Georgia Tech Receives New Jerseys for 2011: How They Stack Up Against the Past

Evident from a photo on the Georgia Tech athletics website, the Yellow Jackets football team will receive new uniforms for the fourth straight year in a row.

Since the athletic teams at Georgia Tech began receiving exclusive outfitting from Russell in 2008, the team has become Russell's primary "guinea pig," similar to Oregon's relationship with Nike and Maryland's relationship with Under Armor.

The possible new 2011 jerseys were worn by teammates Logan Walls and Roddy Jones during the ACC Kickoff event.

All 12 ACC teams were represented by two players, each wearing team jerseys. Players for Maryland and North Carolina State, which both have new uniforms slated to be unveiled as well, wore their 2010 uniforms.

But, Walls and Jones were pictured in white jerseys with gold numbers, with the jersey style being identical to the 2008-2009 sets.

If these in fact are the Yellow Jacket's latest aesthetic curveball, it will be the fifth major change in uniform design since 2008.

Tech has also not worn gold numerals since the 2002 season. The Jackets have a convoluted uniform past since the turn of the century and have become one of the most intriguing teams to follow in terms of branding based on their loosely executed identity.

From failing to find a good shade of gold to juggling concepts of white helmets (throwback) and blue jerseys (tribute to the 1990 national champion squad), Georgia Tech's true look has been in a state of change.

So, I'm here to break it all down and give insight on what direction is best for the team's brand.

Georgia Tech's true school colors of gold and white were much more prioritized at the turn of the century.

Traditionally, the Jackets have worn white jerseys for home and road games, and often, the fanbase predominantly wears white, rather than gold, to the game.

The football team was consistent with this theme. During the Joe Hamilton era, they wore gold jerseys with white numbers and white jerseys with gold numbers.

The white jerseys stayed in the player's lockers until the end of the 2002 season. They looked good, but the number font just didn't seem to match the traditional look of the rest of the set.

In fact, the number font seen here, which was a product of Russell's design, has become the stock font for nearly all Russell uniforms that are still worn today at the FCS and high school level.

The colors were great here, but the jersey itself looked a little off.

Grade: B-

Arguably the best era in Georgia Tech's aesthetic existence was from 2003 to 2007.

In that time, the Yellow Jackets switched to navy blue block numerals, which created a classy look.

Not only that, but the blue numbers made the team much more visible for television viewers and for fans who sat in the nosebleed seats at games.

A long with the change to the home white jersey, Tech also made a few other moves in this era.

Those changes will be addressed in the next slides, but this slide will serve as the judgement of the white jersey.

The gold band on the sleeves was a little hard to see, but the overall look was optimized to near perfection.

Grade: A 

For Georgia Tech's 2006 home game versus Virginia, the Jackets came out onto the field in 1950-60's style throwback uniforms.

The differences included a white helmet with a stripe design and a gold "GT" decal, no chest wordmark, a stronger shade of gold and a simpler pants stripe design.

The uniforms became widely popular, and many Jacket fans have since urged the team to go to the look full time.

Personally, I think these uniforms were great for a one game occasion, but overall, the color would get obnoxious after a full season worth of games.

And, as you will read later, Georgia Tech's gold can become very, very obnoxious.

Grade: A-

Though Georgia Tech has traditionally worn white at home, especially in the modern era, head coach Chan Gailey elected to wear gold jerseys often during the final years of his tenure.

Despite a majority of fans complaining about the deviation from the traditional style, most outside parties (like me, being a Georgia fan) loved the look.

The shiny gold uniforms were unique and exclusive to the school, and went well with that giant, almost tin foil looking gold flag they wave at games.

The Yellow Jackets have only worn a gold jersey once since 2007, and it did not look nearly this good.

Grade: A

In my honest opinion, these are the most beautiful uniforms Georgia Tech has ever worn.

For the 2006 ACC Championship game against Wake Forest, the Jackets unveiled navy blue jerseys, which were a nod to the early 1990's teams that won a national championship.

The gold and white really popped off the navy background, and the unique gold on blue on white look was stunning.

Grade: A+

2008 was when Georgia Tech committed to a complete revamp of their uniforms for each athletic team.

The biggest issue with the 2008 redesign by Russell was the shade of gold presented, which was supposed to more accurately represent the true "Old Gold" that is listed as Tech's official color (which is represented in the Buzz logo).

This was a controversial move. Not only did the new shade of gold make Tech look more like mustard bottles than football players, but the stylized modern design was contrary to the years and years of the classic look.

The gold jersey, pictured above, was presented at a preseason press conference but was never actually worn by the team.

Tech began wearing white pants on the road for the first time in 2008, which was how they differentiated their home and away look. That concept of white jerseys and gold pants, versus white jerseys and white pants, has stuck with Tech's habits since the arrival of Paul Johnson as head coach.

The uniforms themselves were some of the worst ever in my book.

Grade: D

Georgia Tech fans attributed "inconsistent lighting" as the reason why their 2008 uniforms looked so bad.

Well, it turned out they were right.

Under the lights of the Georgia Dome for the 2008 Chik-fil-A Bowl, Georgia Tech ended up wearing one of the all time frightening get ups.

For the second time in the decade, the Yellow Jackets unveiled navy blue jerseys. But, the bad part was the pairing with the mustardy pants and the way the shade of gold paint on the helmets looked "puke green."

Against the true gold of LSU's uniforms, Tech looked like a big hunk of misexecution (in more ways than one; They didn't play so hot either).

Grade: F

The first thing on the Yellow Jackets' 2009 preseason agenda was to promptly eliminate themselves from contention of having the ugliest uniform ever.

A little switch in the shade of gold and the introduction of a more traditional-vertical pants stripe sent the Jackets miles and miles in the right direction.

In fact, the overall look started to really stick with Tech fans, as the modern style jerseys looked 10 times better in the new colors.

Georgia Tech won the ACC Championship in 2009, and no, I will not put an asterisk anywhere on this slide.

Grade: A

For the 2010 Orange Bowl against Iowa, Russell sent Georgia Tech some special bowl game uniforms.

The all white look had become a nice addition to Georgia Tech's modern identity, but the problem with this uniform set was that blue was too prominent.

The pants stripe was a big navy blue slash, and the sleeve stripes did not balance gold and navy the way the previous 2009 uniforms did.

Navy blue is great when complimenting Georgia Tech's overall design (see slide eight), but it just doesn't do the team good when it's the focus of a white uniform.

Also, the template worn is seemingly a knock off of the Atlanta Falcons design, which had many watchers shaking their heads due to the lack of originality. That template has become a mainstay with Russell teams in other divisions.

Grade: B-

In the 2010 preseason, Georgia Tech actually made a really neat change.

Again, they unveiled a new set of jerseys, but this time, something was missing—a colored one.

The two jerseys unveiled (the home pictured above) looked nearly exactly the same, but one featured gold accents where the road jersey featured navy blue accents.

The concept seemed really smart, considering it gave Georgia Tech two different uniform designs while also keeping the tradition of wearing white at home in tact.

For home games, they paired the white jersey with plain gold pants, while the road jersey was paired with a set of white pants with navy blue accents that complimented the top.

The only issue with this move was the fact the jersey template itself looked goofy. The gold stripe on the collarbone had an awkward and non-concrete orientation.

Grade: B+

Here's a look at the road version.

As you can see, and compare to the previous slide, the collar, sleeve cuffs and jersey side panels were blue instead of gold.

The pants also had a unique striping design.

The positive of this uniform was actually the fact it really had a "bee" look to it, which fit. But, again, the excess of navy blue can be hard to digest.

This uniform is by far the least traditional looking one on the list.

Grade: C+

For their home game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Georgia Tech was actually "forced" to wear gold jerseys.

The Yellow Jackets presumably kept gold jerseys in their locker room, and they had to break out the colored tops when Wake claimed they had the right to wear white as a road team.

The gold tops served as a resurrection of the Gailey era look.

Some argued the sleeve stripes should have been navy blue, as they were presented in 2008, but fans overall liked how white was emphasized on the jersey collar and stripes.

The entire uniform was actually resurrected from 2009, as if Tech simply held onto that style of white pants and gold jersey "just in case."

Grade: B+

Tech brought out their older style uniform again in 2010, wearing navy blue tops with white pants for the first time since 2007.

It looked just as good as it did the first time, and the modern design flowed really well with the color scheme.

I know Georgia Tech is iffy about the place of navy blue in athletics, but how can you not like this?

Grade: A

This photo, courtesy of Georgia Tech's athletic website, indicates that the team will change their uniforms again this fall.

The jersey style is almost identical to the 2009 design in terms of the template and colors, but the collar logo is now the "GT" logo instead of the "Buzz" logo, and the numbers are gold with a double-stroke white and blue border.

The Yellow Jackets have not officially unveiled a new uniform set and did not in the fall of 2009 either. 

Speculation has begun on how they will execute their full identity. Some even are guessing that the road jerseys will have a reverse of the color scheme, similar to the concept used in last year's uniforms.

We won't know the whole look until September, but for now, I can approve of the jersey. It's classy looking again.

Grade (somewhat pending): A