It’s 2018, and much has changed in the aesthetic world of Notre Dame Football fandom.
- There’s a Stadium, but it now has a $500 million facelift, a video board, and an artificial playing surface.
- Our helmets, while no longer painted on Fridays by student managers, are proper gold to match the Dome. The pants, too, are a darker gold.
- The Shamrock Series is on hiatus currently, but we still see the special uniform every once-and-again at a neutral venue.
- NBC keeps nudging home games closer to primetime Saturdays.
The Shirt, too, has its traditions. We’ll see the latest incarnation on Friday, and the color is its chief selling point. But in 2018, we’re in the HDTV era, where aesthetics matter. If the school colors are blue and gold, there needs to be a vibrant third color option that is highly visible in the background and provides a bright contrast to the on-field participants.
You already know: The Shirt should be kelly green.
Enough of y’all have witnessed a game, whether in person or on television, where the crowd attire adds to the visual experience. So, taking a page from the “respectful innovation” playbook of recent Notre Dame aesthetics, let’s examine all the ways a concerted effort would make this successful:
- The Shirt goes kelly green every year.
- “But then annual sales would go down!” Ok, have the Bookstore limit sales of green shirts in the fall to the official current-year variety.
- “But then the weather gets cold!” Ask Under Armour (and other vendors) to produce fall runs of kelly green jackets, pullovers, sweaters, sweatshirts, knit hats, etc
- “Who would buy the same color shirt every year?” Hello Under Armour? Yeah, it’s Notre Dame again….listen, we have some students who need graphic design internships this summer because they’ll be designing the kelly green shirt for the following season. What’s that? Yes, we’ll send you those student names right away.
- “But what about rain?” Last I checked they made those plastic ponchos in a bright yellow, and since we’re not Michigan let’s give those a subtle color tweak for consistency, hm?
- “Won’t this hurt other merchandise sales?” When’s the last time y’all walked out of the Bookstore spending less than you anticipated walking in?
- “People will just wear other ND stuff or their own gear to games.” Great, and few colors stand out more than kelly green. So over time we’ll be encouraging a more visible coherent fanbase color.
- “But what will people wear to away games?” I don’t care — wear what you want. Just remember: bright colors stand out pretty well in visiting stadiums too (gesturing in the general direction of Athens, Georgia)
- “You’re just a Brian Kelly lover and then what will we do once he’s gone?” The only way I see this causing a problem is if Swarbrick hires Ron Burgundy as our next coach. Just about every other varsity squad leverages kelly green and the Fighting Irish moniker to its advantage. It’s time the football gameday experience follows suit.
- “What happens when we play a team wearing green?” There’s not one on the schedule between now and 2021.
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Christopher Cox
IrishElvis, you keep mentioning Under Armour. Keep in mind that the current edition is made by Colosseum, a company founded by a USC grad that uses problematic factories in Vietnam and China. A few years back, “The Shirt” was made by Alta Gracia, the world’s only living wage garment factory.
IrishElvis
I wasn’t implying UA does/should manufacture The Shirt. Instead, I’m suggesting we coordinate apparel rollout with our primary vendor. Rising tide lifts all boats, and whatnot.
Jeff Majerek
The Shamrock Series game is in Yankee Stadium this year….. and, though there are 3 night games this year, 2 home games have been set at 2:30 vs traditional 3:30……
TERRY
If there is ANY institution – college football, pro football, basketball, baseball, whatEVER – better than Notre Dame at marketing itself and making millions of dollars year in and year out and year in and year out – I pray I never find out who-where-what it is.
Irish Elvis
I think the answer you may be looking for here is “The Dallas Cowboys”. They bypassed the NFL’s revenue-sharing agreement, negotiate their own deals, and keep all the revenues.
Ryan Ritter
Yep. And according to this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/07/13/dallas-cowboys-head-the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-of-2016/#37ef3c26f330 you have a lot more franchises in that game.
ND doesn’t even sniff going into the billions like those franchises do.
TERRY
I wasn’t really looking for an answer, but thanks for the info in any case.
Ryan Ritter
I actually learned something in this one myself. I new the Cowboys were the most valuable, but didn’t realize how large the gap was. It’s pretty insane.
TERRY
I said about 8 years ago that if they ever market those football practice shirts with the shoulder stripes I would get one, but (as far as I know) that never happened.
Now I content myself with the occasional Patriots’ shirt or something Celtics-like.
I’ve had a healthy dislike for all things Cowboy for years, and Jerry Jones’ continual screwing up down there makes me happy – if memory serves it’s something like 22 years since they won a playoff game, and that is good.
BTW – Troy Niklas signed with the Pats.
Ryan Ritter
We’ve won 2 in the past decade!
Signed,
Sad Cowboys Fan
TERRY
one of the many bennies of old age is forgetting Cowboys’ victories.
Said with respect and whatever. IMO they had class until Jerry Jones bought the team.
Dennis Nickels
I don’t know about you but to alumni like me, the school colors are blue and gold always have been, always will be. The pure mocker of these Shamrock series uniforms does nothing but lower us to rhe level of the 2 and done football factories and make our players look like fools.
NOTRE DAME = BRAND = DISTICTION !!
Dennis MBA 88
TERRY
spell much?
HolyHandGrenade
I agree with the Blue and Gold thing (I think gold stands out just as much in a crowd as green). But your stance on the alt uniforms is just out of touch. Every school does them now, and they actually strengthen the brand and increase sales. If you think it makes them look like fools, everyone who buys those jerseys would disagree, and you only have to shield your eyes for one Saturday a year.
Irish Elvis
Dennis, happy to discuss the Shamrock uniforms (although that’s probably a separate issue). I’m not suggesting the school colors or uniforms should change; I’m merely making an observation on a united crowd color.
Regarding HHG’s suggestion of gold: I struggle to find the proper definition of gold, as it either veers toward “pasty white skin tone” (which certainly does *not* pop on television) or moves toward a vibrant electric/Ann-Arborish hue, which is SUPER undesirable. For all of The Shirt’s past valiant efforts to coalesce around a gold/yellow presentation, it’s demonstrated how difficult it is to translate a jewel tone into cotton fabric (and hence why kelly green is a sensible choice).
Dennis Nickels
Loops . Meant to type ”mockery”