Nike Introduces New Platinum Jerseys

If you’re not a fan of the way Nike alters Oregon’s jerseys, you’re definitely not going to like this. Earlier today, Nike debuted their new “platinum” line of college basketball uniforms, a series of gray-based threads that nine top programs will wear for one game later this season. While alternate jerseys are nothing new to college sports, this is the first set of standardized alternates to be used by multiple teams.

The men’s basketball teams that will wear these uniforms this season will be: UConn , Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, and Syracuse. The Baylor and Uconn women’s teams will also sport the new look. Global creative director for Nike Basketball Tracy Teague emphasized that the standardized design was created to appeal to the teenage and young adult crowd, saying “…today’s kid isn’t nearly as traditional as maybe kids who came before them.”

Personally, I don’t like this. Uniforms, by nature, are something very unique to each team. I don’t want to see my team wearing anything close to what a rival wears. North Carolina and Duke are both going to wear these things this season. NORTH CAROLINA AND DUKE!?!?!? Those two programs loath each other, they shouldn’t be wearing anything remotely similar while representing their schools. It’s ridiculous. You are supposed to have pride in the colors that you wear on the court, because they are your colors. The only reason kids theses days aren’t “nearly as traditional” is because people like Teague are jamming this crap down their throats before they can learn some real values. If a team like Oregon wants to experiment with their own jerseys thats fine, but the uniform you wear represents your team and what it is and who it is that you play for, and there is no way that Nike should attempt to compromise that principle by generating uniform uniforms for NCAA basketball.

And also, Nike, that’s not “platinum,” it’s gray. You can spice it up all you want, but at the end of the day, you made a bunch of gray uniforms.