonexistent. https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/green-bay-packers/t-shirts/o-1361+t-14482498+d-08227968+z-9-3473478673
• San Francisco 49ers - there’s more black and grey than there is red/cherry/crimson or whatever they call their color red. No gold https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/san-fr...s/o-1305+t-92591541+d-31665713+z-9-1443087807
• Oakland A’s - another green and “gold” team. Notorious for wearing many combinations featuring gold/yellow in their heyday. No gold retail items https://www.fanatics.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/men/o-1243+t-81454422+ga-34+z-9046-1042093185

This isn’t just about teams that feature gold. Look at the items in my old post. Most teams offer at least 50/50 in retail items for secondary vs primary color options. Why? Once again, because nobody(tic) wants to wear bright orange, gold/yellow, red, burgundy, on a regular basis.

Great post. Much more detail and examples than I knew of. Thanks!

 

[MidtownJacket]

This thread is about 15 basis points better with a three finger pour of OF1910, also o appreciate the conversation on merchandising and have picked up some new information about the behind the scenes pieces @chris985d thanks for your insight.

I’m hopeful we see more gold gear coming out soon, but am also just happy to have the quality of the adidas stuff improve. I’m hoping that the early run push to get us some GT gear led to corners being cut and that the next release will be better. That we already saw some non-screen printed GT embroidered on things is a positive sign I think.


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[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Let’s also not over exaggerate the fact that Adidas did, in fact offer gold (sand) gear this year. Almost everything they offered in navy they offered in sand. This is just a quick pic of stuff stored in the spare bedroom, and not all of my sand Adidas gear, but this was all since the beginning of 2019 football season.

There’s also the gold Adidas GameMode hoodie offered, and a few other pieces in my main closet.

And gold gear was pretty readily available this year from a multitude of vendors. Again, this isn’t all my stuff, but what’s here in this bedroom. My main closet has more, and there’s about 60 hats around here too. Photographed here was all this past sports season. Every bit of it.

That Nike gold hate you have is beautiful