One, consistent color for game day. The official color of ND Stadium, every year, forever. The Shirt would match that color every year, yet the design would change. That’s pretty much it.

http://www.bceagles.com/trads/bc-superfan.html

Confession: My best friend from high school went to BC. A good deal of our conversations since high school graduation have involved insulting the other’s collegiate alma mater. Nevertheless, we remain great friends to this day. Every year during my time at ND (i.e., 97-01) the two of us would send each other the respective “shirts” from our schools. I love ND (too much according to my wife), but the 97-01 versions of The Shirt were terrible. The colors ranged from baby poop to dog vomit, and the graphic design was obviously outsourced to a blind grade school art teacher. Each fall, the Superfan fan shirt arrived in the mail with the same goldenrod color, same frontal graphic, and an inspirational quote on the back. It was simple, it was clean, and it looked good. If it hadn’t been a BC shirt, I probably would have worn it around campus. Each fall, I was embarrassed to send The Shirt to my friend.

More than a decade removed from my time at ND, I still have the four “The Shirt” shirts and the four BC “Superfan” shirts from those years in my closet. Each year during my annual closet clean out I have to convince myself that, for loyalty’s sake, I have to hold on to the four “The Shirt” shirts despite the fact that they suck and I have not worn any of them since the respective home openers the years they were sold.

To be fair, The Shirt the last few years, as well as this year, has been better than any of the offerings during my time at ND. However, I agree with Biscuit that The Shirt can, and needs to be, better. While a lot of this has been said before, this is what I want from The Shirt:

1. ABSOLUTLEY NO PRINTED PHOTOGRAPHS – ugh.
2. Kelly green fabric every year – This one is a no brainer. No color says Irish more than kelly green.
3. Limit the printed material (designed graphics and text) to two colors – Blue and white, blue and gold, gold and white are the combo’s I’d like to see. Maybe a darker green with one of those other colors would work too.
4. The front needs to be simple and consistent. E.g., Approx.. 3×3 inch ND monogram on the breast with small text below it that says “The Shirt” and the year.
5. The back can be the thing that distinguishes the shirt from year to year. Simple designed graphic of the leprechaun, outline of the dome, a helmet, etc., would work. Id’ be fine with just text of the game schedule on the back.
6. Above all, keep it simple. Simple design is both easy and timeless.

Im interested in what you think the solution is.

I agree it’s an uphill battle and it may be one I can’t win, but what’s right is right and I will continue to fight the good fight.

Arguing that we can’t have a single color AND teach students business skills AND raise money for charity is simply silly. Had I been in that room the others would have left convinced or feeling stupid for not being convinced. I appreciate your support and your efforts, but ND thinks it does no wrong because of the ND Bubble. But so much is wrong. This is just one symptom. I will never yield!!!!

Blackouts ARE awful.