Oh Honey, No…a Bucky’s 5th Quarter Fashion Blog: Northwestern University

Hey all you cool cats and kittens!

This weekend, No. 10 Wisconsin travels to Evanston to take on those nerds, No. 19 Northwestern, in a battle for supremacy in the B1G West. My prediction is those both teams will look fresh…

Without further ado, let us take a look at the ‘Cat’s threads. And I must also admit, they look damn good.

Oh and make sure not to read this on your phone, old man Fitzgerald doesn’t like it when the kids are on their phones…

As a reminder, we will be rating the opposing threads on a scale of oh honey, no, to YAASS QUEEN.

Oh honey, no: Obviously, this is the worst rating. If I must explain this to you, you’re probably wearing socks with sandals right now, or a brown belt with black pants, either way, oh honey, no.

Ewww: Nice try, but no.

Werk it: You brought it.

YAASS QUEEN: Best of the best. Your proverbial milkshake brings all the proverbial boys to the yard.

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School: Northwestern University

Mascot: Wildcats

Color Scheme: Purple and white

Official Brand Sponsor: Under Armour

Helmet:

Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images

Northwestern features a couple of helmets. Their most commonly used helmet is purple, with a black facemask and a white ‘N.’ The Wildcats will also don white lids, with black face masks and a purple ‘N,’ or with an ‘N,’ with an American flag design, as they did earlier this month, to honor veterans.

The Wildcats also have a black helmet, with a black face mask and a Purple ‘N.’

These helmets are just so-so, but where Northwestern earns real style points is with their helmets that feature, a wildcat logo. These come in either white with a black face mask and a purple wildcat, or a black helmet, with black face masks and a blackish-grey wildcat logo.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Northwestern has not pulled the trigger and made these their official helmets. They are easily the coolest helmets in the B1G. One could even say, they are the cat’s meow…

Helmet Scores:

Black, Purple, White with ‘N’ logo: Werk it

Black and White helmets with Wildcat logo: YAASS QUEEN

Uniform:

The Wildcats have four primary uniforms that they cycle through. They have a black uniform, which features white letters and numbers and a purple stripe across the front and back of the uniform. They have a purple uniform which has white letters and numbers and black stripes. A white uniform with black numbers, purple letters and purple stripes. They also have a grey uniform with white letters and numbers and purple stripes.

They pair their uniforms with black, purple, grey and white pants. Their pants also feature a stripe along the thigh, which is a nice alternative to the standard piping, where the stripe appears along the side of the pant leg.

All of their uniforms feature ‘Northwestern,’ across the chest, above the numbers. This is my only gripe with the uniforms, as I do not think it is necessary for them to put the school name across the chest.

The stripe on the other hand is a good look. You don’t find that added extra detail in football uniforms very often and Northwestern has done it the right way.

The stripe itself was previously a big thing and even referred to as the ‘Northwestern Stripe,’ as it appeared on the sleeves of the football team’s uniforms in 1928. However, over time Northwestern did away with the stripe and no longer incorporated it into their uniforms, that is until Under Armour took over as its apparel provider in 2012, bringing back the stripe with the ‘Reclaim The Stripe,’ campaign.

Under Armour did the same thing when it released Wisconsin’s uniforms, with the inclusion of arrows, inspired by Wisconsin’s state motto, ‘Forward.’

In the opening week of the 2020 season, the Wildcats wore black pants, a black uniform and a purple helmet. While I like this look, its not as fire as it could be.

Them cleats though…

This past weekend, Northwestern wore black pants, white uniforms and black helmets. This look really works in my opinion. It provides great contrast and just looks damn good.

Against Nebraska, the Wildcats wore purple pants, purple uniforms and a white helmet. This look is also just alright, but in looking at their options, I feel that if they pick the same color uniform and pants, they have to match them with the same color helmet.

When picking a gameday look, if you’re going to have the color of two of the following match – helmet, uniform and pants, it’s best to match the helmet and the pants. A contrasting color works best when it’s thrown into the middle of the mix. I think that is why their look against Purdue worked so well, because the contrasting color was the uniform.

It just provides more of a balance to the uniform. If you’re top heavy, or bottom heavy, it throws off the look.

However, when we are talking matching the color of all three options, it is hard to go wrong.

My favorite of the bunch must be all-white. The white uniforms really make the blue and purple accents pop and it just looks so damn icy.

Northwestern also has “gothic” uniform, which is black, with gold and purple accents, paired with black pants and a black helmet with purple and gold accents as well.

I love the matte helmet that is paired with this look, but the uniform itself is just alright.

One thing I, and all Northwestern fans. should be thankful for is the removal of the word ‘Wildcats’ from the back of the team’s pants.

There is no need for a tramp stamp to be incorporated in your uniform. It might as well be a butterfly.

Uniform Scores:

All White / All Black / All Purple / All Grey: Werk it.

Black helmet, white uniform, black pants: YAASS QUEEN

Same color uniform & pants, different color helmet: Werk it

Gothic Uniform: Ewww

ANY pants that feature ‘Wildcats’ in a tramp stamp fashion: Oh honey, no.