Back to the College Football Uniforms
Look good, play good.
It’s safe to say Oregon, the home school of Nike CEO and founder Phil Knight, kick started the era of the uniform in 2000 and has transformed itself from mediocre to elite over the last decade thanks to state-of-the-art threads from the swoosh’s nearby Beaverton headquarters.
Admit it. If you’re a college football fan on the East Coast, you’ve stayed up late on Saturday nights to see what the Ducks bring out next. We all have.
The Ducks have sported wings, donned metallic helmets and revolutionized the volt color. They’ve worn iridescent numerals, dark nameplates on jerseys and even diamond-effects on shoulders and knees. There isn’t much Oregon hasn’t tried in Autzen in partnership with Nike since 1996.
Check out these remarks from Nike’s creative director Todd Van Horne after Oregon went to a wet-paint, metallic green helmet in 1999: “Nothing is off the table.”
Uniforms and helmets in the mid 2000s are nothing compared to what’s been unleashed in recent years. In 2009, the Ducks added silver wings and numerals to every jersey. Game pants were somewhat muted in comparison. After donning a silver and volt get up in the 2010 BCS Championship Game, the Ducks returned to the neon color scheme in the following season’s opener, donning an all-black with volt accent combo against LSU in Dallas.
Later, in the 2011 Rose Bowl, Oregon’s splash came full circle as the Ducks unveiled a liquid metal reflective shell with a trend-setting lightweight elite uniform. Oregon’s block “O” logo was moved from the side of the helmet to the back and mirrored wings were added to the shell. The Ducks returned to the liquid metal look for the 2012 season and had shells in green, white, silver, yellow and black. Since 2007, Oregon has sported tons of helmet variations including carbon fiber shells, steel and fluorescents.
Oregon has incorporated the school’s green and yellow into most looks, but likes silver, white and black as well. Oregon’s “Snow Whites” or “Stormtroopers”, an all-white, silver-accented look with a white shell has been worn in recent years.
While jerseys, stripes and numerals are constantly changing year-to-year, gameday pants have remained somewhat plain to usually correspond with helmets.
The Ducks have roughly 500 combinations to choose from on gamedays and currently dominate the uniform market. It’s not even close.
Phil Knight has pumped an estimated $300 million into Oregon’s athletic department since 2000, turning the Ducks’ facilities into technologically-advanced training centers for student-athletes.
According to Michael Smith of the SportsBusiness Journal, “Nike is in the middle of a 15-year plan on building Oregon into a national power largely on the strength of marketing and branding.” The swoosh is well on its way to doing that if it hasn’t already.
