Saturday Roundtable – Purdue Football’s New Uniforms

New Purdue football uniforms were released this week. I asked the staff what they thought of them given a couple days to take all of it in.

Jumbo Heroes:

I honestly don’t love them. They don’t feel like Purdue football uniforms. I know that’s amorphous and makes me look like a squish, but it’s difficult to describe. I think there’s a certain point of your fandom as an adult where the uniforms just aren’t for you anymore. I’m not who these are made for. These are made for recruits and the 18 year olds who are coming into Purdue right now. And that’s okay. I understand that just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Taste is subjective and I’m not in love with these.

Maybe it will be different when I see them on television during a game, but for now I’ll simply stick to, I don’t love them. But, I think most of the blame here can fall on Nike who I think, unless you’re Oregon, does boring uninspired work.

Kyle:

The Boilermakers were overdue for new base uniforms. These are comfortable classics with a twist of a new age feel to them. In recent years many schools have gone to the three stripe jerseys, with the pants having a similar matching stripe.

Purdue will finally have detail on their pants again, for much too long they looked like they were wearing practice pants with the uniforms.

People that did not love these wanted the classics to be more like what I would consider alternates, such as the space uniforms from a few years back.

You have to have a baseline, then you sprinkle those alternates in to drive consumers to purchase more goods… I am certain Purdue will do that again, but this time around, they have much better base uniforms to fall back on.

Jed:

My initial reaction to the uniforms was a bit underwhelming, to be honest. I’ve been a big proponent of Purdue leaning hard into what truly makes them unique from a university and athletic department standpoint. The stadium took a step in the right direction with the tunnel and parking the Special where everyone can see it but the entire department could use more of it. What are those things you ask? Trains and astronauts.

I would rather see the spacesuit all white uniforms become the standard away uniform and then figure out a better black jersey option, however I have started to come around more and more. Looking at the entire kit (yes, I said kit. Deal with it), it does a really good job of linking everything together and being more uniform. The gold/black/gold and black/white/black combos look to be the best and they will likely still have some alternate versions that give them the chance to express that uniqueness. I’m still waiting to see an actual gold jersey pulled off well but I’m just supremely happy we finally got rid of the grey uniform combos.

Overall for me: 7.5/10

Drew:

I like that these jerseys lean into the Old Gold on both the home and away. It makes Purdue’s black and gold combo more unique.

The verdict is still out on the block Purdue letters in the chest plate. I feel like some of the bigger dudes might make it look comically small.

Other than that, it’s perfectly fine run of the mill Nike stuff with a few Purdue customizations.

Garrett:

My take is very lukewarm as I assume most others are: they’re fine. They’re bland but fine.

I like the updated gold and I know the exact gold has been a point of contention between Purdue fans and Nike for a good while, but it’s just a basic Nike template that, if you adjust the colors and change the name, could theoretically belong to any team. Nike’s been doing this and they used to be the gold standard of football uniform design. What they did to TCU’s jerseys in addition to turning Baylor’s into “could literally be any high school” is baffling.

The block-lettered “PURDUE” on the front is a tad too small, and honestly I prefer the look with just the neck badge logo, but that’s probably my most subjective thing here. I’m sure a lot of people like it.

I love adding “BOILER UP” as a bumper on the back of the helmet. Also, I’m always a fan of the shoulder pad numbers, or “TV numbers” as some call them. Classic look.

My last concern is how this new number typeface looks when we see them with a number that isn’t 24. For example, the Dillon Thieneman #31 (shop version, not on-field version) leaked and the 3 is absolutely massive compared to the 1. I hope they can clean that up for readability and in case any of the digits suffer from claustrophobia.

Ryan:

I have no issues at all with the uniforms. That said, I think there’s definitely room for improvement by the way of uniqueness. Yes, the sleeve striping and block Purdue make them look very clean, but I still submit that the base helmet should have train tracks as the stripe. Gone are the odd shoulder cattle-catchers, but nothing pops out so much that my jaw drops in awe. I will be interested to see whether the gold or anthracite jerseys come first as an alternate. 7.8/10