Nike has a solid history with helping their partner schools with branding initiatives. First it was Oregon. Then it was Oklahoma State and Arizona State. Now it is Oregon State's turn.
After years of research and consulting, Nike and Oregon State have pulled back the curtain on the future of Oregon State athletics with a brand new logo, branding and uniforms for all 17 athletic programs at Oregon State. The football team will be the first to formally suit up in the new apparel when they debut the new football uniforms at the spring game in late April. The rest of the uniforms for football and 16 other sports will begin seeing action starting in August.
What's New?
The new logo — leaked to the public a few weeks back — loses the cartoony look of the previous Beaver logo (reminds me of this every time), which in itself attempted to lose some of the older comic look. The old logo will be passed on to College Vault, a retail program that uses old college logos for retail purposes. You know those t-shirts, hoodies and hats you see with your school's favorite old-school logos? College Vault is the company responsible for that.
The Colors
Oregon State is sticking with their traditional orange, black and white mix as the official colors. With the new look there will be times a casual fan may confuse this OSU with Oklahoma State, as the two programs will have some similar looks depending on the jerseys being worn on any given Saturday. In addition to the traditional colors, Oregon State will add in a metallic bronze as a secondary color element.
The Font
Oregon State introduced two different sets of word marks that will be used. The standard block lettering in bold will be the dominant wording used for the website and other documentation. There is nothing truly special about it from an aesthetically-speaking standpoint. The script (shown above) will be more visually appealing and I hope this is what is printed in the Oregon State endzone.
The Uniforms
We saved the best for last.
For starters, there is the all-black combination that will likely remain the regular home uniform. Black jerseys, orange lettering outlined in white with a slight metallic bronze trim it appears. The helmet features what could be a matte black finish with thick white stripe and smaller orange stripe down the middle. The helmet stripe actually extends to the facemask, a nice touch.
Black pants with similar white-orange-white stripe down the leg, and orange gloves (which feature the new logo when held up for the TV cameras.
What we assume will be the standard road uniform appears to be a complete contrast, with white replacing black and vice-versa. We see white jerseys with the same style of numbering, this time outlined in black. White pants match the jersey of course. We also see a different style of helmet, with a white helmet featuring black-orange-black striping that once gain extends to the facemask. The white helmet also features the new Oregon State logo on the side of the helmet.
Finally, Oregon State will also have an all-orange look in their lockers. The all-orange look will feature an orange jersey with black numbering outlined in what appears to be metallic bronze and a darker shade of orange (instead of white?). The orange pants match the jersey hue and the helmet looks to be a reflective orange with a thick black-orange-black striping that extends to the face mask. The same stripe pattern runs down the side of the pants as well.
Oregon State also showed off a uniform combo that mixed the orange jersey with black pants and the black helmet, so we can expect to see some mixing and matching from the Beavers in 2013 in all likelihood.
So, what does Oregon State expect?
Head coach Mike Riley sums it up quite simply…
This rebranding is about 3 things. 1. Recruiting 2. Recruiting 3. Recruiting.Talking to you Class of 2014! #GoBeavs
— Mike Riley (@Coach_Riley) March 5, 2013
Well said coach.
Kevin McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com and host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast.
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