Distinctive design; pink for women and blue for men. Would definitely stand out at orienteering events.

Makes me glad I'm not an OK member, though!

:-)
 

Yikes!
 

Distinctive...yes, disgusting....probably, desirable...no!
 

What!? Looks like... GAH!
 

Love it! But then, as a cyclist, I'm used to some pretty garish jersey designs. My first pro jersey was bright pink with black side panels. I also wore a pink jersey on one of my ameteur teams.
 

I love it! It's a perfect fit for the cultish OK. ;-)
 

"pink for women and blue for men"

Not exactly.

"The story of the Pink and Blue [for University of Kansas Track and Field uniforms] is that in 1951 there was a photo finish in the conference 60-yard high hurdles. This was before the days of photo finish and it was all decided by human eye. A Kansas runner by the name a Jack Greenwood felt he won and remembered holding the finish line tape in his hand. However, Greenwood was awarded 3rd because he was in the outside lane and blended in with the rest of the competitors with the traditional crimson and blue uniforms. As a result Coach Bill Easton started using the pink and blue uniform so that his athletes would stand out in any future photo finishes. The next year Greenwood was in another photo finish, but this time was awarded first."

The Kansas "Pink and Blues" were around for 50 years until 2001, when Nike decided that it cost to much to use neon pink fabric for just one school.

Jim Ryun SI Cover

Charlie Gruber

For those keeping track at home:
Glad I'm not in OK member - 1
Yikes! - 1
Not desirable - 1
GAH! - 1
Garish - 1
Cultish - 1

Thanks for the feedback. Back to the drawing board... (sigh).
 

If you want to keep the colors, how about vertical strips rather than checkerboard (narrower pink strips)?
 

Hey now, before I said anything about cults I did say that I loved it. I like the checkerboard.
 

Obviously, I'd like to keep the colors for historical reasons, and because they are unique.

I also want to have a simple design devoid of random swooshes, swoopies, and curved lines.

I went with the checkerboard for several reasons:

1) Simple pattern that tiles perfectly with our square logo.

2) Very unique. The only other jersey I've seen with this pattern is the Croatian soccer jersey, which, ironically, got very good design reviews in the '06 World Cup.

3) Reference to a checkered flag, which symbolizes competitive racing.

I sketched out other patterns for the main panels, such as vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, diagonal stripes, etc. The center panel is too tall for the vertical strips, plus I don't like pinstriped jerseys in sports. The horizontal ones looked better, actually, but looked weird with the square logos.

(Contrary to what Spike says, this isn't my first design sketch, this is just my first attempt at digitizing my #1 design. I've done several dozen sketches).

I wasn't expecting the overall negative reviews. Everyone I showed it to before today really liked it and thought it looked sharp. I guess I made the mistake of showing it only to people under 25.

The only point of contention was the use of the color pink (nobody wears pink in sports), but when you understand the KU history behind it, is actually kind of cool (I mean, Jim Ryun set all sorts of records wearing these colors!)

And, there's more white than pink in the design. And more blue than pink. And believe it or not, there's just as much black as pink!

So... I've spent most of the afternoon working a redesign, so hopefully I'll have something more palatable soon.
 

If you and Patrick are still soliciting opinions, I think this design is terrific.

I think it is very original, eye catching, edgy, but also potentially timeless (outlasting the tides of fashion). It reminds me of Maryland's yellow-black checkerboard crest.

I immediately got the KU connection. The green/black/white looks fine, but has no KU connection that I am aware of. Wasn't the pink-blue combo used earlier?

I think this could rival DVOA's Jukola hot rod design as the leading US club uniform. Note the auto/racing theme connection. The test is sales volume to non-club members, or growth in membership if that is a requirement.

The remaining question is, will/did Dave Linthicum look good in pink?

EricW
 

I like it as well and would purchase one if they were being sold to non-club members.
Valerie
 

A few things to note:

1) The pink is intended to be a bright, neon, fluorescent, high-lighter pink. The colors on some monitors tend to be a little screwy.

2) The font for the "Orienteer Kansas" in the image is Arial Narrow, which is not what I want to use at all. I couldn't install the font I wanted on the computer I did this on. It's a very classic-looking, narrow, sans-serif font.

3) I've also cleaned up the square logo so that the lines match up (this is a little fix).

EricW- I'm glad you mentioned the Maryland chex. I really dig the usage of that design on various teams (Terps and Ravens).

I also know a Cascade member that is interested in this design.
 

My EYES, My EYES!!!!
 

At first glance I didn't like it, but now after a while it kind of looks cool. I'd still remove the big logo from the back and move "orienteer kansas" text upper to simplify it.

Actually I could even buy one for o-training.
 

re: "I'd still remove the big logo from the back and move "orienteer kansas" text upper to simplify it."

I tried playing around with this idea tonight, basically creating a blue box for text that is neatly tiled with the smaller tiles. I can't get the proportions right, though. A perfectly proportioned text box (2 x 3 squares) looks way too small. And a larger box looks funny without stretching the text.

The current text strip was an afterthought, actually. If I were to simplify it, I would keep the bigger logo tiled on the back and move the text to the sleeves, where proportion isn't an issue.
 

Thanks for the link to the Jane Betros article. It was really nice to read it.
Peggy