Signature sneakers have been around since 1932 when the Converse added Chuck Taylor‘s name to its famous All-Star silhouette. Since then there have been hundreds of signature shoes across any number of sports. Some more famous and more successful than others, but when you got a signature, you had to have been doing something right.
Often times the athletes get the red carpet treatment when they’re awarded a signature shoe, and that’s an entire clothing and product line to complement it. Shirts, shorts, socks, hats, bags. Everything, soup to nuts.
But few have gotten the MVP treatment.
Signature uniforms.
That’s right. When your star shines so bright that your PERSONAL logo is good enough to slap on a college team’s unis (yeah, we’re looking at you, MJ…).
But did you know that the Jumpman was NOT the first signature line to get a college hoop uniform? Who, you ask? How about looking no further than a guy we named earlier, the guy who HAD the first signature shoe. Chuck Taylor.
In 1997, on its way to a National Title appearance, the Kentucky Wildcats, already notorious for some terrible uniforms (the Apex One experiment #NeverForget), rocked uniforms with the famed Chuck Taylor All-Star makers mark. The uniforms played off the redesigned All Star 2000, a shoe which never got the respect it deserved.
The Jumpman did make it table in time though as two years later during the 99-00 season as it adopted his Airness’ alma mater, North Carolina, replacing the swoosh on the shorts. The first season of Brand Jordan in basketball came under much scrutiny as this was the year they and parent company Nike tried (and failed) to replace wordmarks with logos. (author’s note: the Michigan logo unis were pretty dope). Those were quickly mothballed and the following year UNC returned to a primary wordmark.
In the 01-02 season perhaps no other high school recruit was more heralded than Dajuan Wagner. Juanny Wags chose Memphis which was a Reebok school at the time. Reebok had a nice stable of college hoop teams AND one of the NBA’s brightest stars as the face of the brand in Allen Iverson. What better way to hype your new recruit and breathe new life into your program than shiny new unis with the I3 logo of Iverson. They had a redesign after the first year, then relinquished their relationship with Reebok for Adidas.
In 2006, two kids from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis decided that they wanted to play their college ball together as well. So, Mike Conley Jr. and Greg Oden packed up and headed to Columbus at THE Ohio State University. Like Memphis, OSU decided that they needed to capitalize on their freshman class and used their Nike connect to put a spin on their uniforms for the season. And what a year it was. All the way to the Final Four. And again, just like Memphis, they used the biggest star at the brand that outfitted them. That star, also happened to be a hometown hero.
For the Final Four, Ohio State stunted in LeBron James signature unis customized in the popular “System of Dress” from that year. While Bron Bron’s cosign didn’t bring the Buckeyes a National Title, it certainly turned heads.
The Jumpman is still the only one of the signature uniforms remaining today. And while Nike and the Jumpman are ruling the roost in college hoops, you have to wonder, why did Ohio State relinquish it’s relationship with King James? You always hear in college football how the uniforms are a great recruiting tool. The guy is the biggest active basketball player on the planet. Why not capitalize on that?
Seeing the logo of a player versus a brand was a welcome change, even if it does basically represent the parent company. I’d just like to see more of it. Perhaps we will on the NBA landscape in 2017 when Nike takes over for Adidas. Nike, Converse, Jordan all scattered throughout the league? I hope not, but I’d say they’re crazy enough to try anything.
The post Signature Uniforms: From Head To Toe… appeared first on KicksOnFire.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment