Back to the College Football Uniforms
Louisville is now a program of national relevance and with that, comes a unique opportunity to shine in the Big East’s uniform department. In 2011, Louisville was one of seven Adidas schools — Michigan, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Texas A&M, UCLA and Tennessee — to debut a lighter, more streamlined TechFit uniform by Adidas.
Multiple innovations have allowed the three stripes brand to reduce the weight of jerseys by 30 percent and have increased ventilation on gameday for players with added “ventilation” zones. Louisville’s TechFit get up debuted in the style of a black alternate jersey with “The Ville” across the front instead of the classic “Louisville” wordmark. Black jerseys made their first appearance at Louisville in 2006, prior to TechFit.
The Cardinals’ current look takes the “less is more” approach with drop-shadowed numerals and sleeves stripes — instead of shoulder markings — on simple white, black or red tops. Louisville’s game pants are decorated with a solid stripe down the leg with thin piping on each side. They are joined near the hip by a Cardinal logo.
Louisville’s all-vibrant red is a popular home look as well as all-white on the road. The Cardinals have donned white shells with a Cardinal logo and red-black stripes since 2010. Several alternates were worn in recent years including a “USA” inspired red, white and blue Cardinal graphic on a white shell with stars and stripes and an all-red Cardinal graphic a white shell.
Louisville has worn the Cardinal face logo since 1984, then on a black shell.
Since the late 1990s, Louisville football has been sponsored by Adidas and during the last decade, several changes have been made to gameday uniforms. From varying stripe sizes to hints of yellow being added as accents during the Bobby Petrino era, the Cardinals seem to have had a new look every season since 2000. The current classics with striped sleeves under Charlie Strong are clean and simple.
