Truth Lies in the Shadows
What can you decipher from a simple video? A video only lasting 55 seconds, with most of that time spent with dark transitioning effects. Well, actually a lot. Saturday morning, the day of Auburn’s annual A-Day game, the Auburn Athletics YouTube channel uploaded a new hype video, entitled “Auburn: FastPhyscial.”
This new video actually shows a lot. A brand new Auburn football uniform in fact. Don’t worry now, the traditional design that has donned Auburn football uniforms for nearly 70 years is still intact – it’s just on a new template now. And finally so. Last season, Under Armour had rolled out a new template design, but it was only worn by two teams – the Maryland Terrapins and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. If you’ve been reading my site for a while now, you know what the old template Auburn has been wearing is like. If you don’t know, or need a refresher, you can read it here.
Let’s start by breaking down the video. The video starts out with a wide shot of the locker room, with a few jerseys hanging in uni-number order. Next scene shows the player model pulling on a pair of blue Under Armour gloves. The third scene is where we get our first look at something new. Take a look:
There’s a few things present here. First off, no more double stitches, which are shown here. Secondly, and most telling, notice the small cross-stitches forming a bit of a texture within the shoulder cap area. You can see that present on this promotional photo of Maryland wearing the new template. Also, a close up shot of Maryland’s Star Spangled Banner uniforms shows the same texture. That’s two check-marks on the scorecard in regards to switching to the new template.
After another fade sequence to the next scene, we see a close up of the pants stripe. And they go all the way down the pant leg! No more truncated stripes! That’s something to truly celebrate! I’ll be honest, the truncated stripe began to grow on me during the years it was worn. But it’s going to be so nice to go back to full stripes again.
The next bit, the confirmation of the new jersey template, is a bit tougher to see. One of the defining details of the template are the collarbone and abdomen stitches. You can see them clearly here on Maryland. Take a look at this screenshot
See it? Yea, barely. Here, let me help.
I know it’s still tough, but work with me. The yellow arrow shows the abdomen stripe characteristic of this template. You can see it on the other side too. The green circle shows a very faint bit of the collarbone stitch. Watch the video a few times and you can see it appear. It’s tough to get a good screenshot for it though. If you’re keeping score at home though, that’s now four check-marks.
The video also showcases two pairs of gloves – one navy and one orange. I’m not sure if these are new or not, as I usually don’t pay too much attention to them. On another note, take a look at the facemask. It’s shown three different times, including the photo above. I’m not sure if it’s the lighting of the video or not, but it looks like a brighter, shinier shade of navy. Dare I say, it looks like it might be metallic (not chrome). USC wore an alternate metallic helmet with metallic facemask this season, for comparison.
So there you have it. Auburn football will be wearing a brand new Under Armour template this coming fall. And yes, I did just confirm that off a short video clip. Like I say, “no detail too small.”
War Eagle!
The gloves are new btw. They are the UA Swarm Gloves. Not an AU fan (Nebraska Cornhusker) and uni-watch has linked me here several times. Great write up of the new uniforms and War Eagle and GBR
link for the gloves is : https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/mens-ua-swarm-football-gloves/pid1260677-002
There's a very good chance that that facemask has a metallic finish on it, but there's also a good chance that it was just on the helmet simply for the sake of the video shoot as it reflect more light to create a better and more appealing shot. From the few of these I've hype videos I've seen being made, the (good) film crews will ask equipment managers to make facemasks metallic as the darker colored cages in these "dark locker room" videos tend to get lost/muddled in the background or against the player's darkened face when the mask is also dark in color with the typical dull finish.
Is it just me or does the orange helmet strip have a slight metallic finish? or is it just the lighting making it "glow" more?
Thank you for that. I figured they were new, but I don't follow gloves and footwear close enough to really know.
I've been told that the helmet stripes, AU and facemask will all have metallic finishes.
I figured that was the case at first too. And I debated not writing about it for that fact. And thank you for that insight. Since this was posted, I've been told that the helmet stripes, AU decals, and the facemask will all have a metallic finish to them.