Nike announces teams that will wear Pro Combat unis in 2011

Submitted by gebe659 on

The teams selected to sport the 2011 Nike Pro Combat system of dress uniforms include Army, Boise State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, Navy, Ohio State, Oregon and Stanford.

MSU to wear them Oct. 15th vs. Michigan.
Edit:  Rumors on message boards indicate that they will wear their old black and gold / winged-helmet uniform.  (yes, MSU used to wear wings, although they look very different from Michigan's).

Keeeeurt

July 20th, 2011 at 4:38 PM ^

Ugh,now we are forced to watch 2 full games with those hideous pro combat unis (3 if you include the night game) assuming that Ohio st. will were their pro combats when the play Michigan.

jtmc33

July 20th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^

Son of a .... that means we won't be able to see their formations until they move.  That gives them such an advantage.

It's going to be like Predator out there

Vasav

July 20th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^

As for those Eagles jerseys - they wore those against the Lions i think, five years ago. And you'd be surprised at how popular those things were from the crowd shots of the stadium.

dahblue

July 20th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^

That wasn't a "winged" helmet, it was the design of the helmet itself (rather than a design on the helmet).  Of course, you do follow the point.  One school is famous for their helmets; the other school is not.  Can you guess which is which?

ldd10

July 20th, 2011 at 5:25 PM ^

Yes, UM clearly is famous for their winged helmets.  That is not debatable - they are classic.

Nonetheless, I fail to see how MSU "envy" is shown here.  MSU had this type of winged helmet before UM ever had their version.  MSU is honoring their history.

Seth

July 20th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^

Like that time when Rerun Van Pelt honored the history of Peanuts by wearing a modernized version of the look he sported in one of his earliest strips, wearing black pants and a striped red shirt, and carrying a baby blanket around.

I can't find a pic of that early Rerun-featured strip, but here's what it would probably have looked like:

And no, it has nothing to do with what Linus Van Pelt wears. It's all about honoring the history of Rerun.

It also reminds me of when they showed that early South Park when they honored the pre-Comedy Central cartoons and Ike appeared in his little known early outfit of green hat and orange jacket...something like this:

You can see it's totally different than Kyle, which this has nothing to do with. Why did I even mention Kyle? We're talking about the Great Tradition of the Ike Broflovski character.

PeterKlima

July 20th, 2011 at 6:01 PM ^

...UM is known for their winged helmet NOW.  Other teams used to wear wings before, just like lots of teams had uniforms like Penn State before, but that is PSU's well-known look now.  MSU wearing wings now is clearly a nod to the team known for it.

TIMMMAAY

July 21st, 2011 at 9:03 AM ^

I don't think "honoring" is the right word, but I do see their inferiority complex behind this decision. It's one more thing they want to be able to say "but we did it first" about. Look at their AD's comments about the Big Chill and various other little brotherness that I can't think of right now.

PeterKlima

July 21st, 2011 at 9:06 AM ^

I don't think he was agreeing with the tounge-in-cheek part of my post about it being "more like honoring UM."  I was saying that in contrast to the person who said it was "honoring their history."  Since the wings are clearly iconic to UM in the current day, it will seem more like a nod to UM than to the past...to people picking up a remote.  No idea what MSU's AD is thinking in his head.  That is all.

 

In fact, how is MSU going to sell this look to fans who don't like winged helmets?

Vasav

July 20th, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^

However, considering how MSU folks claim "we gave Michigan the wings," and the fact that they'll be wearing these wings against Michigan - it does look a bit like they're trying to make a point, in addition to selling jerseys and "honoring their history." Ohio had wings on their helmets before Sparty did (according to Uni-Watch) but we've never seen those in their pro-combat uniforms against Michigan.

While this may honestly just be an attempt to honor the past, I'm sure they'll continually point out in the week before the game that "we had these helmets before Michigan, who's copying who?" If that is the case, then yes, they're clearly displaying envy that their look isn't as iconic. (This is the same reason I don't want the Bo-era "pride stickers" on M's helmets - too Buckeye-esque).

If they don't holler about that, then you're right, they're just "honoring their history". Michigan is claiming to do that too this year. So even though I feel it's more about sales than history, and ruins what I feel is a pretty iconic looking football game between green-and-white and maize-and-blue, I'm in no position to throw stones, sitting in this glass house. I'll just be happy that Ohio is wearing their pro-combats against Wisconsin, so the Michigan-Ohio State game will FINALLY look the way it should.

MI Expat NY

July 20th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^

Think of it this way, why, exactly wouldn't MSU use jerseys/helmets from when they were legitimately good?  

Using a "winged" design and colors far closer to Michigan's than MSU's is going to look awfully little brotherish to more than just Michigan fans.

Vasav

July 20th, 2011 at 7:35 PM ^

Let's ignore Michigan's iconic helmets for a sec. Let's ignore helmets altogether. Why would MSU go away from their current jerseys to black and gold jerseys? Jersey sales, obviously.

I think the "winged" design may be more an effort to get a unique jersey selling in the bookstores and athletic shops around campus than anything else, honestly. The same reason we put stripes on our "historical" jerseys.

PeterKlima

July 20th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^

...just re-inforces Nike's marketing push to use these hideous things.  "See, it's creating buzz."

Anyway, a very "little brother" move to wear winged-helmets.  The envy is so green.

FreddieMercuryHayes

July 20th, 2011 at 6:38 PM ^

That's fucking great! MSU wearing wings for the UM game...god, I'm never letting them live that down. And, no I don't care that they wore them a few years before us. It's not like they were the originators or anything; just another team playing with he seems of the helmet. But only one team has made that design iconic. And that's U of M.