A detailed look at the design and history behind Washington’s new Adidas jerseys

You’ve seen the logos, numbers and colors.

Now here’s the context.

Prior to Washington’s public unveiling of its new Adidas football uniforms on Wednesday, Todd Rolak — Adidas’ Senior Design Director of US Sports — agreed to an email interview explaining the thought process behind many of the design decisions.

Scroll over the uniform to read Rolak’s perspective on the Huskies’ new threads.

Judging by reaction on Twitter and in our comments, fans are generally thrilled with the new threads.

“Classic, simple, good,” wrote one commenter.

“No big crazy changes, just tight and crisp … like I hope our offense is this year.” said another.

Some commenters advocated for continuity, urging UW to keep a permanent look like Alabama, USC and Penn St.

“They’re a little better than our previous uniforms but why can’t we just pick a good looking home and away uniform and stick with it for, like, ever,” another commenter said. “Similar to USC and Alabama and Clemson and Texas and Oklahoma and Georgia and Penn St. and Auburn and Oklahoma.”

But while the introduction of stripes and rain drops are new, the gold helmet, purple jersey, gold pants look is as true to Husky tradition as any uniform we’ve seen in recent years. Unlike some notable exceptions (i.e. the purple helmets in 1996, the 2014 matte black, metallic gold helmet look, or the 2017 purple helmet, jersey and pants combo), the latest unveiling is a sleeker, more modern take on a tried-and-true look that has been a Husky staple for decades.

Washington and Adidas plan on introducing more alternate jerseys in the years to come, but for now, these are pretty true to form for the Dawgs. Here’s a look back at some other notable gold-purple-gold combos.

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2019

2014-18

2009-13

2004-09

Early 2000s

1990s

1980s