In college basketball, Nike has been dominating the uniform game for decades. The jerseys and shorts from the mid ‘90s are some of the greatest ever designed because of their aesthetics and the great players that wore them. Nike wasn’t always known for their jersey designs, however. It all started in 1993 when a small team at Nike known as OTS (aka “Organized Team Sports”) was given the task of designing basketball jerseys for some of the biggest programs in the country.
I caught up with former Nike exec Ken Black, who was the basketball product graphic designer on that team to learn more about the early days of the Nike basketball jersey era – a time when they didn’t really know what they were doing, but had to come up with a plan quickly. Black gives us the inside scoop on how his small team came up with some of the greatest designs ever for basketball jerseys.
When did you join the OTS Team?
I was part of the original 4-person start-up team in 1993. I was hired at Nike in March of 1992 into the Sports Graphics design team, having recently graduated from the Art Center College of Design. Sometime later that year, (I think it was around November), I was working in my cube and could hear my boss’s boss, Angela Snow, and her boss talking in the office around the corner about how the sports marketing folks had just signed a bunch of college basketball teams and they needed to have uniforms designed ASAP.
As they walked out of his office, still talking and turning the corner past my cube, Angela said something again about needing someone to design these uniforms and go meet these coaches. As she was talking, I peeked up over the top of the wall and we made eye contact. She stopped and her eyes got wide and she said, “You had basketball uniform designs in your book, right?” I smiled and nodded. And then she asked, “Do you want to go on a trip to meet some coaches and design some for real?” I think the only question in my head was if I could call my dad and tell him that was about to happen.
What were the next steps after you agreed to join the OTS Team?
A couple days later, five of us went on the road to meet with the coaches at Michigan (Steve Fisher), Georgetown (John Thompson), Seton Hall (PJ Carlesimo) and UNLV. Shortly after that first trip, we added Arizona (Lute Olson), Duke (Coach K), UNC (Dean Smith), Syracuse (Jim Boeheim) and others. Then it all exploded from there. More teams, more product. They rolled Nike basketball and Jordan into our basketball design team. We were swimming in the best of hoops.
I should note, I did not meet with (Jim) Boeheim, even though I designed the Syracuse jersey and logo Carmelo wore in the championship game in 2003.
How did your team differentiate the Nike basketball jerseys from the other brands designing jerseys at the time?
The previous year, Logo 7 (I believe) had just come out with the cat scratch Kentucky uniforms that used sublimation printing. They were hideous. Starter was also trying to make some new looking stuff that was just bad – basically new technologies were being developed, so companies were running amuck with bad designs simply because they could do it. I was a purist, so I did not want to mess with the Michigan “M” or the Duke “D”, but rather elevate the beauty of those classic looks. So, we took a very refined approach – even quickly working with Georgetown to give them a classic “G” for their identity program.
What was the biggest design or logistical challenge?
We had never made uniforms. One of the reasons Nike wanted to get into the uniform business was to give credibility to the apparel we made. All of our footwear was worn on the field of play, which proved it’s performance and value – but very little of our apparel was actually worn in competition at that point in time.
We found companies that had a history of making uniforms and worked with them until we could make it all on our own. I spent a lot of time at DeLONG in Grinell, Iowa, who made those early team sets at our direction. I also spent time in St. Louis at Leibe Athletic Lettering learning about tackle twill and appliques.
We didn’t have a labeling standard for uniforms, so I created the original Nike Team Sports jock tag. Another big design challenge was the sh*tty logos most of these teams had and wanted us to use. We felt like we were making sports cars for teams that had graphics that were made by kids to sew on them, so we got into the identity design business – that really opened everything up for both Nike basketball and football.
What was your favorite jersey to design?
I would probably have to say Georgetown – so much packed into that uniform. We wanted to give them something so classic with real gravitas, so we pushed it to the navy and grey, with Hoyas on the grey and Georgetown on the navy. Coach Thompson wanted a strong cultural connection too. I can’t remember which season we added the Kente print, but wow, it felt so important (and even better when Iverson wore it with Jordan XI’s which I had also worked on).
The Duke black jersey was another big one. And was fun to make subtle tweaks to it over the years. The UNC uni was actually designed by Alexander Julian, who was an alum. So basketball apparel designer Janett Nichol worked with him to connect the argyle and other details through the rest of the product. Basketball jerseys actually didn’t give us as much flexibility as the shorts.
What were your favorite shorts to work on?
DUKE – we recognized immediately that the short Duke wore is one that dozens of others teams “copied”, so we immediately changed the bottom of that short to match the shape on the inside of the Iron D logo. We framed that logo perfectly and immediately made it signature to Duke and identifiable to anyone if it was copied by another team.
Also Arizona – the second version of the short. The navy colorway with the fat stripe down the side, wide white double band at bottom. The circle “A” logo on one leg and vertical CATS on the other – I freaking loved this short. The mini-mesh gave it an athletic feel with an incredibly slinky and smooth finish and drape. It looked great and felt even better to wear.
Syracuse was fun too – those came later and I think one of our first real uses of sublimation on jersey and short. We still tried to keep it classic and refined, but the sublimation allowed us to lighten the heavy trims and begin to explore more performance properties. We still used twill numbers and twill and embroidered logos where we could because it gave a nice weight that made the players feel it was made for gameday.
Were you part of the first Jordan jersey campaign in 1998?
That was right at the end of my run in Team Sports, but yes. I have an autographed photo of Jordan in that jersey is hanging in my office. This is when we started having fun with the commercial side of things along with designing for players, teams and gameday.
In 1998, I was Art Director of the Product Graphic team across NCAA (Hoops + Football + Other), Hockey (NHL + IIHF), NBA & NFL. I left shortly thereafter to assume the role of creative director for Nike for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
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