Iowa State Uniform Discussions (update: new basketball unis)

[CyValley]

Those 70s era jerseys are the perfect illustration on why they ISU fandom will never really come to agreement on what our jerseys should look like. Since the post-war era, Iowa State has had basically a different look every 5 to 10 years, and every look seems to have its proponents and detractors, usually driven by nostalgia.

For those that don't have strong nostalgic ties to any particular look, its easy to default to what ISU wore when the teams were successful in hopes to bring back that past success. The kicker there is we don't have much as far as a golden age of ISU football to call back to: the best eras being the Earle Bruce years, and now (the Campbell years).

To me, the Bruce-era jerseys are a mess with the 4 shades of gold and 3(?) shades of cardinal. I feel like some of the flaws of those jerseys are hidden by the fact that pictures from that era all seem to have a red/orange tint to them. But the "Beat Iowa" throwbacks from 2007 really show how haphazard the look is.

View attachment 99492

Ooof, that photo powerfully supports your point. Lighting?

 

[cyclones500]

The 80s.

When I see that balloon photo, it reminds me of this ...

 

[CYCLNST8]

Matching the the original look doesn't fix that the original is a messy jersey design to begin with.

And why would we want to throwback to these anytime other than 2027? The highlight moments for those jerseys was "Beat Iowa" and the Peach Bowl, both games ISU lost. Why keep clinging to those old moments when we have better ones in the last 5 years? I mean, the black uniforms have seen more success and been used in bigger games than the Bruce-era jerseys ever were.

We had red home jerseys too. That’s what I’d like to see.

 

[JM4CY]

View attachment 99492

That game is still underrated in how completely astounding it was that it went down the way it did.

 

[CYCLNST8]

We had red home jerseys too. That’s what I’d like to see.

 

[t-noah]

We don’t need to change we just need variations of our throwbacks. Look at what Minnesota does using the old gold in their uniforms. We could do something similar. As far logos, same thing. Whether that’s having a jack trice helmet decal, the Orr tornado or the Cyclones in script. That’d give us a good variety of logos to use while not straying away from the logo that’s actually nationally known.

Agree.

I agree. The impression I get is that Campbell doesn’t like variety.

Maybe. Maybe not. He's also not the perfect uniform designer, some of us were thinking he was, the first year or three after he was hired.

Consider the anthrocite gray, the black collar, the lack of even a trace of white (with cardinal jersey).

Those 70s era jerseys are the perfect illustration on why they ISU fandom will never really come to agreement on what our jerseys should look like. Since the post-war era, Iowa State has had basically a different look every 5 to 10 years, and every look seems to have its proponents and detractors, usually driven by nostalgia.

To me, the Bruce-era jerseys are a mess with the 4 shades of gold and 3(?) shades of cardinal. I feel like some of the flaws of those jerseys are hidden by the fact that pictures from that era all seem to have a red/orange tint to them. But the "Beat Iowa" throwbacks from 2007 really show how haphazard the look is.

View attachment 99492

I don't dislike these at all, and am neutral as to a future throwback. As people have mentioned, the color variations could be easily fixed.

Two things though: 1) I had never noticed how different and 'bleached out' the "number" cardinal looks with these. It's much worse than just lighting variations that @CyValley might have suggested, IMO. And yes, when you are aware of it, it looks pretty off. 2) I have only noticed "3" gold color variations, not that it really needs further debate. I don't see the 4th.

 

[AdRock4Cy]

I saw a minute of the Philadelphia USFL team this weekend and loved their color scheme.

 

[IASTATE07]

barf

 

[t-noah]

I saw a minute of the Philadelphia USFL team this weekend and loved their color scheme.
View attachment 99518

Hard NO. Sorry.

barf

Agreed. Do the above, we learned NOTHING from brightening of the color scheme, as in Criner, Walden.

Fool me once... (as the saying goes.)

 

[cytor]

I saw a minute of the Philadelphia USFL team this weekend and loved their color scheme.
View attachment 99518

McDonald's called. They want their uniforms back.

 

[CycloneFan97]

I saw a minute of the Philadelphia USFL team this weekend and loved their color scheme.
View attachment 99518

The yellow is too...yellow if that makes any sense at all

 

[AdRock4Cy]

Hard NO. Sorry.

Agreed. Do the above, we learned NOTHING from brightening of the color scheme, as in Criner, Walden.

Fool me once... (as the saying goes.)

Ok you are right maybe they are too bright, but I like the yellow (gold) helmet idea.

 

[cyclones500]

The yellow is too...yellow if that makes any sense at all

I understand what you're saying.

Too much fire engine/school bus.

 

[t-noah]

I understand what you're saying.

Too much fire engine/school bus.

If it would truly make the 'defenders' get out of our way (and let us pass), while we were on offense, I might reconsider.

Nope. Still a no for me. LOL

 

[Statefan10]

If it would truly make the 'defenders' get out of our way (and let us pass), while we were on offense, I might reconsider.

Nope. Still a no for me. LOL

While I do agree on the premise that having that as a primary look is gaudy, having throwbacks with the Walden look would be sweet imo. I highly highly doubt we do it. But that script Cyclones with the yellow helmet and red stripe would be sweet imo.

*For reference I’m in my mid twenties and didn’t live through that era so I’m naive to the negative nostalgia that comes with the uniform set*

 

[t-noah]

While I do agree on the premise that having that as a primary look is gaudy, having throwbacks with the Walden look would be sweet imo. I highly highly doubt we do it. But that script Cyclones with the yellow helmet and red stripe would be sweet imo.

*For reference I’m in my mid twenties and didn’t live through that era so I’m naive to the negative nostalgia that comes with the uniform set*

No that's fine. I liked certain things about those unis. I just hope we don't go back to the brighter red. I think we still have the brighter yellow (or close to it)(it's not gold). I would like our yellow a lot more if we added our old 70's gold, or sunflower gold, as well. It would be such an easy solution to use both.

And yes, the helmet with the old Cyclones script on it is great. But make it the right shade of cardinal & gold (if you were to do a gold helmet, which I now don't think we should do)(unless you want to purchase and fit 4 helmets per player!). Here is an example of the wrong way/color, mostly the red (too bright, ie, Criner/Walden)(the gold is close to the sunflower gold)..

I messed around with this one below, many months ago, darkening the red only. It's so much better, IMO. The gold still needs tweaking some, but I never got around to it, after deciding we don't need a gold helmet. [I may make a gold helmet yet, just for fun, and this would be fairly close.]..

To be clear, if we do this old style 'Cyclones' helmet, or alternate logos on the helmet, it should be an alternate. I'm one who believes we should keep the present I-State logo as primary, for a number of reasons.

Since I don't advocate a gold helmet anymore, the 'Cyclones' cursive would work nicely on the white helmet (permanently, or once in a while). And that would be pretty new (and cool) in itself.

 

[Statefan10]

No that's fine. I liked certain things about those unis. I just hope we don't go back to the brighter red. I think we still have the brighter yellow (or close to it)(it's not gold). I would like our yellow a lot more if we added our old 70's gold, or sunflower gold, as well. It would be such an easy solution to use both.

And yes, the helmet with the old Cyclones script on it is great. But make it the right shade of cardinal & gold (if you were to do a gold helmet, which I now don't think we should do)(unless you want to purchase and fit 4 helmets per player!). Here is an example of the wrong way/color, mostly the red (too bright, ie, Criner/Walden)(the gold is close to the sunflower gold)..
View attachment 99535
I messed around with this one below, many months ago, darkening the red only. It's so much better, IMO. The gold still needs tweaking some, but I never got around to it, after deciding we don't need a gold helmet. [I may make a gold helmet yet, just for fun, and this would be fairly close.]..
View attachment 99537
To be clear, if we do this old style 'Cyclones' helmet, or alternate logos on the helmet, it should be an alternate. I'm one who believes we should keep the present I-State logo as primary, for a number of reasons.

Since I don't advocate a gold helmet anymore, the 'Cyclones' cursive would work nicely on the white helmet (permanently, or once in a while). And that would be pretty new (and cool) in itself.
View attachment 99539

I really like the gold helmet you suggested. Again, it’s not going to happen but I think if you’d do it right it could be awesome. As for decals / logos, it would be much much easier to do that script cyclones in the one you presented above. An all white one for the black helmet could be very cool as well.

 

[CYCLNST8]

No that's fine. I liked certain things about those unis. I just hope we don't go back to the brighter red. I think we still have the brighter yellow (or close to it)(it's not gold). I would like our yellow a lot more if we added our old 70's gold, or sunflower gold, as well. It would be such an easy solution to use both.

And yes, the helmet with the old Cyclones script on it is great. But make it the right shade of cardinal & gold (if you were to do a gold helmet, which I now don't think we should do)(unless you want to purchase and fit 4 helmets per player!). Here is an example of the wrong way/color, mostly the red (too bright, ie, Criner/Walden)(the gold is close to the sunflower gold)..
View attachment 99535
I messed around with this one below, many months ago, darkening the red only. It's so much better, IMO. The gold still needs tweaking some, but I never got around to it, after deciding we don't need a gold helmet. [I may make a gold helmet yet, just for fun, and this would be fairly close.]..
View attachment 99537
To be clear, if we do this old style 'Cyclones' helmet, or alternate logos on the helmet, it should be an alternate. I'm one who believes we should keep the present I-State logo as primary, for a number of reasons.

Since I don't advocate a gold helmet anymore, the 'Cyclones' cursive would work nicely on the white helmet (permanently, or once in a while). And that would be pretty new (and cool) in itself.
View attachment 99539

God those are sexy. I remember the dark days of Walden, but I loved the uniforms at the time regardless.

You could also put the stencil I-STATE logo on there and it would look good. Or how bout something with a little white in it?:



Forgive my crude photoshop skills.

FWIW, the primary logo doesn't have to be on the helmet. For instance: Florida State, Alabama, Colorado State, Michigan, etc.

 

[SolarGarlic]

God those are sexy. I remember the dark days of Walden, but I loved the uniforms at the time regardless.

You could also put the stencil I-STATE logo on there and it would look good. Or how bout something with a little white in it?:

View attachment 99545

Forgive my crude photoshop skills.

FWIW, the primary logo doesn't have to be on the helmet. For instance: Florida State, Alabama, Colorado State, Michigan, etc.

It's not perfect, but those colors are really good. And just a little white makes such a big impact. You nailed the colors.

 

[t-noah]

God those are sexy. I remember the dark days of Walden, but I loved the uniforms at the time regardless.

You could also put the stencil I-STATE logo on there and it would look good. Or how bout something with a little white in it?:

View attachment 99545

Forgive my crude photoshop skills.

FWIW, the primary logo doesn't have to be on the helmet. For instance: Florida State, Alabama, Colorado State, Michigan, etc.

Nicely done. We need more photoshoppers! I can't do it ALL by myself. LOL.

And I have been working on ways to get more 'white' into the mix, as well.