Crazy Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 10

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Crazy Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 9

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Crazy Auburn Uniform Concepts – Round 8

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Welcome back to the greatest time of the year – crazy concept uniform designs!

If you’re new here, each summer I put out an all-call on Twitter for the craziest, silliest, sometimes possibly realistic concept ideas that Auburn fans would like to see come to life.

Why? Well, the summer is often riddled with talking heads discussing alternate uniforms. The same horrendous designs have been passed around for years and it’s time to add more fuel to that fire!

This series also works to show that Auburn’s uniforms are pretty good as is. The Tigers don’t need to make any changes or bring unnecessary alternates into the rotation just because they can.

A few things before we get started:

  • First off, these designs are intentionally silly, obnoxious, and over-the-top. That’s the point. No one expects to see these hit the field or court. We aren’t saying Auburn should wear these whatsoever. If you are truly upset about any of these designs, that’s solely on you.
  • I am not a designer or an artist. This is always a fun project that helps push my very limited creativity. These are not the world’s best Photoshop jobs and they were never expected to be so. Again, they’re goofy on purpose.

Did your suggestion make the cut this year? Let’s dive in and take a look at this year’s crazy Auburn concept uniforms!

Who doesn’t love the standing buffalo? Let’s see how it works as a standing tiger.

This one was a rather simple tweak. Facemask goes grey, helmet stripes now touch, jersey stripes match the Bills’ design, and the pants stripe is much thinner. To play closer to an NFL uniform, the SEC patch moves from the right chest to the center, much like the NFL shield placement.

The Bills’ standing buffalo logo is iconic and swapping it with a tiger silhouette works really well here. The different sleeve striping is also a nice fit that doesn’t stray too far from the classic Northwestern Stripes.

 

BYU’s 1999 uniforms are often considered the ugliest in the history of college football. And for their ugliness, I love them! The Cougars actually forced the NCAA to change the uniform rules which now require the jersey to be entirely a single color.

For the Auburn-ized version, it starts at the helmet. A navy helmet carries a throwback block A placed within an orange-outlined oval, much like the BYU logo. To add to the logo aesthetic, the player’s number is also encircled on the back of the shell.

The old templates allowed the “bib” effect on the jerseys much better than Under Armour’s current design. The white are is restricted within the “file tab” textured area here. BYU also had their cougar head logo within the collar, but we’re going to place Sailor Aubie on the chest.

The numbers get an orange outline, the jersey gets terrible orange piping to connect the collar to the side stripes, and the pants get a single orange stripe to match the helmet.

 

This now makes the third straight year we’ve had an Auburn x NBA crossover design!

The Miami Vice uniforms have been incredibly successful for the Heat. Naturally, we had to make the light blue and pink gradient orange and navy to start off. I stuck with the normal Heat font and added the matching gradient-drop shadow.

Miami uses black wordmarks and numbers, but to stick with Auburn colors and make it pop more, I went with white. And instead of mimicking the Miami Vice font as closely as possible, I went with the beautiful Auburn baseball script.

I debated adding the old 1990s Women’s Basketball flaming AU logo to mimic the Heat logo, but decided against it. Keeping it simple worked well here.

 

There have been many different pinstripe uniforms over the history of baseball. But I don’t believe I’ve seen an orange uniform with pinstripes. Let’s see how it works!

Uh, yea, that’s a bit much!

This one could have gone a number of ways. Of course, we start with an orange base, add navy pinstripes, and go from there. The script Auburn has been a staple lately for the Tigers, and it differs from the AU-logo pinstripe sets Auburn has worn over the years. I went back and forth on having a white outline on the script and numbers or not, but trust me, it worked better with the stroke.

For consistency’s sake, the numbers and script are basically the only usages of white on the entire design. The cap also copies this, with the vintage orange-AU logo cap returning for the first time since 2010.

 

Well, this is a first for this series. It’s about time we add hockey here!

The original Mighty Ducks uniforms had a great look, especially with their colors. To Auburn-ize the design, I simply swapped all purple to navy and all teal to orange. The silver sticks around from the original design.

When I tell you that I’m not a designer, I hope this proves it. The Aubie mask is, well, nightmare fuel, personally! Love the idea, but the execution isn’t amazing haha.

 

 

Avery has a thing for Auburn food-related concepts 🤔.

Avery went above and beyond and used his actual artistic abilities to provide some design direction. He even provided the beautiful Toomer’s script logo for the chestmark!

This one feels a lot like an NBA City Connect design. The base design goes all yellow to match the lemonade. At Avery’s request, the SEC patch is replaced with a lemon (I genuinely tried to make an SEC-Lemon patch but it wasn’t working) and ice cubes are added at the bottom of the jerseys. The sillier the better, right?

The waistband on the shorts is white with perforation marks to match the script’s toilet paper tail. The numbers and player names are rendered in a font that matches the script.

The shorts feature the Toomer’s Drugs logo on both sides, housed within a white field that mimics some designs of Auburn Basketball’s past.

 

Auburn’s fauxback cream uniforms are among the best in college baseball. It’s a shame that we haven’t gotten to see them since 2018.

This one’s mostly a simple crossover design. The jersey and pants go cream-colored with navy collars, arm cuffs, and a single stripe on the pants. The script gets placed on the chest but is naturally smaller than the baseball design. The front numerals go orange and get offset.

The best thing here is the helmet. The navy helmet gets to feature both Auburn’s beautiful script currently worn and the throwback block A logo that was previously worn on the hats. Now that’s a helmet I want on my shelves!

Yes, of course, I had to use a photo of John Samuel Shenker, the latest two-sport athlete at Auburn!

 

Now, this is the perfect crazy concept idea! I love this one. If you aren’t aware, MLB and Nike began introducing City Connect uniforms last year, similar to the NBA’s designs. The uniforms were drastically different than the team’s usual threads and often had a direct link to something in the city. Kansas City features fountains, Boston went with the Marathon design, Miami threw back to a Negro League team, and so on.

After going back and forth on what local attraction to connect to for Auburn’s design, I finally settled on Chewacla State Park.

Yea, it’s a lot. Let me explain.

Let’s start with the colors. The green is meant to represent the tree canopy and plant life throughout the park. The light blue is for the water, specifically the park’s beautiful waterfall. I went with a vest jersey rather than a traditional jersey because one, it’s different than any other City Connect uniform so far, two, it’s traditional for Auburn Baseball, and three, sometimes you need to layer up when on an early morning hike! (Ugh, the Nike speak leaked in again.)

Chewacla has long been mined for a specific type of marble unique to the area. So any white areas on the uniform get treated with a marble texture. The hat and chest get the AUO airport code to further connect to the twin-city area of Auburn and Opelika. And those abbreviation hats have been all the rage in recent years.

The left sleeve receives a special patch that resembles an interstate exit sign. Hoping off Interstate 85 and Exit 51 is the best way to reach Chewacla State Park. But heading north off the exit will take you home to campus.

Last but not least, there’s a hidden raccoon patch on each jersey. For this mockup, it’s placed on the bottom half of the jersey. Why a raccoon? Well, the name Chewacla derives from an indigenous language that translates to Raccoon City. Yes, I did learn that while making this design.

 

Carter never fails to bring a great concept to the table! Let’s see what we can do with this design.

For the crowd that wants black uniforms, here ya go!

The entire premise of the uniform is based on the Jolly Aubie flag that @AUPPL designed years ago. And I must say, it fits well here on the helmet. The front bumper on the black shell reads “Jolly” referencing the logo and the rear bumper features #BarnCheatin, a popular Auburn Twitter inside joke when anything goes Auburn’s way.

The jersey shoulders feature the crossed toilet paper rolls in lieu of numbers or stripes. “Barn Cheatin” replaces the school name on the chest. A single toilet paper stripe is placed on the pants stripe to tie it all together.

The only splash of color comes from the “money bag” patch on the jersey above the nameplate and the award decals on the helmet. I can just see someone like Cam Newton, surrounded by “improper benefit” controversies, wearing a helmet covered in money bag decals!

And, to satisfy Carter’s request, here’s an image of the Chosen One wearing the #BarnCheatin uniform!

As is tradition, we wrap up another year of crazy concept uniforms with my sister-in-law’s designs. Can’t say we’ve ventured into the world of shoulda-coulda-woulda Australian Football League before! 😂

Wild design input equals wild design output.

I tried to match the AFL jersey as close as possible, but give it more of an Auburn – and eagle – flair. Red, blue, and yellow make for a colorful palette, but we’re going to stick to reality a little more here. The yellow gets swapped out for brown to match a golden eagle’s feathers.

Since the AFL design only featured a jersey and no shorts, I had to make it up in this case. I decided to simply mirror the jersey design and have the eagle head coming from the other side. You can’t have too many eagles!

There was only one choice for the player to model the new uniform – the psychopath himself, KD Johnson:

That will wrap up another year of crazy concept designs! Did your suggestion make the cut? If not, don’t worry. We do this each summer., Keep an eye out for the request each summer and we’ll do it again next year!

Which of these designs was your favorite?

 

Enjoy learning about Auburn uniforms and history? Want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more uniform news. To support this work, you can donate directly via Buy Me A Coffee. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.

Crazy Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 7

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It’s the greatest time of the year again! Yes, it’s time for another round of insanely crazy Auburn concept uniforms!

Each year, I put out a request on Twitter for the craziest, silliest, sometimes possibly realistic concept ideas that the fanbase would like to see come to life.

Why? Well, the summer is often riddled with talking heads discussing alternate uniforms. The same horrendous designs have been passed around for years and it’s time to add more fuel to that fire!

This series also works to show that Auburn’s uniforms are pretty good as is. The Tigers don’t need to make any changes or bring unnecessary alternates into the rotation just because.

This year saw a record number of concept suggestions – over 50! There’s no way I could have tackled all of them, so below are 14 uniform concepts that are ever more silly than in previous years.

A few things before we get started:

  • First off, these designs are intentionally silly, obnoxious, and over-the-top. That’s the point. No one expects to see these hit the field or court. We aren’t saying Auburn should wear these whatsoever.
  • I am not a designer nor an artist. This is always a fun project that helps push my very limited creativity. These are not the world’s best Photoshop jobs and they were never expected to be so. Again, they’re goofy on purpose.

Alright, that’s enough of that. Did your suggestion make the cut this year? Let’s dive in and take a look at this year’s crazy Auburn concept uniforms!

(You can click on all of these images to view a larger version. For Chrome users, consider utilizing the HoverZoom+ plugin as well)

The perfect suggestion to start off the 2021 concepts!

In December when Harsin was hired, I joked about making the field orange to celebrate. But what better way to honor Harsin’s alma mater than bringing Boise’s aesthetic with him!

Since 2017, Boise has worn jerseys that showcase a horizontal stripe across the sleeves. Stripes are Auburn’s forte, so it was a simple choice to keep the Northwestern pattern but give it the fast-angled approach. Boise also uses grey as opposed to white, so Auburn’s colorway reflects the same change. The chest mark is larger and italicized, much like the Broncos look. The number is now a light grey and also gets the italicized treatment with a new orange outline.

When Boise State first revealed this set, many wanted to see the diagonal stripes carried over onto the pants. And Nike apparently felt the same, as it’s included in the catalog version of this design. So of course I had to add the stripe to the pants for Auburn’s version. And rather than going with the team nickname on the pants leg, we’re going with the battle cry because, well, it’s better!

The last bit here is the helmet which is now navy with a silver facemask. I tried my hand at recreating the large Bronco logo into a tiger head, but let’s just say my logo-making skills are, uh, trash. So a ghostly Sailor Aubie now populates the right side of the shell with the player number on the left (a terrible trend I for one can’t wait to see end).

One thing that this crazy concept series has lacked in recent years is better representation from sports other than football. We’ve done a few soccer uniforms in the past, but it’s always enjoyable to bring new kits to the pitch.

I’ll admit, I know very little of soccer and absolutely nothing of the Premiere League. So after a little research into the designs worn across the pond, I settled on a few common looks, mainly with the vertical stripes. As soccer tends to change designs each season, this look isn’t based on any one team’s design but rather a few different aspects I liked.

The base jersey is white with orange stripes across the torso only for Auburn’s Premier League look. I thought of making the stripes Northwestern Stripes, but that was done last year only horizontally. The solid orange works well here, too. I also kept the sleeves bare to emphasize the torso stripes and avoid being pinstripe-like or looking like a referee.

One of the best features of soccer uniforms I’ve always liked is the large number on the shorts, so of course, that was utilized. The shorts go navy to create some balance with the white tops. The socks also go navy with a larger orange stripe solely to house the Under Armour logo.

Yellawood gets the front chest advertisement location. I debated what colors to use – white, yellow, navy – but settled on yellow and black to really pop and fit better into Yellawood’s (somewhat obnoxious) branding design.

The final details include the Auburn Soccer badge being placed on the left chest and the player name and number being rendered in the Copa America font from a few years ago.

Carter is always the master at bringing the best ideas to this series!

I went off suggestion a little bit and stuck with the Looney Tunes gradient circle design on the side. It works well enough. I did think of adding an Aubie logo to the center of the circle to replicate Porky Pig poking out, but it wouldn’t have been very visible with this template.

The Tune Squad name and logo are pretty iconic, so I really wanted to play off of that. I found a compatible font to work with and discovered that the name for a group of tigers is either a “streak” or an “ambush.” Ambush is a much better choice here, so that’s what dons the front of these uniforms.

New England’s Pat Patriot throwbacks are among the best in the NFL. It’s a shame the league’s one-helmet rule has mothballed this look – along with Tampa’s creamsicles, among others – for the time being. Now that the rule has finally be repealed, it’s time to bring these beauties back!

This one’s a rather straightforward design. New England’s red now becomes Auburn’s orange while the royal blue is now Tiger navy. The sleeve stripes are replaced with UCLA stripes across the shoulder. The helmet and pants see a slightly modified approach to the traditional stripes.

Pat himself has seen a little makeover, now donning the Sailor Aubie logo on his head! The arms and hands were also made orange with some tiger stripe additions to tie the whole thing together.

Yes! The first marching band uniform concept of this series!

This was another suggestion that was a struggle. I wasn’t sure where to start or what template to use, as band uniforms aren’t nearly as consistent across the board as sports uniforms. So, I started with the Auburn University Marching Band uniform design that was worn from 1995 to 2006 for the split jacket look.

The outer portion of the jacket features the floral Auburn pattern as found on a few retail items as a base. The “break,” for lack of a better word, across the center is used to resemble the floral shirt being unbuttoned. Underneath is a white t-shirt with a corny Hawaiian tourism design, just to push the “obnoxiously vacation” vibe that Laura wanted. The back of the jacket is the best, featuring a large, bold Aloha script!

The pants are no longer blue or white but rather khaki-colored. We keep the stripes for good measure here.

Gone are the traditional shako and plumes and in are the straw hats!

The “real-life” images are always the biggest challenge with my Photoshop skills, but this one was magnified without quality, solo band photos!

The Pittsburgh Pirates were one of the first teams in professional sports to mix and match their uniforms. From 1978 to 1984, the Pirates were among the best dressed in the league.

Despite the multiple color combinations available, I wanted to base this design on the gold jersey and black pants look. The jerseys are based on Auburn’s early 1980s design with the large sleeve stripes. The chestmark is rendered in the official Pirates font. The pants are now navy with a navy/white/orange striped cummerbund and two orange stripes down the leg. Orange stirrups are worn for the first time, as the Pirates often wore yellow ‘rups.

If the Pirates weren’t known for their over-the-top uniforms, they’re certainly known for the unique pillbox cap design they sported for this time frame. Auburn gets a navy cap with three orange stripes and we’re going to stick with the classic block-A logo on the front.

I sat and stared at Photoshop for far too long trying to figure out how to base the uniform off the script alone. I finally moved to base the basketball uniform off a baseball uniform instead, and I really like how it worked out.

Pinstripes aren’t the most common look on the hardwood, though some teams have worn them before. Auburn has never donned such a look – until now. The base uniform is white with light navy pinstripes. The script logo dons the chest with the player number directly under, a la the baseball team. The player’s name also gets a rather baseball treatment, being larger than usual and arching across the back.

To keep from having the uniform simply be all white, the sides of the jersey and shorts have navy stripes. The collar and trim are also navy with a thin orange stripe.

The rugby sweaters are always popular! We did a baseball version of this design a few years ago, so a football uniform is the perfect next step.

The first step here was to translate the base design over. The jersey was easy with the horizontal stripes featured on the cheerleaders’ shirts. The collar is white on the football jersey to mimic the popped collars that the male cheerleaders sport. The women’s shirts have a script Auburn on the chest, but it’s slightly different from any official Auburn wordmark. So we skirt that, stick to brand standards, and throw the baseball script on the front of the jersey. To match the script, the number and nameplate are rendered in a similar script font.

The cheerleaders wear plain blue pants or skirts on the field, but that’s a bit boring for a football uniform. I decided to keep the orange stripe down the pants leg to add a little more pop of color. The script Auburn also replaces the AU logo on the hip.

But the real beauty here comes with the helmet. Cheerleaders don’t wear any headwear, so I had to get a little creative with the lids. I debated making the stripes match normal helmet stripes, but thought it would be more fun to simply match the jerseys. Much like the pants, the AU logo on the helmet shell gets replaced with the script Auburn logo.

This is one of those suggestions that’s so good off the bat but became more of a challenge the deeper I went. I’ll explain.

I love the current Golden State Warriors uniform set, particularly the primary yellows. The Town uniforms are such a great way to connect to the city and local fanbase – it just works.

Tweaking the design to Auburn was a bit more difficult than I thought. I figured Auburn’s orange would be a good substitute to Golden State’s yellow, but, as similar as the colors may be, they aren’t identical and don’t work quite as well. The Warriors have also utilized this look on black uniforms. I wanted to avoid that and stick with true Tigers colors instead.

Rather than sticking with “The Town,” I changed it to “The Roll” and then added “Final” to the logo to commemorate the 2013 final rolling of the original oak trees. The lined-tree logo in the center stays rather untouched but gets two rolls of toilet paper hanging off. Adding more rolls felt like the right recipe to make this design as over-complicated as possible, so I kept it to a minimum.

To channel my inner Nike-speak, “the two rolls of toilet paper are limited, but indicated that you, the fan, have plenty of room to add your own flair!” Ok, enough of that. I added one last roll to the bottom of the circle just to differentiate a bit more from the original design.

The shorts are a really basic version of the Warriors’ design, removing the Golden Gate Bridge elements connecting the stripes to the hemline. A throwback Auburn Baseball “A” logo is added to the belt buckle to replace the Warriors’ Circle-W logo.

I’ll admit this isn’t my favorite of the bunch and I’m sure a few different choices could have made for a better look. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments!

Colin has joined in on this series for multiple years now and loves to see what Auburn would look like in NFL looks.

The biggest challenge with this suggestion was tweaking the iconic Seahawks logo. I wanted to keep with the bird look but naturally make it look more like an eagle. I’m in no way a logo designer, so this was a challenge. I took the throwback ‘hawks logo, changed the colors to a lighter blue and orange, tweaked the eye to make it more intimidating, and added some ruffles across the back to give it some more eagle-like character.

The new logo was placed on the helmet, and of course it meets in the back! It also dons the shoulders, placed on top of a new set of stripes to mimic the original design. To top things off, the jersey collar gets a white/orange/white stripe and the pants stripe also mimics the old-school Seattle look.

Phoenix’s “The Valley” uniforms have quickly become a fan favorite from the NBA since their debut in December, and it’s understandable why. How will it work Auburn-ized?

Much like last year’s Suns uniform concept, I tried to avoid simply going with black as the base color. The Suns’ purple is also just different enough from Auburn’s navy, so a compromise was made. Rather than black, I went with a lighter shade of charcoal grey – similar to the softball uniforms a few years ago. Navy is also made a bit brighter, closer to purple, just to pop off the dark grey better.

The unique gradient pattern across the chest is such a great aspect of this design. I found a font similar to what Phoenix used for their wordmark to render “The Jungle” across the chest.

The shorts also get the gradient treatment. The Suns’ famous flaming basketball logo is nice, but let’s use Auburn’s own version. During the 1980s and 1990s, Joe Ciampi’s Auburn Tigers women’s teams often sported a flaming AU basketball and it makes its debut on a men’s uniform with this design.

Gotta say, I really love this design. Maybe a t-shirt is in its future. 🤔

If there’s one Auburn sport whose uniforms give me fits, it’s gymnastics. The leotards are incredibly well-designed and custom-made, so it’s difficult to replicate in an efficient manner.

Emily also indicated that she wanted to see the Tigers’ “snakeskin” leotard utilized for this suggestion. Let’s see how it came out:

Yep, it’s colorful!

The base design starts with an orange/light blue/navy gradient across the jersey. The sleeve cuffs are all navy to mimic the leotard’s navy sleeves. Much like the gymnastics team, this jersey only features the AU logo on the right sleeve, leaving the left side blank. The AU logo is also rendered in rhinestones like was utilized one last year’s baseball/gymnastics crossover uniform. You’ll also notice the SEC patch gets it’s own gradient – a first of its kind for SEC teams! The chest of the jersey sees the “snakeskin” portion of the leotard.

As leotards don’t have player numbers, I had to get a little creative here. After a quick Google search, I decided to base the numerals off of the gymnastics judges’ scoreboards. The rounded numbers with a navy outline sure do give a Denver Broncos feel, but I like it here.

Gymnasts typically don’t wear leggings with their leotards while competing, so the pants here were fully up to the imagination. I thought about mimicking the high-waisted look of a leo but quickly decided against it. Instead, I stuck with all navy, giving the belt a rainbow gradient like the jersey, and adding a large orange stripe down the side.

Finally, the helmet also gets the rainbow gradient treatment complete with the rhinestone AU logo. For an added touch, the rear bumper changes from War Eagle to Fly High. I almost made the facemask gradient as well, but had to show some restraint!

Gotta have that Momma’s Love! No Auburn restaurant is as beloved and considered overrated as this sub shop.

I immediately thought of Minor League Baseball’s fascination with food-based uniforms and that this would be the perfect tie-in. Let’s start with the hat. Like most MiLB foody hats, this one is a tri-color cap featuring Momma Goldberg’s brown color on the back, an orange bill for the famous Doritos nachos, and a cartoony sub sandwich across the front. The squatchee – the button on top of the hat – gets the lone touch of green to match the lettuce in the sandwich.

The jerseys come in orange and feature a sublimated pattern to resemble the details on a Doritos Nacho Cheese chip – it’s all the finer details! The chest mark features “Momma’s Love!” in the same font as the franchise’s logo. The back number is rendered in the same font. The sandwich from the hat dons the right sleeve and a cheesy nacho chip is placed right above the player number!

My favorite details come below the belt. The pants stripe is super cheesy and is also replicated across the brown stirrups, Of course, Kason Howell is the perfect man to sport these incredible stirrups!

Now I need to stop at Momma’s next time I’m in town!

By tradition, we wrap up the annual Crazy Concept Uniforms piece with my sister-in-law’s always amazing suggestion. Let’s see what she has for us:

Alright, alright, hold on. Let me explain this one real quick. Ginger is my incredible dog. She’s been with us since 2009 when she was dumped in a neighborhood across the street. She’s the sweetest thing ever. Last year, she was diagnosed with an inoperable grapefruit-sized tumor and we were told she had between two and four weeks left. Well, Ginger laughed in the vet’s face and has been doing fine ever since!

So, the pink. Ginger has always worn a pink collar, but that wasn’t enough for one member of our family. My father – yes, you read that right – gives Ginger a “spa day” each Monday and paints her toenails a bright shade of pink.

No, really.

Alright, on to the uniform. Jillian provided a lot of extra details not included in the tweet above and I tried to incorporate as many as possible. The jersey and ballcap are a light brown-tan color that matches Ginger’s coat. The cap’s bill and squatchee, along with the jersey script, number, and SEC patch are each rendered in pink to match her manicured nails. The pants get a large pink stripe down the side with the belt and socks, naturally, are also pink.

The best part of this concept, for me, is the custom Ginger logo. My good friend and super talented artist Avery Dove created this logo in the same vein as many Minor League Baseball team logos. It fully captures Ginger’s staple “one ear up, one ear down” pose she gives on a daily basis.

So there they are! Another set of the silliest concept uniforms are complete. Which one was your favorite? Which one could I have designed differently?

If your suggestion didn’t make the cut this year, don’t worry! There were over 40 suggestions that had to be left on the cutting room floor. I so wish I had the time and space to create all of them. We do this each summer, so be sure to bring your ideas back next year!

My thanks go out to all of those who made suggestions this year as always! You guys always surprise me with how creative and silly you can get.

Enjoy learning about Auburn uniforms and history? Want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more uniform news. To support this work, you can donate directly via Buy Me A Coffee. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.

Crazy Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 6

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Auburn uniform concepts are always a divisive topic and seem to be a common mid-summer, no-sports content filler.

Here at the Auburn Uniform Database, we do it a little differently. Rather than simply sharing “sick” designs that have zero context whatsoever like some other outlets, we include the fans to produce some never-before-seen ideas that are (mostly) completely off the wall!

This marks the sixth edition of one of my favorite new traditions. I put out a few requests on the AUD social media accounts to collect the ideas that came in. Like always, some are actually decent designs and others should never be connected to Auburn Athletics whatsoever.

This series is simply meant to showcase designs and to prove just how spectacular the current Auburn uniforms are. In no way are we suggesting that these uniforms should ever be produced and worn or that they are even good looks. And I’m certainly not the best at Photoshop.

With all that out of the way, let’s dive into another 12 uniquely awesome Auburn concept uniforms!

Colin has been a mainstay in this series, often suggesting some Auburn-NFL crossover look. He stays on brand here with the controversial new Los Angeles Rams uniforms.

This design is mostly just a direct copy of the Rams look. Horns are placed on the helmets and sleeves, gradient numbers and stripes, and the silly nametag patch on the chest.

I often try to match a design to better fit Auburn’s aesthetics, but it’s difficult to find a good comparable design to the classic ram horns.

While the horns make no sense for the Auburn Tigers, can’t say I hate them being rendered in orange and blue!

 

While Tennessee has a wonderfully classic uniform design, poor Chad has been tortured by bad uniform decisions. I know these horrendous uniforms have haunted his nightmares for years now.

The Tennessee jerseys had a lot of details going on. The adidas patterns showing through were one thing, but there were also the shoulder checkerboard stripe and the number details.

With Auburn having its own set of stripes, I placed the Northwestern Stripes across the shoulder yoke rather than the checkerboards. The stripes also are sublimated over the numbers. I threw on a nice white mask to tie everything together and best match the UT designs. Unlike Chad’s reference photos, these Auburn jerseys feature a white outline around the numbers to better pop against the dark grey.

 

When you give me multiple options, you give me the freedom to pick what I think works best for this series! I thought the Barkley-era uniforms would be a lot of fun to recreate, so that’s what we have here. Enjoy!

Like I said with the Rams uniform, I like to make these designs more Auburn-esque than simply copy/pasting. But it’s difficult with such iconic design elements like the horn helmets and the shooting sun-basketball.

I wanted to avoid adding any black to the uniform and stick to Auburn’s navy, orange, and white, but it just didn’t work. The purple and black Suns uniforms are much more iconic than the whites.

As college programs continue to mimic throwback professional uniforms, this set certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility and I would not be upset if it were to happen.

 

When selecting what suggestions to use, I try very hard to make sure we don’t duplicate any look from previous entries. All-navy has been rather popular (and will continue to be), but I liked the idea of the orange mask on the navy helmet. That was my biggest sell here.

Yea, I adore that helmet. I want one myself now!

Despite Twitter’s character limits, it can be beneficial for me when the suggestions are incredibly direct and detailed. Josh spent much of his time here working on the helmet details, so the rest of the uniform was left to me.

I wanted to stay more true to Josh’s suggestion, so I simply added some navy pants and removed the TV numbers on the shoulders for the tiger claw mark stripes. I’m not too keen on this personally, as it’s rather generic and has been utilized by some adidas teams in recent years.

The real winner here is that helmet 😍.

 

Animal Crossing has been the summer hit and I can’t get enough of this game.

Animal Crossing is such a unique and in-depth game that it was difficult to find an approach for this uniform. I went with the mentality of a Minor League baseball team and their often over-the-top promotional uniforms. Much like Super Hero Night supersede the team’s branding, so does Animal Crossing take precedence over Auburn’s!

The main colors come directly from the special Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch edition. I took the leaf logo and made that the main element for the hat and jerseys. The number font comes directly from the Animal Crossing logo font.

The fun detail of this uniform comes on the pants. In the game, the characters hold many items in the pocket inventory. The pants will feature several different icons from the game placed on the hip, where pockets would go if baseball pants had traditional pockets. Each player would have a different combination of icons, making each pair unique.

 

Adam also handed out a lot of ideas. I had to throw out Adam’s preferred idea because camo is the one thing that I won’t allow in this series! I wanted to do something different and thought the 2015 Men’s Basketball alternate uniforms would make for a very unique look.

The MBB uniforms had a few key elements that were transferred over to this football design – “bracket” stripes, sublimated tiger stripes, and a lighter shade of orange.

Let’s start with the stripes. The brackets were mimicked directly on the pants but set to a V-shape on the shoulders similar to Cincinnati’s uniforms. The helmet stripe also features the brackets, which creates a unique look that bends outwards in the back.

The lighter orange is used throughout. The numbers have an orange outline to match the basketball uniforms along with an orange collar and sleeve cuffs. The basketball uniforms had the tiger stripes on the bottom half of the jersey and all over the shorts, but I went all out and put them on everything head to toe.

The bracket stripes make this such a unique look, especially the helmet. I wouldn’t mind seeing this helmet concept on my shelves.

 

 

As you can imagine, football uniforms dominate this concept series. I wanted to include more non-football designs this round, and Brennan hit it out of the park with this suggestion. I’m admittedly no soccer fan, but the Waldo kit was enough to catch my attention.

The Northwestern Stripes are such a staple at Auburn, so much that multiple sports have worn them over the years. Auburn Soccer’s striped sash uniforms were perfection.

Where the USA kit works with the bold stripes, I think the multiple, thinner stripes might be a detriment here. I matched the number of stripes on the USA kit for this design, but maybe removing a set or two would do better.

While it isn’t used on the kits, Auburn does have a soccer crest. I wanted to use it here, but it sure does get lost in the stripes.

This design has some potential but could be tweaked some to make it worthy of being worn on the pitch.

 

That will conclude the “sane” concepts. Now we get into some of the more wild looks.

This is exactly the concept idea I look for! Something unique that has zero chance of ever making the field is what makes this series fun to make.

I went with the Birmingham Barracudas as they had a more intriguing look. The ‘Cudas had several logo variations built specifically for their usage on the uniform.

I went with the 1990s Tigers wordmark for a bold look on the chest. The jumping tiger gets placed on the shoulder and the tiger head is placed on the black helmet.

The Barracudas had many colors to work with that we didn’t with Auburn. I added a lighter shade of blue to the pants stripe but didn’t use it elsewhere. The shoulder yoke is orange to just make this as bold of a look as can be.

 

You got it, Drew!

Creating a tie-dye pattern in Photoshop is more complicated than I imagined, so I found a nice orange and blue pattern on Google that also worked to mimic a tiger tail.

I thought about mimicking the New Jersey Nets’ tie-dye uniforms of the 90s, but it wasn’t bold enough for my liking. A tie-dye base uniform isn’t enough on its own, so I made the team name wrap around the swirl on the front and the player name on the back follows suit.

The number is placed awkwardly on the front and the team nickname is on the shorts just to drive home the craziness that tie-dye naturally embodies.

 

Good thing I already have a collection of Gus Malzahn’s gameday wear…

I went back and forth for a long time trying to figure out how best to fulfill this request. I thought about making the jersey look like a vest and then scratched it. Finally, I went with the idea to make the vests and caps as polka dots on the jersey.

The jersey has multiple vest mockups with the hat and visors being placed in between. The Ditka-inspired vests are placed on the shoulders to act as the traditional Northwestern Stripes. My favorite detail is with the numbers, as at least one digit on each player’s jersey will “wear” a Gus visor.

The rest of the uniform is meant to mimic Malzahn’s gameday apparel. The pants are khaki-colored and the helmets are meant to look like Gus’ usual visor choice.

 

I can always count on Carter for suggesting the perfect basketball idea.

I did just as Carter requested and included many different design elements from the last 60 years of Auburn basketball uniforms.

Just like the football team, Auburn basketball was rather traditional and unchanged for several years. Even when something changed, it was something simple like the side panels or shorts design. I wanted to throw in as many unique details as possible, and the more crazy uniforms are from the turn of the century.

Here’s a breakdown of each element utilized. You can view the original uniforms here:

  • Right shoulder – short striping from the 2019-20 uniforms
  • Left shoulder – large striping from the 2012-15 uniforms
  • Collar – the beloved tiger stripes from the 1998-2000 uniform
  • Right side panel & shoulder yoke – from the 2006-09 uniforms
  • Left side panel – from the 2002-03 white uniform
  • Shorts Waistband – from the 2019-20 uniforms
  • Right shorts leg – from the 2009-12 uniforms
  • Left shorts leg – from the 1969-72 uniforms
  • Numbers – first digit from 1999-03 uniforms, second digit from 2002-03 white uniform
  • Wordmark – each letter is from a different wordmark
    • A – used from 1996-2004
    • U – used on 2000-01 orange jersey (made letter orange rather than white)
    • B – current font used since 2004-05
    • U – used from 1969-79
    • R – used on 2000-01 white jersey
    • N – used on 2002-03 white jersey

All in all, 13 eras were included in this uniform design. As crazy as it is, I kinda like it!

 

Jillian earned a permanent spot in this series after giving us a beautiful gold sparkle uniform with a cape! She brought another great concept last year, and she didn’t disappoint this round.

I’ll admit it – this one kicked my butt. I’ve wanted to expand the Auburn Uniform Database to cover gymnastics leotards, but one of the many hurdles is accurately replicating each design. This uniform took a lot of learning and experimenting, but I was finally able to replicate a number of the rhinestones.

This was another direct replication from the source material. The jerseys are nearly 1-to-1 and feature a navy base, a lighter blue upper-portion, and a light orange used around the sleeves and collar. The orange also has a subtle orange-to-pink gradient, much like the team’s leos.

As leotards don’t have numbers, pants, or hats, we had to get a little creative. The numbers are rendered in the same pinkish gradient with rhinestone outlines. The pants are orange with some lighter blue details on the belt and socks. The hats also feature the lighter blue for the crown color with the visor being pink and orange once more. The AU logo on the cap is simply outlined in rhinestones to mimic the logo on the back of the leotard.

Another twelve concept uniforms are complete. They’re crazy, they’re garish, but that’s the point! Once again, these designs are completely for fun and meant to be crazy and bad. We are not here to push for these designs to actually be worn.

Big thanks to everyone who submitted ideas again this year! We had over 40 suggestions that had to be cut down to a workable number. Those cuts weren’t easy, as a lot of interesting ideas were left on the cutting room floor. Just because your idea wasn’t selected does not mean it was a bad one.

Hold on to your ideas and let’s do this again next summer!

Did you enjoy this group of Auburn concept uniforms? Want to see more like this and other Auburn uniform news and details? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, Instagram page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.

Crazy Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 5

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In what has quickly become one of my favorite traditions here on the Auburn Uniform Database, it’s time for another round of insane, crazy, and sometimes potentially great concept uniforms!

Each summer, I put out the request for Auburn fans to submit their ideas for concept Auburn confirms – the crazier the better. Most of these have been for football only, but we’re slowly branching out to include basketball and baseball. Previous editions have had uniforms based on a car, other football teams, a beloved childhood video game franchise, and even gold sparkles with capes.

This round of suggestions didn’t fall short. In fact, I think this might be the best group of designs thus far!

And because some people are bound to get upset – these are meant to be fun, goofy, and, for the most part, bad. These are in no way supposed to be ideas for anyone to expect Auburn to actually wear.

Without further ado, let’s dive in to the newest concept uniforms.

In just a few weeks, Auburn will kick off the 2019 season against Oregon in Dallas, playing in Jerry’s World. In 2017, Arkansas and Texas A&M faced off in AT&T Stadium, and the Razorbacks wore Cowboys-inspired uniforms in honor of alumni Jerry Jones.

When Arkansas copied Dallas, they simply swapped blue for red. That’s an easy choice when both teams only have a single primary color. With Auburn have blue and orange, it’s a bit more difficult. I wanted to keep a splash of the orange to differentiate from the original Cowboys uniforms, so the shoulders get an orange stripe. Playing around with more orange, and even an orange jersey, just didn’t work.

Let’s stick with the NFL look-a-like designs.

My Jacksonville Jaguars have struggled on the field for too long now. But at least the uniforms are a bit better. I still miss the original design.

Unlike the Cowboys, the Jaguars have a lot of colors to chose from. I struggled trying to pair the black, gold, and teal with Auburn’s blue, orange and white. I decided to use the navy to replace the black and used the orange for the details.

One more design mimicking other teams.

After some discussion with San, he decided to go more Penn State like rather than Lions, as Detroit has stripes all over the uniform.

While Penn State wears white helmets, the navy pairs well here. I actually like this design, one we’ve seen plenty times before. I think the matte look really helps if Auburn were to actually wear a blue helmet shell.

There are always a few people I can rely on for really good concept ideas, and Carter Michaels is no doubt in that group.

The turn of the century was a really dark time for Auburn basketball uniforms. The uniform Carter showcased was a one-year special worn in 1999. The collar and armholes feature what I’ve called an “Aztec pattern” that feels very out of place.

As the basketball uniform sticks with traditional striping on the side panels and shorts, I wanted to reflect those on the shoulders and pants. This one is pretty much a one-for-one recreation, and it’s equally as… not flattering.

As basketball uniforms are a much smaller canvas for design, it’s sometimes difficult to make up for it with a helmet on a football uniform. I wanted to stick with the orange theme and made for an orange helmet with matching stripes. The shell actually features the same Aztec pattern as the jerseys but lightly sublimated. It creates a nice texture on the lids.

And of course the real-life mockup would use a photo against Clemson, making for a lot of orange in one photo.

I really enjoy seeing new ideas for non-football teams.

The soccer uniforms looked amazing with the full stripe sash. Unfortunately the new kits aren’t as great in that sense. But how would basketball look utilizing such a great feature? The program has worn uniforms featuring the Northwestern stripe before, but it wasn’t entirely well done.

Yea, I think I’m in love with this.

Nostalgia hits hard in 2019. Let’s go with an old-school logo, a football jersey design feature from the early 2000s, and the classic grey masks.

It’s rather simple, but that’s ok. Auburn’s uniforms have gone rather unchanged for decades because it works.

The grey mask is a nice touch and throws back to the Sullivan era. The simple “button” on the chest could be a cleaner design than the chestmark currently worn. And who doesn’t like the old school logos??

Auburn has a great space and NASA history, having six alumni being selected as astronauts. In fact, Columbia’s final test flight in 1982 featured two Auburn graduate alums. NASA employed over 800 Auburn people at the time.

UCF has made space uniforms their thing recently, and I wanted to avoid copying any of their designs.

To celebrate Auburn’s history with NASA and space travel, this uniform is meant to honor the past successes. Five of the six Auburn alumni astronauts have been launched into space, and their mission logos don the pant stripes. The AU logo now resembles a constellation and features a space shuttle flying across. The shuttle is also placed on the front chest, circling the player numbers.

 

Some crazy designs aren’t actually all that crazy.

The Tiger Eyes logo is rather divisive among Auburn fans, but that might be the least offensive to many. I would love to see the return of the orange facemasks for real – that’s the one real uniform tweak I advocate for. When Auburn wore orange jerseys during the Doug Barfield era, one of the design issues was the white numbers. A blue outline could easily fix that issue. The pant stripes are a bit different, but can work well here.

I must say, this is my favorite real-life Photoshop image of this entire batch of concepts.

The Turn Ahead the Clock era in MLB history is one of my favorites. The unique designs were all fun and it’s crazy that we’re now at the point were futuristic uniforms are now old enough to be throwbacks.

For this TATC design, I wanted to stick to the theme of the program without blatantly ripping off some designs.

Large logos were a common motif, but a large AU logo wouldn’t have been very dynamic. The now-retired Samford Hall tower logo felt like the right choice here. An illustration of the entire building was considered, but again, this looks dynamic (and obnoxious) enough to fit the mold well.

The vest-like jerseys get a lot of the attention from the TATC era, because the hats and pants didn’t see all that much change. The Mariners wore large striped pant stripes, so Auburn will basically be wearing football pants here. The hat features an oversized AU logo tilted the opposite direction of the jersey logo. While some real hats have shown logos can be continued to the brim of the cap, this one gets cut off. Cause why not.

And you can’t have Turn Ahead the Clock without odd player names and numbers, complete with the vertical nameplates.

Ah, good ole YellaWood. Jimmy Rane, who acted in the television spots as the Yella Fella, is an Auburn alumni and Board of Trustee member.

The Yella Fella outfit is so distinct that I wanted to stick as close as possible to it. The jerseys have a yellow body with orange side stripes to represent the shirt and vest worn. Sublimated buttons really drive home the look. The helmet is meant to mimic the top hat and looks rather similar to the Iowa Barnstomers lids.

The chest mark has a YellaWood label like the slabs of wood. And of course, to be authentic, it must be stapled on to the real thing.

Cow College. Ight.

Once again, I wanted to avoid being really cliche with this look and not place spots everywhere. I found a nice illustrated cow head on Google and wanted to use it as the new logo. It’s placed on the helmet and the chest of the jersey. The black and white spots get placed on the shoulders, pant stripe, and are used on the back end of the helmet.

The pink from the cow head logo is used to add some color, specifically with the numbers and pants. And just because it felt even more silly, the cow horns are added to the front side of the helmets.

Good luck avoiding the cow college jokes at this point…

 

Whenever I request concept ideas, I always hope for the truly crazy designs. The ideas that are so out there you know it’s entirely silly. And that’s where the next two fall in line.

Gradients are weird enough. So we have that going for us!

Emily wanted a large single stripe along the pants, so I wanted to mimic that with the helmet. The shell is orange to continue the gradient upward, while the pants continue down. The chest and back numbers feature a gradient outline, reversing the color of the jersey underneath.

The shoulder cap tiger stripes are just the cherry on top for this uniform.

How can we top that crazy?

Oh, that’s how.

I asked for crazy, and I got crazy.

These are the fun ideas where creativity can take over.

I found a watermelon stripe pattern on Google and wanted to run with it. The stripes are slapped onto the shoulder caps and pants stripe. The numbers and pants go pink, with the numerals featuring “watermelon seeds.”

The helmet features a dark green set of stripes to resemble the rind of the fruit to top everything off.

When you suggest the world’s first football cape (and gold sparkly jerseys), you earn a spot on the next round of concepts (being a sister-in-law also helps).

Auburn cheerleaders always wear their rugby sweater uniforms for the Iron Bowl. It’s a fun little tradition that I personally love.

The male and female cheerleader uniforms naturally differ a little bit. This baseball design features details from both versions.

The orange and blue stripes fully encompass the jersey. The women tops have a small script Auburn on the chest, so we kept the baseball script but made it much smaller on the side. The men wear long blue pants, but the ladies wear skirts, so the baseball team should wear their pants bloused to showcase the hosiery. The stirrups are white with the same orange and blue stripes, just to break up all the blue.

The hat is similar to the current tri-color design, but sticking to just the orange and blue, no white.

 

So there you have it. Eleven new absolutely crazy but beautiful concept uniforms for the Auburn Tigers. Again, these are all just for fun and no, I don’t expect or even wish to see (most of) these come to life.

Thank you to everyone that submitted ideas. We had a ton of great ideas and I deeply regret not being able to tackle all of them. Just because your idea wasn’t selected does not mean it was a bad one. There’s only so much time to create these mockups.

Hold on to your ideas and let’s do this again next summer!

Do you enjoy uniforms and want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, Instagram page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.

auburn concept uniforms

Auburn Concept Uniforms – Round 4

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It’s becoming a yearly summer tradition here on the Auburn Uniform Database. Taking ideas from readers and Twitter followers to create the silliest, craziest, and sometimes actually plausible designs for Auburn’s football uniforms. We’ve done this a few times previously, and the ideas continue to get more interesting each edition.

This year, we have another eight concept ideas. Like the previous editions, the suggestions will be mocked up on a standard template. As an addition, I have edited game photos of Auburn players to hopefully represent the concept on the field. I’m not very experienced with the real life edits, so they will differ in certain areas from the mock ups.

Because I know some will get upset (and already have), I have to say that these aren’t in any sense supposed to be taken seriously. I never have any intentions on Auburn even considering these crazy designs. Don’t get worried or upset when there’s nothing to get worried or upset about. Now on with the show.

We’ll start with one suggestion actually from the last round of concepts. David wanted to see an Auburn football uniform based off an orange, blue, and grey painted 1929 Lincoln. He also added to his suggestion this year.

I wanted to best replicate the car on the uniform, which meant sticking with the blue jerseys. Orange is rather limited in the car’s scheme and I wanted to stay true to that. The helmet, numbers, and pants each feature a metallic grey gradient to give it a nice shine.

I didn’t even realize until I finished, but the Photoshopped image of Kerryon Johnson looks a lot like his new Detroit Lions uniforms.

Last year, I made a Nike-based Auburn uniform and included the current Cleveland Browns’ pants style. This year, Colin wanted to go a step further.

I left the pants as normal this time around. Auburn gets an orange helmet and orange numbers with a white reverse dropshadow.

I must say, I do like the larger stripes.

Auburn has one of the most traditional uniforms in college football. But what about using even more traditional elements? That’s what Carter wanted to see.

I tried to mimic Michigan’s uniforms with an Auburn twist. While Michigan uses a dark helmet shell color with bright stripes, Auburn’s are reversed. Michigan doesn’t wear stripes otherwise; Auburn does.

I wanted to expand this series of concepts beyond football, and invited people to suggest concepts for other sports.

The first one received was for baseball:

Vanderbilt’s all black pinstripe set is a very divisive design (I, for one, enjoy the look). Vandy’s design features their light color (gold) over their dark color (black) as the base. This Auburn design includes a navy blue base with the pinstripes being navy. It’s a re-coloring of Auburn’s current white pinstripe uniform with a few tweaks, including the outline on the number and logo. I wanted to pair the new orange-logo cap with this design rather than the white-logo hat to better match.

A basketball uniform concept was also suggested. I really enjoyed creating this one.


While the Grizzlies had a more ornate pattern used on the trims, I wanted to stick to current Auburn icons. The Auburn trim features the AU logo and a paw print. The wordmark was recreated to mimic the original Grizzlies font. Vancouver had a large bear with a basketball on one side of the shorts. Auburn has no such sports-specific logos, so the throwback leaping tiger fit perfectly.

Previous editions of Auburn concepts centered around some more plausible designs that could be trotted out on the field.  Not this time. And never when Carter Michaels has suggestions. I know I can always count on him for great ideas.


I make it no secret that I love Pokemon, and this one fit perfectly. I wanted to keep to the “minor league” mentality with this one. Some baseball teams will abandon their branding for the theme night uniforms. They also typically use one design element and over use it. For this concept, Auburn does the same.

Pokemon has many great design elements to use, but none are as iconic as the PokeBall. I wanted to use the PokeBall to the fullest extent, so the general striping pattern is used on the helmet, facemask, shoulder caps, and thigh stripes on the pants. The fonts across the jersey all changed to the Pokemon font. The helmet logo was also created with the same font. It’s cheesy because it was meant to be.

Tom is also a go-to for suggestions and he didn’t fail me this year.


This might be my favorite concept of this round. I tried to incorporate as many Nike Pro Combat tropes from the early 2010s as possible. For this design I used: the helmet from Georgia’s alternates – grey with stripes over the facemask; floating FlyWire collar and shoulders from multiple; stencil number font from Army; curved butt stripes from Florida. I made the shoulder caps contrast in color, the stripes float and don’t connect to the end of the shoulder caps, and the stripes and numbers have tiger stripes sublimated.

 

To round out this round, here’s the craziest concept I’ve ever received. I asked for crazy designs this time and this one was the best.

I never thought I would see a gold uniform. Or even a cape!! I love using Dabbing Aubie on the helmet.

Like I said, it’s rather crazy. Now feast your eyes on Jarrett Stidham wearing a sparkly gold uniform and … a cape:

Someone get Under Armour on the phone. These must be worn!

So there’s the eight newest concept uniforms added to the collection.

Which of these designs are your favorites? Have an idea for a future concept? Save it and let’s do this again next year!

The Auburn Uniform Database is celebrating five years in 2018! Take time to check out the brand new website and consider purchasing an anniversary t-shirt. Do you enjoy uniforms and want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, Instagram page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.

auburn football concept uniform idea

More Auburn Football Concepts

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Last year I randomly asked people to send me their craziest Auburn football uniform concept ideas and I would make them come to life. I enjoyed it last year, so thought we should do it again this year. Once again, I was not let down by the ideas some come up with. Some were crazy. Some were more tame. Others were literally impossible. Here’s a new collection of crazy Auburn concept uniforms!

Let’s just go down the list, pretty much in the order they were received.

For the all grey look, I changed the blue stripes to white, but kept the blue numerals. That way, the stripes pop, and the numbers are borderline illegal for being illegible.

As for the second suggestion, the blue pants on the road, I don’t think it’s a bad look. I wouldn’t want to see it on field, but always fun to play around with these ideas.

Oh Nate. You meme-monster. Rather than trying to replicate this idea for the entire uniform, I just did the helmets. The lyrics are sublimated over the shell, with custom back bumpers and front bumpers to match the song.

This was a fun one. I contemplated exactly how to do this for a little while before coming up with a decent idea. Oregon has an easier job with this, as the Duck has defined locations of each color, which correlate well to the football uniform. Aubie, unfortunately, does not. Aubie doesn’t usually wear pants, so the football pants were easy – tiger stripes the entire way down. Now, the jersey was more difficult, as Aubie is always wearing something different. He’s best known sporting his own football jerseys, so the tops weren’t touched much. The SEC patch was replaced with an Aubie head just to drive home the point.

The helmet is by far the most unique part here. Aubie has those nice, fluffy white cheeks, so I tried to replicate those on the helmets. His snout also consists of three areas – tiger stripes, white fluffy cheeks, and the black nose. The front of the facemask is designed like the original Oregon State rebrand helmets, with stripes down the middle.

All orange is pretty loud, huh?

I enjoy the multi-uniform gimmicks that Oregon puts out each year, but my favorites are by far the Webfoots throwbacks. I even bought the shirsey version and the hat. I love the design so much, so thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try to mimic it here. I decided to go with a “Be The Creed” motif throughout the uniform. The Auburn Creed is sublimated over the stripes on the jersey and pants, as well as the helmet shells and stripes. I contemplated matching the Oregon design more so – with the thinner stripes and all – but thought to stick closer to the Auburn aesthetic. For this design, all players would wear “PETRIE” nameplates, to honor the man that wrote the Auburn Creed.

This suggestion comes off of last week’s article regarding the multiple designs that Auburn almost chose from to replace the AU logo in 1995. In honor of Windows 98, it would have made more sense to make this all in MS Paint (RIP). But I just tried to base the design completely off the logo itself. The stripes are inspired by the negative space “cutouts” in the logo. Just to go all in, I added the pattern to the numbers.

Ugh, “full adidas” is my nightmare. Without completely screwing up Auburn’s look (which, we know, adidas might do), I added a silly stencil font – like adidas has done – with the awful chrome/tinfoil looking numbers – like adidas has done. The pants stripes have an eagle wing cut out, cause ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I’m in the minority as I absolutely loved the Steelers’ throwback uniforms. The horizontal stripes came out a little thinner than the original design. I kept the stripes on the pants just to add some more “Auburn” to the design.

The new Nike Vapor Untouchable template is the best one on the market right now. It creates such a clean look and I’m glad so many teams are moving to it. I tried to “Nikefy” these uniforms much like the adidas concept. The numbers are in the Michigan State font, as a lot of teams seem to be using it. I also added the team name on to the stripes, a la Cleveland Browns.

Similar to the steel grey concept at the top of the page, this one keeps all the blue aspects on the jerseys. With the pants being white, too much white on the jerseys would be overkill (as if going to grey wasn’t already).

I’ve always liked the UCLA stripes design, but as I was working on this one, something felt odd. Something felt familiar. Then I realized that this was awfully similar to the Steve Spurrier playing-era uniforms that Florida wore. They even wore them as throwbacks a few years ago. In order to differentiate from the Gators, I flipped the orange and white shoulder sleeves.

And that’s all for this round of fan-submitted ideas. We also had some concept helmets posted in this piece, in conjunction with the 1964 Tiger Head mystery helmet.

Which of these concepts were your favorites? Leave a comment below!

Enjoy uniforms and want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. Also, you can support this site by purchasing AUD t-shirts and other merchandise.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour

Back to the Drawing Board – More Auburn Football Concepts

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There’s been a lot of chatter about alternate uniforms for Auburn football lately, thanks to the release of a wonderful al.com video documenting the first time the Tigers broke out the orange jerseys in the modern era (I’m also credited in the video, so go watch it!). It’s a typical topic – what would happen if Auburn ever deviated from tradition? – that pops up during the football lull of the summer months.

Last year, I put together a plan to slowly build an alternate uniform over the course of a few seasons, ultimately getting as far back as 1913.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour throwback

I took to Twitter to ask if Auburn fans would truly be interested in seeing an alternate uniform, even for just a single game, and if so, what would they like to see? Granted Twitter isn’t the most scientific and accurate way to accomplish a survey by any means, I wasn’t all that surprised to see that fans wanted to see something different. But I was shocked at the number that did. Nearly 75% voted in favor of mixing the uniform up! That’s pretty crazy when you think that Auburn fans have historically been against this kind of thing.

As a follow-up, I asked for fans to vote on what type of alternate uniform they’d prefer. Once again, I was pretty shocked to see the favor for orange jerseys. I’ve heard a lot of wanting to see blue helmets on-field, but that was considerably behind the orange tops. I was happy to see that the historic throwbacks were pretty popular, as that would’ve been my vote.

The fun part came when a couple people started suggested ideas for uniforms, many of which were pretty unique. Here’s a fun collection of their tweets and ideas, and the accompanying mock-up I made afterwards.

An all-blue uniform is pretty much guaranteed to be asked for. So, for sake of putting it on the new template. I wanted to keep the helmet logo similar to the prototype helmet leaked back in 2010, even if it doesn’t look all too great.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour blue helmet pants all blue

Then a slight progression from that…

auburn football uniform concepts under armour all blue helmet pants

@Clintau24 give me the storm troopers at home with no helmet logo
— Jordan Dowdy (@JDowdy250) June 16, 2016

We’ve already seen this once once, back in 2007, but let’s see it on the new template.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour throwback

After some conversation on Twitter, it was concluded that all extra stuff on the chest – wordmark, Under Armour logo, SEC patch – cluttered up the throwback design. So here’s a more basic design, a bit truer to the originals.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour throwback

Rich Perkins sent in an Auburn version of one of my all-time favorite helmets ever – the 2012 Navy ProCombat helmet.

So here’s that helmet with the home uniforms.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour

I personally love the original Navy helmet. I’ve said it many times before, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. The Auburn version doesn’t look awful either. It just sadly doesn’t work well here. It looked even worse with the white jerseys.

Then there were some crazy requests…

@Clintau24 last one, I promise.

Completely monochromatic jersey, blue. Only orange numbers on a blue helmet. Orange pants.
— Nick H (@cinco2seis) June 16, 2016

auburn football uniform concepts under armour blue helmet orange pants

It’s not monochrome as Nick requested, as I tried to stick with the typical design elements that have donned Auburn’s uniforms for decades. Blue numbers on a blue jersey wouldn’t work whatsoever, so I put a white outline on the numbers. Granted, these still aren’t legal according to today’s NCAA rules, but it proves the point. (I honestly don’t hate the pants. The striping looks pretty good, even though I don’t like a middle white stripe on the orange jerseys)

Auburn basketball enthusiast Carter Michaels wants to see a basketball-inspired football uniform, specifically based on the Chris Porter-era tiger striped uniforms. We’ve already seen the basketball team wear football-inspired uniforms, so here’s the reverse.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour basketball tiger stripes

The tiger striping stayed true to the original uniforms by staying contained to the collar, but extended beyond the arm-holes to cover the entire shoulder cap. The original orange-blue-orange side paneling was difficult to translate over, so the normal pants striping and blue sleeve cuffs will compensate for that. Number 34 was chosen over 99 like the other concepts due to the unique font and previously completed Mamadou N’Diaye basketball uniform mock up.

And of course, Black For Black’s Sake (BFBS).

auburn football uniform concepts under armour all black

This all black uniform is just a recolored version of the all blue. I left the collar and belt blue just to keep some blue in the uniform, and it contrasts much better than the other colors used.

Last year’s post of building a historic alternate featured a blue/orange/blue uniform combination. But this one will feature the current design.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour orange jersey blue pants

A couple people brought up that Auburn wore green uniforms a handful of times in the 1930s and 40s. Great coverage of that topic over at The War Eagle Reader. Definitely worth the time.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour green jersey

It’s honestly not that bad of a design. The lack of blue on the jersey doesn’t do a lot for me. But hey, it’s historic.

Summer always draws some pretty interesting discussions with everyone waiting on the season to start. With the attention on uniforms nowadays, it’s no wonder teams like Auburn and Alabama, teams that never deviate from their classic designs, are dragged into the discussion.

auburn football uniform concepts under armour

It’s always fun to discuss these topics, and it’s even more fun to mock them up and see what they can look like. Which of these designs do you like the best? The least? Comment below!

Building an Auburn Alternate Uniform

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Every football season it seems the talks of an alternate uniform for Auburn just won’t stop. The talks come from everywhere – players on the team, fans, non-Auburn fans, uniform nerds like myself. No matter how many times I see concept artwork for a design, it’s hard for me to get behind it. I don’t like the idea of having an alternate uniform just for the sake of doing so. Keeping to the traditional navy and white uniforms is what is helping Auburn stand out even more in today’s dozen different combination world. I’ve not been a fan of the idea of alternate uniforms until last year, that is.

Last summer, I was invited on to the AU Wishbone Podcast. Along with Van Plexico, an advocate of the orange jerseys, and John Ringer, more conservative in his uniform views, we thought of a new program for the Auburn Family to enjoy. As discussed on the show (and you can listen to it in its entirety here), homecoming is a weekend that is special to any Auburn fan, and it’s been like that throughout the storied history of Auburn University. Every year, thousands of people embark on a trip back to campus to enjoy the university they grew up with and many attended. Those that can’t make the trip are always tuned in to the game in some fashion. Regardless of the opponent, homecoming week is always special.

Homecoming has always been about celebrating the past of Auburn. Stories are shared by families and by many involved with Auburn, faculty and athletics personnel. What a better way to share the history of Auburn football than with specially designed throwback uniforms? But what year do you throwback to, and when?

Well that was the discussion on the Wishbone. Instead of picking random seasons here and there, let’s build a homecoming-specific uniform, one that combines elements of seasons past and honors each of those eras in it’s own way. Each year a new element would be added to the uniforms, to gradually build a uniform that is worn on a specific day. It may take 10 years or so to have a uniform that does this, but with how many Auburn fans and people involved with the school are against the idea, it would be a great way to ease these new design elements into the modern day uniforms.

So, as a little summer project, I’ve put together some mock-ups of this new Homecoming Uniform Project. For sake of being realistic, all these uniforms are based on the new Under Armour template, with every detail remaining – conference and Under Armour patches, Auburn wordmark on the chest, nameplates, etc.

For the first season of this program, let’s add some orange into the uniforms. I’ve always been a proponent of bringing back the Bo Jackson-era orange facemasks (I even built an Auburn helmet with an orange mask). The orange would contrast with the blue jerseys much better and add a nice pop of color. It’s a simple change, and easy to do. Many of the older fans in the stands would enjoy seeing an element that was worn during a legend’s career.

Out of this entire program, the second element might cause the most controversy – orange drop shadows. Like it or not, the 1990s did happen, and are still part of Auburn’s history. Would adding the drop shadows and the facemasks together create an orange-heavy uniform? Probably so. But it would still be fun to see on the field.

Year three would be the beginning of the larger scale changes. Let’s take the orange from the drop shadow, and just cover the entire jersey with it. Yea, many people hated the orange jerseys (and falsely believe we have a winless record with them), but stories of the 1980 Georgia game tell that the fans went nuts when they saw their Tigers enter the field with a new jersey. Just like the drop shadows of the 1990s, the orange jerseys were real. Plus, the orange facemask could stay, as it was worn with the orange jerseys in the past.

Well, that’s the biggest set of designs that Auburn has seen in the modern era of football. We could always go with a grey facemask and numbers on the helmets, like was worn in the 1960s. Or the blank helmets that the 1957 team wore, but we’ve already done that once. So where do we go from here? Well, to keep with the “adding on to the last uniform” idea of this entire program, let’s tweak the orange jerseys. Change the Northwestern stripes to three equal blue stripes, akin to those the Chicago Bears wear on their throwback uniforms. Also, change the numbers from white to blue. There we go, we just built the 1946 jersey!

But wait, isn’t that jersey paired with blue pants? Fair enough. And a blue helmet? Done. Let’s keep the orange stripe on the helmet to match the pants. There you have it. The full 1946 uniform on a modern template. Looks pretty good.

1946 certainly wasn’t the first year Auburn played football, so let’s keep going. Let’s take that blue helmet and add some orange pinwheel stripes. Let’s take the stripes off the jersey, switch the orange and blue, and throw in some khaki/tan colored pants. Now we have a uniform from the 1930s! Within five years, we’ve now gone back 80 years into Auburn’s history.

Year seven of this program would certainly be my favorite. Let’s keep the tan pants from the previous season, but let’s go with a tan helmet to match. We’ve already seen teams wear faux-leather helmets, so this could work. For the first time during this stretch of homecoming games, let’s outfit the team in white jerseys. Let’s go full 1929 and add the cat head logo (it’s a tiger head, I know) to the chest. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska have worn letter logos on the chest, so this also has been done before.

We can continue all the way back to 1913 pretty easily. We already have the tan helmet and pants from the last few years, so all we need is another blue jersey. Throw in those three orange stripes, once again similar to that of the Chicago Bears, and we have a uniform design that is over a hundred years old. Of course we’d have to go with the numbers on the front, back, and shoulders, for sake of staying modern, but that shouldn’t hurt it too much.

The 1913 season was one of the first times Auburn wore a uniform that could easily be replicated for today’s modern era. Earlier seasons saw some unique designs, with little uniform technology available. We could go as far back as 1903, or even 1892 for that, but it would involve taking a lot of liberties, many more than what we’ve already taken, just to make it viable. It would be extremely difficult to capture the characteristics of these older uniforms. We could roll out a white or tan uniform with orange shoulder caps and large waist bands, but that just wouldn’t do those teams and uniforms justice.

With that in mind, I say we cut this program off right around the 1913 season. That gives us eight different uniforms for Auburn to wear. And we could even stretch it out longer than eight years or so by adding elements slower than I’ve depicted here.

Those fans that would like to see alternate uniforms always say they’re perfectly fine with it being a single game, just as long as we get something different. Those that don’t want to see anything new love the look of the traditional Auburn football uniform. This program, designed to honor and educate about the history of Auburn football, could easily bridge the gap between these two extremes. The entire program would be historically accurate while keeping Auburn at the center of the designs. Auburn has changed plenty over the last 150 plus years. The football uniforms are no different. It’s time we showcase these uniforms and share our history, a history many Auburn people themselves don’t know anything about.

What do you think about using a single game each season to do something a little different? What uniform designs and elements would you like to include, or even not include?

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