The Univ. of Missouri Saturday during halftime of the football team's spring game unveiled the "new Nike uniform" for the soccer, volleyball, basketball and football teams, according to Joe Walljasper of the COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE. The uniform change was an 18-month process that began when MU AD Mike Alden "met with Nike representatives over lunch" in N.Y. Alden "just wanted to come up with a standard color of gold," but he "signed up for the full makeover." Nike "calls the color 'Gold Dart' and created a typeface with a serif meant to imitate a Tiger ear." The "biggest change" to the football uniforms is that the "'M' on the side of the helmets ... has been replaced by the Missouri Tiger logo." There are two helmet choices, and "both are black." The main one is "glossy with an oval Tiger logo, and the alternate one has a matte finish and a bigger Tiger logo without the oval." There are three jerseys -- black, white and gold -- and four pants -- black, gold, white and anthracite -- which can be mixed 24 ways. MU Equipment Operations Dir Don Barnes said that the plan is to "wear the alternate helmets once a year." Alden said that he told Nike he "wanted uniforms that reflected Missouri's 'understated conservatism.'" But he also "wanted, you know, some cool tiger stripes thrown in, too." Barnes: "On a scale of 1 to 10, we're not that 10 like the West Coast school. Penn State might be a 1. Maybe we're a 6 or a 7." Alden said that he "recently met with representatives of the Collegiate Licensing Company who told him that in the first ninth months of the fiscal year Missouri has sold more merchandise than it has in any other full year and that a 'significant jump' is expected when people start buying the new gear." Another "perceived benefit of new uniforms is they appeal to recruits." Walljasper noted the "most noticeable difference in the basketball jerseys is a tiger stripe pattern on the back" (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 4/15).
PLEASED WITH THE LOOK: In K.C., Terez Paylor reported Alden was "pleased" with the uniforms and "considers the brand change a success." Alden said, "At a minimum, I think we’d take a look at this being an eight-year type of look. Those things can evolve regularly, but I think right now, we’ve found a great foundation, a great look that’s gonna stay with us for a long, long time." MU "recently agreed" to an eight-year contract with Nike. (K.C. STAR, 4/15).
