Auburn Men’s Basketball will kick off the 2023-24 season with a new set of uniforms.
After sporting the last design for its allotted four years, the new threads harken back, somewhat, to a foregone day. Combining the Charles Barkley era with Auburn’s modern branding, Under Armour has outfitted the Tigers with a brand new look not worn in the program’s history before.
All three uniforms are set on the latest template from Under Armour. While the majority of the construction remains the same, there are two big changes. The first comes with the collar, which now includes a protrusion on the front center that will house the UA logo. It’s a rather Adidas-like element, one that the German-based company has utilized many times in the last decade or two.
The second change comes with the side of the jersey, where the front and back panels are sewn together. The previous template had multiple panels and seams at the bottom of the arm holes. This would often interfere with the sleeve design. It’s not too dissimilar to the Nike template previously used in the NBA. The new Under Armour jerseys have a rounded seam line below the arm holes, allowing for a more complete sleeve and sleeve design.
Let’s dive into each of the three uniforms one at a time.
Home White Uniforms
(image via Auburn Athletics)
The primary white threads will feature a navy/orange/navy striping pattern around the collar and arm holes. The Copperplate font arched Auburn wordmark and player numbers remain in place from the previous look.
When the Tigers first revealed the last uniforms, Auburn didn’t have anything placed above the player names on the back. When 2020 came around, Auburn added the Unity patch in the spot, where it lasted throughout the remainder of the uniforms’ lifespan. Now, Auburn has added the traditional AU logo here, matching that of the Baseball, Softball, and Women’s Basketball teams.
The shorts are admittedly more similar to the previous uniforms than the new jerseys. The Northwestern striped waistband, complete with the eagle silhouette belt buckle, remains in place. The stripes are no longer vertically placed on the shorts and wrap around the AU logo, but rather are larger and run horizontally around each leg. The AU logos remain on the side of the shorts, but are larger now and sit higher than previously.
Under Armour team designer DerRick Turner stated that the new Auburn uniforms were inspired by those worn by legendary Charles Barkley. The white threads, in particular, were to mimic that of the uniforms worn from 1979 to 1983. The original design featured an orange/white/navy set of stripes around the collar, sleeves, waistband, and bottom of the shorts. The 2023 style updates that to include the traditional Northwestern Stripes on the shorts. While updating the original design with a more modern flare is expected and understandable, the stripes mismatching between the jerseys and shorts is an interesting compromise.
Road Navy Uniforms
(image via Auburn Athletics)
The navy blue colorways are a simple pallet swap of the white uniforms. They too feature triple stripes on the jerseys, but now in a white/orange/white manner. The wordmark and numbers are now orange with a white outline, just like the AU logo on the back.
The shorts carry the same Northwestern Stripe design throughout, but naturally swapping the blue stripes for white.
The Auburn teams from 1980-1983 wore a blue uniform that featured a different set of stripes from the white colorway. The blue threads had a five-piece stripe (orange/white/blue/white/orange) compared to the three-piece on the whites.
Much like the primary white uniforms, these suffer from the same striping inconsistencies across the jersey and shorts. It’s an intriguing item that makes you wonder why they simply didn’t match across the set.
While the Northwestern Stripe approach isn’t historically accurate to what Auburn wore decades ago, it could still work as a base design here.
Alternate Orange Uniforms
(image via Auburn Athletics)
Just like the previous set of uniforms, the orange alternates will carry a different design from the white and navy colorways.
The new orange uniforms only include the Northwestern Stripes vertically down the side of the jerseys and the shorts. The collar and armholes remain clean and include no additional striping.
The alternate “Tigers” wordmark dons the front of the chest like it did on the old threads. One small change is that the player name on the back of the jersey is now white as opposed to navy last year.
With the stripes on the side of the shorts, there is just one AU logo placed on the front left leg. The shorts also don’t include the waistband striping, though the belt buckle stays put.
This uniform design includes a few callbacks to previous Tigers uniforms. The vertical striping is similar to the Final Four uniforms worn from 2015 through 2019, while the front placement of the AU logo on the shorts is reminiscent of the 2015-16 variation.
Another callback comes with the bottom of the shorts. The navy stripe bends backward along the bottom of the hemline and wraps the back side of the shorts leg. Auburn has had numerous uniforms with hemline stripes, though the uniqueness of striping just the back half is rather similar to the 2002-03 and 2003-04 designs.
The tiny detail that many will miss here is that “War Eagle” is added above this hemline stripe on the right leg. While the battle cry hasn’t been used in this manner in previous years, “Tigers” was added alongside stripes and piping for the first two Under Armour-produced sets in 2006-09 and 2009-12.
Here’s a close-up look at many of the details, courtesy of Auburn Athletics
If you’re a visual learner, here’s a handy set of side-by-side images showing all the changes between the new and old uniforms for all three colorways.
What do you think of these new Auburn Basketball uniforms?
Personally, I think they’re an upgrade over what was worn last year. I wish that the uniform was more consistent from top to bottom, regardless if they went with the Northwestern Stripes throughout or the more simple stripes as used on the jerseys. The orange uniforms are my favorite of this set, which wasn’t the case previously.
Take a look back at every Auburn Basketball uniform worn since 1950.
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