Auburn kicks off the men’s and women’s basketball seasons tonight, which makes this the perfect time to (finally) break down all the details of the new uniforms.
We’ve already covered the fall sport uniforms, so let’s dive into the hardwood uniforms.
Men’s Basketball
Sitting on the latest Nike template, Auburn’s first basketball uniforms will be rather simple, and not too dissimilar from the previous set.
The collar and armholes feature dual stripes, while the Northwestern Stripes adorn the sides of the torso. The stripes continue down the shorts, with the outer, thin stripes turning to wrap around the legs. A small AU logo sits on the left leg, right above the wrapping stripe. The waistband matches the collar and armholes with a double stripe, but also includes an empty “belt buckle,” which has showcased the silhouette eagle logo through the most recent redesigns.
Auburn returns to a straight, horizontal wordmark across the chest after running with the arching wordmark since 2015. The new TT Norms number font replaces the traditional Copperplate Gothic numerals. A new sans-serif font is now being used for the player names on the back of the jersey, replacing the serif font used during the entire Under Armour era.
All three colorways feature the same design. The only difference between the three uniforms is that the orange jerseys feature the “Tigers” chestmark. Every uniform set since the 2016-17 season has included one jersey with the nickname on the chest. No Auburn Basketball uniform before had done so.
In the tiny details folder, the navy jersey’s player names are orange now. Since 2012-13, each navy blue jersey has featured white player names. And speaking of player names, Freshman Filip Jović from Bosnia is likely the first Tiger to have any special accent character added to his jersey. Oftentimes, the accent marks are left off jerseys, but have become more common in recent years.
One element that I was interested in was Nike’s collar tabs for Final Four participating and championship-winning teams. The practice began in 2019, and since then, we haven’t seen a high-caliber program that made a Final Four in a non-Nike uniform make the move to Nike after that appearance. Turns out those collar tabs are only for teams that survive the NCAA Tournament while wearing the Nike check on their uniforms.
So Auburn will need to replicate the magic of the 2019 and 2024 Final Four trips to earn that silver collar tab going forward.
Check out all the details and changes with the ever Handy Dandy Side-by-Side Graphic ™.
Overall, this feels like a nice first uniform with Nike. Nothing too flashy, not too tame. The only part that feels off to me is with the side stripes. That center stripe is so thick that it throws off the entire look when viewing the uniform from the side.
Women’s Basketball
The women’s uniforms are very similar to the men’s, but have a few different, unique elements.
Where the men use a rounded swoop-neck collar, the women have a V-neck collar. The women’s design also has a solid color collar and armholes, rather than the striped design. The shorts do not have a striped waistband like their male counterparts, instead having the side stripes continuing the full length of the shorts. The side stripes also don’t wrap around the leg like the men’s uniforms.
The biggest difference comes with the orange uniforms. This set has matching orange collars and armholes, removing the contrasting colors from the other two colorways. It’s an interesting diversion that I’d love to hear a reason why they did this.
The women keep the trend of having “Tigers” on the front of a jersey. Since 2020-21, the navy tops have carried the nickname on the chest.
Syriah Daniels was named a Kay Yow Foundation Servant Leader over the off-season. Servant Leaders are “people who have, or will make an impact in the fight against cancer – improving lives and giving hope.” Daniels’s mother, Shana Askew Daniels, a former Auburn Women’s Basketball player from 1997 to 2001, died in 2023 at the age of 44 from breast cancer.
With Daniels’s new award, her Auburn jersey will feature the special Kay Yow Servant Leader patch for the entire season.
The Handy Dandy Side-by-Side Graphic ™ below details all the changes and details for this year’s set of uniforms:
BONUS: Baseball Debuts Powder Blue Throwbacks
Auburn Baseball debuted 1970s throwback powder blue jerseys for the recent matchup against the BananaBall All-Stars at Plainsman Park.
The new jerseys are nearly identical to what the likes of Joe Beckwith and Bo Jackson wore during their time on the Plains. The block orange Auburn wordmark on the front, the large sleeve stripes, and the two-stripe collars.
The numbers on the back of the jersey were the biggest difference. Rather than being the traditional block font of the era, the new Tigers jerseys use the new TT Norms font that all non-football Auburn programs have used with the transition to Nike. Unlike the other applications, the number font doesn’t feel as bothersome and out of place.
Interestingly enough, these new throwback jerseys aren’t utilizing the new Nike template, which has a unique collar design that wouldn’t match the original look. It’s unclear now if Nike is offering a cleaner, more traditional collar option or if Auburn went a different direction to use a different template. Even the jocktag on the base of the shirt tail is different than the usual “created by Nike” products use. There’s a chance that this is one of those jerseys not actually produced by Nike, but just have the Nike logos added afterwards.
Auburn didn’t completely match the throwback look, however. The Tigers sported white pants with a powder blue stripe down the leg. Powder blue belts and socks were added to round out the entire look. Originally, the powder blue tops had a matching pair of pants and an orange belt was worn as a pop of contrast.
The Tigers did keep it accurate and wore a new Block A ballcap with the throwback tops. They even added the Block A logo to the batting helmets. Auburn has continually worn AU logos on the batting helmets, regardless of which logo is worn on the hats. This will be the first time the Block A is used on the helmets, likely since the 1989 season, the last year before the caps featured the AU logo.
We can expect to see this uniform combination in the rotation for the upcoming spring season. Now, we await the reveal of the rest of the set.
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