Wrapping Up The Uniforms Presentation

Let me start off by saying how impressed I was with the whole presentation earlier today.  From the entry way of the Lyric Theater plastered with UK emblems, to the multiple TV’s playing UK highlight videos, to the waiters with those tiny biscuits with ham on them, it was a pretty cool way for Nike and UK to launch the ‘newest uniforms in the SEC.’ By now you have seen the pictures, but I’ll give you some quick hitters on what they looked like and what was said about them after the fact:

— Overall it wasn’t too drastic a change from recent years past. Things that stayed the same as last years were the squared Kentucky along the chest, the interlocking UK logo on the hip and the helmet, the idea of mainly going white top with white bottom and blue on blue, and the stripes on the pants (though the blue/white/blue design is on both the white and blue pants, unlike last years.)

— As far as differences go, the most noticeable cosmetic changes dealt with the addition of the Secretariat checkerboard silk design.  Similar to the addition to the basketball uniforms a few years back, the football uniforms will now feature small patterns similar to the triple crown winners silks on the shoulders as well as the stripes on the pants.  The idea was to embrace something uniquely Kentucky, and since Makers Mark has yet to find a way to make wax dipped helmets, they’re going with horse racing.

— The stripe on the pants also goes around the back of the shorts, a little similar to the basketball ones from a few years ago as well.  Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about.

— The helmet looks mostly the same, minus the addition of a stripe down the middle of the helmet.  This design had been a staple of pre-2000 Kentucky football helmets, so it’s an interesting move to return to after ten years of playing without it.

— There is also an addition on the shoulders of the jersey that shows off the players number (you can see it in the second picture posted.)  This will serves a practical purpose, as it will likely help spectators tell who is on the field when they don’t have the best angle on the action.

— Finally, there is a design on the v-neck of the jersey’s that a number of people have described as looking like whiskers.  Upon further inspection, they are most definitely not whiskers, but from here on out that’s how I’m choosing to look at them.

— The newest in jersey technology may not have included Beats By Dre in the helmets, but it did include a number of features that should help productivity on the field. The spokesperson told us about re-engineering the uniform in ways that help take the weight off the player and put it on the jersey – specifically with the under chassis.  They also took out the heavier pipping in lieu of lighter material, implemented zone ventilation that should help keep our players cooler during the game, and restructured the padding systems to increase mobility.  How much of that is legitimate updates and how much of it is marketing talk is beyond me, but if it looks like it will help on the field, I’m all for it.

— The players have not had a chance to try out the ‘new technologies’ on the practice field yet – and they said they likely won’t get to try them out until the first game.  As of now, the blue uni’s are all in, but the white one on display was the only full white uniform they had.

— As far as the speculated black uniforms… I wouldn’t count them out yet. While it’s likely they won’t come about, Joker was asked a question about them twice, and both times he answered with a variation of – “What we have now and are here to discuss are these two uniforms.  I will no doubt be asked about that when the players see them, but that’s a discussion to have another time.”  I still think it’d be a long shot before we saw the black uniforms, but it sounds like some of the players are pushing for them, so you never know.

— Finally, Joker said this all seemed like they were “launching a fragrance.”  Let’s hope it smells like #winning.