West Virginia football unveiled their new set of uniforms this past weekend, which included features from some of their old uniforms, while combining that with a modern look.
“We began by looking at our (West Virginia’s) past, you know you got to take a look at the past to move forward,” WVU graphic designer Kristin Coldsnow said.
One of the most notable features of the jersey is the flying WV logo on the shoulder sleeves. The logo on the side of the shoulder pads has not been used since 2012 after first debuting during the Don Nehlen era.
Also returning to the jersey from that period is the “Nehlen Stripes”, the double stripes on the pants for the first time since 1993. The two thick blue stripes were first featured on WVU’s gold pants during coach Nehlen’s first game in 1980. The blue pants will feature gold-blue-gold stripes similar to that of the Mountaineers’ Country Roads uniforms in 2023, while the white pants will sport gold-blue-gold stripes.
On top of the stripes on the pants, the shoulder stripes also make their return which were prominent during WVU’s last years in the Big East and first year in the Big 12 (2007-2012). While wearing the shoulder stripes, the Mountaineers went 55-23, winning three conference championships and two BCS bowl games.
“We wanted to bring the stripes back in the uniforms because we had a lot of success with those historically, it’s kind of a classic look, something we wanted to incorporate,” Coldsnow said.
The lettering font and numbers remain the same from West Virginia’s rebrand led by Nike in 2019. The white jerseys read West Virginia on the front while the blue and gold read Mountaineers. All jerseys also continue to have the state outline and motto (Montani Semper Liberi) on them.
Like the Country Roads uniforms the last two seasons, the new jerseys were designed “in-house”. In total, there are nine different jersey combinations the Mountaineers will have. Along with Coldsnow, members of the athletic department design team included Joe Swan,Matt Wells, Michael Fragale, and Steve Uryasz. They worked alongside football equipment managers Austin Blake and Dan Nehlen, along with head coach Neal Brown and football administrators Coleman Barnes and Patrick Johnson to give West Virginia their new look going forward.
