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

Did you know that bees are famously attracted to yellow?

Well, Iowa is playing with fire. The uniforms are black and gold, which might as well be yellow. Bees are black and yellow. I hope they have a copious amount of EpiPens on standby. Can’t have someone going into anaphylactic shock when they’re finishing in second or third place every season.

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.

School: University of Iowa

Mascot: Hawkeyes

Color Scheme: Black and Gold

Official Brand Sponsor: Nike

Helmet:

Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Hawkeye wear a black helmet with a black face mask. The Hawkeye...errr I mean Tigerhawk logo is featured on the helmet in gold and there is also a single golden stripe down the middle of the helmet.

The logo is referred to as a ‘Tigerhawk,’ because of the spacing that appears between the pieces of the logo, which creates sort of a striping effect, like a tiger. Because they have stripes. It’s a hawk logo. So...tigerhawk.

Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Iowa has also worn helmets with an Americana Hawkeye logo on the one side of the helmet, with Nile Kinnick’s number 24 on the other side. They wore this one in 2018 to honor the military, as well as the school’s only Heisman Trophy winner who enlisted in the U.S. Navy and passed away during a training flight.

This helmet has also been worn without the number 24, leaving a black side of the helmet, as recently as a couple of weeks ago.

Iowa also broke away from the norm when it wore special helmets during the 2019 Holiday Bowl. The look featured no Tigerhawk logos and the player’s number on the back of the helmet. The helmet was worn to honor the passing of legendary Hayden Fry and Bump Elliott.

If you blink, you would think this was the Steelers helmet, especially if you see it from just the one side (the Steelers famously have no logo on one side of their helmet). Other than its resemblence to the Steelers lid, I think the design feel flat. It’s just a boring helmet.

It would be like Wisconsin wearing their helmet, sans motion W...which actually still looks sick, but the Hawkeye’s blank lid isn’t doing them any favors.

Iowa also wore a dark grey helmet with the tigerhawk logo on one side and the player’s number on the other side.

Now this is a helmet I can get behind. The textured design on the helmet using a bunch of small ‘I’s’ is a great touch and a great way to encorporate the school initial in the design.

Lastly, Iowa wears a helmet that is similar to its stanard design. It is a black helmet, with an oversized tigerhawk logo and a gold face mask. This helmet is paired with a special uniform, that we will cover later.

A white helmet, with a black face mask and a black and gold tigerhawk would be a good look and should be something Iowa considers.

Helmet Scores:

Standard helmet: Ewww

Kinnick helmet: Werk it

2019 Holiday Bowl: Ewww

Dark grey textured helmet: Werk it

Black with gold face mask: Ewww

Uniform:

Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Iowa’s standard home uniform is black, with white numbers and and gold and white stripes on the sleeve, so basically the Steelers uniforms... Unlike the Steelers and their rounded numbers, the Hawkeyes have modified block numbers.

Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

The rounded numbers look better...

Their away uniforms are white, with black numbers and the same gold and white stripes on the sleeve. Of the standard home and away uniforms, the away uniforms are the better of the two, but they are still pretty blah...

Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Iowa typically will wear gold pants with a black stripe up the side of the leg. They have also worn black pants at times as well. The Hawkeyes alternate uniforms are a mixed bag.

The first uniform is the one they paired with their dark grey lid,

Getty Images

The uniform is black with dark grey numbers, outlined in gold and a dark grey collar. The uniform also have grey and black stripes on the sleeves. Their pants were black with a grey stripe outlined in gold. This is a sick look, with the grey and black playing off one another well and when you add in the dark grey lid, the look is complete.

Another alternate uniform Iowa has worn was their black out look.

Black uniforms with thicker gold numbers and ‘Iowa’ across the chest. Their pants were black as well, with no gold stripe. You will also notice that there is no gold stripe on the helmet either.

Normally I am all about schools going the black out route, but I could do with more understated numbers. The numbers just look chunkier and the look would be better suited to have standard numbers, like their normal home and away uniforms.

The last alternate uniform we’ll take a look at is...a lot.

The uniform is gold...a lot of gold. A gold uniform with black numbers and black wing design on the shoulders, with numbers on the sleeves. The pants are...you guessed it, gold. The pants also feature a black stripe down the side of the leg.

Honestly, I want to hate these uniforms, I really do, but dammit they are fresh. Upon initial look, they appear to be too much and a bit of an eye soar, but when you really look at this there is just something about them.

I will say though, they should wear their standard helmet with these uniforms, the worst part of the look is the helmet. I think it’s the enlarged tigerhalk and the gold face masks.

Uniform Scores:

Standard Home and Away uiforms: Ewww

Grey and black uniform: Werk it

Black out uniform: Ewww

Bold gold uniform: Werk it