Hanging inside Rob Stack’s office in the equipment room at the Adams Center is an old white Montana Grizzlies road football jersey. It has copper and gold numbers and is made of a loose mesh material you’re more likely to find on a practice field of some underfunded high school team than anywhere near Washington Grizzly-Stadium.
With the debut of its new home uniforms during homecoming weekend, Montana has stepped into the new age of football uniforms.
In place of the stretchy, shimmer-sheen, woven mesh jerseys Montana had used for years are a set of flat-colored, state-of-art, laser-cut jerseys that hug to a player’s body better than any jersey the university had previously used.
“This fabric is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s awesome,” said Stack, a 26-year veteran of the equipment room, as he pulled at a jersey with both hands only to see it barely stretch before returning to its resting form.
If you didn’t notice much difference between last year’s maroon threads and the ones Montana wore during its 43-20 win over Southern Utah, the differences aren’t major, but they aren’t exactly subtle either. The side of the shoulder is still adorn with a Griz paw and the pants still has Griz script. But the number design changed, the “Montana” on the chest was shrunk and sewn into the jersey using a different font.
The pants are no longer a shiny silver, replaced by a flat look that is becoming the preferred style around the nation.
Montana’s helmets have been lightened from the granite finish the Griz started wearing in 2012 back to the traditional silver lids the program has predominantly used since changing their colors to maroon and silver in 1996.
“We won a lot of games with that look and I think the new staff is going to win a lot of games with this one,” Stack said Tuesday morning.
Added head coach Bob Stitt, who had some say in the final design, “I’m kind of an old-school type of guy and … I loved them. I love the silver uniforms and the pants. I think Stack did a great job with them. It brings back some good memories for a lot of people that saw them in the early 2000s.”
While the look of the new home uniforms have gained mostly favorable reviews, it’s not the style that makes them an upgrade over the previous uniforms, which were retired after their three-year cycle ended.
“I’m really impressed with this uniform as far as fit and function more than the looks,” Stack said. “I really like the looks — a more traditional look anyway. But fit and function is pretty good on this uniform.”
Stack laid out the new home jersey next to a road jersey the Grizzlies will continue to wear this season until the equipment room replaces them next year. With the home jerseys, Stack pointed out the various vents the old uniforms didn’t have. The hope Nike has there with the Mock Speed line is that will better help heat dissipate from the players.
There are vents on the sides, on the chest, on the back where a nameplate might have appeared, and in tiny little holes in the abdomen that have been laser cut through a more stretch-resistant material reminiscent of what you might find on a heavy duty rain jacket.
“The back prevents heat in the low back where you see a lot of moisture points,” Stack pointed out. “It’s venting out heat through the sides, that’s what they’re designed to do. This new fabric is like nothing we’ve ever had. It’s very heavy duty, but it gives.”
He also pointed out several other areas Nike redesigned to make them better suited for football players. Arm holes have been cut deeper to help with movement. At the bottom, the jerseys that previously provided extra material for defenders to grab onto if they came untucked have been tapered at the waist with a slim elastic band.
Stack and Stitt both said that players gave high reviews of the state-of-the-art uniforms.
“The design of it was really, really nice,” cornerback Markell Sanders said Wednesday. “It’s a new style and it fit really well. It was pretty comfortable to move around in.”
Though the technological advancements were what convinced Stack to purchase the jerseys and pants, he also had an eye on the design when he was in the market. A veteran of jersey design, Stack sent several mock ups to the coaching staff before the final design was settled.
He wanted to make sure the new jerseys allowed the program to remain versatile. The lining of the numbers are light grey and granite, just like the pants with their granite belt. Those colors allow Stack and his trusted staff in the equipment room to mix and match without depleting the budget.
“Here at the university you have to be realistic too,” Stack said while holding a jersey that retails for upward of $240 — Montana gets them for a smaller, more secret fee. “These are fairly pricy uniform combinations.”
When Montana gets new road jerseys and two new sets of pants next season, the Grizzlies will be able to use more than a dozen different uniform combinations. And those are just the ones Stack will openly speak about. He hinted at possibly bringing in a granite pant, or a granite jersey. And even left open the possibility of a bringing back the copper and gold look.
“You do it so you can keep up and mix and match and make it interesting for the student-athletes and fun for them too — and it’s fun for the public,” Stack said.
What it does is allows Montana to keep up with joneses in the recruiting game. More often than not, recruits on official and unofficial visits will ask to see Montana’s jerseys so they can slide them on for pictures to post to their social media accounts.
But there is also some incentive for the old veteran in the cluttered equipment room.
“We’re all recruiters,” Stack said of his staff. “I like doing this stuff. We like putting out the stickers each week and seeing the reaction some of the kids have. That makes it fun for our students in here. We work long hours. We’re in here seven days a week in the fall. Some of that reward is seeing what we look like on Saturday.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
