Drip or Drop: The new KU unis are here and I have *takes* for you
Hmmm.
Some background on the above gut judgment—a few years ago, KU tried a similar concept out, one that incorporated some hype-y Kansas language disguised as pinstripes. This time around, the piping features the rules of basketball, the very rules that were donated to KU by David Booth. That KU has the rules is a really cool thing; I don’t think anyone could argue against that. But I’m not sure this jersey concept stuck the landing in adidas’ latest futile attempt at making a cool KU uniform.
I don’t know what kind of TVs my readers are rocking with, but let’s hope you all have at least 8K definitions. If you didn’t know that the stripes featured written-out basketball rules… would you even notice them? Seems like a missed opportunity for something more visual—how ‘bout some script that mimics the Pay Heed banner or the rules themselves?—but again the bar for adidas is “6 out of 10” and I think these might be a 6.1 shout out to Pitchfork circa 2013-2015. But they could also be a 5.8… Coldplay territory1.
If you click through that IG post, you’ll see two alternates, a gray one (the collar looks cool) and the reds that got busted out last year against Baylor. I love the red uniforms, and I’m glad they didn’t attempt to change them (at least as far as I can tell). I think Eric Emanuel stuff is over-branded generally (I have two pairs of EE shorts, the cut is perfect, SOLIDS ONLY) but I liked his flip on KU’s Late Night duds, even if it was clear that Indiana’s stripes motif were the template (Emanuel actually pulled up to IU’s Late Night… I don’t love playing second fiddle at adidas to Indiana in 2021!). There’s virtually zero chance that those uniforms will ever go wide-release, so I’m hoping a few players drop stuff on the Players Trunk or depop. One can dream.
However… we gotta have these Hardens, though. The RC on the yellow three stripes? That’s cold as hell. Adidas has burned me before by never dropping the Pro Models. We need to repair this relationship somehow, and this would be as good a start as any.
Also… yo this Lynette Woodard throwback is coming home. Maybe there is hope, after all.
I have become aware that Pitchfork did a list recently where they re-scored albums they thought had become historically inaccurate. A fine exercise, in theory, but they failed to resolve the single greatest historical inaccuracy on the website: that Coldplay’s first two albums (Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head) did not receive 10.0s. This must be corrected. Don’t even look up the original scores unless you have an appetite for blasphemy.