Q&A: 19nine's Josh Barnett
In the landscape of contemporary college basketball, the big apparel providers see on-court uniform layouts as a logistics problem, not a design problem. The results speak for themselves. This year’s adidas set is another underwhelming effort, even though cool throwbacks got some run last year. Aesthetically, college basketball could benefit from turning back the clock.
That’s where 19nine comes in. The Indianapolis-based lifestyle brand celebrates the pageantry of college basketball, honing in on uniform designs and details from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s. Browsing through the store, you’ll see plenty of designs you’ll recognize—Larry Bird-era ISU shorts, perfect 1980-81 Hoosiers reds, Gonzaga shorts commemorating several epic tourney runs—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While 19nine certainly has offerings for big fanbases, they celebrate the underdog, commemorating larger-than-life tourney runs from Dayton, Providence and Wichita State.
“We’ve never ever thought in terms of sales—like, what will sell the most?” Barnett said from his office in Indianapolis. “We just think in terms of what's the dopest shit to put out.”
19nine’s wares offer a compelling alternative to the big box brands, filling a void—selling fan gear has never been a better business. After 17 years teaching middle school history, this is Barnett’s first year doing 19nine full-time alongside his co-founders, Aaron Loomer and Chad Amo. And, it just so happens that, that day after we talked, Barnett secured KU licensing, meaning that 19nine’s Jayhawk gear will be dropping in February or March. I don’t want to give anything away, but might as well smash this:
Last week, I dialed up Barnett to talk about the state of college basketball, what he’d do to change the tournament and—most importantly—which Jayhawks uniforms he loves.
When you started 19nine, what did you set out to do? What was the ethos?
JOSH BARNETT: To us, it is always about the story. So it doesn't really matter if you're a blue-blood or if you are say, George Mason, who makes a crazy run, or someone like Richmond who knocks off Syracuse in 1990. There's just so many great stories out there in college basketball, big or small.
When we started, we were obviously small, a no-name. Nobody knew of us and we were just trying to find our niche. You’re not going to come out of the gates and get KU licensing. So we had to build on what you had. But the reason that we were able to build when we weren't big is because there's so many great stories within college basketball.
What we found is people buy the story as much as they buy the product. You didn't have to be a Butler diehard or a Butler fan to appreciate the run that they went on in 2010. You just got caught up in them taking on Duke. Our whole goal was to tell the story of college basketball as a whole. You can't do it without the blue-bloods—and we're still working to get a lot of the blue bloods. But you also can't do it without the mid-majors and the small team runs or your one-off champions like UNLV.
I feel like we have endless material.
When you’re deciding on making a new pair of shorts, what are you looking for?
So take a pair like 1997 Fresno State, which we are working on right now. That was an homage to Skip to My Lou, when he was on the SLAM cover. We all grew up with that SLAM cover—the best point guard you've never heard of. And it’s Rafer Alston in his Fresno State uniform. That was just cool. I think about the shorts Felipe Lopez wore on the SI cover. Those are just so wild. They're cool because there was this freshman on the cover of sports illustrated when sports illustrated when SI didn’t give their covers out to just anybody.
It goes back to storytelling. We’re ‘80s kids who grew up during the ‘90s. So we gravitate towards those stories a lot. Now, nobody looks different. Nobody looks unique. And it used to be Cincinnati had the craziest uniforms, but then they would go up against North Carolina who also had dope uniforms. Georgetown was in the mix. Maryland would come in and like everybody had a distinct look. We look for story, and then we look for design.
What’s the easiest way to get licensing from big schools?
It’s really easy to get licensing when you have somebody in the licensing department that gets it, that gets the product. It’s really easy to get it when they’re complete homers too. Kyle Muncy at UCONN is just a UCONN fanatic. So he gets as excited about the stuff that we're producing as we do, which is really cool.
If and when you ever get KU licensing, which jerseys would you want to reproduce?
With KU, we want to do the Manning years, the ‘03 Collison/Hinrich team and also the ‘91 Adonis Jordan era when they made the championship game. Kansas has unlimited assets.
I think you hit on some clear fan favorites, especially the 02-03 Nike uniforms.
Those are crazy. And we got the ‘02 Marylands that are coming that are very similar to those—Texas also has a set like that. I'm obsessed with that layout and that design and that they're all unique in their own way, too. I’m obsessed with Kansas basketball. I was obsessed with the 30 for 30 about the rules of basketball because it was just so ridiculous that this guy had the passion to bring that through.
I’m an Indiana grad and I've always felt like—not recently, so don’t take offense to this—but I always felt that Kansas and Indiana always kind of mirrored each other. With the tradition, historically, and just the style. So we’re all in Kansas.
College basketball has taken a backseat in pop culture since the ‘80s and ‘90s. What would have to happen for a true renaissance?
I think it comes down to one thing: I think that the talent is in the NBA and when you have the talent, you can market the players. I go back and watch a lot of whole games for research purposes. And the level of basketball being played back in the ‘80s and ‘90s was so good at the college level that people gravitated towards it because everybody was fundamentally sound. And it was like the perfect blend of athleticism and fundamentals. Now the game has changed so much, but like if I'm a Kentucky fan, a traditional blue blood and I bleed Kentucky blue, I only get to know these kids for four months as opposed to a four-year stretch. And it's happening at Duke now too. It happens at Kansas to an extent it happens at Michigan State.
I was watching Gonzaga the other night and I was like, holy shit. They’re legit. But then if you look at it, they sprinkled in a couple of freshmen and they sprinkled in a couple of transfers that are older. So that's an older team. You don't see as much of that anymore. So you’re less marketable because you don't have a Christian Laettner, a player like that out there that you're watching play in the national championship for the third time, love him or hate him.
I think that that's been the big change, but I do think that college basketball has an opportunity right now, in this month-and-a-half before the NBA gets back, if we get good enough matchups that aren't canceled and good enough games. Like I watched Texas Tech and Houston last night, that game was, wow. The atmosphere was live. There was a crowd there that was loud as hell.
I think that they can take back some of that market share because I think people are souring just a little bit on the NBA with the bubble. And they're going to suffer a little bit of an NBA fatigue. I think everybody is so happy that college basketball is back because we missed March Madness last year. So I do think that they can kind of climb back into it a little bit. But the talent gap is real.
What’s the biggest missed opportunity at the college level right now?
The uniforms. the uniforms need more personality, man. They, they don't have the personality that they used, like we talked about earlier. So that would be the number one thing I'd change.
The second thing I would change is I would take the NCAA Tournament out of domes. I’d put them in venues that were built for basketball, because I think that that would be crazy, like a regional final at Allen Fieldhouse that Kansas couldn’t play in. The Final Fours that have been at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis—put them at Banker's Life, a place that building was built for basketball. Lucas Oil was built for concerts and for football, it's a completely different thing. And I know you're leaving money on the table. But the atmosphere would be incredible.
Check out 19nine here.