Alright, you've seen the new Syracuse Orange Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms and you CLEARLY have an opinion on them.
As for my thoughts, here they are...and I'm doing my very best to separate the fact that Nike just spent a substantial amount of money to fly me to New York and put me up in a hotel room with a shower so fancy that I could have done some old school break-dancing inside of it.
Color
Obviously, not a fan of the fact that the Syracuse Orange are wearing gray, excuse me, platinum. I've had a long-running disdain of our affinity for gray over blue and while I know this has less to do with SU's desire to use gray and more to do with Nike's look, I'd rather we didn't.
But if we are going to do this, then I'm glad the orange still pops. You really need to see it in person because it's bright and it's what catches your eye. So that's good-ish.
Jersey
I'm glad it says Cuse and not Orange, cause that would be double weird. That said, I'd rather it said Syracuse and I'm not a big fan of the apostrophe. Just say Cuse if you're going to say Cuse. We all know it. I do like the little S logo on the neck.
On the back, it looks like we get a giant Block S with the top of the Carrier Dome in the print. I've never been one for these kinds of touches, I prefer a clean look. But it's not too distracting and I think it's better than the current one.
I like the star with the year of the National Title in it. That's a fun touch and drives home that only National Champions wear this. The Nike rep said at the event that they consider these schools "elite."
The piping stuff going on over on the sides? Whatever. It's not my favorite but it's not terrible. I guess I'm just used to it now.
Shorts
They're pretty clean throughout, aside from the side business. There's nothing egregious about them, which is high praise right about now.
Shoes
Dion Waiters and Griffin Hoffmann need to clean themselves up after seeing these things.
I'm not much of a sneaker person but I will say that they definitely add to the uniform as a whole if only because they really drive home the orange burst of color. I hope everyone wears them when they wear this uniform (something tells me they won't have a choice).
As for the socks, I kid you not, the Nike rep said they were the most elite performance socks in the world. So there.
Overall
If you're telling me we have no choice but to wear a gray, excuse me, platinum uniform, then I suppose it could have been much, much worse. At least there is still a LOT of orange throughout. And I think the players are going to like it. They love this kind of stuff.
And hey, if you hate it, take solace in knowing we only have to wear it once. I'm sure SU is hearing your complaints and won't push its luck.
If I had to pick a favorite of all of uniforms presented, I'd actually go with the Baylor Bears one. I'm not entirely sure that's one of their colors, but it really pops. My least favorite was the Duke one, which, much like Duke basketball players, did its perfunctury job but blended into the crowd and seemed rather generic.
So...what say you?