Uni Rountable: Breaking down the chrome orange helmets

This week’s participants…

Kyle Porter (editor) – I love jump balls, Markel Brown breakways, and Kevin Durant 30-footers. Thank you for reading Pistols Firing.

Carson Cunningham (KOCO 5 Sportscaster) – Carson does uniform drive-bys and actually has a real job covering sports for a real news station in OKC.

Justin Southwell (Former WR) – Justin played at OSU as a wide receiver for a few years and is a pretty big uniform critic himself. You can (and should) follow him on twitter here.

Porter: Guys…we have a lot to discuss.

Carson: We have to start with the perfection that was the orange chrome helmets.

This was everything I’ve been asking for:

Bigger Pete? Check
Chrome lid? Check.
Chrome face mask? Check.

They even threw on a chrome stripe for good measure:

They are real…and they are fantastic. #okstate pic.twitter.com/aiVp0TZ3on

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) September 25, 2014

Would anyone (like, one person) object to that chrome face mask on every helmet? Who says no? Imagine a chrome face mask, black helmet, chrome OSU brand….

Anyway, it was perfect. Props to the OSU equipment guys — they nailed it.

Southwell: What an improvement from the other orange helmets! I still don’t like Pete on the helmets, but I’m glad it was big enough to see this time.

I want to see the OSU brand, not a cartoon logo. There were a few helmet designs that made the ear hole look like Pete had his mouth open.

Interesting “Throwback Thursday” concept.

Also, no one would be mad about this:

Tech’s uniforms?

Porter: Tech’s uniforms looked like they gave a freelance graphic artist who graduated from Tech free reign at Under Armour’s headquarters.

And there was a lot of alcohol.

The more I look at OSU’s combo the more I like it. It might be top five ever for me. The helmet was just exquisite. I think it was Ubben who said the stripe and mask didn’t get nearly enough love and he’s right.

This is what we’ve been calling for — go all in on the orange and black and Pete and whatever else you want to do. Make it big, make it loud, make it flashy. A tremendous effort.

A “Rory against Rickie at the Ryder Cup” performance.

Do we want to talk about Ole Miss’ helmets because they were incredible…

Laquon Treadwell knows (USATSI)

Carson: Let’s not forget the socks. They helped round out the uniform so it was less monochrome (pun not intended). It’s definitely a top five combo.

As for Tech, I thought my friend Mark Mullins summed it up nicely in a text: “Texas Tech’s pants look like a WCW tag team from ’99.”

Perfect.

Ole Miss’ throwback helmet was just sensational. We were all hoping OSU would throw together something similar for Throwback Thursday. Instead, they simply played Backstreet Boys and MC Hammer on the PA. Which brought me back to the Central Middle School cotillion.

Like I said last week, throwbacks have a 100 percent approval rating, regardless of design. And these were designed beautifully.

Southwell: When they were warming up in white helmets, the orange socks made me believe in the orange chrome tweet. The socks definitely made that combo more aesthetic.

I think the chrome stripe would stand out more with a thicker black border. Can’t improve much on that, though. They looked great. The facemask really put it over the top, loved it!

Remember what I said about Under Armour making moves? I take it all back after seeing Tech’s thigh design.

Ole Miss knows. What a great piece of equipment to have in your arsenal.

Carson: Can we please take a moment and appreciate LSU’s alternate, purple look?

I don’t know if it’s because we don’t see them that often — they always wear white at home, which undoubtedly makes Kyle so, so happy — but the few times they wear them it jumps off the TV.

These babies at night, in Death Valley, are genuine.

Porter: I do love the whites — Carson and I may fight to the death over which San Francisco 49ers uni is the better one. It’s their road ones, obviously, but Carson is still wandering in the desert with their home threads.

That being said the LSU purple and yellows were incredible. That’s a great color combo, tons to work with for Nike and they almost always nail it.

Have we talked on here about how I wish teams would go color vs. color more often? How cool would it have been to see Tech’s reds against the all black of OSU on Thursday night. SC and UCLA to it pretty often but I want more.

I want to see Michigan and Michigan State do it. Oregon and Oregon State. Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Bring me all of the color.

Southwell:

Porter: Oh my! I missed this, how did I miss this?!

But yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I do love my white unis but I’d love to see more of this in college football.

Speaking of orange and black, how much better is what Oklahoma State done than what Oregon State has done? And they have Nike like a Daxx deep ball away from their campus, too!

Carson: I’m convinced Phil Knight sends all the uniform prototypes rejected in Eugene to Corvallis. A lot of people actually like the striped helmet/face mask look. I’m not one of them.

As for the Niners, there were some dark times in the late 90s. Why they strayed from one of the most classic uniforms in the NFL I’ll never know. But it’s good to have them back.

Apparently the color vs. color match up was a special rule change and a LOT went into it. Should we just start the petition now for Bedlam? Is this something you might be interested in?

Southwell: Love the idea of color vs. color. Although some match ups would be scary. I can’t imagine Oklahoma State all orange vs whatever Nebraska wore last week!

All of the duct tape.

It looks good with USC vs. UCLA, but I’m not sure how awesome it would be for Bedlam.

Also I’m not sure if Tech wears red anymore. I’ve only seen black, white, and gray since they got new threads.

Oregon State… Not a big fan of what they’ve done. They have gold outlines in their numbers. Not great. Some disagree.

I thought the striped facemask was cool for one game. It got old fast.

I also love the 49ers uniforms… I think I’ll have to go with the white jerseys though. Flows better with the pants stripe.

A throwback makeover is due for the Cowboys. Helmets and uniforms. It wouldn’t make sense to stroll out in a throwback helmet with our current uniforms.

We can do a lot with the chrome facemasks and logos (even on matte helmets). So much potential. Might be time for a uniform template change soon, but we still have several combos to wear first.

We’ve gotten so far off topic from Oklahoma State’s orange chrome helmets. But there isn’t much to add. They’re awesome… and that’s about it.

Porter: We’ve gotten so far off topic from OSU in general but that’s the fun thing about these — just like a Doug Gottlieb free throw, you never know where they’re going.

Carson: Hopefully we get to see the chrome helmets again. Lots of options to play with.

Totally Tickets is your source for Oklahoma State football tickets.