FanPost

Social Media World Pans Adidas and the New UCLA Football Uniforms

adidas.com

It's one thing for Bruins Nation to be critical of the new football uniforms. The community here is pretty purist, and this site has never shied away from being critical of things that merit criticism.

But when a a newspaper beat writer and former Trojan can see it so clearly, maybe it's not just us.

Damn straight, Joey.

So I decided to cruise around the social media world looking specifically for reaction to the new uniforms. Honestly, the other U.C.L.A. related sites on the internet tend to have a lot more pie-in-the-sky Kool-Aid consumers who lap up anything U.C.L.A. is selling, so I figured there would be a lot of love for the uniforms elsewhere, simply because they are U.C.L.A. uniforms.

But no.

I started at the UCLA Football Facebook page. At the time I counted, there were 12 comments complimenting the new unis, 18 comments that were neutral or talked about something unrelated, and 43 comments panning them. A few winning comments included:

"Stop destroying our uniforms, Adidas!!"

"Dear god these are atrocious. Please @uclafootball switch to Nike. Bring back a real shoulder stripe"

"All that hype for less Clarendon, and more barbed wire?"

"Horrible"

And my favorite, a nice simple emoji of a pile of poo.

So I was initially heartened to see the Bruin faithful being just that, faithful. Faithful to the things that define the look of U.C.L.A. Football. Like stripes and colors and fonts and, well, the absence of chain link fence patterns on the jerseys. It was a good start.

My next stop was the UCLA Athletics Facebook page which is usually even more blindly supportive of everything U.C.L.A., but even there there were just 3 positive comments, 5 neutral comments, and 17 more rips at the uniform and adidas.

"Can we please drop Adidas as soon as possible? These uniforms look hideous! And when are we going to get some true shoulder stripes? These look worse than before!"

"Hideous. And why are the pants so yellow? They need to be gold, match the helmet. Why not make the helmets yellow too since everything else has changed...I understand that times change and they are trying to attract a new generation but they are losing the respect of a lot of older alumni who donate a lot to the program."

"Garbage as usual. All of adi's major schools are leaving them one by one and we better be next. Guerrero never should've extended with adi back in 2010. #Nike please save us... Nike or bust in 2017!!!"

Well, Bruin fans seemed in agreement. I figured the adidas Football Facebook page would have a different audience and would garner more support for the company's product. Not so. Their tweet of the new Bruin uniforms had only 4 positive comments, 6 neutral or unrelated comments, and 15 more pans.

This should be enough to make us leave Adidas

All that hype for this? You've got to be kidding!

Nasty! I was happy the Clarendon came back
Last year! I'm afraid to see what the alternate will be this year....peach with a twinge of copper??

Hideous.

It was pretty clear that the huge majority of people commenting on Facebook didn't like the new uniforms. So it wasn't just me. Whew. It's good to have company.

I surfed over to twitter next. Twitter can be a harsher place because there is more anonymity there and that emboldens the intensity of the commenters. Not surprisingly, the reception for the unis wasn't any better.

The UCLA Football twitter post had 3 positive tweets, 4 neutral tweets, and 17 more boos.

It was much of the same on the Pac-12 Networks twitter page where 9 of the 12 replies criticized the uniform.

And even at the adidas Football twitter page where 20 of 22 tweets ripped the new design.

And the SB Nation CFB mothership twitter site wasn't seeing any love either from an unbiased observer.

Umm, I think that last one is pointed at you, Dan.

Please note that not one of the comments included above is from a Bruins Nation editor. But we are looking for some new writers, so maybe there are some good soul mates for us out there. Even the conversation (behind firewall) on Bruin Sports Report, a place were the good folks tend to push the rosy view of all things football, was decidedly critical.

At last, a Bruin fan base that is united in it's disappointment and displeasure for yet another kick in the jewels of what was classic and beautiful about the U.C.L.A. brand. Granted, I picked tweets and FB comments that criticized the uniforms and adidas, but it was an easy task. The numbers speak for themselves.

Believe me, I love my University and I love our teams and I love our student athletes and I love the ideals that John Wooden taught us, all of which sets us apart from the other schools around the country. I sincerely hate complaining about things at U.C.L.A. But I can't just happily and myopically sit by and grin stupidly when there are problems. That doesn't fix anything and that doesn't make anything better.

But based on the overwhelming majority of comments on social media sites today, I'm far from the only one who feels that way. The voice of Bruins fans was clear. From these sites, the comments were 28 pro and 121 con, and that's a majority, even in North Campus. Adidas once again made a mess of our tradition and our brand.

U.C.L.A.'s contract with adidas expires in 2017.

What are you going to do, Dan Guerrero?

GO BRUINS!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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